'The English language shows, in miniature, the history of England itself.' Discuss.

The Old and Middle English evolved with their influences from the languages of the ruling powers. Manuscripts provide evidence of the changes in orthography and hints at the changing pronunciation as the seat of power passed from the Germanic Anglo-Saxon to the French Norman. As a result, there was a constantly changing relationship from the phonemically characterised spelling of the Old English to one whose spelling may not reflect the pronunciation in the Middle English. …

…Third Edition, (England, 1984). 2. Crystal, David, The Stories of English, (England 2004). 3. Calandra, Angelo, Jacaranda SOSE - Book 2, Second Edition, (Australia, 2000). 4. Flavell, Linda & Roger, dictionary of English down the ages, (London, 2005). 5. McCrum, Robert, The Story of English, (London, 1986). 6. Singh, Ishtla, THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH, (Great Britain, 2005). INTERNET: 1. www.danshort.com/ie/grafx/timeline.gif 2. www.ielanguage.com/english.html 3. www.ruf.rice.edu/-kemmer/Words/chron.html DVD: 1. Bragg, Melvyn, The Adventure of English, (Australia, 2002)