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The Making of Modern English |

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The Importance of 1066 The centuries after the Norman
Conquest of 1066 witnessed enormous changes in the
English language. In the course of what is called
the Middle English period, the fairly rich
inflectional system of Old English broke down. It
was replaced by what is, broadly speaking, the same
system English has today. Unlike Old English, it
makes very little use of distinctive word endings in
the grammar of the language.
The vocabulary of English also
changed enormously, with tremendous numbers of
borrowings from French and Latin starting to
appear in the written language. Old English, like
German today, showed a tendency to find native
equivalents for foreign words and phrases. By
contrast, Middle English acquired the habit of readily
accommodating foreign words. This trend was set to
continue into the early modern period and beyond.
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The timeline on the left shows the history of
the English language (blue text) and invasions (red text) that
changed the language. |
This web site has been created in preparation for the millennium of
Anglo-French Diglossia.
It looks at how English has evolved - from Old English, through
Middle English, to the various foreign influences that brought English into the
Modern English period. Use the navigation links at the top or
the right-hand side of the page to explore the evolution of English
from ancient times to the present day.
The Timeline
The
following timeline helps place the history of the English language
in context. The dates used are approximate dates. It is inaccurate
to state that everyone stopped speaking Old English in 1099, and
woke up on New Year's Day of 1100 speaking Middle English. Language
change is gradual, and cannot be as easily demarcated as historical
or political events are.
AD
4501100 |
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) The language of Beowulf. |
AD
11001500 |
Middle English The language of Chaucer. |
AD
15001800 |
Early Modern English The language of Shakespeare. |
AD
1800present |
Modern English
The language as spoken
today. |
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Unless otherwise stated, the materials published on this web site
have been produced by Alex Chubarov.
Please provide relevant hyperlinks to acknowledge the source, if you
use the
web site's materials. |
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