Evolution of the English Language

Origins of English

• Half of modern English vocabulary comes from Old English.
• English developed from the speech of Angles, Jutes, and Saxons who arrived from north Germany.
• Celtic was the language of Britain before English.

Old English (450 AD - 1066)

• Written form of English was influenced by Latin-speaking monks who used the Roman alphabet.
• New letters (æ, ð, and þ) were introduced, spoken as "ash", "eth", and "thorn".
• Vocabulary was drawn from both Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse.
• Viking raids began in 793 and continued until the 11th century.
• Language was mainly phonetic, with little consistency.
• Writing took the form of runes.

Middle English Period (1066 - 1485)

• Norman invasion brought French as the verbal language of the court.
• Latin was important in the church for written expression.
• Terms for law and politics came from Norman French.
• Writers like Chaucer chose to write in English to stabilize the language.
• Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1458, introduced to England in 1476 by Caxton.

Tudor Period (1485 - 1603)

• Printing press used the South East dialect as the basis for standardizing English.
• Growing pride in the English language led to many writers choosing to write in English.
• Shakespeare produced his work in English.
• James I commissioned the authorized version of the Bible in 1603.

English Language Development

• Vocabulary expanded due to new learning during the Renaissance and imports from Greek and Latin.
• Travel to the New World and ideas in math and science also contributed to vocabulary growth.
• English settlers founded colonies in North America.
• Richard Mulcaster published a list of 7,000 words with spelling forms in 1582.

17th and 18th Centuries

• Puritan ideas of clarity and simplicity influenced writing of prose.
• English became the preferred language of American colonies over Dutch.
• Standardizing of spelling (Johnson's Dictionary, 1755) and grammar (Lowth's Short Introduction, 1762, and Lindley Murray's English Grammar, 1794) occurred.
• Classical languages were seen as paradigms for English.
• The Romantic Movement began, with interest in regional and social class varieties of English.

19th and 20th Centuries

• Interest in the past led to the use of archaic words.
• Noan Webster published the American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828.
• The British Empire caused huge lexical growth.
• Modern language science began with Jakob Grimm and others.
• James Murray began compiling the New English Dictionary (later the Oxford English Dictionary) in 1879.
• Modern language science developed, focusing on descriptive rather than prescriptive approaches.
• Modern recording technology allowed for the study of spoken English.
• Overseas forms of English grew in influence.
• US and International English became dominant.
• English became a global language, used in computing, communications, and other fields.