THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

DATE

500 BC

PEOPLE/RULERS

The Celts

EVENTS

From about 500 BC a tribe called the Celts came from Europe to Britain and Ireland. Many of them stayed, and probably passed on their ideas and their language to the people already living in Britain. Over the next 500 years Celtic tribes occupied the whole of Britain.

AD 43 - 
AD 410

The Romans

The Romans invaded and conquered the south of Britannia, as they called it, in AD 43, and the Celts were pushed back into Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but it was not easy defeating them. The Celts attacked in the north, and in the south a Celtic tribe destroyed Colchester and London. The Romans left Britain in AD 410.

AD 449

The Anglo-Saxons

Invaders from Denmark, Holland and Germany began invading south-east Britain in AD 449. These were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. The Celtic Britons were pushed back once more to Wales and Scotland by the fierce Anglo-Saxon warriors. The way the Anglo-Saxons overwhelmed the native Britons is illustrated in their vocabulary. The Old English of the Anglo-Saxons contains only a few Celtic words, and some of these refer to geographical features which were new to the Saxons: crag, tor (a high rock) and combe (a deep valley).

AD 597

The first major change to Old English happened in AD 597 when St Augustine brought Christianity to Britain. Church words came from Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and these were borrowed and absorbed into the language. Most importantly the monks brought Latin script, which meant Old English could now be written down. To the Celts, the German invaders were all Saxons, but gradually the terms Anglii and Anglia entered the language, referring to invaders generally. The language of these warriors was Englisc (or Old English), and by AD 1000 their newly conquered territory became known as Englaland, home of the Angles.

AD 793

The Vikings

Raids by the Vikings from Norway and Denmark began in AD 793 along the north-east coast, and by AD 850 the Vikings controlled almost half the country. They then attacked the kingdom of Wessex in the south, and were very nearly successful, but were defeated by King Alfred in AD 878. The Danes withdrew to the north and lived more or less peacefully with the Anglo-Saxons in the south. After Alfred had captured London he changed his title from ‘King of the West Saxons’ to ‘King of the English’. He is considered the first English king, and details of his reign were recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 892.

Norse, the language of the Danes had the same Germanic roots as Old English, so the Danes and Saxons could understand each other more or less. The effect of these two cultures coming together was that the language of Old English became more simplified. The influence the Vikings had on our language can still be seen today in place names ending in –by, which originally meant a farm, then a village, as in Derby and Grimsby. Words such as get, hit, leg, low, skin, ill and want are all of Viking origin.

1066

The Normans

The next big change in the English language came in 1066 when the Normans, under William, invaded from northern France and defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Harold was the last English-speaking king of England for nearly three hundred years.

1100

All important positions in society were now held by Normans. In government, religion and all written records the language used was either French or Latin, both unknown to most of the uneducated people of England. English only survived as the spoken language of the people of England because it was so well established.
Another significant reason for the survival of English was the fact that almost immediately after the conquest many Normans began to intermarry with Anglo-Saxons. Even King Henry I married Matilda of Scotland. The effect of this kind of cultural interaction was that many French and Latin words entered the language.

One of the reasons modern English has such a rich vocabulary (about 500,000 words, compared with German - 185,000 and French - less than 100,000) is from the mingling of the languages of Old English, French and Latin, which allows us to make fine distinctions in meaning, for example ask – question – interrogate, time – age - epoch.

1154

The Plantagenets

From 1204 to 1244 many of the Normans who had divided their time between Normandy and England lost their land in France, and decided to stay in England.  Documents began to be written in English, and the use of French began to decline. By 1250 it was becoming a foreign language; English was becoming the first language of the country.

In 1348 the ‘Black Death’ killed about a third of the population, and in places where people lived communally, such as monasteries, plague deaths were higher. The result of this was that many semi-educated non-French or Latin speakers entered the Church.

Geoffrey Chaucer is considered the father of English as a literary language. At a time when literature was dominated by the classical languages Chaucer began writing poetry in his native English, and it was far superior to anything before. He began his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales, in about 1387.

The first English translation of the Bible was made in 1388. 

1399

Lancaster & York

During the Hundred Years’ War against France (1338 – 1453) Henry V became the first king since Harold to use English in his official documents. It was symbolic that he chose to use English rather than French, which was the language of his enemies.

In 1476 Thomas Caxton introduced the printing press to England.  He set up a workshop near Westminster Abbey, using the English of London as his ‘standard’.  The printing press was a communication revolution, the cornerstone of the Renaissance, and as a result hundreds of Latin words entered the language.

1485

The Tudors

Printing transformed society in Britain; it accelerated the education of the middle class, and it is thought that by 1600 nearly half the population had some basic literacy. This rise in literacy had an enormous effect on the English language, because the common people wanted to read books in English, not Latin. The printers tried to satisfy the demands of their customers. One of the first books to be printed in English was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 
In 1539, in support of the Protestant view that everyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language, Henry VIII allowed the Bible to be printed in English.

1558

The Elizabethans

It is due to the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh’s determination to establish an English nation in North America that English became the world language it is today. Both France and Spain were trying to colonize North America, but it was Raleigh’s inspiration that led to the first English-speaking communities in the New World.

The poet and dramatist William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) had an enormous effect on the English language. His country background combined with his education (he studied in Latin, and had also picked up French and Italian) meant he was able to appeal to all sections of Elizabethan society through the interplay of high speech with commonplace language. 

1603

The Stuarts

Shakespeare had one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer, some 30,000 words (today an educated person’s vocabulary is probably about 15,000 words), and there are many words and expressions used today which first appeared in Shakespeare’s works. Examples are accommodation, assassination, vanish into thin air and lost property.

1714

The House of Hanover

When Queen Anne died in 1714 with no surviving children, her German protestant second cousin George was invited to be King of England instead of her Catholic half-brother James. George I spoke very little English, and during his twelve-year reign he spent more time in Hanover than he did in England.

In 1746 Dr Samuel Johnson began the nine-year task of writing a dictionary of the English language.  He wrote the definitions of more than 40,000 words, and in 1755 the Dictionary was published. It was instantly recognized as a major work throughout Europe, and was not seriously rivalled for over a century.

1837

The Victorians

During the 19th century the British Empire ensured the spread of English around the globe, and the language also absorbed words from the countries it invaded. Tobacco from the West Indies, safari and zebra from Africa, kangaroo from Australia, ginger, shampoo and bungalow from India are just a few examples.

1901



1917

The Edwardians



The House of Windsor

People have been calling for spelling reform in English since the 16th century when John Hart complained of the ‘vices’ of English writing which cause it to be ‘learned hard and evil to read.’ In 1949 the Simplified Spelling Society’s publication New Spelling was presented to Parliament, but was rejected, but only by 87 votes to 84!

Those in favour of spelling reform argue that it would improve literacy levels, make the language easier to master, and save money, since any reform would reduce the number of letters per word. The main obstacle to reform is that there are so many varieties of pronunciation in different locations that it would be very difficult to agree on new spellings.

In the 20th century the biggest influence on the English language has been the emergence of the United States of America as a superpower after WW2. The enormous strategic, economic and cultural interests of the US has ensured the English language’s survival, and it continues to dominate global communication.

Many people argue that English has already become a world language. Mother-tongue speakers have now reached around 400 million, and a further 350 million use English as a second language. English is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air traffic control, international business and academic conferences, science, technology, medicine, diplomacy, sports, international competitions, pop music and advertising. Three-quarters of the world’s mail is written in English, 80% of information stored on computers around the world is in English, and people communicate on the internet largely in English.