Timelain

Celts

600 BCE

They lived in many tribes without one united army. This made them somewhat defenseless to larger armies.
They spoke Insular Celts languages (six living languages: Breton, Irish, Scots, Gaelic and Welsh)

The Romans

55 BCE

Roman soldiers successfully invaded the island in the year 43A.D. Romans spoke Latin.The Romans built roads, walls, cities, and castles.The Britons and Romans lived peacefully together most of the time. The Roman soldiers left Britannia and hurried home to protect their city of Rome, in Italy. The Celtic Britons remained on Britannia. After nearly 400 years of Roman rule, the island belonged to the Britons again.

Anglo Saxons

450

Around the year 450, Germanic tribes from across the water invaded. Old English words exist today, including 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. These English words came from Germanic languages.

The Vikings

Jan 1, 800

In about 787, the Vikings invaded the island.
These Scandinavian Vikings spoke another form of German and were excellent sailors.Germanic languages blended into English. A multitude of Norse words were adopted into English. including freckle, leg, skull, skirt, skin, sky, egg, score, scream, and cake.

The norman French

Jan 1, 1066

Still another invasion occurred in 1066.William the Conqueror was a French nobleman from Normandy, France and was crowned King of England. For 300 years, every English king spoke French
Thus, the conquering Normans brought a multitude of French words with Latin roots into the English language, including please, sign, very, peace, nobility, felony, attorney, government, parliament, justice, chivalry, court, courtesy, courage, beef, bacon, baptize, flower.

MIDDLE ENGLESH

Jan 1, 1400

Gradually, the French-speaking Normans intermarried with the Anglo-Saxon English.However, it was not Old English. After the Norman invasion it developed into Middle English. Middle English was far more expansive, having gained more than 10,000 French words.

PRINTING PRESS

Jan 1, 1476

Gutenberg invented the printing press. With the printing press came books. The press brought greater consistency to the English language.Spelling rules emerged.English language continued to grow.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Jan 1, 1654

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"
Born in April 1564
Death in April 23, 1616.