History of the English language
· 1066 – Norman duke William beat the English king Harold at the battle of Hastings and French words became an important part of English
· in next 200 years, English with Latin, Norse and French changed into Middle English; in this period the first great English writer Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales
· around 1480 the printing press was invented, which played an important role because it fixed the English grammar and spelling
· since William Shakespeare’s times (16th – 17th century) we call the English modern
· when the Normans invaded Britain, the official languages used for government, law, learning or the army were Latin and French (words like judge, military, professor, legal come from these two languages); the daily used language among people was Old English
· from 14th century, many English words were invented or borrowed from other languages, e.g. Ancient Greek (earth + writing > geography, soul + word > psychology), other common Greek words are phone, photo, philo, sophy, mono, poly
· words from Latin : multi, super, sub, mare …
some words came from outside Europe – alcohol, algebra – Arabic, jungle – India
