Events that shaped English

The Anglo-Saxons:

WHEN? 5- or 6th Century

WHY? They settled in England.

HOW? They gave England the name "Engla land", in meaning of the land of angles, as
they called the language  Englisc. Because the Anglo-Saxons talked different from each
other the dialects in the language started developing. The old English got a lot of words
related to farming, because the Anglo-Saxons mainly were farmers.

 

Scandinavian Settlement:

WHEN? The middle of the 9th century.

WHY? They came in large numbers and settled in the northern and eastern areas.

HOW? They effected the language through, for instance, a Danish king. Words as take,
they and gates and words taken from the Norse language. The Norse and Old                
English (Anglo-Saxons) were related trough Germanic, and were therefore similar.

1066 and after:

WHEN? 1066 and after

WHY? The change came as a result of the Battle of Hastings, when the system of Old    
English broke down and the Middle English took over. The English words                     
increased as a result of the French and the Latin influence.

HOW? The French influence brought 10 000 new words with it, as the Old English 
only had 40 000 words.

Standardization:
WHEN? Late medieval and early modern period. 16th century.

WHY? There were many different dialects inwards the English language, and the           government wanted a standard spoken dialect.

HOW? The London standard English were approved to be the standard of written         English. The marked change in pronunciation occurred, and is known as the Great Vowel Shift.

Colonization and globalization
WHEN? 15th century and after.

WHY? The English people took land and colonized big parts of the world.

HOW? Through the exploration and colonization the English language spread 
accross the world, but the native languages had an influence on the English language as well. So called "loanwords" has been a part of the language for a long time.