History of English

The diversity in cultures, customs and norms that had initially taken birth from the five civillizations to become more diverse with the passage of time has been the main cause of the creation of different languages in different corners of the globe alone with different accent of speaking.With the tremendous globalization and theory of wiring the world into a global village the need to accept a common medium of verbal and written communication arose.Among almost over 1000 languages spoken all over the world English was accepted as the common and global language for communication. Inspite of being a young, English had gone through many phases of transformations from the old period to the modern period.English is originally a West Germanic language.During 5th century AD three west Germanic tribes namely the Angles, Saxon and the Jutes invaded Britain.The language of the British people was Celtic language. During these invasions most of the Celtic speakers were pushed to the west and north which comprises of the modern day Wales, Scotland and Ireland.The Angles belonged to Englaland and their language was Englisc from which Englan and English originated.

Old English
Period:-450-1100
Initially Old English comprised of a varied group of dialects representing the origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The original Old English was further influenced and afffected by two invasions-The Scandanavian branch of Germany who conquered parts of Britain in 8th and 9th century followed by the Normans in the 11th century. Ultimately these conquests made English a Mixed and Borrowing language.

The introduction of Christianity added another wave of Latin and some Greek words. The Old English period formally ended with the Norman Conquest, when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Norman-speaking Normans. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to Lois Fundis, "The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth-I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times".There were great differences between today’ english and Old English.English speaking people nowadays will have great problem in understnading them.

Middle English
Period:-1100-1500
In 1066 England was attacked by William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France.He conquered Ebgland. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Modern English
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.