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History of English Language

English has evolved over thousands of years, changing and adapting to suit the needs of the people who speak it. Someone alive twenty generations ago would have spoken a completely different version of English to the one we use today. 

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History of English Language

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English has evolved over thousands of years, changing and adapting to suit the needs of the people who speak it. Someone alive twenty generations ago would have spoken a completely different version of English to the one we use today.

Let’s go back to where it all started.

A short history of English language

You might be thinking 'English has been around a long time, how can its history possibly be short?', and you'd be 100% right. The history of English is anything but short, but for the purposes of this article, we'll try to keep it as brief as possible.

A short timeline of the History of the English Language
PeriodEvents
450-1100Old English period, Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement
1066Norman Conquest, beginning of Middle English period
1350-1475Middle English period, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
1475-1700Early Modern English period, Renaissance and scientific revolution
1600-1700Shakespeare's plays, King James Bible
1700-1900Late Modern English period, Industrial Revolution and global expansion of English
1775Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language
1922Publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, which uses innovative language and style
1950s-1960sThe emergence of American English as a dominant form of English, the influence of mass media
2010sRapid development of digital communication and online language, such as emoji and slang

In the next few sections, we'll be looking at the evolution of the English language from time period to time period.

History of English Language History of English StudySmarterFig. 1 - The history of English is a long and rich one, and the language has changed dramatically over the centuries.

History of English language: evolution

Each of the following sections will briefly map the evolution of the English language, as well as the different factors that would have influenced these changes.

Old English (5th-11th century)

English was originally a group of West-Germanic dialects (or ‘Anglo-Frisian’) spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, who had invaded Britain in around 5AD. Their language (‘Old English’) is the earliest form of the language we call English today.

Literature was written during this period, including the well-known poems ‘Beowulf’ (a story of a monster-slaying hero) and the Exeter Book (a collection of riddles). These have allowed linguists to develop an understanding of how Old English looked and how it was used.

Features of Old English include the use of grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter genders, as in German) and the use of four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. Again, like modern-day German!). There were also a lot more inflectional endings, meaning that word order was much freer.

FUN FACT: Many Old English place names have survived up to the present day such as ‘Plymouth’ meaning the mouth of the River Plym and ‘Oxford’ meaning a ‘ford for Oxen’. England itself is named after the Angles (ie. ‘Land of the Angles’) as well as the area of ‘East-Anglia’!

Middle English (ca. 11th-15th century)

Fast forward to 1066 and Britain is experiencing another invasion, this time from the Normans. This marks the beginning of a new era of language called Early Middle English.

During this time, English was briefly replaced by Anglo-Norman French. This was mostly used by the upper classes, while regional varieties of English were still being used by ordinary people. Due to the occupation of the Anglo-Normans and the use of French in writing, not much Early Middle English literature has survived.

Many of the Old English grammatical features were lost or simplified. For example, grammatical case endings and other inflections disappeared. This led to sentence structures (or ‘syntax’) becoming more complex and word order becoming more important. Early Middle English also adopted plenty of Anglo-Norman French vocabulary, particularly in areas such as the church, law, politics, and the arts (ie. the areas occupied mainly by the upper-class population).

FUN FACT: We still see the remains of the Old English plural inflection -en in words such as ‘oxen’ and ‘children’!

Going into the Late Middle English period (ca. 14th-15th century), English saw further changes. This included a push for standardisation, changes in our writing system, and changes in pronunciation, which is part of the reason modern-day spellings are so irregular!

The most famous surviving piece of literature from this period is ‘The Canterbury Tales’, written by Chaucer in the 1390s. Chaucer’s writing was mostly based on the East-Midlands dialect, a dialect which was also used in the Chancery Standard. It was this Chancery Standard that William Caxton used when he introduced the printing press to Britain in 1476. This helped to stabilise the English language and drive standardisation.

The History of English Language Middle English StudySmarter

Fig. 2 - If you've studied English Literature too, you'll probably be familiar with some of Chaucer's work.

Early Modern English (ca. 15th-18th century)

The 15th century marks the beginning of Early Modern English. A key event during this time was the Great Vowel Shift, an event true to its name. Over the course of around 300 years, the pronunciation of long vowels shifted ‘upwards’ to a shorter version of the vowel (either raised vowels or diphthongs).

The Middle English words ‘weef’ and ‘heer’ are now the words ‘wife’ and ‘her’. Try saying the Middle English word then the current word - notice how the vowels change from a lower position to higher up in the mouth.

The push for standardisation continued during this time, particularly in the spelling system. It was the London-based dialect that was seen as the standard, which led to the recognition of other ‘accents’ and ‘dialects’ (new terms acquired to describe regional variations). The use of the printing press was a way of establishing spelling conventions (ie. the ‘correct’ way of spelling words). The first English dictionary, called ‘A Table Alphabeticall’ was released in 1604 and, not soon after, the King James Bible was published, in 1611. However, standardisation was still a work in progress, so there were still many inconsistencies in spelling during this time.

The Early Modern English period was also the time of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), who is regarded as the greatest writer in the history of English. Shakespeare introduced over 1,700 words to the English language, including the words ‘lonely’, ‘fashionable’, and ‘swagger’. Pretty impressive stuff!

By the end of the 16th century, English was seen as of equal importance in learning to the classical languages, such as French and Latin. However, it was still seen as inelegant by some.

Late modern English (ca. 18th-Present)

The Late Modern English period saw the rise of the British Empire, as well as the industrial revolution. Modern English remained pretty much the same in terms of pronunciation, grammar, and spelling; however, a lot of new vocabulary was introduced.

The industrial revolution was a time of innovation, and new words were needed to name the inventions. New means of transportation, machinery, materials, and techniques were all being developed and many of these were of British origin. English became the common language of science and technology with many scientific publications being written in English.

History of English Language Evolution of English StudySmarterFig. 3 - The Industrial Revolution brought about much language change.

FUN FACT: The words ‘spinning wheel’ and ‘steam engine’ were coined during the industrial revolution.

Colonialism and the growth of the British Empire in the 16th century meant that English was adopted in regions across the world, including North America, Australia, New Zealand, India (and surrounding areas), and Africa.

Many countries in these areas have developed their own dialects of English over the years, which are now recognised as their own varieties and called ‘New Englishes’. Examples of ‘New Englishes’ include American English, Indian English, Caribbean English, and Singaporean English (sometimes called ‘Singlish’).

FUN FACT: New words and expressions were adopted into English from many different countries, such as the word ‘pyjamas’ deriving from the Hindi word ‘payjamah’.

In more recent times, we’ve seen the rising influence of American culture and American English. Throughout the 20th century, American influences such as big American corporations, Hollywood, pop songs, fast food, and fast fashion were distributed around the world. People were therefore listening to music, watching films, and buying products that were all written in the English language.

FUN FACT: The menu items of American fast-food chains often remain the same to give the full American experience. For example, in France, you’ll find ‘Big Mac’ and ‘McChicken’ written on the menu.

With over 1.35 billion speakers, English has become one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Today’s version of English is very different from the Old English spoken by our ancestors. English is still evolving and will continue to adapt to the linguistic needs of its speakers. The recent development of technology and text speak (e.g. ‘thank u, c u l8r’) is a prime example of this.

So what does the future hold for the English language? Well, according to linguist David Crystal, English is one of the most 'desirable Lingua Franca[s]' worldwide (Crystal 1999). It exists in many different varieties, from British English to Indian English to Singaporean English, and we expect to see these varieties develop even further as time goes on.

History of English language: language family

Like people, languages can be related to each other. Countries in the same family usually have a common linguistic ancestry (ie. derive from the same language).

The English language belongs to the Indo-European language family (which consists of most languages in Europe and European settlement). The Indo-European family can then be split further into groups (eg. the Romance languages and Germanic languages). English is part of the West-Germanic family, along with German and Dutch. You can see the language groups as siblings - they share common parents but still have their differences!

History of English Language: facts

Some facts about the history of the English language include:

  1. English is a Germanic language that originated in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th century.

  2. The earliest form of English, Old English (also known as Anglo-Saxon), was heavily influenced by the Germanic languages of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who migrated to England from present-day Germany and Denmark.

  3. The Norman Conquest in 1066 introduced French influence to English, leading to the development of Middle English, which was a mixture of Old English and Norman French.

  4. The Renaissance and the scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the development of Early Modern English, which saw the addition of many new words to the language.

  5. The expansion of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries spread the English language around the world, making it one of the most widely spoken languages today.

  6. The standardization of English began in the 18th century with the publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, which established a standard for spelling and grammar.

  7. The emergence of American English as a dominant form of English in the 20th century was heavily influenced by the mass media and Hollywood films.

  8. The rise of the internet and digital communication in the 21st century has led to the development of new forms of English, including online slang and abbreviated language.

  9. Today, English is spoken as a first language by over 360 million people and as a second language by over 1 billion people worldwide.

The History of English Language - Key takeaways

  • The English language belongs to the Indo-European language family and originated as a West-Germanic dialect.
  • Old English (5th-11th century) was brought to Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in 5AD Britain and was very different to what we know today.
  • The Middle English period (11th-15th century) began when the Normans invaded Britain in 1066 bringing Anglo-Norman French. During this period there was a push for standardisation and the printing press was established.
  • The Early Modern English period (15th-18th century) saw the Great Vowel Shift and was the time of William Shakespeare.
  • The Late Modern English period (18th-Present) saw the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the British Empire. There has also been the influence of American culture and English has become one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

References

  1. Crystal, D. 'The future of Englishes', English Today, 1999, 15 (2), 10-20.

Frequently Asked Questions about History of English Language

English first originated as a group of West-Germanic dialects (or ‘Anglo-Frisian dialects’ to be more specific) spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded Britain in around 5AD. Their language, now conveniently named ‘Old English’, is the earliest form of the language that we know today. 

There is no specific founder of the language, however, Geoffrey Chaucer is seen as the father of the English language. Chaucer was an outstanding poet and made great contributions to English literature such as The Canterbury Tales (1392).

The English language first evolved after invasions by groups such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Since then many other factors have influenced English such as standardisation, the Great Vowel Shift, contact with other countries during colonisation, the Industrial Revolution, and developing technologies.

Some of the oldest languages in the world include Sanskrit, Tamil, and Hebrew.

English first originated in 5AD when the Anglo-Saxons first invaded Britain.

Test your knowledge with multiple choice flashcards

When was Middle English spoken?

Word order became more important in the Middle English period. True or false?

What standard did Caxton use when he introduced the printing press?

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Flashcards in History of English Language372

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What year did the English language originate?

English first originated in around 5AD.

Who invaded Britain in 5AD speaking West-Germanic dialects?

The Anglo-Saxons brought English as a group of West-Germanic dialects in 5AD.

What is the earliest form of English that we know today?

‘Old English’ is the earliest form of the language that we know today.

Name a feature of Old English.


Features of Old English include the use of grammatical gender, the use of cases, and the use of inflections,

What language family does English belong to?


English belongs to the Indo-European family, more specifically the West-Germanic family.

When was Middle English spoken?


11th-15th century

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