Timeline of Historical Events Assignment

Old English Begins

449

Germanic tribes enter and settle the British Isles.

Old English

450

The generally agreed upon Old English language time span 450-1150.

Dialects

450

Germanic dialects push out the Celtic languages to the periphery.

Loaned Celtic Words

450

By 450 there are some words borrowed from the Celtic language are: dun, beak, car, lance.

Second Consonant Shift

500

This distinguishes High German from Low German, Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, and English. The Germanic p turns into German pf, f, or p. The Germanic t turns into ts, s, or t. The Germanic k turns into X or k.

Grimm's Law

500

Distinguishes Germanic languages from languages such as Latin and Greek and modern Romance languages such as French and Spanish. Grimm's Law also separates Latin from (Germanic and) Old English.

Celtic Christianity

600

During the seventh century the northern part of England is christianized by Irish missionaries and some Celtic into Old English. Christianity introduced Latin words like abbot, altar, and hymn into English through Celtic because of missionaries from Ireland.

Runic Alphabet

700

Old English is preserved in carvings on wood and stone from the seventh century. This runic alphabet, or futhorc, is an adaptation by Gothic speakers of the Etruscan alphabet.

Raiding & Plundering Begins

701

Scandinavians raid and plunder Britain from the 8th to 10th centuries.

Beowulf

750

Old English epic is a mixed dialect Northumbrian/West Saxon manuscript. This text utilized a modified Roman alphabet which was introduced by Irish missionaries and the letter shapes are not identical to those of Modern English.

Gregory's Pastoral Care

900

Early West Saxon, ascribed to King Alfred.

Lindisfarne Gospels

950

Northumbrian interlinear gloss.

Rushworth Glosses

970

Interlinear gloss.

The Exter Book

975

Early poetry which contains Riddles Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wanderer, and the Seafarer.

The Junius Manuscript

1000

Written between the seventh and tenth centuries compiled towards the late tenth century. These works contain Genesis, Exodus, Christ and Satan.

Homilies

1000

Written by Aelfric in West Saxon.

Raiding & Plundering Ends

1000

Scandinavians raid and plunder Britain from the 8th to 10th centuries.

Influx of new words

1066

There is an influx of new words beginning in the Old English period with Latin used in the church and before during the Roman occupation. These new words appear either from French or from Latin via French. The loans have a profound influence on the sound system of English. Several sounds are added to what we call the phoneme inventory, thus causing an internal change. Palatalization occurs in many other languages as well starting in early Old English.

Battle of Hastings

1066

William of Normandy arrived and defeated Harold.

Norman conquest of 1066

1066

Norman conquest of 1066 could be external changes that could be seen as a direct cause of the transition from Old to Middle English. Through missionaries from Rome Latin influences language as well as French.

Middle English

1150

The generally agreed upon Old English language time span 1150-1500.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

1154

One version was completed which tells the history of England from the time of Julius Caesar which was written in Peterborough.

Adverbs in Old English

1175

The adverbs in Old English can be used to express the mood of the speaker and are then considered discourse markers. Examples of discourse markers, also known as mood particles, are provided in works like Lambeth Homilies and Bodley Homilies.

The Middle English Period

1400

Shows several varieties of standards arising in spelling reform.

Auxiliaries

1400

Infrequent in Old English. Modern English modal auxiliaries such as can, could, will, and would are regular verbs in Old English. An example such as wille 'want'. Between Old and Modern English these verbs grammaticalize meaning they lose their meaning but gain grammatical function. These auxiliaries start occurring to becoming an analytic marker of non-finiteness in the late 14th century.

Loaned Celtic Words

1400

Between 450 through 1400 some of the words borrowed by the Celtic language are: cairn, glen, loch, dolmen, druid, story, cross, curse, and anchor.

Wycliffite sermons and texts

1406

The Midlands were characterized by population growth and the rise of the middle class. This generated scientific and religious texts such as Wycliffite sermons and texts. Therefore the Midlands and London were considered important to the development of an unofficial standard. This unofficial standard refers to the fact that English has never had an Academy or any other body regulating it.

The Emergence of Standard English

1420

Scribes work at the Chancery began writing in English rather than Latin, which evolved by the 1430s.

Chancery English

1430

Characterized by relatively free spelling, but some rules evolve:
a. gh at the end of high, even though the consonant is no longer pronounced,
b. th endings for third person verbs, as in he doth 'he does' even though many varieties already have he does,
c. past tense (e)d endings and not t even though many sound like t, and
d. such and which for su(l)ch and (h)wi(l)ch, respectively (there are many other variations).

The rise of London as a major center for trade and politics

1430

The Chancery produced a huge number of documents, this connected with the rise of London as a major center for trade and politics.

Borrowed Words

1450

Magister is borrowed in Old English and becomes master in Middle English. It is them borrowed again as magister around 1450.

The invention of the printing press.

1476

William Caxton invents the printing press which is a major boost to standard English. Standardization is automatically established when a document, book, or pamphlet is reproduced the same way many times. Caxton relied on scribes to invent the new system since he had no desire to standardize them himself.

Malory's Morte d'Arthur

1485

Malory's Morte d'Arthur was one of the first books published but was based on an older manuscript. The print contains many variations (duke and duk, when and whanne, hyr and hir for 'her'). There was the distinct possibility that there were words no longer sounding the way Caxton printed them.

Spelling Reform

1498

First English dictionaries and word lists start appearing but the spelling system remains irregular.

Early Modern English

1500

The generally agreed upon Old English language time span 1500-1699.

Loaned French Words - Education

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some words are borrowed from French for education like: study, anatomy, geometry, grammar, logic, medicine, and square.

Loaned French Words - Art and Fashion

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some words are borrowed from French for art and fashion like: art, sculpture, music, painting, color, figure, image, poet, title, preface, fashion, dress, lace, garment, veil, button, couch, chair, and cushion.

Loaned French Words - Meals

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some words are borrowed from French for meals like: dinner, supper, feast, appetite, taste, salmon, mackerel, beef, veal, mutton, pork, pastry, lemon, orange, raisin, and date.

Loaned French Words - Religion

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some words are borrowed from French for religion like: temptation, damnation, salvation, confess, convert, ordain, baptism, communion, mercy, sanctity, charity, solemn, divine, and devout.

Middle English Period - Peterborough Version of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle

1500

The end of the Middle English period because most of the grammatical changes have taken place and the Great Vowel Shift is under way since the book production changes dramatically.

Loaned French Words - Government

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some words are borrowed from French for government like: government, royal, state, authority, prince, duke, duchess, tax, marshal, mayor, governor, warden, and treasurer.

Loaned French Words - Legal System

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some words are borrowed from French for the legal system like: judge, jury, felon, bail, estate, evidence, verdict, punish, and crime.

Loaned French Words - Less Specialized

1500

Between 1066 and 1500 some less specialized words are borrowed from French: action, age, adventure, coward, damage, scandal, tavern, vision, able, abundant, active, certain, common, firm, frank, proper, safe, sudden, advise, aim, allow, apply, arrive, close,enjoy, enter, form, join, marry, move, praise, prefer, refuse, save, serve, and wait.

Etymological Respellings

1501

Some words incorporate words from other languages and change pronunciation but keep the original spelling. Debt for example: is borrowed from France and occurs in 1300 as dete, dette, and dett without a b. Latin forms have bs int he same word, so the b is introduced by writers to sound educated. Therefore debte became debt by 1501.

John Hart - Orthographie

1569

Advocate for spelling reform.

William Bollokar - Booke at Large

1580

Advocate for spelling reform.

Richard Mulcaster - Elementarie

1582

Advocate for spelling reform.

First English Dictionaries

1600

First English dictionary is published.

The Great Vowel Shift

1600

The most disruptive to standardizing spelling was the Great Vowel Shift which involved vowels (a, e, i, o, u) becoming (e,i,aj,aw,u).

The King James Bible

1611

The King James Bible is printed on the printing press helping to standardize spellings.

Early Modern Period

1660

Political events date to political events such as the Restoration of the British Monarchy.

Loaned Dutch Words

1714

Between 1440 and 1714 some words are borrowed from Dutch like: hop, pickle,deck, buoy, freight, dock, splice, dollar, yacht, furlough, easel, brandy, sketch, smuggle, and gin.

Loaned Celtic Words

1715

From 1400 through 1715 some of the words borrowed from the Celtic language are: clan, bard, plaid, slogan, shamrock, leprechaun, galore, and whiskey.

Refrence

2020

Van, G. E. (2006). History of the English language. Amsterdam, NLD: John Benjamins Publishing Company.