History of English

Britain
Timeline

Celt Roman Germanic Vikings Norman P

Christianity
In 600 AD

Mixing in 1500
Migration Invasions Anglo-saxon-jutes Invasions Invasions r

Renaissance
600BC In 55 BC & In 800 Ad In 1066 e
Frisians Settle s
In 449 AD e
Celtic Latin French n
t
Greek Old
Germanic Norse

The
Great Vowel
shift
Pie Chart of the Languages mixed in English

french
29%
Latin

Germanic Germanic
26%

french
Greek
Greek 6%

other Language other Language

6%

Derived fromproper Name Derived fromproper

Name
4%
Latin
29%

Period of English Language

OLD ENGLISH MIDDLE ENGLISH MODERN ENGLISH LET MODERN

449 – 1100 1100 – 1500 1500 – 1800 ENGLISH
(Dark period) (Chaucer period) (Shakespeare period) 1800 - present
 Points to remember about History of English Language
➢ The first language that the people of Britain used to speak was Celt.
➢ The Romans invaded the Britain people in 55 B.C. and introduced Latin which was a great
language at that time.
➢ History of English started when the three tribes of Germany invaded the Britain People in 5th
century A.D. and introduced Germanic language.
➢ the name of the tribes were the Angles, the Saxons, and the jutes.
➢ The group of the tribes is called Anglo-Saxons.
➢ The Britain people were forced to accept the rules of the Germanic tribes so the language too.
➢ Germanic languages become new language which was Old English.
➢ First it was ‘Englisc’. Latter it changed into ‘English’.
➢ Christianity started dominating Britain in 6th century.
➢ They were converting people into Christianity. They introduced Greek.
➢ The Vikings came from Scandinavia and invaded Britain in 8th century. Their language were Old
Norse.
➢ The Normans originally from France, came to England in the 11th century.
➢ They gradually conquered and took over the Britain. They introduced French.
➢ English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1300) wrote the unfinished work: The Canterbury Tales.
➢ The great Vowel shift was changes in English pronunciation of the English language that took
place primarily between 1400 and 1700.
➢ The great Vowel shift was a massive sound change affecting the long vowels of English .
➢ Invading words from Latin, Germanic, Greek and French made its way into English language.
➢ Shakespeare, he invented many word, which made English easy.
➢ Modern English that we speak today is influenced by immigration and historical happenings
(world trade & British Empire)