Turning Points in the History of the English Language

For a language that has lived for centuries and mixed with many other tongues, an introduction this brief seems both a disservice and a necessity. (A more detailed overview is at Wordorigins.org.) Here are some of the pivotal turning points in the fascinating, intricate, unfinished history of the English language.

336 B.C.
Alexander the Great becomes King of Macedon. His conquests would establish Greek as the language of the known world. Its legacy is still evident in English words such as:

archeology, biology, ethics, logic, synonym, zephyr

55 B.C.
Julius Caesar invades Britain. Although Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, would not leave deep roots in Britain yet, Rome's world dominance at this time would ensure its legacy in English and other languages. Consider such Latin phrases as:

ad nauseam, caveat emptor, et cetera, mea culpa,

449
Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain begin. Old English emerges as the language of Britain. A Germanic language, Old English lies at the root of only a fraction of the total Modern English word stock, but accounts for the vast majority of the top 100 most common English words used today, including such function words as:

a, and, from, has, in, of, was, with, would

and nouns and verbs such as:

black, come, dark, drink, God, heaven, house, laugh, light, man, stand, stone, sun, woman

597
Augustine of Canterbury begins the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. This second and more substantial encounter with Latin gave English many religious words such as:

angel, Bible, disciple, creed, confession, evangelism, hymn, mass, resurrection, salvation, sanctification, spirit

and education words such as:

educate, grammar, history, school, student

792
Viking invasions of Britain begin. Resulting Old Norse contributions to English include most words beginning with "sk," such as:

skill, skin, skirt, sky

and other words such as:

awkward, birth, booth, crook, egg, guess, sister, slaughter, thrift, thrive, trust

1066
The Norman Conquest begins an era of French influence on English and the period of Middle English. This is the third point of contact between English and Latin, since many French versions of Latin roots now mingle with English. As a result, Latin now comprises the majority of the total English word stock, despite coming from a different language family (Romance) than English (Germanic).
The contributions of French include:

arson, action, baron, chancellor, garment, glory, government, grape, legacy, lieutenant, noble, office, pigeon, prince, reign, religion, royal, sermon, sargeant, servant, story

1348
English replaces Latin as the medium of education, taking a major step toward legitimacy after centuries of coexisting with Latin as a "vulgar" alternative. Less than 50 years later, Wycliffe's translation of the Bible into English and Chaucer's composition of The Canterbury Tales would further enhance the language's prestige.

1564
Shakespeare, a monumental writer of English literature and pivotal figure in English's transition to Early Modern English, is born.

Words coined by Shakespeare include:

arouse, assassination, dwindle, frugal, gust, hobnob, lonely, lower, ode, rant, submerge, undress, zany

(For more, see Shakespeare's Influence at About.com)

Phrases coined by Shakespeare include:

fast and loose, method to the madness, not budge an inch, tongue-tied, too much of a good thing, tower of strength,

(For more, see McQuain and Malless' Coined by Shakespeare [review])

Early Modern English was also the era of the Great Vowel Shift, a sudden and somewhat inexplicable transformation of the pronunciation of English vowels, rendering much of Modern English spelling chaotic and counterintuitive.

1755
Samuel Johnson publishes his first dictionary of English. Less than 100 years later, Noah Webster publishes his.

1776
Declaration of Independence issued by the British colonies in North America. The United States would claim from Britain the status of the most powerful nation with English as its native language.

1900
The 20th century would introduce a series of dizzying developments in the English language. Technological developments gave us words derived from Greek and Latin roots such as:

computer, cyberspace, digital, electronic, Internet, modem, nuclear, radio, satellite, television, video

Global business and technology would spread English around the world as never before, making it the world's unofficial second language. At the turn of the 21st century, the number of native English speakers is actually in decline, but the influence of English continues to grow, and its fascinating story goes on.

References
Books
Baugh and Cable, A History of the English Language. Routledge, 2002. [A]

Bragg, Melvin. The Adventure of English. Arcade, 2004.

Crystal, David. The Stories of English. Overlook, 2004.

McCrum, Cran, and McNeil. The Story of English. Faber and Faber, 1986.

Websites
Derkin, Philip. Five Events that Shaped the History of English. (Ask Oxford .)

Merriam-Webster online. What are the origins of the English language?

Mosser, Dan. History of the English Language links page.

Percy, Carol. History of the English Language Links.

Short, Dan. Indo-European Language Tree (Centum) and Timeline of the History of the English Language.

Wikipedia, History of the English Language

Wilton, Dave. A Very Brief History of the English Language.

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