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545 BCE
Three Germanic warrior tribes
Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, came to the British Isles from various parts of northwest Germany as well as Denmark. -
500 BCE
Anglo-Saxon
The Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different Germanic dialects. This group of dialects forms what linguists refer to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon. -
Period: 450 BCE to 1100 BCE
Old English
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425 BCE
Latin in Great Britain
Before the Saxons, the language spoken in England was a mixture of Latin and several Celtic languages.
The Romans brought Latin to Britain for more than 400 years, many of the words of this era are those coined by Roman merchants and soldiers.
These are:
win (wine), candel (candle), belt (belt), weall (wall). -
495
Written work of Old English
Oldest English heroic epic poem called "Beowulf" its length: 3,183 lines, was written in Britain more than a thousand years ago its author is unknown -
597
The arrival of St.Augustine
The introduction of Christianity into Saxon England brought more Latin words into the English language. -
878
Vikings
Invaded the country and English got many Norse words into the language, particularly in the north of England.
The Vikings spoke a language (Old Norse) which, in origin at least, was just as Germanic as Old English.
Words derived from Norse include:
sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window (wind eye), husband, fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them. -
1066
Conquest of England
William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England in 1066 A.D. became king, brought his nobles, who spoke French, to be the new government.
Old French took over as the language of the court, administration and culture. -
Period: 1100 to 1500
Middle English
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1200
England and France had separate.
Latin was used for written language, in the Churches. Meanwhile, the English language, as the language of the now lower class, was considered a vulgar language.
The use of Old English returned, but with many French words added called Middle English.
Most of the words included in the English vocabulary are words of power, such as crown, castle, court, parliament, army, mansion, robe, beauty, banquet, art, poet, romance, duke, servant, peasant, traitor and governor -
1201
English and French words
Because the lower class of English cooked for the upper Normandy class, the words for most domestic animals are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, pig, venison), while the words for the meats derived from them are French (beef, veal, lamb, pig, bacon, venison). -
1401
Great Change of Vocals
The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", a collection of stories about a group of thirty people traveling as pilgrims to Canterbury, England. The portraits he paints in his Tales give us an idea of what life was like in 14th-century England. -
1476
The first English printing press
As a history William Caxton established and created the first English printing press at Westminster Abbey
The Bible and some valuable manuscripts were printed. The books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization into English. -
1485
English renaissance (The Shakespeare or Elizabethan era)
Most of the words of Greek and Latin came into English.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I there was an explosion of culture in the form of support for the arts, popularization of the printing press, and large amounts of sea voyages. -
Period: 1500 to
Modern English
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Shakespeare's writings
With this work the language had become clearly recognizable as modern English this lasted for 24 consecutive years. -
Industrial Revolution in England
Had an effect on language development, as new words had to be invented or existing ones modified to cope with rapid changes in technology lasted 80 years.
New technical words were added to the vocabulary as inventors designed various products and machinery. These words were named by the inventor or given the name of their choice (trains, pulleys, combustion, electricity, telephone, telegraph, camera, etc.). -
British colonialism
Britain was an Empire for 200 years ,they sent people to settle and live in their conquered places and as settlers interacted with natives, new words were added to the English vocabulary. For example, 'kangaroo' and 'boomerang' are native Australian Aborigine words, 'juggernaut' and 'turban' came from India. -
English continues to change and develop
The heart of the English language remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English. English grammar is also clearly Germanic: three genres (him, her and him) and a simple set of verbal times.
