Introduction to Linguistics for Students of English

HISTORY OF ENGLISH English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages: Latin and the modern Romance languages, the Germanic languages, the Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi and Sanskrit, the Slavic languages, the Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian (but not Estonian), the Celtic languages and Greek.

original Indo-European language: proto-Indo-European: father: Vater (German): pater (Latin): pitr (Sanskrit) Germanic group of languages: East Germanic (Gothic); North Germanic (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian,
and Icelandic); West Germanic (modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English). Old English (c.1000) Fder ure ue eart on heofonum si in nama gehalgod tobecume in rice gewure in willa on eoran swa swa on heofonum urne gedghwamlican hlaf syle us to dg and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfa urum gyltendum and ne geld u us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele solice

Middle English (transl.:Wyclif, 1384)

Oure fadir at art in heuenes halwid be i name; i reume or kyngdom come to be. Be i wille don in here as it is dounin heuene. yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred. And foryeue to us oure dettis at is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris at is to men at han synned in us. And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

Early Mod. Eng. (King James Version of the Bible, 1611)

Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen. Giue us this day our daily bread. And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue our debters. And lead us not into temptation, but deliuer us from euill. Amen.

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 55 BCE - 436 449 Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain begins (the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes); the Celts Earliest OLD ENGLISH inscriptions date from this period (about half of the most commonly used 450-480 words in modern English have Old English roots (e.g. be, water, and strong) 587 The Venerable Bede publishes The Ecclesiastical History of the English People in Latin 731 (ecclesiastical terms such as priest, vicar, and mass) 792 Alfred becomes king of Wessex. He has Latin works translated into English and begins practice of 871 English prose. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is begun Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger. The beginning of 911 Norman French c.1000 The oldest surviving manuscript of Beowulf dates from this period 1066 The oldest surviving manuscripts in MIDDLE ENGLISH date from this period (mixture of Angloc.1150 Norman and Old English) English replaces Latin as the medium of instruction in schools, other than Oxford and Cambridge 1348 which retain Latin 1349-50 The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law. Records continue to be 1362 kept in Latin. English is used in Parliament for the first time

Introduction to Linguistics for Students of English 1384 c.1388 c.1400 1476 1492 1525 1536 1549 1564-1616 1603 1604 1607 1611 1623 1666 1702 Wyclif publishes his English translation of the Bible Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT begins (all long vowels became closer (higher, more tense) or diphthongized: name[na:m] > [n:m]; break [br:k] > [brik] ; home [ho:m] > [houm]; mile

[mi:l] > [mil]; house [hu:s] > [hus]

William Caxton establishes the first English printing press (standardization of English) William Tyndale translates the New Testament First version of The Book of Common Prayer The life of Shakespeare Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, Table Alphabeticall The Authorized, or King James Version, of the Bible is published Shakespeare's First Folio is published Publication of the first daily, English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, in London

1707
1755 1770 1776 1782 1788 1803 1828 1851 1922 1928

The Union of Parliaments (England and Scotland): the legislature was transferred to London, and English became the official written language.
Samuel Johnson publishes his dictionary; LATE-MODERN ENGLISH vocabulary (the technological society + the British Empire)

Washington defeats Cornwallis at Yorktown. Britain abandons the American colonies British penal colony established in Australia Noah Webster publishes his dictionary Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick British Broadcasting Corporation founded The Oxford English Dictionary is published