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The Origin of the English Language

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Doth thee knoweth the ‘rigin of English? Well, here you have an example of how old English would be. Do you want to present the different historical and linguistic changes of the English language? Then, this template is for you! The cream vintage slides with brown and red motifs and lettering will transport your presentation to the British country, and era as well! Teach everyone about the language contacts and development of the language in a different and attractive way!

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The History

Of the English Language

Ten minute history of the English language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s

The home of free learning

from The Open University

Language → Humanity

Our language is inextricably bound up with our humanity

To be human is to use language

To talk is to be a person

For our purposes,

Language will

be defined as:

a system of conventional vocal signs by means of which people communicate.

Why did human beings begin speaking?

Human beings have been writing for at least 5000 years but we have been speaking for much longer. Doubtless, ever since there have been fully human beings.

We have already established that language is a specifically human activity.

That statement, however, raises several questions:

• When and how did human beings acquire language?
• To what extent is language innate, and to what extent is it learned?

Frankly, we have

information

The earliest languages of which we have any records were already in a high stage of development .

The problem of how language began has naturally tantalized philosophical minds, and many theories have been advanced…

4 Main Theories

Pooh-Pooh Theory

Bow Wow Theory

Ding Dong Theory

Ye-He-Ho Theory

What is a theory?

|ˈTHēərē, ˈTHi(ə)rē|

noun (pl. theories )

a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, esp. one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained:

Darwin's theory of evolution .

Pooh Pooh Theory

Language began with interjections. Instinctive, emotional cries.

Such as OH! for surprise, And OUCH! for pain.

This theory suggests that there is a relationship between the sounds of words and the meanings of words.

Small, sharp, high things tend to have words with high front vowels in many languages, while big, round, low things tend to have round back vowels .

Compare itsy bitsy teeny weeny with moon, for example

This is often referred to as sound symbolism.

Some people, including the famous linguist Max Muller , have pointed out that there is a rather mysterious

Language began as imitations of natural sounds -- moo, choo- choo, crash, clang, buzz, bang, meow…This is more technically referred to as onomatopoeia or echoism.

Ye He Ho Theory

Language began as rhythmic chants, perhaps ultimately from the grunts of heavy work (heave- ho!). These were perhaps calls for assistance or cooperation accompanied by appropriate gestures.

We cannot know how language really began; we can be sure only of its immense antiquity. However human beings started to talk, they did so a breathtakingly long time ago, and it was not until much later that they devised a system for making marks on wood, stone, and the like to represent what they said.

How Did Language Begin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvRtlH-3Asc

Compared with languages, writing is a newfangled invention, although certainly none the less brilliant for being so.

However language originated, about 5000 years ago there was a number of related changes in human physiology and behavior.

(the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts.)

Lateralized

The human brain, which had been expanding in size, LATERALIZED, that is, each half came to specialize in certain activities.

verb ( be lateralized )

(of the brain) show laterality.

• (of an organ, function, or activity) be largely under the control of one side of the brain: this is a function that is usually lateralized on the right .

• [Medicine (of a lesion or pathological process) be diagnosed as localized to one or the other side of the brain.

Language was localized in the LEFT hemisphere of most persons.

As a consequence, “handedness” developed, right handed for those with a left brain dominance.

There was greater manual specialization

As people had more things to do with their hands, they could use them less for communication and had to rely more on sounds

Human beings have been writing for at least 5000 years

When written language did develop, it was derived from and represented speech

Even today there are spoken languages that have no written form

Left or Right Brain Dominance

Left or Right brain dominance quiz

https://braintest.sommer-sommer.com/en/

http://www.edu-nova.com/apps/brain_dominance.html

We all learn to talk before we learn to write

Any human child who is not severely disabled physically or mentally will learn to talk - a human being can not be prevented from doing so.

On the other hand, it takes a special effort to learn to write

In the past many intelligent and extraordinary members of society did not acquire the skill. Many today struggle with learning more than the rudimentary skills of writing

There is a direct correlation between how effectively we write and how successful we are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuUAPVFFCRQ

As biologist and author Lewis Thomas remarks in The Lives of the Cell (1974, p.89):

The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life. Language is , like nest-building or hive-making, t he universal and biologically specific activity of human beings. We engage in it communally, compulsively, and automatically. We cannot be human without it; if we were to be separated from it our minds would die, as surely as bees lost from the hive.

There was once a language

Now no longer spoken

That developed in different ways

In the various parts of the world

To which its speakers traveled

Proto = First Prototype

We give the name PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN to that prehistoric and now dead language because at the beginning of historical times languages that derived from it were spoken from Europe in the west to India in the east.

Prehistoric

Prehistoric = Relating to or denoting the period before written records.

Pre = previous to; before.

from Latin prae- .

History = late Middle English (also as a verb): via Latin from Greek historia ‘finding out, narrative, history’, from histōr ‘l earned, wise man ’, from an Indo-European root shared by wit 2 .

Dead Language

Dead Language = a language which is no longer in everyday spoken use, such as Latin.

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE),

a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.

Proto - the Greek word for first

Indo - the Greek word for Indian

Europe = continent of the northern hemisphere, separated from Africa to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and from Asia to the east roughly by the Bosporus, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Ural Mountains.

Europe contains approximately 20% of the world's population.

National Geographic Human Migration

“ When humans first ventured out of Africa some 60,000 years ago , they left genetic footprints still visible today. By mapping the appearance and frequency of genetic markers in modern peoples, we create a picture of when and where ancient humans moved around the world. These great migrations eventually led the descendants of a small group of Africans to occupy even the farthest reaches of the Earth” ( Genographic Project 1).

Kibish, Ethiopia

“Our species is an African one : Africa is where we first evolved, and where we have spent the majority of our time on Earth. The earliest fossils of recognizably modern Homo sapiens appear in the fossil record at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia , around 200,000 years ago. Although earlier fossils may be found over the coming years, this is our best understanding of when and approximately where we originated” ( Genographic Project 1).

“According to the genetic and paleontological record, we only started to leave Africa between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. What set this in motion is uncertain, but we think it has something to do with major climatic shifts that were happening around that time—a sudden cooling in the Earth’s climate driven by the onset of one of the worst parts of the last Ice Age: ( Genographic Project 1).

“ This cold snap would have made life difficult for our African ancestors, and the genetic evidence points to a sharp reduction in population size around this time. In fact, the human population likely dropped to fewer than 10,000. We were holding on by a thread” ( Genographic Project 1).

“Once the climate started to improve, after 70,000 years ago, we came back from this near-extinction event. The population expanded, and some intrepid explorers ventured beyond Africa. The earliest people to colonize the Eurasian landmass likely did so across the Bab-al-Mandab Strait.

These early beachcombers expanded rapidly along the coast to India, and reached Southeast Asia and Australia by 50,000 years ago. The first great foray of our species beyond Africa had led us all the way across the globe” ( Genographic Project 1).

“Slightly later, a little after 50,000 years ago , a second group appears to have set out on an inland trek, leaving behind the certainties of life in the tropics to head out into the Middle East and southern Central Asia. From these base camps, they were poised to colonize the northern latitudes of Asia, Europe, and beyond: ( Genographic Project 1).

Late 3rd Millennium BC

By the late third millennium BC, (which s panned the years 3000 through 2001 BC. ) offshoots of the Proto-Indo-Europeans had reached Anatolia , the Aegean , Western Europe , the edges of Central Asia , and southern Siberia .

The Proto-Indo-Europeans likely l ived during the late Neolithic , or roughly the 4th millennium BC ( spanned the years 4000 through 3001 BC .) . Mainstream scholarship places them in the forest-steppe zone immediately to the north of the western end of the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe . Some archaeologists would extend the time depth of PIE to the middle Neolithic (5500 to 4500 BCE) or even the early Neolithic (7500 to 5500 BC), and suggest alternative location hypotheses .

Proto Indo European Families

The Indo-European family includes several major branches:

• Latin and the modern Romance languages (French, Italian, etc.)
• the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish etc.)
• the Indo-Iranian languages (Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit etc.)
• the Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Czech etc.)
• the Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian
• the Celtic languages (Welsh, Irish Gaelic etc.)

Tower of Babel

(in the Bible) a tower built in an attempt to reach heaven, which God frustrated by confusing the languages of its builders so that they could not understand one another (Genesis 11:1–9).

ORIGIN Babel from Hebrew Bāḇel ‘Babylon,’ from Akkadian bāb ili ‘gate of god.’

Research Relay Challenge

Find 30 interesting facts on the Proto Indo European people, culture, and language. Cite Sources .

Please find five related images.

Select your most interesting fact for the board - put your initials.

Indo Europeans

• Had a complex sense of family relationships and organization
• Could count
• Made use of gold and perhaps silver
• Drank a honey-based alcoholic beverage
• whose name comes down to us as mead
• Words corresponding to wheel, axil, and yoke make it perfectly clear that they used wheeled vehicles
• Were small farmers, not nomads, who worked fields with their plows

Nomad = a member of a people having no permanent abode, and who travel from place to place to find fresh pasture for their livestock.

late 16th century: from French nomade , via Latin from Greek nomas , nomad- ‘roaming in search of pasture’ , from the base of nemein ‘to pasture’.

• Had religious feeling with a conception of multiple gods
• Polytheism = the belief in or worship of more than one god.
• Early 17th century: from French polythéisme , from Greek polutheos ‘of many gods’, from polu- ‘many’ + theos ‘god’.
• They had domesticated cattle and horses, which they kept for milk, meat, and transportation
• They combined farming with herding
• They were a mobile people using four wheeled carts
• They built fortified palaces on hilltops (the Indo-European word for these was Polis, and it passes down to our Indianapolis and police)
• Built small villages near the Polis
• They had a stratified society with a warrior nobility and a common laboring class
• They worshipped a sky god associated with thunder
• The sun, the horse, the boar, and the snake were also important in their religion
• They had a highly developed belief about life after death, which led to the construction of elaborate burial sites, by which their culture can be traced all over Europe

A system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority.

late Middle English: via Old French and medieval Latin from Greek hierarkhia , from hierarkhēs ‘ sacred ruler’ (see hierarch ). The earliest sense was ‘system of orders of angels and heavenly beings’; the other senses date from the 17th century.

Medieval England

4th millennium BC

• Early in the fourth millennium B.C. they began expanding into the Balkans and Northern Europe, and thereafter Iran, Anatolia, and Southern Europe.
• The spread of the language can be attributed to two theories. The I-E people either wanted to conquer their neighbors or look for better farming land. Either way, the language spread to many areas with the advancement of the people. This rapid and vast spread of the I-E people is attributed to their use of horses for transportation.

Important Branches

Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two are, as far as the study of the development of English is concerned, of paramount importance:

The Germanic and the Romance (called that because the Romance languages derived from Latin, the language of ancient Rome.

Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two are, for our purposes of studying the development of English, of paramount importance, the Germanic and the Romance. English is in the Germanic group of languages. This group began as a common language in the Elbe river region about 3,000 years ago. Around the second century BC, this Common Germanic language split into three distinct sub-groups:

Abbreviations

B.C . stands for the English phrase “ before Christ ,”

A.D. stands confusingly for a Latin phrase: anno domini (“in the year of the Lord”—the year Jesus was born). Not after death.

BCE/CE usually refers to the Common Era (the years are the same as AD/BC). That is, BC is usually understood to mean " Before the Common Era " and CE to mean "Common Era," though it is possible to reinterpret the abbreviations as "Christian Era."

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The History of the English Language

Related Papers

Václav Blažek

Celto-Germanic: Later Prehistory and Post-Proto-Indo-European vocabulary in the North and West

Synopsis This book is a study of the inherited vocabulary shared uniquely by Celtic, Germanic, and the other Indo-European languages of North and West Europe. The focus is on contact and common developments in the prehistoric period. Words showing the earmarks of loanwords datable to Roman times or the Middle Ages are excluded. Most of the remaining collection predates Grimm’s Law. This and further linguistic criteria are consistent with contexts before ~500 BC. The evidence and analysis here lead to the following explanatory hypothesis. Metal-poor Scandinavia’s sustained demand for resources led to a prolonged symbiosis with the Atlantic façade and Central Europe during the Bronze Age. Complementary advantages of the Pre-Germanic North included Baltic amber and societies favourably situated and organized to build seagoing vessels and recruit crews for long-distance maritime expeditions. An integral dimension of this long-term network was intense contact between the Indo-European dialects that became Celtic and those that became Germanic. The Celto-Germanic vocabulary—like the motifs shared by Iberian stelae and Scandinavian rock art—illuminates this interaction, opening a window onto the European Bronze Age. Much of the word stock can be analyzed as shared across still mutually intelligible dialects rather than borrowed between separate languages. In this respect, what is revealed resembles more the last gasp of Proto-Indo-European than a forerunner of the Celtic–Germanic confrontations of the post-Roman Migration Period and Viking Age. This 2020 edition puts into the public domain some first fruits of a cross-disciplinary research project that will continue until 2023. https://www.wales.ac.uk/Resources/Documents/Centre/2020/Celto-Germanic2020.pdf

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Emonds & Faarlund judge subgrouping by problematic criteria and do not actually employ their stated criteria, while those criteria in fact show English to be West Germanic.

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This paper puts forward a new division of the history of Germanic languages, taking into account the existence of three different historical periods (prehistoric, proto-historic, and literary) in the development from Common Germanic or Proto-Germanic to modern Germanic languages, analogously to the development of Romance or Romanic languages from Vulgar Latin (also called Proto-Romanic or Proto-Romance), in which three stages can be retraced: Vulgar Latin (prehistoric), Romance (proto-historic) and literary (historical). So far, only two stages have been considered in the linguistic history of Germanic languages, namely, the Common Germanic (not documented) and the literary Germanic languages (documented since the Middle Ages). Nevertheless, the history of both families of languages is similar in most aspects, so that the three aforementioned periods can be clearly recognized in both: a period of considerable linguistic unity, although poorly or not at all documented; a period of dissolution of this unity and fragmentation into several dialects not mutually intercomprehensible; and a period of full and intense literary production and official recognition of some of these dialects, now raised to the condition of culture languages. Due to this new historiographical division, the denomination Germance is proposed for the second of the three evolutionary stages of Germanic.

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The history of English language

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Ch. 5 Language Key Issue 1: Where are English-Language Speakers Distributed? Origin and diffusion of English Dialects of English.

History of the English Language

The history of the English language

May 7, 2015S. Mathews1 Human Geography By James Rubenstein Chapter 5 Key Issue 1 Where Are English-Language Speakers Distributed?

Oh hello Kind Sirs and Madams

Happy New Year! On your desks: Textbook Pen Highlighter

5 EVENTS THAT SHAPED THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH According to Philip Durkin, Principal Etymologist at the Oxford English Dictionary.

How the Bible came to us SFC Bible Study.

The History of the English Language “a brief overview”

The History of English How English has Changed Over the Past 1500 Years.

Polo Vergara Ernesto & Colin Juan

General Overview of History of English

The Origin of the English Language

Lead-in: 1.Are you good at English? What do you think is the most difficult part of studying English pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary or something.

The role of the English language in the world culture

During this unit of study, we will analyze the deep history of the English language. We will also take a look at some of the literature that symbolizes.

English around the world

History of the English Language.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The long path of the English Language. Indo-European and Germanic influences Indo-European family: -Latin and The Modern Romance languages; -The Germanic.

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A potted history of the English language

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Alyson Hemmings

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Key Events in the History of the English Language

Timelines of Old English, Middle English, and Modern English

 Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

The story of English—from its start in a jumble of West Germanic dialects to its role today as a global language —is both fascinating and complex. This timeline offers a glimpse at some of the key events that helped to shape the English language over the past 1,500 years. To learn more about the ways that English evolved in Britain and then spread around the world, check out " The History of English in 10 Minutes ," an amusing video produced by the Open University.

The Prehistory of English

The ultimate origins of English lie in Indo-European , a family of l anguages consisting of most of the languages of Europe as well as those of Iran, the Indian subcontinent, and other parts of Asia. Because little is known about ancient Indo-European (which may have been spoken as long ago as 3,000 B.C.), we'll begin our survey in Britain in the first century A.D.

• 43 —The Romans invade Britain, beginning 400 years of control over much of the island.
• 410 —The Goths (speakers of a now extinct East Germanic language) sack Rome. The first Germanic tribes arrive in Britain.
• Early 5th century —With the collapse of the empire, Romans withdraw from Britain. Britons are attacked by the Picts and by Scots from Ireland. Angles, Saxons, and other German settlers arrive in Britain to assist the Britons and claim territory.
• 5th-6th centuries —Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians) speaking West Germanic dialects settle most of Britain. Celts retreat to distant areas of Britain: Ireland, Scotland, Wales.

500-1100: The Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) Period

The conquest of the Celtic population in Britain by speakers of West Germanic dialects (primarily Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) eventually determined many of the essential characteristics of the English language. (The Celtic influence on English survives for the most part only in place names —London, Dover, Avon, York.) Over time the dialects of the various invaders merged, giving rise to what we now call " Old English ."

• Late 6th century —Ethelbert, the King of Kent, is baptized. He is the first English king to convert to Christianity.
• 7th century —Rise of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex; the Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Middlesex; the Angle kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria. St. Augustine and Irish missionaries convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, introducing new religious words borrowed from Latin and Greek. Latin speakers begin referring to the country as Anglia and later as Englaland .
• 673 —Birth of the Venerable Bede, the monk who composed (in Latin) The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (c. 731), a key source of information about Anglo Saxon settlement.
• 700 —Approximate date of the earliest manuscript records of Old English.
• Late 8th century —Scandinavians begin to settle in Britain and Ireland; Danes settle in parts of Ireland.
• Early 9th century —Egbert of Wessex incorporates Cornwall into his kingdom and is recognized as overlord of the seven kingdoms of the Angles and Saxons (the Heptarchy): England begins to emerge.
• Mid 9th century —Danes raid England, occupy Northumbria, and establish a kingdom at York. Danish begins to influence English.
• Late 9th century —King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great) leads the Anglo-Saxons to victory over the Vikings, translates Latin works into English and establishes the writing of prose in English. He uses the English language to foster a sense of national identity. England is divided into a kingdom ruled by the Anglo-Saxons (under Alfred) and another ruled by the Scandinavians.
• 10th century —English and Danes mix fairly peacefully, and many Scandinavian (or Old Norse) loanwords enter the language, including such common words as sister, wish, skin , and die .
• 1000 —Approximate date of the only surviving manuscript of the Old English epic poem Beowulf , composed by an anonymous poet between the 8th century and the early 11th century.
• Early 11th century —Danes attack England, and the English king (Ethelred the Unready) escapes to Normandy. The Battle of Maldon becomes the subject of one of the few surviving poems in Old English. The Danish king (Canute) rules over England and encourages the growth of Anglo-Saxon culture and literature.
• Mid 11th century —Edward the Confessor, King of England who was raised in Normandy, names William, Duke of Normandy, as his heir.
• 1066 —The Norman Invasion: King Harold is killed at the Battle of Hastings, and William of Normandy is crowned King of England. Over succeeding decades, Norman French becomes the language of the courts and of the upper classes; English remains the language of the majority. Latin is used in churches and schools. For the next century, English, for all practical purposes, is no longer a written language.

1100-1500: The Middle English Period

The Middle English period saw the breakdown of the inflectional system of Old English and the expansion of vocabulary with many borrowings from French and Latin.

• 1150 —Approximate date of the earliest surviving texts in Middle English.
• 1171 —Henry II declares himself overlord of Ireland, introducing Norman French and English to the country. About this time the University of Oxford is founded.
• 1204 —King John loses control of the Duchy of Normandy and other French lands; England is now the only home of the Norman French/English.
• 1209 —The University of Cambridge is formed by scholars from Oxford.
• 1215 —King John signs the Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), a critical document in the long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law in the English-speaking world.
• 1258 —King Henry III is forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford, which establish a Privy Council to oversee the administration of the government. These documents, though annulled a few years later, are generally regarded as England's first written constitution.
• Late 13th century —Under Edward I, royal authority is consolidated in England and Wales. English becomes the dominant language of all classes.
• Mid to late 14th century —The Hundred Years War between England and France leads to the loss of almost all of England's French possessions. The Black Death kills roughly one-third of England's population. Geoffrey Chaucer composes The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. English becomes the official language of the law courts and replaces Latin as the medium of instruction at most schools. John Wycliffe's English translation of the Latin Bible is published. The Great Vowel Shift begins, marking the loss of the so-called "pure" vowel sounds (which are still found in many continental languages) and the loss of the phonetic pairings of most long and short vowel sounds.
• 1362 —The Statute of Pleading makes English the official language in England. Parliament is opened with its first speech delivered in English.
• 1399 At his coronation, King Henry IV becomes the first English monarch to deliver a speech in English.
• Late 15th century —William Caxton brings to Westminster (from the Rhineland) the first printing press and publishes Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales . Literacy rates increase significantly, and printers begin to standardize English spelling. The monk Galfridus Grammaticus (also known as Geoffrey the Grammarian) publishes Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae , the first English-to-Latin wordbook.

1500 to the Present: The Modern English Period

Distinctions are commonly drawn between the Early Modern Period (1500-1800) and Late Modern English (1800 to the present).

During the period of Modern English, British exploration, colonization, and overseas trade hastened the acquisition of loanwords from countless other languages and fostered the development of new varieties of English ( World English ), each with its own nuances of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Since the middle of the 20th century, the expansion of North American business and media around the world has led to the emergence of Global English as a  lingua franca .

• Early 16th century —The first English settlements are made in North America. William Tyndale's English translation of the Bible is published. Many Greek and Latin borrowings enter English.
• 1542 —In his  Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge , Andrew Boorde illustrates regional dialects.
• 1549 —The first version of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England is published.
• 1553 —Thomas Wilson publishes  The Art of Rhetorique , one of the first works on  logic  and  rhetoric  in English.
• 1577 —Henry Peacham publishes  The Garden of Eloquence , a treatise on rhetoric.
• 1586 —The first grammar of English—William Bullokar's  Pamphlet for Grammar —is published.
• 1588 —Elizabeth I begins her 45-year reign as queen of England. The British defeat the Spanish Armada, boosting national pride and enhancing the legend of Queen Elizabeth.
• 1589 — The Art of English Poesie  (attributed to George Puttenham) is published.
• 1590-1611 —William Shakespeare writes his  Sonnets  and the majority of his plays.
• 1600 —The East India Company is chartered to promote trade with Asia, eventually leading to the establishment of the British Raj in India.
• 1603 —Queen Elizabeth dies and James I (James VI of Scotland) accedes to the throne.
• 1604 —Robert Cawdrey's  Table Alphabeticall , the first English  dictionary , is published. 
• 1607 —The first permanent English settlement in America is established at Jamestown, Virginia.
• 1611 —The Authorized Version of the English Bible (the "King James" Bible) is published, greatly influencing the development of the written language.
• 1619 —The first enslaved Africans in North America arrive in Virginia.
• 1622 — Weekly News , the first English newspaper, is published in London.
• 1623 —The First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays is published.
• 1642 —Civil War breaks out in England after King Charles I attempts to arrest his parliamentary critics. The war leads to the execution of Charles I, the dissolution of parliament, and the replacement of the English monarchy with a Protectorate (1653–59) under Oliver Cromwell's rule.
• 1660 —The monarchy is restored; Charles II is proclaimed king.
• 1662 —The Royal Society of London appoints a committee to consider ways of "improving" English as a language of science.
• 1666 —The Great Fire of London destroys most of the City of London inside the old Roman City Wall.
• 1667 —John Milton publishes his epic poem  Paradise Lost .
• 1670 —The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered for promoting trade and settlement in Canada.
• 1688 —Aphra Behn, the first woman novelist in England, publishes  Oroonoko, or the History of the Royal Slave .
• 1697 —In his  Essay Upon Projects , Daniel Defoe calls for the creation of an Academy of 36 "gentlemen" to dictate English usage.
• 1702 — The Daily Courant , the first regular daily newspaper in English, is published in London.
• 1707 —The Act of Union unites the Parliaments of England and  Scotland , creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1709 —The first Copyright Act is enacted in England.
• 1712 —Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric  Jonathan Swift  proposes the creation of an English Academy to regulate English usage and "ascertain" the language.
• 1719 —Daniel Defoe publishes  Robinson Crusoe , considered by some to be the first modern English novel.
• 1721 —Nathaniel Bailey publishes his  Universal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language , a pioneer study in English  lexicography : the first to feature current  usage ,  etymology ,  syllabification , clarifying  quotations , illustrations, and indications of  pronunciation .
• 1715 —Elisabeth Elstob publishes the first grammar of Old English.
• 1755 —Samuel Johnson publishes his two-volume  Dictionary of the English Language .
• 1760-1795 —This period marks the rise of the English grammarians (Joseph Priestly, Robert Lowth, James Buchanan, John Ash, Thomas Sheridan, George Campbell, William Ward, and Lindley Murray), whose rule books, primarily based on  prescriptive  notions of grammar, become increasingly popular. 
• 1762 —Robert Lowth publishes his  Short Introduction to English Grammar .
• 1776 —The Declaration of Independence is signed, and the American War of Independence begins, leading to the creation of the United States of America, the first country outside the British Isles with English as its principal language.
• 1776 —George Campbell publishes  The Philosophy of Rhetoric .
• 1783 — Noah Webster  publishes his  American Spelling Book .
• 1785 — The Daily Universal Register  (renamed  The Times  in 1788) begins publication in London.
• 1788 —The English first settle in Australia, near present-day Sydney.
• 1789 —Noah Webster publishes  Dissertations on the English Language , which advocates an  American standard of usage .
• 1791 — The Observer , the oldest national Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.
• Early 19th century — Grimm's Law  (discovered by Friedrich von Schlegel and Rasmus Rask, later elaborated by Jacob Grimm) identifies relationships between certain consonants in Germanic languages (including English) and their originals in Indo-European. The formulation of Grimm's Law marks a major advance in the development of linguistics as a scholarly field of study.
• 1803 —The Act of Union incorporates Ireland into Britain, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1806 —The British occupy Cape Colony in South Africa.
• 1810 — William Hazlitt  publishes  A New and Improved Grammar of the English Language .​
• 1816 —John Pickering compiles the first dictionary of  Americanisms .
• 1828 —Noah Webster publishes his  American Dictionary of the English Language . Richard Whateley publishes  Elements of Rhetoric .
• 1840 —The native Maori in New Zealand cede sovereignty to the British.
• 1842 —The London Philological Society is founded.
• 1844 —The telegraph is invented by Samuel Morse, inaugurating the development of rapid communication, a major influence on the growth and spread of English.
• Mid 19th century —A standard variety of American English develops. English is established in Australia, South Africa, India, and other British colonial outposts.
• 1852 —The first edition of  Roget's Thesaurus  is published.
• 1866 —James Russell Lowell champions the use of American  regionalisms , helping to end deference to the  Received British Standard . Alexander Bain publishes  English Composition and Rhetoric . The transatlantic telegraph cable is completed.
• 1876 —Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone, thus modernizing private communication.
• 1879 —James A.H. Murray begins editing the Philological Society's  New English Dictionary on Historical Principles  (later renamed the  Oxford English Dictionary ).
• 1884/1885 —Mark Twain's novel  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  introduces a  colloquial prose style  that significantly influences the writing of fiction in the U.S.
• 1901 —The Commonwealth of Australia is established as a dominion of the British Empire.
• 1906 —Henry and Francis Fowler publish the first edition of  The King's English .
• 1907 —New Zealand is established as a dominion of the British Empire.
• 1919 — H.L. Mencken  publishes the first edition of  The American Language , a pioneer study in the history of a major national version of English.
• 1920 —The first American commercial radio station begins operating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1921 — Ireland  achieves Home Rule, and Gaelic is made an official language in addition to English.
• 1922 —The British Broadcasting Company (later renamed the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC) is established.
• 1925 — The New Yorker  magazine is founded by Harold Ross and Jane Grant.
• 1925 —George P. Krapp publishes his two-volume  The English Language in America , the first comprehensive and scholarly treatment of the subject.
• 1926 —Henry Fowler publishes the first edition of his  Dictionary of Modern English Usage .
• 1927 —The first "speaking motion picture,"  The Jazz Singer , is released.
• 1928 — The Oxford English Dictionary  is published.
• 1930 —British linguist C.K. Ogden introduces  Basic English .
• 1936 —The first television service is established by the BBC.
• 1939 —World War II begins.
• 1945 —World War II ends. The Allied victory contributes to the growth of English as a lingua franca.
• 1946 —The Philippines gains its independence from the U.S.
• 1947 —India is freed from British control and divided into Pakistan and India. The constitution provides that English remain the official language for 15 years. New Zealand gains its independence from the U.K. and joins the Commonwealth.
• 1949 —Hans Kurath publishes  A Word Geography of the Eastern United States , a landmark in the scientific study of American regionalisms.
• 1950 —Kenneth Burke publishes  A Rhetoric of Motives.
• 1950s —The number of speakers using  English as a second language  exceeds the number of  native speakers .
• 1957 — Noam Chomsky  publishes  Syntactic Structures , a key document in the study of  generative  and  transformational grammar .
• 1961 — Webster's Third New International Dictionary  is published.
• 1967 —The Welsh Language Act gives the Welsh language equal validity with English in Wales, and Wales is no longer considered a part of England. Henry Kucera and Nelson Francis publish  Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English , a landmark in modern  corpus linguistics .
• 1969 — Canada  officially becomes bilingual (French and English). The first major English dictionary to use corpus linguistics— The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language —is published.
• 1972 — A Grammar of Contemporary English  (by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik) is published. The first call on a personal cell phone is made. The first email is sent.
• 1978 — The Linguistic Atlas of England  is published.
• 1981 —The first issue of the journal  World Englishes  is published.
• 1985 — A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language  is published by Longman. The first edition of M.A.K. Halliday's  An Introduction to Functional Grammar  is published.
• 1988 —The Internet (under development for more than 20 years) is opened to commercial interests.
• 1989 —The second edition of  The Oxford English Dictionary  is published.
• 1993 —Mosaic, the web browser credited with popularizing the World Wide Web, is released. (Netscape Navigator becomes available in 1994, Yahoo! in 1995, and Google in 1998.)
• 1994 — Text messaging  is introduced, and the first modern blogs go online.
• 1995 —David Crystal publishes  The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language .
• 1997 —The first social networking site (SixDegrees.com) is launched. (Friendster is introduced in 2002, and both MySpace and Facebook begin operating in 2004.)
• 2000 —The Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED Online) is made available to subscribers.
• 2002 —Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum publish  The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language . Tom McArthur publishes  The Oxford Guide to World English .
• 2006 —Twitter, a social networking and microblogging service, is created by Jack Dorsey.
• 2009 —The two-volume  Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary  is published by Oxford University Press.
• 2012 —The fifth volume (SI-Z) of the  Dictionary of American Regional English  ( DARE  ) is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Resources and Further Reading

• Algeo, John.  The Origins and Development of the English Language , 6th edition. Wadsworth, 2009.
• Baugh, Albert C., and Thomas Cable.  A History of the English Language , 5th edition. Prentice Hall, 2001.
• Bragg, Melvyn.  The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language . Hodder & Stoughton, 2003.
• Crystal, David.  The English Language . Penguin, 2002.
• Gooden, Philip.  The Story of English: How the English Language Conquered the World . Quercus, 2009.
• Hogg, Richard M., and David Dennison, editors.  A History of the English Language . Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Horobin, Simon.  How English Became English: A Short History of a Global Language . Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Lerer, Seth.  Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language . Columbia University Press, 2007.
• McArthur, Tom.  The Oxford Companion to the English Language . Oxford University Press, 1992.
• McWhorter, John.  Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English . Gotham, 2008.
• Millward, C.M., and Mary Hayes.  A Biography of the English Language , 3rd ed. Wadsworth, 2011.
• Mugglestone, Linda.  The Oxford History of English . Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Nist, John.  A Structural History of English . St. Martin's Press, 1966.
• Middle English Language Explained
• What is Vocabulary in Grammar?
• What Are the Letters of the Alphabet?
• Yogh (Letter in Middle English)
• What Is British English (BrE)?
• Spelling: Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms
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• Interesting Facts About the English Alphabet
• What Words Are False Friends?
• Examples of Linguistic Mutation
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A brief history of the English language

Regardless of the many languages one is fortunate to be fluent in, English takes its place as one of the world’s predominant forms of communication with its influences extending over as much as +2 billion people globally.

Quirks and inconsistencies aside, the history surrounding its monumental rise is both a fascinating and rich one, and while we promise to be brief, you just might pick up a thing or two that may stimulate your interest in studying English with us here at Oxford International English Schools.

Where it all started

Many of you will be forgiven for thinking that studying an English Language course consists of English grammar more than anything else. While English grammar does play a part when taking courses to improve English overall, it is but a small part of the overall curriculum where one becomes immersed in a history that was partly influenced by myths, battles, and legends on one hand, and the everyday workings of its various social class on the other.

According to the  Encyclopedia Britannica , the English language itself really took off with the invasion of Britain during the 5th century. Three Germanic tribes, the  Jutes ,  Saxons  and  Angles  were seeking new lands to conquer, and crossed over from the North Sea. It must be noted that the English language we know and study through various English language courses today had yet to be created as the inhabitants of Britain spoke various dialect of the Celtic language.

During the invasion, the native Britons were driven north and west into lands we now refer to as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The word  England  and  English  originated  from the Old English word  Engla-land , literally meaning “the land of the Angles” where they spoke  Englisc .

Old English (5th to 11th Century)

Albert Baugh, a notable English professor at the University of Pennsylvania notes amongst his published works [1]  that around 85% of Old English is no longer in use; however, surviving elements form the basis of the Modern English language today.

Old English can be further subdivided into the following:

• Prehistoric or Primitive [2]  (5th to 7th Century) – available literature or documentation referencing this period is not available aside from limited examples of  Anglo-Saxon runes ;
• Early Old English (7th to 10th Century) – this period contains some of the earliest documented evidence of the English language, showcasing notable authors and poets like  Cynewulf  and  Aldhelm  who were leading figures in the world of Anglo-Saxon literature.
• Late Old English (10th to 11th Century) – can be considered the final phase of the Old English language which was brought about by the Norman invasion of England. This period ended with the consequential evolution of the English language towards  Early Middle English .

Early Middle English

It was during this period that the English language, and more specifically, English grammar, started evolving with particular attention to syntax.  Syntax  is “ the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language, ” and we find that while the British government and its wealthy citizens  Anglicised  the language, Norman and French influences remained the dominant language until the 14th century.

An interesting fact to note is that this period has been attributed with the loss of case endings that ultimately resulted in inflection markers being replaced by more complex features of the language.  Case endings  are “ a suffix on an inflected noun, pronoun, or adjective that indicates its grammatical function. ”

History of the English language

Charles Laurence Barber [3]  comments,  “The loss and weakening of unstressed syllables at the ends of words destroyed many of the distinctive inflections of Old English.”

Similarly, John McWhorter [4]  points out that while the Norsemen and their English counterparts were able to comprehend one another in a manner of speaking, the Norsemen’s inability to pronounce the endings of various words ultimately resulted in the loss of inflectional endings.

This brings to mind a colleague’s lisp and I take to wondering: if this were a few hundred years ago, and we were in medieval Britain, could we have imagined that a  speech defect  would bring about the amazing changes modern history is now looking back on? Something to ponder…

Refer to the image below for an idea of the changes to the English language during this time frame.

Late Middle English

It was during the 14th century that a different dialect (known as the  East-Midlands ) began to develop around the London area.

Geoffrey Chaucer, a writer we have come to identify as the  Father of English Literature [5]   and author of the widely renowned  Canterbury Tales , was  often heralded as the greatest poet of that particular time. It was through his various works that the English language was more or less “approved” alongside those of French and Latin, though he continued to write up some of his characters in the northern dialects.

It was during the mid-1400s that the  Chancery English  standard was brought about. The story goes that the clerks working for the Chancery in London were fluent in both French and Latin. It was their job to prepare official court documents and prior to the 1430s, both the aforementioned languages were mainly used by royalty, the church, and wealthy Britons. After this date, the clerks started using a dialect that sounded as follows:

• gaf (gave) not yaf (Chaucer’s East Midland dialect)
• such not swich
• theyre (their) not hir  [6]

As you can see, the above is starting to  sound  more like the present-day English language we know. If one thinks about it, these clerks held enormous influence over the manner of  influential  communication, which ultimately shaped the foundations of Early Modern English.

Early Modern English

The changes in the English language during this period occurred from the 15th to mid-17th Century, and signified not only a change in pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar itself but also the start of the  English Renaissance.

The English Renaissance has much quieter foundations than its pan-European cousin, the Italian Renaissance, and sprouted during the end of the 15th century. It was associated with the rebirth of societal and cultural movements, and while slow to gather steam during the initial phases, it celebrated the heights of glory during the  Elizabethan Age .

It was  William Caxton ’s innovation of an early printing press that allowed Early Modern English to become mainstream, something we as English learners should be grateful for! The Printing Press was key in standardizing the English language through distribution of the English Bible.

Caxton’s publishing of Thomas Malory’s  Le Morte d’Arthur  (the Death of Arthur) is regarded as print material’s first bestseller. Malory’s interpretation of various tales surrounding the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, in his own words, and the ensuing popularity  indirectly ensured that Early Modern English was here to stay.

It was during Henry the VIII’s reign that English commoners were finally able to  read  the Bible in a language they understood, which to its own degree, helped spread the dialect of the common folk.

The end of the 16th century brought about the first complete translation of the Catholic Bible, and though it didn’t make a markable impact, it played an important role in the continued development of the English language, especially with the English-speaking Catholic population worldwide.

The end of the 16th and start of the 17th century would see the writings of actor and playwright, William Shakespeare,  take the world by storm .

Why was Shakespeare’s influence important during those times? Shakespeare started writing during a time when the English language was undergoing serious changes due to contact with other nations through war, colonisation, and the likes. These changes were further cemented through Shakespeare and other emerging playwrights who found their ideas could not be expressed through the English language currently in circulation. Thus, the “adoption” of words or phrases from other languages were modified and added to the English language, creating a richer experience for all concerned.

It was during the early 17th century that we saw the establishment of the first successful English colony in what was called  The New World . Jamestown, Virginia, also saw the dawn of  American English  with English colonizers adopting indigenous words, and adding them to the English language.

The constant influx of new blood due to voluntary and involuntary (i.e. slaves) migration during the 17th, 18th and 19th century meant a variety of English dialects had sprung to life, this included West African, Native American, Spanish and European influences.

Meanwhile, back home, the English Civil War, starting mid-17th century, brought with it political mayhem and social instability. At the same time, England’s puritanical streak had taken off after the execution of Charles I. Censorship was a given, and after the Parliamentarian victory during the War, Puritans promoted an austere lifestyle in reaction to what they viewed as excesses by the previous regime [7] . England would undergo little more than a decade under Puritan leadership before the crowning of Charles II. His rule, effectively the return of the Stuart Monarchy, would bring about the  Restoration  period which saw the rise of poetry, philosophical writing, and much more.

It was during this age that literary classics, like those of John Milton’s  Paradise Lost , were published, and are considered relevant to this age!

Late Modern English

The  Industrial Revolution  and the  Rise of the British Empire  during the 18th, 19th and early 20th-century saw the expansion of the English language.

The advances and discoveries in science and technology during the Industrial Revolution saw a need for new words, phrases, and concepts to describe these ideas and inventions. Due to the nature of these works, scientists and scholars  created  words using Greek and Latin roots e.g. bacteria, histology, nuclear, biology. You may be shocked to read that these words were created but one can learn a multitude of new facts through English language courses as you are doing now!

Colonialism brought with it a double-edged sword. It can be said that the nations under the British Empire’s rule saw the introduction of the English language as a way for them to learn, engage, and hopefully, benefit from “overseas” influence. While scientific and technological discoveries were some of the benefits that could be shared, colonial Britain saw this as a way to not only teach their language but impart their culture and traditions upon societies they deemed as  backward , especially those in Africa and Asia.

The idea may have backfired as the English language walked away with a large number of foreign words that have now become part and parcel of the English language e.g. shampoo, candy, cot and many others originated in India!

English in the 21st Century

If one endevours to study various English language courses taught today, we would find almost no immediate similarities between Modern English and Old English. English grammar has become exceedingly refined (even though smartphone messaging have made a mockery of the English language itself) where perfect living examples would be that of the current British Royal Family. This has given many an idea that speaking  proper  English is a touch snooty and high-handed. Before you scoff, think about what you have just read. The basic history and development of a language that literally spawned from the embers of wars fought between ferocious civilisations. Imagine everything that our descendants went through, their trials and tribulations, their willingness to give up everything in order to achieve freedom of speech and expression.

Everything has lead up to this point where English learners  decide  to study the language at their fancy, something we take for granted as many of us have access to courses to improve English at the touch of a button!

Perhaps you’re a fan of Shakespeare, maybe you’re more intune with John Milton or J.K. Rowling? Whatever you fancy, these authors, poets and playwrights bring to life more than just words on a page. With them comes a living history that continues to evolve to this day!

[1]  Baugh, Albert (1951). A History of the English Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 60–83; 110–130 (Scandinavian influence).

[2]  Stumpf, John (1970). An Outline of English Literature; Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Literature. London: Forum House Publishing Company. p. 7. We do not know what languages the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons spoke, nor even whether they were sufficiently similar to make them mutually intelligible, but it is reasonable to assume that by the end of the sixth century there must have been a language that could be understood by all and this we call Primitive Old English.

[3]  Berber, Charles Laurence (2000). The English Language; A Historical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p.157.

[4]  McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, 2008, pp. 89–136

[5]   Robert DeMaria, Jr., Heesok Chang, Samantha Zacher (eds.), A Companion to British Literature, Volume 2: Early Modern Literature, 1450-1660, John Wiley & Sons, 2013, p. 41.

[6]  http://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chancery-standard

[7]  Durston, 1985

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History of the english language.

• Ans van Kemenade Ans van Kemenade Department of English, Radbound University Nymegen
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.10
• Published online: 28 August 2018

The status of English in the early 21st century makes it hard to imagine that the language started out as an assortment of North Sea Germanic dialects spoken in parts of England only by immigrants from the continent. Itself soon under threat, first from the language(s) spoken by Viking invaders, then from French as spoken by the Norman conquerors, English continued to thrive as an essentially West-Germanic language that did, however, undergo some profound changes resulting from contact with Scandinavian and French. A further decisive period of change is the late Middle Ages, which started a tremendous societal scale-up that triggered pervasive multilingualism. These repeated layers of contact between different populations, first locally, then nationally, followed by standardization and 18th-century codification, metamorphosed English into a language closely related to, yet quite distinct from, its closest relatives Dutch and German in nearly all language domains, not least in word order, grammar, and pronunciation.

• history of English
• Old English
• Middle English
• Early Modern English
• word order change
• grammaticalization

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History of the English Language

Feb 20, 2014

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History of the English Language. The Beautiful, Masterful Tongue. Origins of English. England (Briton) has been inhabited for 50,000 years, yet English has been spoken for only 1,500. Around 1500 -500 B.C.: Celts are the first Indo European speakers in England.

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• nama gehalgod
• thi kyndoom
• germanic languages
• old english period

Presentation Transcript

History of the English Language The Beautiful, Masterful Tongue

Origins of English • England (Briton) has been inhabited for 50,000 years, yet English has been spoken for only 1,500. • Around 1500 -500 B.C.: Celts are the first Indo European speakers in England. • What do we mean by Indo-European? • Languages/dialects which cover a large part of Europe and part of Asia.

Based on the graph below, what kind of Germanic tongue is English?

What happened to the English Language as it came into contact with other cultures? • Grimm’s Law: A statement of the relationship between certain consonants in Germanic languages and their originals in Indo-European. • Over time, a language becomes softer due to the softening of the consonant sounds.

For example…identify this OE text • Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum; • Si þin nama gehalgod • to becume þin rice • gewurþe ðin willa • on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. • urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg • and forgyf us ure gyltas • swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum • and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge • ac alys us of yfele soþlice

The Lord’s Prayer in Middle English • Oure fadir that art in heuenes, halewid be thi name; thi kyndoom come to; be thi wille don in erthe as in heuene: gyue to us this dai oure breed ouer othir substaunce; and forgyue to us oure dettis, as we forgyuen to oure gettouris; and lede us not in to temptacioun, but delyuere us fro yuel.

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum; Si þin nama gehalgod to becume þin rice gewurþe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice Oure fadir that art in heuenes, halewid be thi name; thi kyndoom come to; be thi wille don in erthe as in heuene: gyue to us this dai oure breed ouer othir substaunce; and forgyue to us oure dettis, as we forgyuen to oure gettouris; and lede us not in to temptacioun, but delyuere us fro yuel. What do you notice about the spellings and the sounds between Old English vs. Middle English?

Society of Old English Period • Society was founded on a comitatus (friendly) relationship between a • A. Lord (King, owner of land) • B. Thane(theign): a man ranked between earl (man of noble rank) and ordinary freeman.

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History of the English Language. Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”. Old English 1 .

332 views • 19 slides

History Of English Language

History Of English Language. A Time Line. The History of English Language. From its start in a jumble of West Germanic dialects to its role today as a global language--is both fascinating and complex. English began with a prehistoric language called Indo-European.

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History of the English Language. The Anglo-Saxon Invasion and the Norman Invasion of the British Isles. English Begins. The first English arose about 1500 years ago when the British Isles were invaded by Germanic tribes. We would consider these tribes to be Vikings today.

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History of the English Language. A Brief Overview. Periods of English. Old English Circa 410 – 1100 A.D. Middle English 1100A.D. – 1500 A.D. Early Modern English 15oo A.D. – 1650 A.D. Modern English 1650 A.D. - present. English Pre-History. The Celts and The Romans.

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History of the English Language. Why is English so inconsistent?. Through Though Bough Ought Cough Rough. Linguistically Influential Periods of Early English History. 1. Pre-Roman/Celtic Period  up to 55 B.C. 2. Roman Occupation  55 B.C. – 410 A.D.

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History of the English Language. Or…Why English doesn’t make any sense.

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History of the English Language. ENGL 4300-01 Spring Semester 2005. Information. Name An email address Phone # Major and Year (Junior, Senior, etc). Other information I may need to know. Language– A Definition.

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History of the English Language. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. Nostratic: a proto-language. The Ancients. Wilfred van Soldt: "Mesopotamia gave us the wheel, writing and astronomy and can rightly call itself the birthplace of our civilisation." Mesopotamia Egypt China India

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The history of English language

The history of English language. A very brief guide to…. Early beginnings. Before 100 B. C., Britain was populated by a mixture of tribes, including the Celts, Picts, Irish and Cornish. They all spoke a variety of Celtic languages. The origins of English.

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History of the English Language. History of the English Language. A language develops over centuries of time; as it develops, it changes. We have no idea when English language started. The Stonehenge People.

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History of the English Language. History of the English Language. A language develops and changes slowly over centuries. We do not know when the English language started. Stonehenge. Stonehenge

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History of the English Language. Language Terminology. linguistics: The study of the nature and structure of language and languages. cognate: Descended from a common ancestor; of the same family. etymology:

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History of the English Language. Class Notes Sept. 17, 2014. Vikings!. 793 CE onward. Alfred the Great. Alfred the Great. Ruled from 871-899 CE Consolidated a divided “ nation ” Used the word Angelcynn Fought/negotiated with the Danes Captured London, taking it from the Danes

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History of the English Language. Old English. The history of English Language began when 3 Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes invaded Britain in the 5 th century.

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