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The Celts spread through Western Europe. This includes Britain, Ireland, France, and Spain via the Danube river. The Celts spoke very similar languages, and 6 of these languages are "alive" today. They are Welsh, Irish, Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, and Manx. The Celts invented writings tools such as the quill, and essential device for writing language.

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In 55BC, the Romans invaded Britain (Britannia). The Romans spoke Latin, which had its own alphabet. This Latin language merged with the Celtic languages, becoming Old English.

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The Anglo-Saxons invaded as the Roman Empire fell. The Anglo-Saxons introduced very Germanic influences into Old English. Many words from the Anglo-Saxons still exist in English today, such as bread, house, cow, and sword.

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In roughly 990AD, the Gospel of Matthew was translated into Old English.

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The Vikings and Danes invaded Britannia at about the same time as each other, introducing Nordic and more Germanic influences into Old English. Some words which have stayed in English from the Vikings are egg, ugly, and odd. Some words which have stayed in the language from the Danes include hug, cozy, and flounder.

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In 1066, Normans invaded England from Normandy and France. They spoke an earlier version of French, which became the upper-class, higher status language in England. It brought words into English such as flower, treasure, and romance.

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Around the 1300s, a poet by the name of Gawain Poet produced many stories, including Sir Gwain and The Green Knight.

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The black plague was an incredibly dangerous pandemic which killed roughly 200 million people in total. In this time, French speaking civilians assumed that because they were cleaner than the English speaking peasants, they were immune to the plague. To avoid further confusion and arguments between citizens and government, Edward iii, the king at the time made the official language English.

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There were no more invasions of England, and gradually, English took over from French. The English spoken at this time is known as Middle English. This is when lots of books were produced, such as Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

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The printing press became able to be commercially used in 1476. The invention of the printing press meant that English became codified. This means that English now had a standard rules such as spelling. It gave a common understanding of the language, so that no matter which part of England one was from, they could understand the English being spoken anywhere in England.

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In around 1520, the New Testament of the Bible was translated into English so that exclusively English speaking people could read it, not just those who had learned Latin and Greek.

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In around 1550, there was a particular interest in studying books written in Latin and Greek. This meant that words from these dead languages were still entering English!

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Shakespeare was a play-write, poet, and actor who produced many works, including The Tempest.

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In 1876, Charles Bourseul devised the first phone.

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David Crystal is a British linguist who has written, co-written, and edited over 100 books on the English language, including the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. He was awarded the OBE, the Order of the British Empire.

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In 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola employee made the first phone call from his invention, the first mobile phone.

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In 2020, a 16 year-old-girl and a 17-year-old boy staged a texting conversation with each other. A small segment of their conversation was used for the 17-year-old's English Language assignment. The 16-year-old girl asked that it should be known that she, in fact, does know the difference between "your" and "you're," and that her misuse of the word "your" was purely a result of the 17-year-old's request, so that he had more material to work with for his English Language assignment.