Zusammenfassung der Ressource
THREE MOMENTS OF ENGLISH (OLD , MIDDLE AND MODERN)
- OLD ENGLISH
( c.500 - c.1100)
- c.500 BC
- Celts inhabit much of Europe, and beginning to colonize the
British Isles.
- 55 BC
- First Roman raids on Britain under Julius Caesar
- 43 AD
- Roman occupation of Britain under Emperor Claudius
(beginning of Roman rule of Britain)
- 410-436
- Roman withdrawal from Britain
- c.450
- 450-480
- 597
- c.600
- c.660
- 731
- 792
- c.800
- Old English epic poem “Beowulf” composed
- 865
- The Danes launch full-scale invasion and occupy Northumbria
- 871
- Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works
- 871
- “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” is begun
- 878
- Danelaw established, dividing Britain into Anglo-Saxon south and Danish north
- 911
- Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger (the beginning of Norman French)
- c.1000
- The oldest surviving manuscript of “Beowulf” dates from this period
- 1066
- The Norman conquest under William the Conqueror
- 1086
- “Domesday Book” compiled
- c.1100
- London becomes de facto capital of England
- Viking raids of Britain begin
- The Venerable Bede writes “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (in Latin)
- “Cædmon's Hymn” composed in Old English
- Anglo-Saxon language covers most of modern-day England
- St. Augustine arrives in Britain (beginning of Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons)
- Earliest Old English inscriptions
- Anglo-Saxon settlement (Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Jutes) of Britain begins
- MODERN ENGLISH( c.1500 - c.1800)
- 1526
- William Tyndale prints his English translation of the New Testament of “The Bible”
- 1539
- “The Great Bible” published
- 1549
- First version of “The Book of Common Prayer” published
- c.1590
- William Shakespeare writes his first plays
- 1604
- Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, “A Table Alphabeticall”
- 1607
- Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, established
- 1611
- The Authorized, or King James Version, of “The Bible” is published
- 1616
- Death of William Shakespeare
- 1622
- Publication of the first English-language newspaper, the “Courante” or “Weekly News”
- 1623
- First Folio of Shakespeare’s works is published
- 1702
- Publication of the first daily English-language newspaper, “The Daily Courant”, in London
- 1755
- Samuel Johnson publishes his “Dictionary of the English Language”
- 1763
- Britain wrests control of Canada from the French
- 1777
- Last native speaker of the Celtic Cornish language dies
- 1782
- George Washington defeats Cornwallis at Yorktown and Britain abandons its American colonies
- 1788
- British penal colony established in Australia
- 1788
- First publication of “The Times” newspaper in London
- 1788
- Noah Webster publishes “The American Spelling Book”
- 1795
- First English settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
- MIDDLE ENGLISH ( c.1100 - c.1500)
- c.1150
- The oldest surviving manuscripts in Middle English date from this period
- 1154
- Eleanor of Aquitaine, French wife of Henry II, becomes Queen Consort of England
- 1154
- “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” discontinued
- 1167
- Oxford University established
- c.1180
- The “Ormulum” text of the monk Orm completed
- 1204
- King John loses the province of Normandy to France
- 1209
- Cambridge University established
- 1349-50
- The Black Death kills one third of the British population
- 1362
- The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law (although records continue to be
kept in Latin)
- 1362
- English is used in English Parliament for the first time
- c.1370
- William Langland writes “Piers Plowman”
- 1384
- John Wycliffe publishes his English translation of “The Bible”
- 1385
- English replaces Latin as main language in schools (except Universities of Oxford and Cambridge)
- c.1388
- Chaucer begins “The Canterbury Tales”
- 1399
- Henry IV becomes first English-speaking monarch since before the Conquest
- c.1450
- The Great Vowel Shift begins
- 1476
- William Caxton establishes the first English printing press
- c.1500
- Start of English Renaissance