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English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England. [4] [5] [6] The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain.
Among highlights in the history of the English language, the following stand out most clearly: the settlement in Britain of Jutes, Saxons, and Angles in the 5th and 6th centuries; the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 and the subsequent conversion of England to Latin Christianity; the Viking invasions of the 9th century; the Norman Conquest of 106...
History of English. Below you can find a series of commentaries on the History of English, charting the history of the English language from Old English to the present day. You will find introductions to Old English and Middle English by Philip Durkin, OED Deputy Chief Editor, and similar overviews of early modern English by Edmund Weiner, OED ...
Its history began with the migration of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons from Germany and Denmark to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought many French words into English. Greek and Latin words began to enter it in the 15th century, and Modern English is usually dated from 1500.
A History of the English Language. The history and development of English, from the earliest known writings to its status today as a dominant world lan-guage, is a subject of major importance to linguists and his-torians.
Jul 19, 2020 · Updated on July 19, 2020. The story of English—from its start in a jumble of West Germanic dialects to its role today as a global language —is both fascinating and complex. This timeline offers a glimpse at some of the key events that helped to shape the English language over the past 1,500 years.
Mar 23, 2022 · The linguistic study of the history of English took off in the 20th century with a range of traditional grammars usually concerned with the phonology and morphology of Old and Middle English and a further range of detailed studies of the language of particular texts and of particular dialects areas.
