2. Henry Sweet’s division of the History of the Language

The usual division of the history of the language into three major periods – Old, Middle and Modern – was first proposed by Henry Sweet in 1873: This division was based on the inflectional characteristics of each stage:

OE is the period of full inflections (e.g. nama, gifan, caru)

ME of leveled inflections (naame, given, caare)

Modern E of lost inflections (naam, giv, caar).

H. Sweet’s argument is based on a morphological feature, namely the leveling and fall of inflections (unstressed -e is the leveled form of –a/u) (In Modern E –s/plural, 3d form singular and -ed (Past Ind)).

H. Sweet chose the development of inflections, but other scholars have chosen other phenomena. Various features in the language undergo changes at different times. In the change-over from Middle to Modern English, for instance, is the fall of inflections a more significant feature of the language than, for instance, the Great Vowel Shift?

3. Approach of Yuri Kostyuchenko

Yu.P.Kostyuchenko offers the following periodization of the History of English:

1. Period to 449

2. Period after 449 is subdivided into:

   1. Old English V-XI centuries

   2. Middle E XII-XV

   3. period of formation of the standard language XV-XVII

   4. New English – the second half of the 17^th century up to now

Important Dates:

449 – Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain

1066 – the Norman Conquest

1475 – Introduction of Printing

1485 – the Tudors replaced the Yorkists