ABSTRACT
English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The reconstructed language known as Proto-Germanic, spoken somewhere in what is now Scandinavia or North Germany in the last few centuries BC, is the principal ancestor of English, as also of Dutch, German, and the Scandinavian languages. The historical period of English is conventionally divided into three stages, Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Modern or New English (ModE). Morphological changes in the ModE period tended to have minimal effect on the syntax of lexical verbs. Spelling developed more slowly in the eModE period and began to fall behind changes in pronunciation. Spelling in old English is unusually consistent for a medieval vernacular, because of the strong scribal tradition which developed. From the seventeenth-century grammars of English began to appear in English, and a prescriptive tradition of teaching English grammar grew up, largely based on the grammar of Latin.
