Exploring the history of a language in stages

Historic Events
Linguistic Peculiarities

• 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest
• The official language in England was French for 300 years.
• The feudal system and foreign influence caused the greatest dialectal divergence (расхождение).

• The time of great linguistic changes at all the levels of the language.
• English absorbed two layers of borrowings: the Scandinavian element in the North-East (due to the Scandinavian invasions since the 8th c.) and the French element in the South-East (due to the Norman Conquest).
• Grammatical changes were so drastic that by the end of this period they transformed the English language into mainly an analytical one.

Early Middle English
Classical Middle English

• The time of restoration of English in the position of the state and literary language and the time of literary flourishing.
• The main dialect used in writing and literature was the mixed dialect of London, which arose in the 14th century.

The New English period

• The introduction of printing in the 15th century is considered the beginning of the New English period.

William Caxton is the first English printer. The first English book, printed in 1475, was Caxton’s translation of the story of Troy.
“The age of normalization and standardization / correctness”.

• Early New English lasted from the introduction of printing (1475) till the middle of the 17th c. The period from the mid-17th c. to the close of the 18th c. is usually called “the age of normalization and standardization / correctness”.

Establishment of the Written Standard

• Towards the end of Early NE, one of the forms of the national literary language – its Written Standard – had been established.
• Its growth and recognition as the correct or “prestige” form of the language of writing had been predetermined by
• the unification of the country;
• the progress of culture.