TIMELINE IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

DATE PERIOD LANGUAGE/S USED DEVELOPMENT OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE
C.6000 BC Britain cut-off from
continental Europe by
English Channel
c. 5000 BC PRE-ENGLISH Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European living
Family of Languages in Eastern Europe and
Proto-Indo- Central Asia
European (PIE) is the
theorized common
ancestor of the Indo-
European language
family. Its proposed
features have been
derived by linguistic
reconstruction from
documented Indo-
European languages.
No direct record of
Proto-Indo-European
exists.(s. Britannica)
c. 1000 BC OLD ENGLISH Indo-European Family After many migrations, the
Phase 1: Indo- of Languages (pls. see various branches of Indo-
European Tribes separate file) European have become
distinct. Celtic becomes
most widespread branch of
IE in Europe.
c. 500 BC CELTIC Gaelic, Goidelic, Celts inhabit much of
CIVILIZATION Brythonic Europe, and beginning to
colonize the British Isles.
c. 55 BC ROMAN INVASION Latin, Greek First Roman raids on
Britain under Julius Caesar
c. 43 AD (Early 5th ROMAN EMPIRE Roman occupation of
Century) Britain under Emperor
Claudius (beginning of
Roman rule of Britain)
c. 410-436 Roman withdrawal from
Britain
c. 450 AD OLD ENGLISH West Germanic Germanic Migration,
Phase 2: Anglo- languages Anglo-Saxon settlement
Saxons Invasion (Angles, Frisians, Saxons,
Jutes) of Britain begins
c. 450-480 Earliest Old English
inscriptions
c. 597 Old English: Mixture of St. Augustine arrives in
Latin, Greek, Hebrew Britain (beginning of Christian
 conversion of the Anglo-
Saxons)
c. 600 Anglo-Saxon language
covers most of modern-day
England
c. 660 Cædmon's Hymn” composed
in Old English
c. 731 The Venerable Bede
writes “The Ecclesiastical
History of the English
People” (in Latin)
c. 792 OLD ENGLISH Old Norse, Danish, Viking raids of Britain begin
Dutch, Scandinavians
Phase 3: VIKINGS
INVASION
c. 800 Old English epic
poem “Beowulf” composed
c. 865 The Danes launch full-scale
invasion and occupy
Northumbria
c. 871 Alfred the Great becomes
king of Wessex, encourages
English prose and translation
of Latin works
“The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle” has begun
c. 878 Danelaw established, dividing
Britain into Anglo-Saxon
south and Danish north
c. 911 Charles II of France grants
Normandy to the Viking chief
Hrolf the Ganger (the
beginning of Norman French)
c. 1000 The oldest surviving
manuscript of “Beowulf” dates
from this period
c. 1066 MIDDLE ENGLISH Old French, Latin The Norman conquest under
William the Conqueror
c. 1086 “Domesday Book” compiled
c. 1100 London becomes de facto
capital of England
c. 1150 The oldest surviving
manuscripts in Middle English
date from this period
c. 1154 Eleanor of Aquitaine, French
wife of Henry II, becomes
Queen Consort of England
“The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle” discontinued
c. 1167 Oxford University established
c. 1180 The “Ormulum” text of the
monk Orm completed
c. 1204 King John loses the province
of Normandy to France
c. 1209 Cambridge University
established
c. 1349-50 The Black Death kills one
third of the British population
c. 1362 The Statute of Pleading
replaces French with English
as the language of law
(although records continue to
be kept in Latin)
English is used in English
Parliament for the first time
c. 1370 William Langland
writes “Piers Plowman”
c. 1384 John Wycliffe publishes his
English translation of “The
Bible”
c. 1385 English replaces Latin as
main language in schools
(except Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge)
c. 1388 Chaucer begins “The
Canterbury Tales”
c. 1399 Henry IV becomes first
English-speaking monarch
since before the Conquest
c. 1450 EARLY MODERN EARLY MODERN The Great Vowel Shift begins
ENGLISH: Elizabethan
English,
Shakespearean
English
c. 1476 William Caxton establishes
the first English printing press
c. 1500 Start of English Renaissance
c. 1526 William Tyndale prints his
English translation of the New
Testament of “The Bible”
c. 1539 “The Great Bible” published
c. 1549 First version of “The Book of
Common Prayer” published
c. 1590 William Shakespeare writes
his first plays
C. 1604 Robert Cawdrey publishes
the first English dictionary, “A
Table Alphabeticall”
C. 1607 Jamestown, the first
permanent English settlement
in the New World, established
c. 1611 The Authorized, or King
James Version, of “The
Bible” is published

c. 1616 Death of William

Shakespeare
c. 1622 Publication of the first
English-language newspaper,
the “Courante” or “Weekly
News”
c. 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s
works is published
C 1702 Publication of the first daily
English-language
newspaper, “The Daily
Courant”, in London
c. 1755 Samuel Johnson publishes
his “Dictionary of the English
Language”
c. 1763 Britain wrests control of
Canada from the French
c. 1777 Last native speaker of the
Celtic Cornish language dies
c. 1782 George Washington defeats
Cornwallis at Yorktown and
Britain abandons its American
colonies
c. 1788 British penal colony
established in Australia

First publication of “The

Times” newspaper in London

Noah Webster publishes “The

American Spelling Book”

c. 1795 First English settlement at the

Cape of Good Hope, South
Africa
c. 1804 LATE MODERN LATE MODERN Lewis and Clark document
exploration of routes to
ENGLISH
American West

c. 1828 Noah Webster publishes

his “The American Dictionary
of the English Language”

c. 1834 Abolition of slavery in the

British Empire

c. 1840 British colony established in

New Zealand
c. 1865 United States ends slavery
after Civil War
c. 1922 British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) founded
c. 1928 First edition of the “Oxford
English Dictionary” is
published
c. 1947 India and Pakistan gain
independence from Britain
 c. 1954 Sir Ernest Gowers’ “The
Complete Plain
Words” published
c. 1989 Second edition of the “Oxford
English Dictionary” is
published
SOURCE: https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/timeline.html