Click on the sections below for more detail.
Old English – 400 – 1150
- Anglo-Saxon and Norse
- Interchangeable letters left over from Old English – (y + i) (u + v) (long f + s)
- Norman Invasion 1066 – French added to Old English
Middle English – 1150 – 1450
- Old English with French added
- Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Early Modern English – 1450 – 1700
Printing Press – William Caxton – 1476 – standardisation, punctuation, extra letters on end for money and justified lines as well as pronunciation before G.V.S
Great Vowel Shift – 1400 – 1600 (15th to 17th Century)
- Latinate added after renaissance - 14th to 17th Century
- Shakespeare
Late Modern English – 1700 – Present
- Dictionary – Dr Samuel Johnson – 1755 – standardisation of spelling and literacy
- Education – compulsory in 1870
- National Curriculum - 1984
