the history of english language

the romans

55 BCE

In 55BC, there was an invasion by the Romans, who spoke Latin.
They gave Latin names to places and some of these names are still used today.
reckle, leg, skull, skirt, skin, sky, egg, score, scream

the anglo-saxons

450

the first people who spoke English
arrived in England in about the year 450.
These people were the Anglo-Saxons
and their language was Old English.
live, love, heaven, fight, good, evil, man, wife, child, sleep, eat, house, stone, rain, one, two, three, green, black, the, an, to, for, but, around, will, do, and, with, and compound words like mankind and blackbird.

THE CELTS

600

The first languages are the Celtic ones like Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.
These people settled the British Isles about
600 BC. That is more than 2500 years ago!

the vikings

800

From about 800, the Vikings started to invade Britain.
The Vikings came from countries like Denmark and
Norway and spoke a language that developed
into Norwegian and Danish

the normans

1066

In 1066, the Normans invaded England from Normandy in France.
They spoke an earlier version of French and this became the language of prestige in England.
like love, live, and laugh
please, sign, very, peace, nobility, felony, attorney, government, parliament, justice, chivalry, court, courtesy, courage, beef, bacon, baptize, flower, power, royal, annoy, and joy.

MIDDLE ENGLISH

1400

There were no more invasions of England. English became more important than French.

the printing press

1476

With the invention of the printing press in 1476, publishing books in English became very popular.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

1564

There are many important authors in Modern English, but one of the most famous writers is William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616).