Periods of the English Language

Old English (450–ca. 1150): Period of Full Inflections

Old English was not one single language but existed in the form of various dialects:

• No fixed spellings;
• Some sharp differences in pronunciation;
• Special letters for “th”: ð and þ;
• Old English nouns could be masculine, neuter or feminine;
• Nouns had inflectional endings for up to four cases;
• Adjectives agreed with the noun in gender, case and number;
• Verbs had inflectional endings for number
  and for person:

• The forms of the verb “be” were extremely irregular.
• Many Old English words have been passed on to Modern English, differing only in spelling and pronunciation:

Many words have changed their meaning and many have been replaced by French, Latin or Danish words.

Examples of Latin Influence on the English Language

An example of an Old English text: From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (about the Danish invasion):

Expressions which entered the English language due to Danish influence:

Middle English (1150–1500): Inflections have become reduced

The Norman Conquest of 1066 decisively changed the development of the English language. For more than 200 years Norman French became the everyday language of the ruling classes. A consequence of this period is the predominance of French borrowings in the fields of:

• Politics: sovereign, crown, state, country, power, minister, parliament, council, peace, war, battle, arms, officer
• Law: justice, just, crime, property, to sue, plea, cause, to accuse
• Religion: service, virgin, to preach, to pray, to save
• Art: beauty, colour, design, paint, arch, tower, column, palace

In the 14th century English became the language officially used at law courts and taught at schools.

Modern English since 1500: Period of lost Inflections

The English that SHAKESPEARE used was Early Modern English. It is thought that Modern English was in use from around 1500. By 1500 English had lost most of its inflections, and the grammatical patterns of contemporary Modern English hardly differed. An exception is the use of the personal pronoun:

• thou – you (singular, nominative)
• thee – you (singular, accusative)

However, much attention has to be paid to the use of vocabulary; many Early Modern English words have changed their meaning or are out of use in Modern English.

Some Early Modern English words:

• lest – if, in case
• thither – to that place
• whither – to which place