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    History of English

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    leslie
    The history of the English language began with Germanic tribes invading Britain and bringing their language, which developed into Old English. After the Norman invasion in 1066, French influenced English and it became Middle English. Modern English emerged in the 15th century and spread around the world from the 1600s onward due to British colonization, developing many new varieties such as American English.

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    History of English

    Uploaded by

    leslie
    5 views6 pages
    The history of the English language began with Germanic tribes invading Britain and bringing their language, which developed into Old English. After the Norman invasion in 1066, French influenced English and it became Middle English. Modern English emerged in the 15th century and spread around the world from the 1600s onward due to British colonization, developing many new varieties such as American English.

    Original Description:

    Recuento de la historia del idioma ingles

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    The history of the English language began with Germanic tribes invading Britain and bringing their language, which developed into Old English. After the Norman invasion in 1066, French influenced English and it became Middle English. Modern English emerged in the 15th century and spread around the world from the 1600s onward due to British colonization, developing many new varieties such as American English.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    5 views6 pages

    History of English

    Uploaded by

    leslie
    The history of the English language began with Germanic tribes invading Britain and bringing their language, which developed into Old English. After the Norman invasion in 1066, French influenced English and it became Middle English. Modern English emerged in the 15th century and spread around the world from the 1600s onward due to British colonization, developing many new varieties such as American English.

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    of 6

    History of English

    The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who
    invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes,
    crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the
    inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west
    and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came
    from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England"
    and "English" are derived.

    Map of Germanic invasions

    Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century

    Old English (450-1100 AD)

    The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we
    now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers
    now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most
    commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water,
    for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

    1
    Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English (public domain)

    Middle English (1100-1500)

    In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and
    conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of
    French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a
    period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the
    upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but
    with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the
    great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to
    understand today.

    Modern English

    Early Modern English (1500-1800)

    Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great
    Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century
    the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.

    This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered
    the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in
    print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read.

    2
    An example of Middle English by Chaucer (public domain)

    Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the
    dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first
    English dictionary was published.

    Lines from Hamlet, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare (public domain)

    Late Modern English (1800-Present) 3


    The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late
    Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial
    Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its
    height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words
    from many countries.

    Varieties of English

    From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct
    American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached
    America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern
    British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British
    expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash
    for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was
    re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on
    American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and
    vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the
    American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave
    trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

    Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema,
    television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other
    varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand
    English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

    English is a member of the Germanic family of languages. Germanic is a branch of the Indo-
    European language family.

    4
    A brief chronology of English

    55 BC Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar Local inhabitants speak Celtish

    AD 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain

    436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete

    449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins

    450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions Old English

    1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England

    c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English Middle English

    1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools

    1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first
    time

    c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales

    c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins

    1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press. Early Modern English

    1564 Shakespeare is born

    1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published

    1607 The first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established

    1616 Shakespeare dies

    1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published

    1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London

    1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary

    1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence

    1782 Britain abandons its colonies in what is later to become the USA

    1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary. Late Modern English

    1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded

    1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published 4

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