Key events in History

The printing press: 1476

The printing press had a huge impact on the development of laqnguage, this is mostly down to thepublication of books and the education of the people.

- Spelling was more standardised, pronouciation was developed.

- Standard english form is recognised, the grammatical changed slowed.

- Publication of books and education.

Dictionaries:

The first book that listed english words was Richard Mulcaster's 'Elementsaire', this was published in 1582.

Robert Cowdrey wrote the forst alphabetical English dictionary called 'Table Alphabetical' which was published in 1604, it listed approxiamtely 3000 words!

Samuel Johnson's dictionary was different and more influencial because it listed 40,000 words and was done by the help of volunteers.

The idea for The English Oxford Dictionary was thought of in 1850's, although it was eventually started in 1879, The plan was to create a vast and comprehensive collection of english words from the early middle english period onwards.

The Online English Dictionary was created in 2000, and it was easy and simple to use; also it was more updated then any other dictionary before, you could search for words much easier and there are also quotations on there.

I am very suprised at how much the english language has changed since the 5th century. Listening to the saxons speak and write, it is uncomprehensible and doesn't even sound like English.