Language Change - Periods of English

Language Change

Periods of English

• Old English - 5th Century

English developed from the Angles, Jutes and Saxons (Anglo-Saxons). Vocabulary was drawn from Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. Latin was very influential and was highly regarded as 'upper-class'. Dialects developed from different areas of settlement. Little consistency with written language as this was before standardisation.

• Middle English - 11th Century

Norman Invasion was a significant event and French became the language of the court and administration. Latin remained in written documentation and in the church. Writers such as 'Chaucer' chose to write in English rather than French and this was where English came to prominence.

• Early Modern English - 15th Century

Caxton introduced printing press, which helped to standardise the English language. The South-East dialect was the basis for the standard form. There became a growing interest in using English. Shakespeare produced his work in English and James I commissioned the first Authorised version of the Bible in English.


In this period, Samuel Johnson's dictionary was published. It took just over 8 years to compile and
listed 40,000 words. This is what led to the standardisation of the English Language.

• Modern English - 18th Century

English language grew at an incredible rate and it had borrowed words from lots of other languages like Latin and Greek. The grammar and structure of the language began to develop in the patterns that people used language. There then became standard ways of writing and speaking.

• Present-Day English - 20th Century

English has developed through influences like technology, media and travel and English has become the international language.