History of the English Language

“Early Modern English / Present Day English”

Submitted to: Student:

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Mirvan Xhemaili Albana Islami

Prishtinë,

22.11.2019
Introduction

The modern English in her way to become the standard and present language known today has
undergone in different events. Some of those events that have left recognizable and far-reaching
effects are Germanic Invasion with introduction of German language into English, the
introduction of Christianity, or The Norman Conquest and French language etc., concluding this
way the Old and Middle period. The last but not the least of the periods that contributed into
shaping the language we speak and learn today is The Modern English Period- ModE, which
started from around the 15th century and still continues. The Modern English Period can be
further divided into Early Modern and Late Modern Period based on the influences that were
made into the language itself. The whole point of this essay is by far to mention the phases on
which the English language went during this period and the main events – The Great Vowel
Shift, Early Renaissance, The Printing Press and Standardization, Dictionaries and Grammar,
Golden Age of English Literature and International Trade, and the changes that were followed
during each phase.

The Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift named by the linguist Otto Jespersen is one of the major linguist trends
that separates Modern period from the Middle. This process took place between 1400 and 1650
and continues with subtle changes even to this day. The Great Vowel Shift is a process that
affected the seven long vowels of Middle English i: e: ɛ: a: ɔ: o: u: by making them closer in
pronunciation and some of them were diphthongized. The short vowels were affected only by
minor changes. These changes are seen in the pronunciation of the word time for example, where
the long i [i:] developed into the diphthong ai, so the pronunciation changed from ME time
[ti:me] into ModE time [taim]. Another change was the open long [ɔ:] that was developed into
the diphthong ou which is followed by the changes in pronunciation of the word stone, open
from ME stone [stɔ:ne] into ModE stone [stoun], and from ME open [ɔ:pen] into ModE open
[oupen]. Another important change that GVS brought to English Language that was welcomed
and helpful was clarifying many oddities that were present in English pronunciation of several
English words and their foreign counterpart. These changes made distinctions between words
that were similar for example stone from stan, or dark from derk etc. The causes of this vowel
shift are still debated and different linguists have different theories, although one of the key
factors was the large intake of the loanwords from different languages of Europe that entered the
English Lexicon and some of them required a different kind of pronunciation.

Early Renaissance

Early Renaissance which came with the revival of classical scholarships was the next phase that
influenced the vocabulary of English Language. This phase began from the 16th century and it is
often referred as the Elizabethan Era named after Elizabeth 1st Queen of England. Some of the
major changes that happened during Renaissance were in the lexicon of the language, where
Latin was the major influence hence it was considered the language of education and scholarship
at that time, followed by French and Greek. During this period were translated into English a
great number of classical works which brought into the language a large number of words that
did not have an equivalent in English. Some of the Latin words borrowed at this stage were:
antenna, anonymous, technique, catastrophe, lexicon, anthology, mythology, anatomy, etc. The
16th and 17th century brought also changes in the spelling of words due to the influence of Latin
phonological system on silencing some specific letters; the letter b which is not pronounced in
the words debt and doubt, of the letter s in island, etc.

The Printing Press and Standardization

As a result of different influences, English language at this stage had a huge variety of spellings
and different dialects. Five of the major dialects at that time were the West Midland, East
Midland; which was further extended into London dialect, Southern and Northern dialect and
Kentish. Same words had more than one, sometimes more than twenty spellings, which made
difficult for translator to choose when it came to translate famous works of that time. A very
important step into resolving similar issues was the introduction of Printing Press in England. It
was William Caxton; a famous writer, diplomat and translator, who brought this great
technological tool in England, and was the first to publish a printed book. He published works in
Latin and his own translations of “The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye”, “Aesop’s Fables”,
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, which was printed twice. He also published different love stories
and “The Bible”. Printing Press except for making a huge step in the production of books and
raising the literacy level, it made a huge and essential change in the development of a Standard
English. William Caxton himself, while translating different works had many difficulties as a
result of different spellings that were present. The need for a more standard spelling arouse so
everyone could read and understand, and since Caxton used East Midland dialect, he chose to
use it in the translated and printed books. This was a huge step because through England and
continental Europe people were presented with a fixed spelling. Caxton, except homogenizing
dialects and adopting into the London dialect, he is also credited for making the expansion of
English Vocabulary and making regulations in the inflection system and syntax. Early Modern
English became analytic and was characterized with further loss of inflections, leaving only a
few number; i.e. the third person’s as in speak-speaks, increase in number of auxiliaries and
prepositions.

Dictionaries and Grammar

The final step in standardizing the language was publishing of the Dictionary. The first
dictionary to be published was Robert Cawdrey’s English dictionary “ A Table Alphabeticall” in
1604 comprised by around 2.543 words which he considered to be the most common words
‘hard words’. His publishing was followed by Samuel Johnson’s ‘Dictionary of the English
Language’ which was published in 1755 and contained around 43.000 words. Besides word
dictionaries, during the 17th century different linguists and grammars published dictionaries
concerning grammar, spelling and pronunciation guides. Nathaniel Bailey in 1721 made an
attempt to include all the words present in the language in “Universall Etynmological English
Dictionary”. Furthermore Robert Lowth in the 18th century published ‘A Short Introduction to
English Grammar’ in 1762, which is considered amongst the best and most influential
dictionaries. Changes that these dictionaries brought to the language in the grammar and spelling
were minimizing the inflections, as in the endings of adjectives; except for comparative and
superlative. Another change was the ‘eth’ ending in the third person singular which was
replaced with ‘es’-‘s’ as in examples- ‘doeth’ into ‘does’, ‘hopeth’ into ‘hopes’ etc. This ending
still occurs in poetic language and archaic forms. Another important alteration was the use of
contraction form as for example or I will into I’ll, we’ll, etc.

Golden Age of English Literature

English language reached its heights during the 16th – 18th century and often is referred as The
Golden Period, because of the enormous works that were written and published, and the number
of neologisms. Some of the most important writers who left trace in the language belonged to
this period. Thomas Wyatt; in the early 16th century, a politician and a lyric poet was the one to
introduce the sonnet to English Literature, meanwhile other writers like Edmund Spenser,
Andrew Marwell, Alexander Pope with their works also contributed in the English lexicon.
Another important writer was Sir Thomas Eliot, as English author and administrator, who is
memorable for his championship and use of English prose, and also for enriching the language
with many new words like: maturity, modesty, describe, etc. Sir Philip Sidney made his
contributions in new words like: bugbear, far-fetched, etc. John Dane with: self-preservation,
etc. Among all these amazing writers is also the Royal Playwright William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare, byname Bard of Avon, was an English poet, and the greatest dramatist of all time,
writer of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets and some narrative poems. His contribution except
in literature was that he had a vast vocabulary and was responsible for around 2.000 new words,
which are still used widely in the English Language. Some of the words and idioms originated
from Shakespeare are: fashionable, addiction, swagger, wild goose chase, in a pickle, cold
blooded, truth will out, the game is up, at one fell swoop, set your teeth on edge, etc. His
influence was seen also in grammar structures as he took advantage of the protean nature of the
English language and played with grammatical rules, and sometimes his choice of using
particular nouns as verb or adverb, was interesting and even breathtaking, e.g. ‘he pageants us’ ,
‘uncle me no uncle’, etc. Shakespeare with his works also affected the word order and helping to
make it more fixed in a subject-verb-object pattern. The auxiliary verb to be was being used
instead of the verb to have when forming present perfect tense, e.g. I am slept instead of I have
slept. Also Simple Past was in a state of flux and for the same verb both irregular and regular
form co-existed, e.g. Shove and shaved, dug and digged, etc. The Early Modern English period
ended around 1800.

International Trade

Industrial Trade marks the beginning of Late Modern English. Although the pronunciation and
grammar had slight changes during this period, it was the vocabulary that was enriched with
many new words, and still continues due to industrial revolution, colonization (especially
Britain’s colonies) and the development of technology. The Industrial revolution had a great and
strong impact into the language, because with the inventions that were followed by it, with the
trade developed within countries, many new words entered the language. English borrowed
words from different languages of the world, i.e. from Indian Languages with words: pajamas,
shampoo, etc. From French: bizarre, ballet, progress, Turkish: coffee, caviar, yoghurt, Finnish:
sauna, Japanese: karate, geisha, and many other words from different languages.

Conclusion

Early Modern period is characterized with lots of changes in Grammar, Syntax, Lexicon and
Phonology and is the period when the Literature blossomed, while the Late Modern period is the
period where the language was enriched with many new words from different languages and
continues to develop even in the present days.

References

Algeo, J. (2005). The origins and development of the English Language (6th ed.). (J. Flaherty,
Ed.) Boston MA: Wadsworth Cengage.

Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 5th ed. Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002

Barber, C. (1993). The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press.

https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-an-overview/