history - When did Indo-European descendants stop speaking Old English? What were the influencing factors in the shift from Old English to Modern English?



There is Old English, and there is the English we speak now. When did exactly did the British (or Americans) change from speaking Old English to speaking the current form of English?



Answer



There are considered to be three major eras of English: Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Old English is a very different language, complete with a different alphabet. Middle English emerged after the Norman conquest of England with influence from French and other continental languages. Modern English emerged a few hundred years later with the Great Vowel Shift. The first few hundred years of Modern English are referred to as Early Modern English, which is well represented in the works of Shakespeare. The current version of English started to coalesce around 1700.


I could go on, but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language


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