History of English

In a Nutshell

Romano-Celtic Period 55 B.C. to circa 410 A.D.

Old English Period circa 410 to 1066

Middle English Period 1066 to 1500

Modern Period 1500 to present

Time Periods

Romans dominated England A small number of Latin words incorporated,

especially those that have to do with soldiers or war: Names ending in “chester” or “caster” came from

Latin “castra,” which means camp, i.e., Winchester and Lancaster

“Street” came from the Latin “strata” Romans left England and went back to defend

their territory but failed. The Roman Empire fell in 476.

Romano-Celtic Period

With the Romans gone, England is open to attack Jutes from Denmark arrive first Then the Angles, then the Saxons The Angles and Saxons combine powers This period also known as Anglo-Saxon Period Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle—literary works Latin alphabet becomes basis for English Verbs are placed at the end of the sentence, and

later moved to after the pronoun

Old English

• English was inflected (nouns changed to reflect case)

• About 90% of our most common words come from Old English• Personal pronouns (I, me, he, she, him, her

us, them)• Forms of the verb to be (is, am, are, was,

were)• Verbs that change spelling in principle parts

(go, went, gone)• Small words: the, in, of, etc.

• Feminine and masculine forms of words dropped

• You cannot read Old English without training. Check out this Old English excerpt from Beowulf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K13GJkGvDw

Most inflected word endings get dropped Period begins in 1066 with Battle of Hastings William, Duke of Normandy, defeats Harold,

King of England William found English too difficult to learn, so

French was the official language of the court English language of peasant and poets Still difficult to read, but you can get some of

it without training

Middle English

As many as 10,000 French words were added to the English language “people” for “folk” Terms related to government (“realm,”

“royal,” “crown”) Others: tax, estate, trouble, duty, pay,

table, boil, serve, roast, dine, religion, savior, pray, and trinity

Spellings changed: “cild” becomes “child;” “cwen” becomes “queen;” “hwo” becomes “who;” “hwaet,” becomes “what”

William Caxton brings printing press to England; preserves spellings

Pronunciation greatest change in Modern

English London pronunciations stick Beginning of period coincides with Renaissance Renaissance—rebirth of everything Greek and

Latin (the Classics) Reformation—New Testament written in Greek British Colonialism—as the British conquered

more people, words from other languages entered English

Modern English

Great vowel shift (1400-1500): gave us current vowel pronunciations

Economic and technical innovations lead to new words as well

Early Modern English (i.e., Shakespeare’s language) is harder to read than late Modern English

Shakespeare coined many new words and phrases:

critical, leapfrog, majestic, pedant, and dwindle

flesh and blood, vanish into thin air Our language is still changing

http://www.vroma.org/~

jhaughto/historyofenglish.htm

http://www.vroma.org/~jhaughto/historyofenglish.htm

Resources