Timeline of English language development.

Early Anglo‑Saxons developed Futhorc, an expanded runic alphabet, to record the sounds of their evolving English language. Futhorc gradually gave way to Old English as scribes adopted the Latin alphabet, allowing the language to be written more fully, and over the following centuries this early English would continue to evolve into Middle English and eventually the modern English spoken today.

c. 400–1100 Futhorc (Runic writing) used by early Anglo-Saxons before and alongside the Latin alphabet.

c. 450–1100 Old English the earliest written form of English, including works like Beowulf

c. 1100–1500 Middle English developed after the Norman Conquest, including the language of Chaucer, the 14th‑century English poet often called the “Father of English literature.”

c. 1500–present Modern English begins with the Renaissance and printing; Shakespeare’s English is Early Modern English.