r linguistic group (The Philippines are a good example, as they were occupied by Spanish-speaking and then English-speaking invaders not so long ago).
Pedagogically, this flux and this variety of influences render the learning of English pronunciation not so easy an enterprise for learners of English as a foreign language (Which teacher's pronunciation is the model to imitate?). The problem is compounded by the natural tendency of learners to transfer pronunciation and intonation from their native language (such as the rhotocization of Arabic and the Romance languages, and the non-rhotocization of Black African, Chinese, and Japanese dialects--not to omit BBC English).
Conventionally, the history of the English language is divided into three broad periods, viz. Old English (c. 450-1100), Middle English (c. 100-1500), and Modern English (from c. 1500). Some linguists may also use the term World English (1960s) to denote English as a world language suffering (or enjoying) changes differentially in these post-modern times. Others speak of World Englishes to stress the varieties of English as spoken throughout the world today.
This paper does not attempt at identifying Englishes; rather, it points out, but briefly, some significant phonological, syntactic, and orthographical changes through the centuries.
"The evidence of a place like Friesland suggests that, if that linguistic cataclysm, the Norman Conquest of 1066, had not occurred, the English today might speak a language not unlike modern Dutch" (McCrum, Cran & MacNeil, 1986, p. 58). Old English is the name scholars have given to the Anglo-Saxons' English--a language that contained barely a dozen Celtic words (such as crag, tor, combe, avon, and puca, words still found in place-names like Torquay, High Wycombe, the river Avon, and even Shakespeare's mischief-maker Puck).
The Anglo-Saxons (Angelcynn = Angle-kin) spoke Englisc, and by AD 1000 their country was known as...