THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH

EVENTS

The conquest of the Celtic population in Britain by speakers of West Germanic dialects (mainly Angles, Saxons and Jutes) eventually determined many of the essential features of the English language. (The Celtic influence on English survives mostly only in place names: London, Dover, Avon, York.) Over time, the dialects of the various invaders merged, giving rise to what we now call "Old English".

VI CENTURY

King of Kent. He is the first English king to convert to Christianity.

MID IX CENTURY

Danes attack England, occupy Northumbria and establish a kingdom in York. Danish begins to influence English.

1066

English is still the language of the majority. Latin is used in churches and schools. During the next century, English, for all practical purposes, is no longer a written language.

EVENTS

1150

approximate date of the earliest surviving Middle English texts.

1215

The University of Cambridge is made up of Oxford academics.

MID TO LATE 14TH CENTURY

El inglés se convierte en el idioma oficial de los tribunales y reemplaza al latín como medio de instrucción en la mayoría de las escuelas.

The Great Vowel Shift begins, marking the loss of so-called "pure" vowel ("pure" vowel sounds (still found in many continental languages) and the loss of the phonetic pairings of most long and short vowel sounds.

END OF THE XI CENTURY

Literacy rates increase significantly and printers begin to standardize English spelling.

The monk Galfridus Grammaticus (also known as Geoffrey the Grammarian) publishes Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae , the first book of words from English to Latin.

1702

The Daily Courant , the first regular English-language daily newspaper, is published in London.

1776

The Declaration of Independence is signed and the American War of Independence begins, leading to the creation of the United States of America, the first country outside the British Isles with English as its primary language.

1945

World War II ends. Allied victory contributes to the growth of English as a lingua franca.

1997

The first social networking site (SixDegrees.com) is launched (Friendster is launched in 2002 and both MySpace and Facebook start operating in 2004).

2012

Belknap Press de Harvard University Press publica el quinto volumen (SI-Z) del Dictionary of American Regional English ( DARE ).