Timeline for the History of the English Language

  Move back to the Archaic Timeline.
  I have a similar timeline for early British Literature. The British Library has an English Language and Literature Timeline connected to items and information in the BL's collection.

This is a teaching tool, not a reference work: to find a source, look for and use items noted under the entries.

Kings & Queens Landmark Texts Literature Historical Events People Alphabet and Writing Linguistic Changes Bible Translations Wars Migrations

Works Cited:
• American National Biography Online. Oxford UP, 1999-2010. [ANB]
• Algeo, John. The Origins and Development of the English Language. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage, 2010.
• Bailey, Richard W. Images of English: A Cultural History of the Language. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1991.
• Barber, Charles, Joan Beal, and Philip Shaw. The English Language: A Historical Introduction. 2nd ed. Cambridge UP, 2009.
• Baugh, Albert, and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002.
• Bennett, J.A.W. and G.V. Smithers, eds. Early Middle English Verse and Prose. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.
• Bryson, Bill. Made in America. New York: Avon, 1994.
• Cable, Richard, et al. "British History Timeline." British History In-Depth. The BBC, n.d. Web. Dec. 2009.
• The Cambridge History of the Bible, 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1976. [CHB]
• Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge UP, 2003. [CEEL]
• Fisher, John. The Emergence of Standard English. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1996.
• Greenblatt, Stephen, gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 2 vols. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2003.

• Hogg, Richard, and David Denison, eds. A History of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2006.
• Hughes, Geoffrey. A History of English Words. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
• Knowles, Gerry. A Cultural History of the English Language. London: Arnold, 1997.
• Lerer, Seth. Inventing English. New York: Columbia, 2007.
• Machan, Tim W., and Charles T. Scott. English in Its Social Contexts. Oxford UP, 1992.
• McCrum, R., W. Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English. New York: Viking, 1986. [The PBS series companion.]
• Millward, C.M., and M. Hayes. A Biography of the English Language. 3rd ed. Boston: Wadsworth-Cengage, 2012.
• Mitchell, Bruce. An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
• Momma, Haruko, and Michael Matto, eds. A Companion to the History of the English Language. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• Mugglestone, Lynda, ed. The Oxford History of English. Oxford UP, 2006.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford UP, 2004-2012. [DNB]
• Svartvik, Jan, and Geoffrey Leech. English: One Tongue, Many Voices. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006.
• All images are taken from the public domain.