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Britain back in the old days...
The English language has been formed by the many invaders of the British Isles. They all brought each their language and with time multiple tongues melted together and became today's lingua franca. -
The Anglo-Saxon period... (the 5th century)
The British Isles got, as earlier mentioned, invaded by several other nations or tribes, which might be more suitable considering their form of society. Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded the Isles and almost completely wiped out the original language.
The many invasions brought two major influences to the English language: Latin from the Christian missionaries and Norse the Mother tongue of the Vikings. -
Fancy, wise and just "good Old English"
England was basically a trilingual nation from 1066 to approximately 1470. The king, his court and the elite spoke French, in other words all the fancy people. Meanwhile the clergy, bishops and priests spoke Latin, in other words the wise ones spoke Latin. The common people of England spoke their "good Old English". Then slowly the Old English evolved and became the Middle English. -
Early Modern Englsih (Now we can understand the majority of it)
Huge society changes happened in this period (1476-1800). New parts of the world were discovered, science and print made huge progress as well. The new discoveries needed names, and many new words were therefor added to the English vocabulary. -
Litteraure that dominated the developement of Modern English
Shakespeare is a famous play writer and poet, who have written several classics. The man died in 1616, but his words continue to live. He can take credit for many of the idiomatic phrases that are common in Modern English today. -
The Inkhorn Controversy
All of these changes in society, especially in the language, caused a debate. Many authors were concerned about their works dying with the language. They feared future generations would not be able to read their books. Not everyone considered the influence of foreign words and cultures a danger, but considered it as enrichment. -
Modern English from 1800
Imperialism, urbanization and industrialization added many hundreds of new words to the English vocabulary. Also a new trend among writers at that moment, which was to include the lower class in their stories, increased the English vocabulary. Charles Dickens added hundreds of words himself through his characters' language. -
Global English
The English language has been spread to the world, because of the British colonies. However, if the USA had not chosen English as their official language, but perhaps French instead, English would most likely not be the global language today. USA is a superpower and that is why most people in the world speak English as their first, second or foreign language.
