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 The Shorter Word Press 1345 Butler Bridge Road Covington, GA 30016-4935 www.theshorterword.com 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