In the 19th century, the philologist Henry Sweet referred to three periods in the history of English which were characterised by some notable grammatical tendencies. Old English is similar to many European languages in marking grammatical functions with ‘endings’ on words (like the -s in words which tells us that the word is plural). In the second period, Middle English, the number of these endings became significantly reduced and devices such as word order increased in grammatical function. Middle English lasted from approximately 1100-1500. When studying Middle English in detail, we can divide the period into Early Middle English and Late Middle English. Together, Old English and Middle English comprise the medieval period.
The third period is known as Modern English, lasting from about 1500 to the present. During this period the endings became reduced to a very few. As you can see, the medieval period was twice as long as the modern period. And you may be surprised to find that Shakespeare wrote Modern English! Well, if that goes against your intuitions, you’ll be happy to know that the modern period is divided into Early Modern English (about 1500-1800) and Present-Day English (1800 to the present). Around 1800, the language (in its written form, at least) achieved approximately its present form.
Posted in: FAQ for English 400: History of the English Language