History of the English Language

accusative added adjective Anglo Anglo-Saxon period became become beginning belonging Britain Celtic changes character Chaucer classes common compound consequence consonant cultivated dative declension denoting disappeared distinction dropped Early English period employed ending England English language existing expression extent fact fifteenth former fourteenth century French genitive German given grammatical guage Indo-European infinitive inflection influence instances king language of literature large number Latin latter half literary Low Germanic masculine Middle English period Midland dialect Modern English native speech neuter nominative Norman conquest Norse North Northern dialect noun occasionally Old Norse original passive participle past participle personal pronouns plural poetry preserved pret preterite primitive Indo-European pronunciation regard result retained Saxon singular sixteenth century spoken strong conjugation strong inflection strong verbs subjunctive suffix syllable teenth termination Teutonic tongues third person thirteenth century tion tive took place usage vocabulary vowel weak conjugation weak inflection weak verb West-Saxon writing written