Over the past millennium, the English language has gone through many changes, grafting Norse influences onto its Germanic roots in the 10th century, cultivating new phrases and words from French in the 11th and 12th centuries, enriching its foundation with the rediscovery of the wisdom – and words – of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations during the 14th and 15th centuries, and finally blooming into its full glory with the works of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the 16th century, in a form that we (as Modern English speakers) can read and understand relatively easily. English continues to evolve, as times and technologies change, and we thought you’d be interested in seeing some samples of its earlier incarnations.

One of the earliest written works in English, in the form called Old English, is the epic poem “Beowulf,” composed sometime during the 9th to 11th centuries.

Stræt wæs stanfah, stig wisode gumum ætgædere. Guðbyrnescan heard hondlocen, hringiren scir song in searwum, þa hie to sele furðum in hyra gryregeatwum gangan cwomon.

Stone-bright the street: it showed the way to the crowd of clansmen. Corselets glistened hand-forged, hard; on their harness bright the steel ring sang, as they strode along in mail of battle, and marched to the hall.

By the end of the 14th century, after several hundred years of linguistic influence from the Continent (mostly France), the language changed and settled into a state closer to the one we know, called Middle English. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his famous “Canterbury Tales” in Middle English; the following is an excerpt from the chapter titled “The Cook’s Tale.”

A prentys whilom dwelled in oure citee,
And of a craft of vitailliers was hee.
Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe,
Broun as a berye, a propre short felawe,
With lokkes blake, ykembd ful fetisly.
Dauncen he koude so wel and jolily
That he was cleped perkyn revelour.

There lived a ‘prentice, once, in our city,
And of the craft of victuallers was he;
Happy he was as goldfinch in the glade,
Brown as a berry, short, and thickly made,
With black hair that he combed right prettily.
He could dance well, and that so jollily,
That he was nicknamed Perkin Reveller.

By Shakespeare’s time, people in Britain were speaking Early Modern English, and the first dictionary of the English language was published. Shakespeare himself made many contributions to the language, inventing words to give color and life to his plays. The passage below is from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense.
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

We’ll leave you with that quote, and hope we’ve planted a seed of curiosity in your mind, encouraging you to make your own explorations into the colorful history of the English language.

Thanks to Fordham University, the ELF Project, and MIT for the texts and translations!