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Period: 2000 BCE to
Oxford on line
The Online Oxford Dictionary of English (Online OED) was made available to subscribers.
Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum publish The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Tom McArthur publishes The Oxford Guide to World English. -
Period: 1756 BCE to
First work in print
English author Jane Austen publishes her first work in print, Sense and Sensibility, at her own expense. -
Period: 1755 BCE to 1760 BCE
First english dictionary
Samuel Johnson published the first English dictionary. The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is in vocabulary. Late modern English has more words arising from two factors: the Industrial Revolution and technology and the British Empire, which would cover a quarter of the world with which English will adopt many words from many countries. -
Period: 1501 BCE to
Modern English
Modern English is considered to have started in the 16th century and continues to the present day. It is characterized by the 'Great Vowel Shift', which, supported by the invention of the printing press and the increasing technology of widespread communication (on paper and later, via radio) led to a lengthening and adjustment of sounds of the vowels and a standardization of the spoken language. -
Period: 1476 BCE to 1604 BCE
The first printing press in England
William Caxton introduced the first printing press to England and through this new medium, the London Standard spread its influence throughout the country. Books became more affordable for the common population and literacy spread. Works in English became more common, while the opposite happened with works in Latin. Writing and grammar standards were established and, in 1604, the first dictionary of the English language was published. -
Period: 1399 BCE to 1470
Middle English
in the fourteenth century English was once again the dominant language in Britain. In 1399, Henry IV became the first King of England, since the Norman Conquest, whose mother tongue was English. By that time, the London dialect had emerged as the standard dialect of what is now called Middle English, or Medieval English. -
Period: 1066 BCE to 1033
Conquest of Great Britain
The Normans conquered Great Britain. French became the language of the Norman aristocracy and consequently more words were added to English. More similar word pairs came up -
Period: 700 BCE to 900
Northumbria dominated Great Britain
During the 700s and 800s, the culture and language of Northumbria dominated Britain. Viking invasions in the 900s put an end to that domination, and also brought the destruction of Mercia. Only Wessex remained an independent kingdom. -
Period: 500 BCE to 600
The arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles
The history of the English can be described from the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles in the years 500 BC. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what we know today as Denmark and northern Germany. The Anglos received that name due to their homeland Engle or Angels. They called their own language Englisc, a word that derived from English or English. -
Period: 450 BCE to 480 BCE
The beginning
The oldest written sample of the English language is an Anglo-Saxon inscription dating from 450 to 480. During centuries, and as Germanic tribes expanded across the country, four dialects developed