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Evolution of Early Modern English

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the English language developed many of its modern features due to linguistic changes during the Renaissance and other social, political, religious, and scientific movements. Linguistic changes in this period made Shakespeare's language different from Chaucer's, including the loss of unstressed vowel sounds at the end of some words. The invention of the printing press standardized spelling and made the language more uniform as books became more widely available. The Renaissance introduced thousands of words from Latin and Greek into English and influenced authors like Shakespeare.

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Giulia Mazzola
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222 views2 pages

Evolution of Early Modern English

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the English language developed many of its modern features due to linguistic changes during the Renaissance and other social, political, religious, and scientific movements. Linguistic changes in this period made Shakespeare's language different from Chaucer's, including the loss of unstressed vowel sounds at the end of some words. The invention of the printing press standardized spelling and made the language more uniform as books became more widely available. The Renaissance introduced thousands of words from Latin and Greek into English and influenced authors like Shakespeare.

Uploaded by

Giulia Mazzola
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

Between the 16th and the 18th century, English language developed many of the features that
we can see today. It is the result of basic linguistic changes of the Renaissance and other of
other social, political, religious and scientific movements.

LINGUISTIC CHANGES
In this period English experienced changes in sound that made Shakespeare's language quite
different form that of Chaucer. One modification was the loss of an unstressed vowel sound at
the end of some words.

CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE PRINTING PRESS


The invention of printing influenced language and thought. In time, books were available for
all, not only for the favoured few. More and more people learnt to read and write and
education increased. On the English language itself, the chief effect of the invention of
printing was to be in making the language more uniform and in standardizing, particularly the
spelling.

EFFECTS OF THE RENAISSANCE


The Renaissance was the artistic, literary and scientific revival that originated in Italy in the
14th century, and diffused in Europe in the next two centuries.
The Humanism was a return to classical values and the beginning of objective scientific
inquiry. The Renaissance created a culture which freed men to prove and enjoy the world in
way not possible under the medieval Church dispensation.
In England the influence of Renaissance is seen above all in Shakespeare and Marlowe.
English language borrowed many word from Latin and Greek. Thousands of word were
adopted from the classical languages: i.e. education, external, exist and meditate came
directly from Latin; catastrophe and lexicon came directly from Greek. While chaos, climax
and crisis came from Greek-Latin. Also ending were taken from Latin, like for example from
frivolus came frivolous. The Latin ending of nouns -antia and -entia became in English -ance,
-ence, -ancy, -ency as in countenance, concurrence, constancy and frequency.
In many cases it is difficult to determine whether a word came directly from Latin or came in
through French.
There are also loan words from more than 50 languages, the major sources are French
(detail, genteel, surpass), Spanish (alligator and armada) and Italian (balcony, piazza,
portico).
Many words also came from other parts of the world as a result of exploration, trade and
colonization.
Many works were translated like for example Plutarch's "Lives", Homer's "Odissey", etc.
Thomas More was an important classicist who wrote his "Utopia" in Latin. It contains views
of the ideal non-Christian state: a Republic of philosophers.

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