King Alfred's English

171 Pages·2012·4.01 MB·English

King Alfred's English

A History of the Language We Speak
and Why We Should Be Glad We Do

Laurie J. White
King Alfred's English
Copyright © 2009 by Laurie J. White
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007902186

ISBN for Softcover Edition: 978-0-9801877-1-7

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Cover image by Comer Turley, Turley Photography LLC

The Middle Ages
Ancient Modern
From the middle of the first millennium
Times Times
To the middle of the next
William the
Conqueror
500 AD 1500 AD
1066

†
BC AD
Old English Middle English Modern English
Fall Renaissance
Pre-English Of
Britain Rome The Bible remains
Reformation
under Roman rule 476 “locked-up” in Latin
until the Reformation.

• c. 500 AD—King Arthur (if he really lived)
Old English
• 731—Bede finished his Ecclesiastical

History of the English People
Invasion of
Latin • c. 800—Beowulf written
& Old Norse • 871—Alfred became king of Wessex
• 1016—King Cnut won the throne of England

• 1066—William conquered England; French be-

came the official language of the English court
Middle English
• 1382—Wycliffe’s Bible (handwritten) began circu-
lating in England
Invasion of • 1400—Chaucer died with The Canterbury Tales
French unfinished
• 1456—Gutenberg’s Printing Press

• 1476—Caxton’s printing press—1st in England

Modern English
• 1526—Tyndale published the first English NT in
print; executed for heresy 1536
Invasion of
• 1611—King James Bible published
Greek
• 1616—William Shakespeare died
plus more Latin

Free supplemental material for students is available at
www.theshorterword.com

• Chapter Worksheets
• Unit Tests
• Links to related online literature and primary sources
• Links to articles, images, and videos that expand the topics in each
chapter
• Suggested movies