What is Early Modern English and Why is it so Important?
As you may have guessed, Early Modern English is the earliest form of the English that we speak and that your reading today. It can be defined as the stage of English from the beginning of the Tudor period to its transition to modern English in the late 17th century. This form of English developed from Middle English that spread from the 11th century to the 15th century. Though unlike the transition from Old English to Middle English, this change wasn’t just a change of vocabulary of pronunciation but was the beginning of a new era of the English people, the English influence on the world and the English language.
So how did Middle English shift to become Early Modern English? Like most things, it to do with a variety of factors. First of all, it came started with the ‘Great Vowel Shift’. This arguably began the 13th century and continued until the 17th century. This dramatically altered the pronunciation of the language. This likely came about as of a large borrowing of words form the romance languages of Europe, obviously requiring different pronunciation which would go onto affect the words already in English. To put this into context, whilst Geoffrey Chaucer’s works (of Middle English) can be read by the Modern English tongue (with some difficulty), if Chaucer were to read it to us, his pronunciation would be nearly completely unintelligible to the modern ear.
The Renaissance also had a huge role to play. Taking place in Britain from the 16th century to the 17th, this ‘age of enlightenment’ brought plenty of new ideas across from the continent. One of these was being educated in Latin, Greek and sometimes French. As a result, this brought thousands of words over to the British Isles. Alongside this, many texts were translated from Latin, Greek, and other European languages into English. Many new terms were introduced that didn’t have an English counterpart, so words were newly constructed, or the Latin or Greek were just left intact to have a place in English. Examples of this included ‘genius’, ‘species’, ‘system’ and hundreds more. Words with the endings of ‘ism’ and ‘ize’ were also introduced at this time.
Alongside the Renaissance, the prospects of world trade opened up as colonizing began of the Americas and East Asia. As a result, more foreign phrases and words were brought back home, alongside new items (like chocolate) and phrases like ‘crew’ and ‘infantry’ (which came from the French).
Compared to other European languages at the time, Middle and Early Modern English were relatively basic and not much use due to lexical gaps (where no adjectives existed to compliment the existing Germanic noun). Though, as of increased influence from the continent in its ideas, literature, and trade, these lexical fields were filled quickly. One example is the noun, ‘pedestrian’ for the verb, ‘walk’. Though this was done to an excessive by writers so they could create obscure terms — the terms ‘inkhorn’ was used to insult writers who did so. But there was much controversy over this, as some were hugely in favor of using foreign terms, whereas others denounced it. Despite this, most of these terms were lost or dropped as of their uselessness.
The printing press also had a huge part to play. Introduced in 1476, this system of copying texts quickly and efficiently, resulted in English texts becoming more popular than books in Latin. Furthermore, at the time, English had five major dialects, and it was via the printing press that these were slowly reduced to one. For example, the press used the Northern English ‘they, ‘their’ and ‘them’ in preference to the London ‘hi’, ‘hir’ and ‘hem’ (which were easily mixed up with ‘he’, ‘her’ and ‘him’) — this was among many other word-based dialect decisions.
Effectively the press controlled the development of English, which reduced the dialect differences, altered spellings, and ultimately lead to the standardization of English into Early Modern English. A major text that was officially printed in English for the first time (after several unofficial translations), was the Bible in 1611. This, of course, was a major influence on English speakers, most being heavily religious, so spread and helped standardize Early Modern English.
Alongside the printing press, with the renaissance, English had a peak in its Literary creativity and activity. As of the use of the English language to write literature, scientific journals, and other scholarly works, an estimated 12,000 new words were coined. Over time, in line with the rise of English nationalism, the language was used increasingly more in writing than Latin. This pushed several writers to the challenge — Thomas Wyatt, John Milton, Alexander Pope, and of course, William Shakespeare.
Above all others, it’s clear that Shakespeare had the largest influence. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, as of English’s malleable state, that one man took the language and shaped it into the English we know today. His use of nouns as verbs and adjectives, altering the common word order and creating entirely new words is evidence of some of the most rigorous changes in the shortest period of time. It is thought he coined over 2,500 neologism, phrases or even new words, such as ‘majestic’, ‘assassination’ and ‘excellent’. Shakespeare used this lose form of Early Modern English to set it up to become the English of today. A truly ‘excellent’ and ‘majestic’ writer.
The late 15th century to the mid-17th century was a time where the English that we know today would finally materialize for a variety of factors, and a few key individuals. Although Early Modern English evolved into Modern English, it would have been entirely possible for it to twist into a different form completely different from todays. After 1650, we essentially had come out of the period of a twisting language into a more stable and standardized version across the Island of Britain.
As of the current status of English on the world stage, nowadays English is more likely to influence other languages and cultures, rather than the opposite effect that was so prominent from Old English to Early Modern English. Though that doesn’t mean it won’t change ever again. Languages are always evolving, with new words finding their way into dictionaries and new phrases into everyday conversation as well as older ones slowly dying out. Though, in years to come, it's likely that the English your reading right now could be known as ‘Old World English’, written and spoken entirely differently to it is today.
