The History of the English Language

By Brennan M
  • 400

    Start of Old English

  • 401

    Old English Words and Phrases

    Welcumen
    Ic lufie þē
    Blīþe Crīstes mæsse
    Hwanan cymst þū?
    Hwæt hātest þū?
  • 402

    Old English Writing

    Old English Writing
  • 600

    The King of Kent, is baptized

    Ethelbert asked Augustine to instruct him and to baptize him
  • 792

    Viking raids of Britain begin

    Viking raids began in England The first monastery to be raided was in 793 at Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast, and the first recorded raid being at Portland.
  • 800

    Beowulf's writing

    A Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines.
  • 871

    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is begun

    A collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons.
  • 1066

    The Norman Invasion

    The military conquest of England by William, duke of Normandy
  • 1150

    Start of Middle English

  • 1151

    Middle English Words and Phrases

    Coy
    Shaltow
    Al be that
    Hende
    To play devil's advocate
    thou
  • 1152

    Middle English Writing

    Middle English Writing
  • 1210

    Cambridge University established

    The University of Cambridge is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III
  • 1350

    The Black Death kills one third of the British population

    The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic, which reached England in June 1348. It was the first and most severe manifestation
  • 1384

    John Wycliffe publishes his English translation of “The Bible”

    Wycliffe translated the Bible into English, as he believed that everyone should be able to understand it directly.
  • 1400

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • 1401

    Early Modern English Words and Phrases

    Good Gentleman goe your gate
    No sir, with whom wyl you that they speake?
    neuew
    anker
  • 1450

    Start of Modern English

  • 1450

    The invention of the Printing Press

    Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Germany who created the first printing press
  • 1451

    Modern English Words and Phrases

    Meh
    Bae
    Lookalike
    Many words we use in our current language
  • 1452

    Modern English Writing

    Modern English Writing
  • 1492

    The discovery of North America

    The Voyages of Christopher Columbus opened the New World. Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni Caboto is credited with the discovery of continental North America

  • Death of William Shakespeare

    We do not know the cause of Shakespeare's death.

  • Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio

    The First Folio, printed in 1623, is the first published collection of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death.

  • The American Revolution.

    The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America

  • Last native speaker of the Celtic Cornish language dies

    Dorothy Pentreath known as Dolly, was the last known native speaker of the Cornish language.

  • United States ends slavery after Civil War

    On December 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment was adopted as part of the United States Constitution. The amendment officially abolished slavery

  • Modern English Continues