The Angelo-Saxtons:
They settled in
England and gave it its name "Engla land" (Land of the Angels) and
its language "Englisc" Most of them were farmers and so Old English
was full of words related to farming such as sheep, shepherd, ox, earth and
field.
Scandinavian
Settlement:
Scandinavian
invaders started to come to Britain in the middle of the 9th century. They
settled mainly in the northern and eastern areas. Norse had a great influence
on English. Basic words such as "take" and "they" are
borrowed form Norse.
1066 and after:
English underwent
enormous changes after William the Conqueror defated Harold Godwinson at the
battle of Hastings in 1066. The inflectional system of Old English broke down
and Middle English became quite similar to the English we see today. The
numbers of words in the language increased hugley, due to a great number of
loanwords from French and Latin.
Standardization:
In the late medieval
and early modern periods there was an ongoing process of standardizing English.
The London standard became dominant, particulay in printed scripts. Over time a
marked change in the pronumciation of English occured. This change is known as
the Great Vowel Shift. With these changes Modern English was a reality,
although Shakespeare's English is
hardly what we would consider "modern" today.
Colonization and
Globalization:
As
English became a world language, it was in turn influenced by new lonworlds as
well as many new varieties of English.
Very well-structured and good, Anja :)
SvarSlett