English Language Timeline

Old English

450 - 1100

Germanic tribes (Anglo-Saxons) arrived in England at the time of Viking invasions. English was developed by borrowing words from these groups (runes were used to write.) Before their arrival Celtic and Latin were spoken.

Morphology: Compound words (or kennings) were very common. Vocabulary was limited, so people had combine words to express new ideas or inventions in order to be understood. e.g. ‘Fyrgenstream’ = mountain stream

Lexicology: Words from OE were used as derivatives for ME. e.g. Under, Stream

Semantics: Words were borrowed from Celtic and Latin language. The main semantic fields borrowed: Latin - christianity, battle and scientific, Celtic - land/environment. They maintain the same meaning in Modern English. e.g. woods, mountain

Syntax: Punctuation was rare making words very context dependent. There were many inflections in writing at the time, meaning punctuation was not required to convey meaning in texts.

Phonetics & Phonology: Phonetic symbols were used to represent particular sounds., they were derived from the Roman runes. English had less letters than they did sounds, therefore runes were carried over in order to represent these sounds. e.g. Þ, ð = thorns (th)

Discourse: Context has changed. Functions and Register would be similar to ME, however the social purpose may have been to carry warnings rather than just entertain. e.g. 'They inhabit the secret land; the retreat of wolves, windy cliffs and dangerous fen paths…’

Middle English

1100 - 1450

The Norman Conquest of 1066, when the French invaded England, signals the beginning of the Middle English period. French was taught to children, and became the main language of the period.

Morphology: Symbols/runes are abolished from the alphabet. Thorn fell out of use because Gothic-style scripting made the letters y and thorn look practically identical. And, since French printing presses didn’t have thorn anyway, it just became common to replace it with a y. Silent e's were also common

Semantics: Words have maintained a constant meaning through time as people still write about/use the same types of things. Chiknes – Chicken (different spelling, but word meaning is the same)

Lexicology: In ME a vast majority of the words, around 10 000 out of 42 000, came from French origin. This drop of infections and gendered nouns made Pronouns, prepositions and determiners more important in this period. Lastly contractions didn't exist, rather beginning to incorporate into the language in late ME

Syntax: In ME the SVO analytical word order began to be used. A consistent word order became important in or to convey meaning. This is sue to Middle English becoming less reliant on inflectional endings and more on word order to convey grammatical information.

Phonetics and Phonology: Words were mostly pronounced phonetically. This is due to the occurrence of the Great Vowel Shift, where long vowels shifted upwards to become longer and produced higher in the mouth. e.g. Chickens (ʧɪknɛs)

Discourse: The Canterbury tales (a ME text) is rhyming poetry, which shows rhythm and metre not previously used in OE. This is due to English poetry being heavily influenced by French models.

The Great Vowel Shift

1350-1700

Occurred over time. Long vowels shifted upwards to become longer and produced higher in the mouth. It is said ut started due to the English Language starting to borrow words from romance languages

The next wave of innovation of English came with the Renaissance. This revival of classical scholarship brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the language. Shakepseare was a large influencer of the time

Morphology: The Renaissance arrived in England and with it came further changes to the language – more contractions were invented for ease and comfort, and slowly gained popularity. Also, during the standardisation of English, A traditional style spelling was decided on, which contained many un-pronounced letters.

Lexicology: Words have been borrowed from a wider variety of languages and cultures (is not just confined to French. This is due to British colonialism. Their dealings with these exotic countries, as well as the increase in world trade in general during this time, led to the introduction of many foreign loanwords into English.

Semantics: Words have maintained a constant meaning through time as people still write about/use the same types of things. e.g. ‘Two hours’ = Two hours’ – both mean a passage of time (2 x 1 hour)

Syntax: The SVO analytical word order is used . By the time EmE rolled around, this word order had been established and remained consistent throughout the rest of time.

Phonetics and Phonology: Similar/ the same pronunciation of words to ModE. Silent letters were not pronounced (non-phonetic.) During the period a number of sets of vowel sounds that had formerly been distinct became identical

Discourse: Romeo and Juliet is an example of rhyming poetry, which shows rhythm and metre not previously used in OE. This is largely one of Shakespeare’s strongest influences.

Early Modern English

1500 - 1750