How did ‘old English’ develop into present english?
In: Culture
In 1066 A.D. William the conqueror and a group of Normans, descendants of Scandinavians living on the coast of France, crossed English channel and began a campaign of conquest that eventually ended in the complete subjugation of England. The language that these Normans brought was a version of French. They spoke this French while the native Anglo-Saxons spoke Anglo-Saxon, or old English. Eventually the Anglo-Saxon and Norman/French speakers begin to mix languages into a combined patois. This was when the most direct ancestor of modern English was born. This language, middle English, eventually had some changes that occurred due to cultural shifts. What it really boils down to is that one generation of English speakers felt that word should sound one way while the next generation thought they should sound a different way. This led to some vowels becoming other vowels. Shakespeare was alive during this time and so that’s why some of what he says sounds similar to modern English, well other things he says don’t sound like English at all!
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