The History of English: Early Modern English

Early Modern English - familiarity at last

Hello, and thank you for reading the penultimate instalment of my History of English series!

As the 1400s gave way to the 1500s, so we can say that Middle English has given way to Early Modern English. By the turn of the 16^th century, written English is not wildly different from present-day English. 

English manuscripts written after 1500 are still largely intelligible to us, although the earliest texts may present some difficulties. This is because a number of important changes have happened in the intervening 500 years. 

The rise of Standard English

With the advent of Caxton's printing press in Westminster in 1476, a standardised form of written English began to appear for the first time. Before then, people would more or less spell words according to their own regional dialect. This is why some surnames have variant spellings, and also explains why some place names have (seemingly) wacky spellings¹.

The Printing Press: Also used as a terrible torture instrument.

The development of Modern English is intertwined with the rise of the first Standard variety of English. Today, Standard English exerts its influence on the spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and some points of grammar, in terms of what is regarded as standard, or correct, English.

A standard variety of English from the London area began to develop as early as the mid-14^th century (Crystal, 2003.) The original London dialect is actually a hybrid of several dialects; it has features of Essex and also the Middlesex dialects further west.

The emergence of London as the centre of influence is due to the fact that it became the political and commercial centre of England, as it still is. Immigration to London in the 14^th and 15^th century from the surrounding areas meant that the London dialect absorbed some influence from its neighbouring counties.

The fact that the earliest standard forms of English were influenced by a number of different dialects is reflected in certain unusual spellings. Why, for instance, is the word bury spelt with a <u>, when surely it should be spelt berry? Well, this pronunciation comes from the Kentish dialect. The Old English sound represented by <y> (pronounced like the French <u> in lune), became <i>, as in listen from Old English hlysnan. But in the Kentish dialect, the Old English <y> developed into the /e/ sound in bury. This is the pronunciation that became part of Standard English (Crystal, 2003.)

Anyway, the development of printing helped to spread a single norm over much of the country, at least in the written language. By the early 16^th century, it becomes difficult to determine the dialect in which a literary work is written, apart from Northern dialects such as Scots, which developed a separate literary identity.

By this point, people begin to make value judgements about dialects which are not their own. John of Trevisa comments that northern speech is 'scharp, slitting, and frotynge [grating] and unschape [ill-formed],' giving this as one of the reasons why Northerners live far away from the court. This negative and very much subjective attitude towards non-Standard English dialects is still with us today.

However, the rise of a Standard variety did help to create a fixed spelling for most words. Even so, it wasn't until the 1700s, with the publication of the first dictionaries, that English spelling and punctuation truly began to be fixed.

Vocabulary changes

From the time of Caxton at the end of the 1400s to about 1650, there was a renewed interest in the Classical languages and literature, and in the rapidly developing fields of science, medicine and the arts. This period was later to be called the ‘Renaissance’ which means ‘rebirth’ in French (Crystal, 2003.)

The effects of these new perspectives soon made a mark on the English language. A huge influx of new words entered the language, most of which were from Latin, with a good number from Greek, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Some contemporary writers embraced the influx of loanwords, believing them to enrich the language. There were many translations of Classical works from Latin or Greek during the 16^th century, and some translators simply borrowed a word from Latin or Greek when they could not find an English equivalent. Some even felt that English was not a suitable language for the expression of this new learning, believing it to be a language fit for the street and the tavern, but not for the library.

 

No English past this point, please.

There were, of course, purists who believed the influx of foreign words to be a bad thing. They opposed the new so-called ‘inkhorn’ terms and condemned them for being obscure and for interfering with the development of native English vocabulary.

I can understand why people may have been concerned about the flood of foreign words entering the English language, with no apparent sign of abating. But purist opinion did not stem the influx of new words. English is hardly on the verge of destruction simply because it has borrowed a great deal of words from foreign languages!

As it happens, by the year 1700, the rate of borrowing from other languages did slow down dramatically. This is probably tied in with the fact that English was becoming the main language of learning, pushing out Latin and French. Also, with the Renaissance finally coming to an end, there was less of a need to borrow new terms from other languages.

Grammatical and sound changes

If we were to be transported back to the early 1600s, and we had to somehow communicate with our ancestors in order to find our way back to the 21^st century, we would have a few problems understanding the people at the time. True, they spoke essentially the same language as we do, but a number of important changes have happened since then:

Do-support

In present-day English, the verb do is sometimes used as an auxiliary. It is obligatory in certain yes/no questions and in negative statements. Consider the examples below:

Do you know the way to London?

I don’t know.

Before the dawn of Early Modern English, do was never used in such a way. The equivalent sentences would have been constructed like this:

Knowest thou the way to London?

I know not.

In the 1611 King James Bible, do-support is never used, which reflects the archaic style of language employed by the translators. By contrast, Shakespeare (1564-1616) uses both constructions, and by 1700, do-support became standard (Crystal, 2003.)

I am walking

In Modern English, verbs have a progressive aspect that is used to mark an ongoing or continuous action. It's comprised of the verb to be plus the -ing form of the verb; for example, I am going to the shops. This contrasts with the simple present: I go to the shops means that I go shopping on a regular basis, but I'm not there right now. 

The progressive aspect was only developed towards the end of the Early Modern English period. Before then, the be + -ing construction was rare, and when it was used, it had a passive sense. The house is building could mean 'the house is being built' (Lass, 1999.)

The loss of ‘thee’ and ‘thou’

Early Modern English contrasts two types of second person pronouns: thou (thee is for the object of the verb; thy is the possessive form), and ye (you was originally the object of the verb; your is the possessive form.)

This is what most people think of when they hear the word 'thou'

In Old English, þū (thou) and its related forms were used for addressing one person, whereas ye was used for addressing more than one person. 

During Middle English, the distinction between thou and ye changed into one of politeness and familiarity. Thou was used to address a friend, or somebody of lower rank or status, while ye was used to address a superior, or a group of people. This is much like the tu/vous distinction in French, which it was probably influenced by.

Even in Shakespeare’s time, the distinction between thou and you was still robust (eventually, ‘ye’ died out completely, leaving ‘you’ as the sole plural or polite pronoun.) But, by the turn of the 17^th century, the use of thou was becoming increasingly contemptuous, and its use began to decline sharply after that. 

Now, English just has one second person pronoun, you. Standard English is, in fact, one of few languages that does not distinguish between singular and plural second person pronouns. However, a number of English dialects do make such a distinction: you and yous in Liverpool and Irish; you and y’all in Southern American dialects.

The put-putt split

Today, one clear indicator that somebody comes from the North of England is their pronunciation of the vowel in cup and love. For Northerners, the vowel in cup and love is identical to that in put and butcher. Everywhere else (except in Southern Ireland), the vowels in cup and love have a more open quality, and are clearly different from put and butcher.

Northerners do in fact preserve the older pronunciation. The distinction in the South between cup and love on one hand and put and butcher on the other developed in the 17^th century. Even in the South, the older pronunciation was retained before a labial consonant, such as /p/, /b/ and /w/, which is the reason why put, butcher and wolf still retain the older pronunciation, but cup and love do not.

This distinction is known as the put-putt split, because most English speakers have a different vowel in put and putt, but those from the North of England retain the older pronunciation in both words.

The Great Vowel Shift

I had to mention the Great Vowel Shift (GVS), simply because it made such a profound difference to the pronunciation of certain vowels in English. I have already written an article on the GVS, which you can read here.

One point to note is that the GVS was not instantaneous; after all, it took the best part of 300 years to complete. In Shakespeare’s time, at the turn of the 1600s, the GVS was very much underway, but not fully complete. Some vowels were pronounced differently to how we would pronounce them today.

Shakespeare would have pronounced the <a> in pale and nature like the <e> in bed, but it was longer. The vowel in about and now would have been similar to the RP pronunciation of boat; in fact, Canadian English still preserves this archaic pronunciation. Furthermore, the <ea> in meat would have been pronounced in a similar way to how we would say mate.

English spelling has not kept up with various changes in pronunciation that have occurred in the last 600 years, which is one of the reasons why it is so unintuitive.

Early Modern English texts

Several texts illustrate the linguistic transition from Middle to Early Modern English. The profusion of miracle and mystery plays, preserved in several 15^th century manuscripts, provide a good snapshot of what Early Modern English was like.

The King James Bible (also known as the Authorised Version), published in 1611, exercised enormous influence on the development of Modern English, although it is worth noting that it was itself influenced by several existing Bible translations, all produced during the 16^th century.

Tyndale's New Testament of 1525, revised in 1534, was the first English vernacular Biblical text to be printed, and the basis for most subsequent translations, including the Authorised version.

Here is a short extract of the New Testament (Matthew 5:1-10) in the Authorised version:

And seeing the multitudes, he went vp into a mountaine: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth, and taught them saying, Blessed are the poore in spirit: for theirs is the kingdome of heauen. Blessed are they that mourne: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for they shall be filled. Blessed are they mercifull: for they shall obtaine mercie. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall bee called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake: for theirs is the kingdome of heauen.

There are some points to note: 

In this translation, the distinction between <u> and <v> in spelling is not like it is now. At that time, <u> and <v> were not distinguished as separate letters. Instead, <v> was used at the beginning of a word, and <u> was used elsewhere. 

This doesn’t mean that people didn’t distinguish the sound represented by <u> and <v> in pronunciation, but instead, <v> was simply regarded as the consonantal version of <u>.

The Authorised Version is generally close in spelling to present-day English and it is generally not difficult to understand, although it is clearly archaic in style.

Even at the time it was written, the language of the Authorised Version was conservative. The third person singular of the present tense of verbs is always –(e)th, in comparison with –s, which is now the standard ending. Some archaic words are found, such as brethren, kine [cows] and twain.

Shakespeare

No discussion of Early Modern English would be complete without giving mention to a certain William Shakespeare, a man whose name still evokes dread and heart palpitations in Secondary School children in Britain and beyond.

 

Great to see that Shakespeare is taking part in Movember this year.

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. He wrote countless plays and poems at a time when the English language was less standardized than it is now. Along with the King James Bible, William Shakespeare was surely one of the most important influences on the development of the language towards the end of the Renaissance. His works provide a great insight into the characteristics of English at the time.

This is not to say that Shakespeare changed the English language to a massive degree; to an extent, he merely reflected the changes that were happening at the time, although as many as 2,000 words were first recorded in writing by Shakespeare (Jucker, 2000.) Many of these neologisms (new words) are still in use today. He probably didn't coin all of these 2,000 or so words, but we was the first to bring them into wide circulation. 

Some examples are accommodation, assassination, barefaced, countless, courtship, dislocate, dwindle, eventful, lacklustre, laughable, premeditated and submerged.

He also adapted a great deal of words from Latin and Greek; in other cases, he formed new verbs out of nouns. He even introduced some new idiomatic expressions which are still with us today. Examples include:

What the dickens (The Merry Wives of Windsor), a foregone conclusion (Othello), salad days (Antony and Cleopatra), cold comfort (King John), it’s Greek to me (Julius Caesar), with bated breath (Merchant of Venice), love is blind (Merchant of Venice.)

Without a doubt, Shakespeare’s plays and poems are very interesting for linguists. They provide a great deal of insight into the way that English was developing at the time. His influence on the vocabulary and idioms still in use today cannot be underestimated, either.

Conclusion

To summarise, the surviving English texts from the end of the 15^th century bear a close resemblance to the varieties of English that are in use today. However, there are a number of important differences in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling that separate Early Modern English from present-day English. By 1700, though, English has more or less reached its modern form, but it has not stopped changing.

My next article will be the final instalment in the series (but don't worry, I won't stop blogging!) The final article in the series will detail the changes that have happened to English in the last 300 years. I will give special mention to the development of different varieties of English following the conquest of the New World and beyond. Stay tuned to find out why I don’t believe that American English is a corrupted version of British English!

Footnotes 

1 - Of course, some 'weird' place names such as Leominster, Bicester and Leicester would, at one time, have been pronounced as they are spelt. It's not as if someone threw a load of alphabet spaghetti at a wall to decide on the spelling of the place, although it certainly seems that way sometimes.

References

Crystal, D. (2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge

Jucker, A. (2000) History of English and English Historical Linguistics. Ernst Klett Verlag: Stuttgart

Lass, R. (1999) The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge