The great compromise an the three fifths compromise both dealt with

 representation in Congress.

The Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise both dealt with the representation of states in Congress.   Both of these compromises were devised during the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787.  

The Great Compromise resolved a dispute between small population states and large population states.  The large population states wanted representation in Congress to be based on a state's population size.  The smaller states feared this would lead to unchecked dominance by the big states; they wanted all states to receive the same amount of representation.  The Great Compromise created a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature.  Representation in the House of Representatives would be based on population.  In the Senate, all states would have the same amount of representation, by two Senators. The Three-Fifths Compromise was a way of accounting (somewhat) for the population of slaves in states that permitted slavery.  For taxation and representation purposes, the question was whether slaves should count in the population figures.  (They were not considered voting citizens at that time.)   The Three-Fifths Compromise said that three out of every five slaves could be counted when determining a state's population size for determining how many seats that state would receive in the House of Representatives.

The three steps before modern english were indo-european, germanic, and old english. as peoples moved around the eurasian continent, their languages changed. throughout the ages, the languages became more specialized. as english has many germanic influences, it is easy to see how this was one of the forebears. also, old english was one of the main ancestors of the modern language, spoken in the 5th through about the 13th centuries.