Ministry of Education

Isae University

Jardanys Salmon
8-780-502

English Language Periods

Timeline

professor
Dahlia Jones
500-1100: The Old English (or
Anglo-Saxon) Period English
Language
• Late 6th century—Ethelbert, the King Periods
of Kent, is baptized. He is the first
English king to convert to Christianity.
• 673—Birth of the Venerable Bede, the
monk who composed (in Latin) The
Ecclesiastical History of the English
People (c. 731), a key source of
information about Anglo Saxon
settlement. 1100-1500: The Middle English
• 700—Approximate date of the earliest Period
manuscript records of Old English.
• Late 8th century—Scandinavians • 1150—Approximate date of the
begin to settle in Britain and Ireland; earliest surviving texts in Middle
Danes settle in parts of Ireland. English.
• 1066—The Norman Invasion: King • 1209—The University of Cambridge
Harold is killed at the Battle of is formed by scholars from Oxford.
Hastings, and William of Normandy is • Late 13th century—Under Edward
crowned King of England.. I, royal authority is consolidated in
England and Wales. English
becomes the dominant language of
all classes.
• Mid to late 14th century—The
Hundred Years War between
1500 to the Present: The Modern England and France leads to the
English Period loss of almost all of England's
French possessions.
• 1586—The first grammar of English— • 1362—The Statute of Pleading
William Bullroar’s Pamphlet for makes English the official language
Grammar—is published. in England.
• 1590-1611—William Shakespeare writes • Late 15th century—William Caxton
his Sonnets and the majority of his plays. brings to Westminster (from the
• 1600—The East Rhineland) the first printing press
• 1776—George Campbell publishes The and publishes Chaucer's The
Philosophy of Rhetoric. Canterbury Tales. Literacy rates
• 1810—William Hazlitt publishes A New
increase significantly, and
and Improved Grammar of the English
Language.
printers begin to standardize
• 1906—Henry and Francis Fowler publish English spelling.
the first edition of The King's English.
• 1928—The Oxford English Dictionary is
published.
• 1994—Text messaging is introduced, and
the first modern blogs go online.
• 2012—The fifth volume (SI-Z) of
the Dictionary of American Regional
English (DARE ) is published by Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press.