The English Language has a long and eventful history. Its development began in the 5th century of our era, when groups of West Germanic tribes settled in the British Isles. During the sixteen hundred years of its history the English language has been undergoing constant change and it is changing still. It is customary to divide the history of the English Language in to three main periods:
Old English which last from the 5th century to the end of the 11th , the dates of its end as suggested by various authorities range from 1066, which is the year of the Norman Conguest, to 1150.
Middle English - from the 12th to the 15th century, the period is belived to have ended in 1475, the year of the introduction of printing.
New English , which means the English of the last six centures. With in it, historians usually distinguish the Early New English period from the 15th century to the 17th up to the age of Shakespeare, from which as called Late New English from the 17th till our times.
The following Periodisation of English history is based on the conventional three periods; it subdivides the history of the English language into seven periods differing in linguistic situation and the nature of linguistic changes.
The first period, which may be termed Early Old English, lasts from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing, that is from the 5th to the close of the 7th c. It is the stage of the tribal dialects of the West Germanic invaders, which were gradually losing contacts with the related continental tongues. The tribal dialects were used for oral communication, there being no written form of English.
The second historical period extends from the 8th c. till the end of the 11th. The English language of that time is referred to as Old English. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. Towards the end of the period the differences between the dialects grew and their relative position altered. They were probably equal as a medium of oral communication, while in the sphere of writing one of the dialects, West Saxon, had gained supremacy over the other dialects. The language of this period is usually described synchronically and is treated as a more or less stable system.
The third period, known as Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, and covers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c. It was the stage of the greatest dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences – Scandinavian and French. The dialectal division of present-day English owes its origin to this period of history. Under Norman rule the official language in England was French, or rather its variety called Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman; it was also the dominant language of literature.
