Timeline of English Language

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See also:
The History of the English Language by Seth Lerer.
[Source of many of the dates below.]

Timeline of English Language

BCE (Before Current Era)
BNQ (Before Norman Conquest: 0-1066 C.E.)
BDC (Before Death of Chaucer: 1066-c.1400 C.E.)
ADC (After Death of Chaucer: after about 1400 C.E.)

BCE (Before Current Era)

4th-3rd millennium B.C.E.: "An agricultural people originating in southeastern Europe is believed to have spoken a language which scholars consider the original Indo-European." [The History of the English Language by Seth Lerer]
3rd millennium B.C.E.: Indo-European speakers moved into central Europe. Later series of migrations to the Mediterranean and to Northern Europe.
1st millennium B.C.E.: Germanic speakers separate out from the original Indo-Europeans.

BNQ (Before Norman Conquest: 0-1066 C.E.)

5th-7th centuries C.E.: Germanic-speaking groups (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) raid and then settle in the British Isles, dispersing the Celts.
Late 7th centuries C.E.: Age of Caedmon, Bede, and growth of Northumbrian monasteries and culture.
Late 9th centuries C.E.: King Alfred (871-899) established power of West Saxons over Anglo-Saxon England. Schools and scriptoria founded for teaching and writing Old English. Latin texts translated into old English.
Late 10th to early 11th centuries C.E.: Benedictine monastic revival of Anglo-Saxon England. Bishop Aelfric and others produced sermons in Old English. Anglo-Saxon schools taught in English and Latin.
About 1000 C.E.: Beowulf manuscript, the oldest significant and long poem in English.

BDC (Before Death of Chaucer: 1066-c.1400 C.E.)

1066 C.E.: Norman (North French) invasion led by William the Conqueror; defeat of the Anglo-Saxons Traditional demarcation of Old English and Middle English.
1087: Death of William the Conqueror.
1154: Old English ending: End of sustained writing of Old English prose in England, with last entry in the Peterborough Chronicle.
c. 1200: Middle English. Probable composition of earliest poetry in Middle English: The Owl and the Nightingale, etc.
1258: First official text in English since the Conquest is a translation of a French-original proclamation of Henry III.
1322: William Langland (b.): author of Piers Plowman, most important poem of the Alliterative Revival.
1327-77: Reign of Edward III.
1337: Start of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against the French.
1345: Geoffrey Chaucer (b.).
1346: Battle of Crécy.
1348: Black Death.
1352: Wynnere and Wastoure, another important poem of the Alliterative Revival.
1356: Battle of Poitiers: The Black Prince (heir to the throne of England) defeated (as part of the Hundred Years War, 1337-1453) the French King John in Western France.
1356 (approx.): Mandeville's Travels (a source for Purity, probably by the Gawain poet).
1360: Boccaccio's Olympia (a source for Pearl, probably by the Gawain poet).
1360 (approx.): Alliterative Morte Darthur, one of the last Arthurian romances in English.
1360-1390 (approx.): the Gawain Poet flourished.
1362: First address to English Parliament in English.; First version (the 'B-text') of William Langland's Piers Plowman.
1370 (approx.): Chaucer's first important work, The Book of the Duchess.
1376: Death of the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III.
1377: 'B-text' of William Langland's Piers Plowman (parts of which may echo passages in Patience, probably by the Gawain poet).
1377-1399: Reign of Richard II.
1380s: Middle English. John Wycliffe supervises translation of the Bible into Middle English.
1381: Peasant's Revolt.
1385: Wyclif Bible.
1385 (approx.): Chaucer's longest and most important narrative poem, Troilus and Criseyde.
1385-1400: Chaucer composed Canterbury Tales.
1395 (approx.): 'C-text' of William Langland's Piers Plowman.
1399-1413: Reign of Henry IV.
1400 (approx.): Date of the Gawain Poet (elsewhere called the Pearl-poet) manuscript: "The manuscript itself, judging from the scribal handwriting, was copied not later than 1400" Moorman [p.33].
c. 1400: Death of Chaucer.

ADC (After Death of Chaucer: after about 1400 C.E.)

1417: Royal clerks use English for official writing.
1423: Parliaments records almost all kept in English.
1440s: Approximate start of the Great Vowel Shift (1440s-1550s).
1453: End of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against the French.
1475: William Caxton begins printing books in English.
1490: William Caxton's Eneados. He reflects on language change and dialect variations (in his preface).
1526: William Tyndale's translation of the Bible into English published in Geneva (Switzerland).
1550s: Approximate end of the bulk of the Great Vowel Shift (1440s-1550s).
1607: America: Jamestown Colony established in North America.
1609: Unauthorized publication of Shakespeare's Sonnets.
1611: Publication of the King James Bible.
1616: Death of Shakespeare.
1607: America: Jamestown Colony established in Virginia.
1620: America: Pilgrims land at Plymouth.
1624: First Folio edition of Shakespeare's works.
1644: America: English seize New Amsterdam (from the Dutch) and rename it New York.
mid-17th century: Africa: English and Dutch settlers colonize South Africa.
1747: Samuel Johnson publishes The Plan of a Dictionary.
1755: Samuel Johnson publishes the first edition of his two-volume Dictionary. It defines language use and dictionary making in England and America.
1761: Joseph Priestly publishes the first edition of his Rudiments of English Grammar. It defines language use and dictionary making in England and America.
1762: Robert Lowth publishes the first edition of his Principles of English Grammar. It defines language use and dictionary making in England and America.
1781: John Witherspoon coins the term "Americanism".
1783: Noah Webster published his first edition of Grammatical Institute of the English Language.
mid- and last-18th century: Australia: Released and escaped convicts colonize Australia.
1799: India: Sir William Jones inaugurated the study of Indo-European, announcing discovery of similarities among Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Germanic, and Celtic languages.
1822: Germany: Jakob Grimm publishes relationships of consonants in Germanic and non-Germanic Indo-European languages. [Later known as Grimm's Laws.]
1826: America: Death of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd President of the United States of America. Author of Declaration of Independence. Studied the history of the English language, especially Old English.
1828: America: Publication of first edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary.
1855: America: Publication of first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
1857: India: Great Mutiny; direct imperial rule established by Britain.
1863: America: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
1888-1933: Publication of the New English Dictionary later called the Oxford English Dictionary.
1881: America: Publication of first volume of Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris.
1883: America: Publication of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
1905: Denmark: Publication of The Growth and Structure of the English Language by Otto Jespersen.
1919: America: First edition of H.L. Mencken's The American Language.
1924: America: Publication of Language by Edward Sapir.
1933: America: Publication of Language by Leonard Bloomfield.
1940s: America: Benjamin Lee Whorf's work on Native American languages and linguistic theory.
1957: America: Publication of Syntactic Structures by Noam Chomsky: revolutionized the theoretical and (eventually) the political study of not only language but also culture and the mind.

Possible Cause of the Great Vowel Shift

Looking at the above time-chart, I devised the following cunning explanation of the Great Vowel Shift and the reversion to English (from Norman French) as the primary language of power in England.

The solution is: The Hundred Years War.

Consider some dates:

1337 Start of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against the French.
This would escalate anti-French feeling in England. French, which had been the "prestige language" of court and culture, gradually becomes disdained, even among the upperclass.
1417 Royal clerks use English for official writing.
Camel's nose enters the tent of the "prestige language".
1423 Parliaments records almost all kept in English.
Camel's butt is now in tent and knocking over the center pole.
1440s Approximate start of the Great Vowel Shift (1440s-1550s).
With the increased prestige of English and the ongoing pissed-offness at the French, the English (prone to mock accents as we have seen in Chaucer et al.) disdain the sound (characterised by the vowels, as in current mocking of accents) of the French.
1453 End of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against the French.
1475 William Caxton begins printing books in English.
1550s Approximate end of the bulk of the Great Vowel Shift (1440s-1550s).
English now has a significantly different sound from (a) continental languages and (b) the version of English that was Conquered by William I in 1066. i.e. the "new" English shakes off the old image and consolidates its prestige position.

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1337	Start of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against the French. This would escalate anti-French feeling in England. French, which had been the "prestige language" of court and culture, gradually becomes disdained, even among the upperclass.
1417	Royal clerks use English for official writing. Camel's nose enters the tent of the "prestige language".
1423	Parliaments records almost all kept in English. Camel's butt is now in tent and knocking over the center pole.
1440s	Approximate start of the Great Vowel Shift (1440s-1550s). With the increased prestige of English and the ongoing pissed-offness at the French, the English (prone to mock accents as we have seen in Chaucer et al.) disdain the sound (characterised by the vowels, as in current mocking of accents) of the French.
1453	End of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against the French.
1475	William Caxton begins printing books in English.
1550s	Approximate end of the bulk of the Great Vowel Shift (1440s-1550s). English now has a significantly different sound from (a) continental languages and (b) the version of English that was Conquered by William I in 1066. i.e. the "new" English shakes off the old image and consolidates its prestige position.