A Brief History of the English Language
Created | Updated Mar 1, 2002
The Indo-European Roots
Contemporary linguistic theory holds that all modern languages spoken from Iceland to India, Morocco to Russia (and many that have died out along the way) originated in one common Indo-European language. English falls into this category
The Celtic Branch
The Germanic Branch
Angles
Saxons
Jutes
The Danelaw
Roman Influence
The Norman Invasion
Middle English
Shakespeare and the Renaissance
Influence of Shakespeare
Invention
Memorable Phrases
The New World
Retention of older patterns
flat a
Gotten
New sounds
Words ending in –ile, missile, fertile
Secretary, necessary
Laboratory, advertisement
Competing languages: French and Spanish
Borrowed words
New words for new circumstances, application of old words to new things.
Black English
Slavery
Colorful Expressions
Pidgin (link to jargon)
Music, culture
Modern American Language
Revolution
Webster
Canadian English
Moving west
Writers
Mark Twain
The Melting Pot
Italian
Yiddish
