English language than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England and was a period in which the language was influenced by French. Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, Modern English spread
Anglo-Norman language (corporation), (court)). Place-names in Norman are few, but there is Buttevant (from the motto of the Barry family: , "Push to the Fore"), the village of Brittas (from the Norman , "boarding, planking") and the element "Pallas" (Irish , from Norman , "boundary fence": compare palisade, The Pale). Others exist with English or Irish roots, such as Castletownroche, which combines the English "Castletown" and the Norman , meaning rock. Only a handful of Hiberno-Norman-French texts survive, most notably the "The Song of Dermot and the Earl" (early 13th century) and the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366). Anglo-Norman language Anglo-Norman, also known