1. History of English
In a Nutshell

2. Time Periods Romano-Celtic Period 55 B.C. to circa 410 A.D.
Old English Period circa 410 to 1066
Middle English Period 1066 to 1500
Modern Period 1500 to present

3. Romano-Celtic Period Romans dominated England
A small number of Latin words incorporated, especially those that have to do with soldiers or war:
Names ending in “chester” or “caster” came from Latin “castra,” which means camp, i.e., Winchester and Lancaster
“Street” came from the Latin “strata”
Romans left England and went back to defend their territory but failed. The Roman Empire fell in 476.

4. Old English With the Romans gone, England is open to attack
Jutes from Denmark arrive first
Then the Angles, then the Saxons
The Angles and Saxons combine powers
This period also known as Anglo-Saxon Period
Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle—literary works
Latin alphabet becomes basis for English
Verbs are placed at the end of the sentence, and later moved to after the pronoun

5. English was inflected (nouns changed to reflect case)
About 90% of our most common words come from Old English
Personal pronouns (I, me, he, she, him, her us, them)
Forms of the verb to be (is, am, are, was, were)
Verbs that change spelling in principle parts (go, went, gone)
Small words: the, in, of, etc.
Feminine and masculine forms of words dropped
You cannot read Old English without training. Check out this Old English excerpt from Beowulf:

6. Middle English Most inflected word endings get dropped
Period begins in 1066 with Battle of Hastings
William, Duke of Normandy, defeats Harold, King of England
William found English too difficult to learn, so French was the official language of the court
English language of peasant and poets
Still difficult to read, but you can get some of it without training

7. As many as 10,000 French words were added to the English language
“people” for “folk”
Terms related to government (“realm,” “royal,” “crown”)
Others: tax, estate, trouble, duty, pay, table, boil, serve, roast, dine, religion, savior, pray, and trinity
Spellings changed: “cild” becomes “child;” “cwen” becomes “queen;” “hwo” becomes “who;” “hwaet,” becomes “what”
William Caxton brings printing press to England; preserves spellings

8. Modern English Pronunciation greatest change in Modern English
London pronunciations stick
Beginning of period coincides with Renaissance
Renaissance—rebirth of everything Greek and Latin (the Classics)
Reformation—New Testament written in Greek
British Colonialism—as the British conquered more people, words from other languages entered English

9. Great vowel shift (1400-1500): gave us current vowel pronunciations
Economic and technical innovations lead to new words as well
Early Modern English (i.e., Shakespeare’s language) is harder to read than late Modern English
Shakespeare coined many new words and phrases:
critical, leapfrog, majestic, pedant, and dwindle
flesh and blood, vanish into thin air
Our language is still changing

10. Resources