The English Period

What period in the history of English do you consider is the most interesting? why?

We consider that there are two very interesting moments in English:

The Middle English Period, because this period was plenty of essential changes that defined the nature of the English language as we know it today. In fact, this period could be divided into two big moments concerning the conception of the language: the first one, beginning at the battle of Hastings, could be regarded as a period when the old English language had no importance for the “civilized” world of Europe, and that is the reason why the language of the conquerors, the Normans, was carried to England. In fact, that also allowed the Latin influence to be carried to the island. The second

During the Early Modern English period, there were important social, political and cultural changes, such as the separation of Henry VIII from the Catholic Church, the appearance of figures as William Shakespeare and the great vowel shift. English became important in Europe and the golden age of English literature began, and it started a syntactical, morphological and phonological transformations in the language.

What period in the history of Spanish do you consider is the most interesting? Why?

For us, the most interesting period in the history of the Spanish language is when Alfonso X established the Castilian (Castellano) as a literary and scholarly language in the 1200s. This language was the royal branch of the Spanish language.

What characteristics are there in common between the history of English and of

Even if they have some influences in common, because of the geographical position, the developing was different. The English change principally with the invasion of european kingdoms and tribes as germanics or normands, while the Spanish change because of the arrival of the cultures as iberians and visigoths , and later but not less important, the arrival of those that crossed the Mediterranean: the jewish and arab kingdoms.

This differences between the kind of peoples that invaded or colonized England or Spain carried to remarkable differences between both languages. For instance, although English has been influenced by Latin, the Spanish, since it is a romance language, is closer to it than English, and, although both countries suffered the invasions of the Celts and Barbarians, we cannot compare the enormous influence of Germanic languages in English to their influence in Spanish through the Visigoths or the Celts.

In contrast to what happened in England territory that were suppressing others, in the now call Spain several cultures and languages coexist for years despite of battles, and all of them made a mark in spanish