When did the English begin to speak English as we know it today?

Answer 1

since then till now...i guess

Answer 2

I do not know the particular century when the English language evolved to what it is today. However, it must have been a continous process since its departure from Saxon / Latin branches (??) not any particular time.

english has evolved all around the world and the english that english speak as their mother tongue is very different from the English we speak. The accent and choice of words and idioms are I guess not the same.

The most universal english spoken - i read somewhere - is in Los Angeles as it has been used in Movies which have travelled the globe.

Answer 3

Modern English is continually evolving. However, two major influences on our language are the French the Norman conquerors brought over in 1066 and the Anglo-saxon the people her before 1066 spoke.

For some time after the Norman Conquest, the Norman rulers spoke their form of French, which they used for Government, whilst the people spoke English. Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343 - 1400) was the first person to publish in English, e.g. The Canterbury Tales, which is one reason, apart from his great literary skills, why he is so important.

Whilst Chaucer can be seen as the start of recognisable English, he wrote in "Middle English" which has to be updated for schoolchildren on whom his writings are inflicted today! It happens I am writing this answer next door to the Falstaff Hotel in Canterbury where the Canterbury Pilgrims of Chaucer's tale arrived, and I can assure you that if their ghosts appeared right now in St. Dunstans Street outside nobody would understand them!


Even in 1900 many people in rural England spoke in local dialects which people today (including their descendents) would find difficult to understand. For instance, I remember relatives in Canterbury who spoke in what might today be misidentified as a "West-country burr": this was a Kentish accent which has almost completely died out. These dialects were largely overtaken by compulsory schooling, with teachers who sought to ensure that children spoke "good English" and, in particular, by the introduction of radio in the 1920s which meant that everybody in the country listened to broadcasts spoken in "BBC English".

Answer 4

Modern English is continually evolving, so it really depends on your definition. For example, you know Chaucer's English or Middle English, doesn't sound much like our language today, but what about Shakespeare? He's considered to be speaking Modern English. Is this what you mean or are you looking for something even more modern?

Answer 5

The language is constantly changing. just a few examples of words/phrases that have changed meaning just in the past few decades.

Gay used to mean Happy
A Compact Disc was a medical complaint
You used to hang a 'mobile' above a baby's cot
'Britney' used to be a holiday destination in France
and you put your feet up on a 'Poof'

My point being that to get a meaningful answer, you have to be more explicit in what you mean as modern english

Answer 6

I don't know, but I actually read once (can't remember where) that the Americans speak the language that the English used to speak and it is us who have changed it.

Not sure if I believe it though.

Answer 7

If you mean we as in we Americans then the damned English have never learned to speak it correctly. They may have spawned the language but I can barely understand a bloody word they say.

Answer 8

Roman times

Answer 9

Melvyn Bragg's 'The Adventure of English' is a wonderfully readable book narrating the story of the language's evolution.

Answer 10

The biggest recent change came with William the Conqueror in 1066, who brought French, which tempered and simplified the indigenous Anglo-Saxon over the next few centuries. THANK YOU< WILL!

(I studied Anglo Saxon. Yikes!)

Answer 11

It's constantly evolving, English 50 years ago was a lot different to what it is now.