Home » History of English Language Timeline

History of English Language Timeline

Proto- English. Before English Upto 410 A.D.

Contents

c.6000 BC The English Channel separates Britain from continental Europe
c.5000 BC Proto-Indo-Europeans living in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
c.1000 BC Celtic live in today’s Spain, France, Germany, Austria, eastern Europe, and the British Isles.
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 Emperor Claudius occupies Britain. (Beginning of Roman rule of Britain).  Roman colony of “Britannia” established
410-436 The collapse of the Roman Empire

Old English 450 A.D. To 1100 A.D.

c.450 Anglo-Saxon settlement (Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Jutes)
450-480 Earliest Old English inscriptions
597 St. Augustine comes to Britain and Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons begins
c.600 Most of modern-day England now has Anglo-Saxon language
c.660 “Cædmon’s Hymn” composed in Old English
731 “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (in Latin) by The Venerable Bede
792 Beginning of Viking raids of Britain
c.800 Old English epic poem “Beowulf” composed
865 Danes attack and occupation of Northumbria
871 Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works
871 “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” begins
878 Britain division into Anglo-Saxon south and Danish north
911 Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger
c.1000 The oldest surviving manuscript of “Beowulf”

Middle English 1100 – 1500

1066 The Norman conquest: William the Conqueror
1086 “Domesday Book” compiled
c.1100 de facto capital of England is now London
c.1150 The oldest surviving manuscripts in Middle English
1154 Discontinuation of “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”
1167 Establishment of Oxford University
c.1180 Completion of The “Ormulum” text of the monk Orm
1204 King John loses the province of Normandy to France
1209 establishment of Cambridge University
1349-50 A third of the British population is killed by Black death
1362 Statute of Pleading – English replaces French as the language of law (although records are still kept in Latin)
1362 English Parliament uses English for the first time
c.1370 William Langland’s “Piers Plowman”
1384 John Wycliffe’s English translation of “The Bible”
1385 Latin is replaced by English as the main language in schools (exception of Oxford and Cambridge)
c.1388 Chaucer begins “The Canterbury Tales”
1399 Henry IV is the first English-speaking monarch since before the Conquest

Early Modern English 1500 – 1800

c.1450 Beginning of The Great Vowel Shift
1476 William Caxton – the first English printing press
c.1500 English Renaissance begins
1526 William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament of “The Bible”
1539 Publication of “The Great Bible”
1549 First version of “The Book of Common Prayer”
c.1590 Early plays by William Shakespeare
1604 First English dictionary, “A Table Alphabeticall” by Robert Cawdrey
1607 Jamestown becomes the first permanent English settlement in the New World
1611 Publication of King James – “The Bible”
1616 William Shakespeare dies
1622 Publication of the first English-language newspaper, the “Courante” or “Weekly News”
1623 The first bunch of Shakespeare’s works is published
1702 “The Daily Courant” – Publication of the first daily English-language newspaper
1755 Samuel Johnson’s “Dictionary of the English Language”
Late Modern English 1800 onwards
1763 Britain takes control of Canada from the French
1777 Death of Last native speaker of the Celtic Cornish language
1782 Cornwallis is defeated by George Washington at Yorktown and Britain leaves from its American colonies
1788 Establishment of British penal colony in Australia
1788 First publication of “The Times” newspaper in London
1788 Noah Webster – “The American Spelling Book”
1795 First English settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
1804 Lewis and Clark document exploration of routes to American West
1828 Noah Webster – “The American Dictionary of the English Language”
1834 Slavery is abolished in the British Empire
1840 Establishment of British colony in new Zealand
1865 End of slavery in the United States after Civil War
1922 Foundation of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
1928 First edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published
1947 India and Pakistan independence from Britain
1954 Sir Ernest Gowers’ “The Complete Plain Words” published
1989 Second edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published
Found info useful?