The Early Modern English
• Early Modern English is the stage of the
English language used from about the end
of the Middle English period (the latter half
of the 15th century) to 1650.
• The first edition of the King James Bible
and the works of William Shakespeare both
belong to the late phase of Early Modern
English.
• The standardization of English spelling falls
within the Early Modern English period and
is influenced by conventions predating the
Great Vowel Shift, which is the reason for
much of the non-phonetic spelling of
contemporary Modern English.
• .*The revival of classical scholarship
brought many classical Latin and Greek
words into the Language.
• Two other major factors influenced the
language and served to separate Middle and
Modern English.
• 1. The Great Vowel Shift
• 2. The invention of printing
•
The Great Vowel Shift: This was a change
in pronunciation that began around 1400
Long vowel sounds began to be made higher
in the mouth
The letter e at the end of words became
silent.
•/
• Examples:
• 1. Chaucer’s Lyf (pronounced /leef/)
became the modern word life.
• 2. name was pronounced /nam-a 3. five was
pronounced /feef/
• 4. down was pronounced /doon/.
The invention of printing
• William Caxton brought the printing press
to England in 1476.* Books became
cheaper and as a result, literacy became
more common.
• The printing press brought standardization
to English.
1. The dialect of London, where most
publishing houses were located, became the
standard.
2. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and
the first English dictionary was published in
1604
Early Modern English
Phonology
• Pronunciation: The Great Vowel Shift
(1400-1600) changed the pronunciation of
all the vowels. ( as shown above)
• Change in Consonants: Loss of /l/ after
low back vowels and before labial or velar
consonants almond, folk, palm but not after
other vowels film, hulk.
• Loss of /t/ or /d/ in consonant clusters with
/s/castle, hasten, handsome, landscape loss
of initial /k/ and /g/ before /n/knock, knee,
knight, gnome,
• Loss of /w/ before /r/wreak, wrong.
• Loss of /r/ before /s/
• /r/ was lost in standard English before a
consonant.
Early Modern English Syntax
• Verbs: More strong verbs became weak and
the third person singular form became -(e)s
instead of -(e)th.
• Adjectives: Adjectives lost all endings
except for in the comparative and
superlative forms.
• Pronouns: The neuter pronoun it was first
used as well as who as a relative pronoun.
• The class distinctions between formal and
informal you were decreasing, so that today
there is no difference between them..
Shakespeare's writings greatly influenced
the entire English language.
Prior to and during Shakespeare's time, the
grammar and rules of English were not
fixed.
• Once Shakespeare's plays became popular
in the late seventeenth and eighteenth
century, they helped contribute to the
standardization of the English language
• Many familiar words and phrases were
coined or first recorded by Shakespeare,
some 2,000 words and countless catchphrases are Shakespeare’s.
*Examples:
1. Catch-phrases: One fell swoop, vanish into
thin air, and flesh and blood
2.Words critical, leapfrog, majestic, dwindle,
and pedant
• He expanded the scope of English literature
by introducing new words and phrases,
experimenting with blank verse, and also
introducing new poetic and grammatical
structures