The Renaissance
In IBDP English, Next wave of innovation in English vocabulary (a revival of classic scholarship)
The European Renaissance began in Italy as early as the 14th century, and the English Renaissance is thought to cover the 16th and early 17th centuries
Often referred to as the Elizabethan Era of the Age of Shakespeare, after the most prestigious monarch and writer of the time
Additions to the lexicon in this period were deliberate borrowings from other languages, as opposed to the result of an invasion or influx of new nationalities
The languages of education and scholarship were Greek, French, and Latin
Admiration of classical languages led to the introduction of thousands of words into the English language
New terms were coined where no satisfactory translation could be found when lots of classical works were translated into English in the 16th century
Words from Latin and Greek were imported at an impressive rate during this period - some were intact (militia, radius, specimen, criterion, apparatus, paralysis etc.) but most were slightly altered (anonymous, enthusiasm, notorious, catastrophe, mythology, lexicon, paradox, climax etc.)
Greek contributed a large number of words with its distinguishable suffixes ‘-ize’ and ‘-ism’
Some Latin adjectives were introduced where there was no existing adjective suitable for an existing Germanic noun, or where existing Germanic adjectives had developed unfortunate connotations
Several showy French phrases also came into common usage around this period, such as ‘vis-à-vis’, and ‘soi-distant’, along with other French loanwords such as ‘crêpe’
Some pedantic scholars borrowed so much from Latin during this period, in order to create obscure terms, that the term ‘inkhorn’ was coined to describe these people
From this, the ‘Inkhorn Controversy’ was born, creating the first of several continuing arguments over language usage in England
Thomas Elyot and George Pettie were strongly in favour of using such foreign terms, while others like Thomas Wilson and John Cheke were just as strongly opposed
Certain inkhorn terms are now in common usage, such as dismiss, encyclopedia, affability, dexterity, exaggerate, necessitate, mundane, and ingenious
Process was arbitrary - impede, commit, and transmit survived, while expede and demit did not
In IBDP English, Some of the greatest English writers have been subject to the same arbitrariness - a lot of terms coined by Shakespeare, Jonson, and Milton died premature deaths
Some writers attempted to resurrect older English words to protest against this foreign incursion, such as ‘gleeman’ (musician), ‘inwit’ (conscience), and ‘yblent’ (confused), and create new words from Germanic roots, such as ‘endsay’ (conclusion), ‘yeartide’ (anniversary), ‘fleshstrings’ (muscles), and ‘birdlore’ (ethology), though most of these were short-lived
John Cheke attempted to rewrite the entirety of the New Testament in Native English
The 17th century penchant for classical languages had an effect on the spelling of English words - a silent ‘b’ was added to ‘debt’ and ‘doubt’ out of deference to their Latin roots ‘debitum’ and ‘dubitare’
Other similar changes were the ‘s’ in island, the ‘c’ in scissors, the ‘h’ in anchor and shoot, the ‘o’ in people, and both the ‘c’ and the ‘u’ in victuals
Middle English words also gained letters that weren’t silent - perfet and verdit became perfect and verdict, faute and assaut became fault and assault, and aventure became adventure
These changes were supposed to reduce chaos in the language, but they arguably just added to it - for example, a ‘p’ was added to ptarmigan (a type of gamebird) with no etymological justification other than the fact that ptera (the Greek word for feather) began with a ‘p’
Regardless of this ongoing debate, it can be fairly said that by the end of the 16th century, English had become widely accepted as a language of learning equal to the classical languages, if not superior
Vernacular language became something more than a language just for popular literature, but it is still criticised in mainland Europe for being ‘crude, limited, and immature’
Caxton’s printing press
In IBDP English,
Final factor in development of Modern English
One of world’s greatest technological developments - introduced to England by William Caxton in 1476
First book printed in English was Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye by Raoul Lefevre, translated by Caxton himself
In the following years, up to 20,000 books were printed, from mythic tales and popular stories, to poems and phrasebooks
Caxton made a lot of money off the back of his printing business = amongst his best sellers were Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Malory’s Tales of King Arthur
Printed books became cheaper and more widely available in correlation to the popularity of English works, which rose to triumph over Latin
When printing was first introduced, there were five major dialects in England - Northern, West Midlands, East Midlands and London, Southern, and Kentish
There was a huge variety in spellings even within these dialectical regions e.g. 30 different spellings of ‘church’, and 500 of ‘though’
In IBDP English,
The ‘-ing’ participle (e.g. running) became ‘-and’ in the north (runnand), ‘-end’ in the East Midlands (runnend), and ‘-ind’ in the West Midlands (runnind)
The ‘-th’ and ‘-eth’ in verb endings used in the south (e.g. goeth) were ‘-s’ and ‘-es’ in the north (goes) - the northern version eventually became the standard
From the 1430s onwards, the Chancery of Westminster set standardisations for spellings in official documents i.e. ‘I’ instead of ‘ich’, and ‘land’ not ‘lond’
This new ‘Chancery Standard’ was a huge contribution to the development of Standard English
The political, commercial, and cultural dominance of the ‘East Midlands Triangle’ (London/Oxford/Cambridge) was long established before the printing press, but it was the press that really became responsible for the standardisation of the language
The dialect and spellings of the East Midlands became the national standard, and spelling and grammar became more and more fixed over time
Early publishing decisions resulted in long-lasting repercussions for the language, such as the use of the northern pronouns ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘them’ instead of London’s ‘hi’, ‘hir’ and ‘hem’, which were too easily confused with ‘he’, ‘her’, and ‘him’
Caxton himself complained about the difficulties of finding forms that could be understood everywhere, resulting in inconsistencies in his own work, such as his use of double letters and the final ‘e’ (had/hadd/hadde, dog/dogg/dogge, which/whiche etc.)
Sometimes different spellings were used merely for graphological purposes
A lot of orthographic variations and inconsistencies can be attributed to the fact that printed words were fixed on the page before any orthographic consensus was designed
The progression of the Early Modern period saw an increase in the use of double vowels e.g. ‘soon’ or a final ‘e’ e.g. ‘name’ to mark long vowels
Also saw double consonants marking preceding short vowels e.g. ‘sitting’
The letters ‘u’ and ‘v’, and ‘i’ and ‘j’, had been used interchangeably in Middle English, but were given independence as vowels and consonants respectively under the printing press
Punctuation changes - virgule largely replaced by comma, full stop restricted to use at the end of sentences, semi-colons came into usage alongside colons (though with ambiguous guidelines), quotation marks designed for direct speech, capital letters for start of sentences and ‘important’ nouns (now proper nouns)
In IBDP English, Many of these punctuation reforms were influenced by grammarist John Hart
Standardisation due to printing press had progressed hugely by around 1650, but there was still a way to go
Names, in particular, were often spelt in a variety of ways - there were more than 80 different recorded spellings of Shakespeare’s name, and even he himself spelt it differently in each of his six known signatures, including on two different versions of his own will
I hope it helps~