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7 February 2011
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Languages timeline
British Isles

We've compiled some of the key points in the history of the languages of the British Isles.

Select 'more' to find out about the history of the language, and how it is used today.

 

50 BC Celtic

At the time of the Roman Invasion of Britain in 50 BC, most of the tribes of Britain spoke a Celtic language very similar to Welsh or Cornish.

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AD 400 - 500 English

Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrive in Britain. Early English spreads from settlements in East Anglia.

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AD 800 Irish Gaelic

The Viking invasions and settlements leave a lasting effect on the Irish language and population.

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AD 900 Romani

Romanies settle in Asia Minor (now Turkey) from India, sometime before the tenth century. Present day Romani still resembles Indian languages like Urdu.

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1066 English

Norman French becomes the language of the elite, the Norman invasion having a dramatic influence on English place names, dialect and speech.

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1204 Guernesiais

Mainland Normandy is conquered by the French, with Guernsey remaining allied to England.

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1250 Welsh

The Black Book of Carmarthen, possibly the earliest account of written welsh, documents the heroes of the Dark ages.

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1400 English

English starts to undergo a great vowel shift, becoming the recognisable spoken language that it is today.

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1500s Romani

Romani is the language of a travelling population (�Gypsies') that migrate into Britain from the early sixteenth century onwards.

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1600 Irish Gaelic

Under English rule, Irish is banned, but illegal teaching continues in �hedge schools' in fields, barns and sheds.

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1609 Scots Gaelic

The Scots Parliament sought to remove the �Irish' language in favour of English.

1764 British Sign Language

Thomas Braidwood opens the first deaf school in Britain, teaching combined finger spelling, sign, speech, reading and writing.

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1750 Manx

The advent of smuggling on the Isle of Man leads to the more common use of English and the first truly bilingual generation of islanders emerges.

1840 Irish Gaelic

The potato famine causes a massive decline in the number of native speakers. Irish Gaelic is associated with poverty and children are beaten for speaking it in public.

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1874 English

The 1874 Education Act acted as a catalyst to popularise Received Pronunciation (RP) as the �standard' form of spoken English.

1901 Manx

The Rev. Gill Malew writes that Manx �is a doomed language, an iceberg floating in the southern latitudes� amid the rapid demise of its native speakers.

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1922 English

The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded, with the news read in RP, as it was seen as the most effective way of communicating to the widest number of people.


1940 Jerriais

Large numbers of Islanders are evacuated to the British mainland, cutting off the child population from their native language.

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1967 Cornish

A Cornish language board is established, whose constitution is later reformulated to make it representative of the body of speakers and users.

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1990 Welsh

It became compulsory for children to learn Welsh up to the age of 14.

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2003 British Sign Language

The British government recognises BSL as an official language.

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