Indo-European Family Languages

1. 1. Proto-Indo-European (roughly 3500-2500 BC)

1.1. The possible ancestor of English, Proto-Indo-European has been reconstructed in terms of words. But these are in a very unsure way, how the words were put together into sentences. But some sentences of what could be hypothetically Proto-Indo-European have been put together. We can think of these as, in a sense, the first kind English.

1.2. We have been able to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European in terms of words, and tentatively in terms of sentences.

1.3. Inferences about PIE speakers, based on vocabulary common to all/most Indo-European languages.

1.4. PIE split into distinct dialects/languages/families due to migration, language contact, conquest.

2. 2. Proto-Germanic/Common Germanic (roughly 2000 BC - 250 BC)

2.1. The Proto-Germanic language most probably developed as Proto-Indo-European speakers moved westward into Europe. The idea is that this arose in southern Scandinavia or that Proto-Germanic arose on the mainland, somewhere around Denmark and the Elbe River.

2.2. Proto-Germanic (Common Germanic): reconstructed ancestor of Germanic languages.

2.3. The Proto-Germanic inflectional system was less complex than the PIE.

3. 3. Anglo-Saxon (Old English) (450-1100)

3.1. Anglo-Saxon is an ancestor of modern English, it is also a distinct language. It stands in much the same relationship to modern English as Latin does to the Romance languages.

3.2. As a language, Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, was very different from modern English. The language flourished in England until the Norman conquest.

3.3. Anglo-Saxon had a rich inflectional system. Like PIE and Proto-Gmc, it was a synthetic language, whereas current English has become more analytic.

4. 4. Middle English (1100 – 1500)

4.1. Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation.

4.2. The Middle English period is often dated from either 1100 or 1150, since by then the linguistic effects of the Norman Conquest were starting to take hold.

4.3. Middle English was succeeded in England by Early Modern English, which lasted until about 1650.

4.4. During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became simplified or disappeared altogether.

5. 5. Early Modern English (1500-1700)

5.1. Early Modern English is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle English, in the late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century.

5.2. The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of changes of vocabulary or pronunciation; a new era in the history of English was beginning.

6. 6. Late Modern English (1700 – now)

6.1. The English language underwent more huge changes after 1800. The Early Modern period came to an end as new influences emerged.

6.2. The main changes in vocabulary during the Late Modern period were due to the industrial revolution, scientific advancements and colonialism.

6.3. Late Modern English accumulated many more words as a result of two main historical factors: the Industrial Revolution, which necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed; and the rise of the British Empire, during which time English adopted many foreign words and made them its own.

6.4. Spread of English: By 1950 about 80% of English speakers lived outside Britain. English is destined to be in the next and succeeding centuries more generally the language of the world than Latin was in the past or French is in the present age.

6.5. Because the increasing population in America, and their universal connection and correspondence with all nations will, aided by the influence of England in the world.

6.6. Of all modern languages, not one has acquired such great strength and vigor as English.