Changes

The origin of English is customarily linked to the date 449 C.E. This is the year in which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Laud MS version) records the issuing of an invitation by Vortigern (king of the British, or Celts) to the "Angle kin" (Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa) to help them in their defense against the Picts. In return for their military assistance, the Chronicle says the Angles were granted lands in the southeast. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of three peoples of Germanie": "of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). These "immigrants" were, as the Chronicle tells us, Germanic, and the roots of English are in the Germanic family of languages. Germanic, in turn, is a branch of the Indo-European  family of languages. Subsequent to the establishment of English in "Englalond" (i.e., the land of the Angles), the most profound outside influences on the development of PDE are the Viking conquests and settlements--resulting in the establishment of the Danelaw--and the Norman Conquest. These events resulted in the assimiliation of Old Norse and French vocabulary and other linguistic features.

The origin of English is customarily linked to the date 449 C.E. This is the year in which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Laud MS version) records the issuing of an invitation by Vortigern (king of the British, or Celts) to the "Angle kin" (Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa) to help them in their defense against the Picts. In return for their military assistance, the Chronicle says the Angles were granted lands in the southeast. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of three peoples of Germanie": "of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). These "immigrants" were, as the Chronicle tells us, Germanic, and the roots of English are in the Germanic family of languages. Germanic, in turn, is a branch of the Indo-European  family of languages. Subsequent to the establishment of English in "Englalond" (i.e., the land of the Angles), the most profound outside influences on the development of PDE are the Viking conquests and settlements--resulting in the establishment of the Danelaw--and the Norman Conquest. These events resulted in the assimiliation of Old Norse and French vocabulary and other linguistic features.

===Chronology of Events in the History of English===

==Chronology of Events in the History of English==

==pre-600 A.D. THE PRE-ENGLISH PERIOD==

===pre-600 A.D. THE PRE-ENGLISH PERIOD===

*ca. 3000 B.C. (or 6000 B.C?) Proto-Indo-European spoken in Baltic area.(or Anatolia?)

*ca. 3000 B.C. (or 6000 B.C?) Proto-Indo-European spoken in Baltic area.(or Anatolia?)

*By 600 A.D., the Germanic speech of England comprises dialects of a language distinct from the continental Germanic languages.

*By 600 A.D., the Germanic speech of England comprises dialects of a language distinct from the continental Germanic languages.

==ca. 600-1100 THE OLD ENGLISH, OR ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD==

===ca. 600-1100 THE OLD ENGLISH, OR ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD===

*600-800 Rise of three great kingdoms politically unifying large areas: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. Supremacy passes from one kingdom to another in that order.

*600-800 Rise of three great kingdoms politically unifying large areas: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. Supremacy passes from one kingdom to another in that order.

**ca. 600 Christianity introduced among Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine, missionary from Rome. Irish missionaries also spread Celtic form of Christianity to mainland Britain.

**ca. 600 Christianity introduced among Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine, missionary from Rome. Irish missionaries also spread Celtic form of Christianity to mainland Britain.

**December. William of Normandy crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day.

**December. William of Normandy crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day.

==ca. 1100-1500 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD==

===ca. 1100-1500 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD===

1066-1075 William crushes uprisings of Anglo-Saxon earls and peasants with a brutal hand; in Mercia and Northumberland, uses (literal) scorched earth policy, decimating population and laying waste the countryside. Anglo-Saxon earls and freemen deprived of property; many enslaved. William distributes property and titles to Normans (and some English) who supported him. Many of the English hereditary titles of nobility date from this period.

1066-1075 William crushes uprisings of Anglo-Saxon earls and peasants with a brutal hand; in Mercia and Northumberland, uses (literal) scorched earth policy, decimating population and laying waste the countryside. Anglo-Saxon earls and freemen deprived of property; many enslaved. William distributes property and titles to Normans (and some English) who supported him. Many of the English hereditary titles of nobility date from this period.

*1474 William Caxton brings a printing press to England from Germany. Publishes the first printed book in England. Beginning of the long process of standardization of spelling.

*1474 William Caxton brings a printing press to England from Germany. Publishes the first printed book in England. Beginning of the long process of standardization of spelling.

==1500-present THE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD==

===1500-present THE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD===

*1500-1650 Early Modern English develops. The Great Vowel Shift gradually takes place. There is a large influx of Latin and Greek borrowings and neologisms.

*1500-1650 Early Modern English develops. The Great Vowel Shift gradually takes place. There is a large influx of Latin and Greek borrowings and neologisms.

**1611 King James Bible published, which has influenced English writing down to the present day.

**1611 King James Bible published, which has influenced English writing down to the present day.