Modern EnglishOr: How nobody could make up their mind

Early Modern English • 1500-1700 : Migration to large cities

gave a new vocabulary

• Freedom of ideas needed names, e.g. “Humanism” & “Nature philosophy” got a major comeback

• A Bible in English gave a wider discussion about a standardised language

• Scientific texts, mostly in Latin and some in English gave a new Lat./Eng. Jargon

• English spared to Wales, Scotland and Ireland

Reorganising the Language

• Now everybody spoke English – Church, Queen and people

• Latin worked as a status divider in society – Latin became a University language

• It was now used to explain new concepts and techniques rather than damnation and religious dogmas as the Church of England went with English

Elizabeth I took an interest in both culture and language and though that the best way to unite a country was through language

Standardization and creation…• Debate between scholars regarding loan

words vs. created words started during the 17th century. A never-ending discussion concerning whether to protect or advance a language started.

• The first dictionary was about the ordinary people understanding the words that the educated scholars used. Not every word used in the English language

• Scholars started writing ”higher” literature to go with their new scientific language. Not really research papers but literature to satify the learned

Internal influences (what changed in the language)

• Spelling changed more and more from Old English to the present

• Still displaying variation (English is still not yet uniform)• Style came in more and more, e.g. Capital letters are

being used more frequently• Grammar became more standardiced;

The structure of the sentences changed, modern English has a subject-verb-object structure, old and middle english had a reversed structure: ferde he (he traveled)…Not that there was one way to actually spell something or say something

• The most dramatic change from old/middle english to modern english are the words that have been borrowed from Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, Italian and Chinese. Thank you colonialism and curious people

• Other words have ceased to exist since we no longer need them.

• Broadening started to happen, which is a process that describes how a word’s meaning is stretched;

Holy day -> holiday

• Narrowing also happened, which describes the opposite;

Wife was used for all women, where as in in modern English it is only used for married women.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary changed• New words were also invented, such

as: education, animate and persist • – all from Shakespeare

• Early forms of slang came: doxy for a woman of the street , prig – thief, fokkinge, krappe and bugger

• All brought by sailors

• Development of language goes hand in hand with political status as England wanted to measure up to Spain and France.

• So naming things with English words rather than French or Latin became important

Getting closer to modern English pronunciation

• Some sounds simply disappeared from the pronunciation of certain words; gnaw, Knight (the silant G and K)

• Some words were changed through a shift of a sound within the word, frist -> first

• The Great Vowel Shift – style even took over sounds as double vowel sounds becomes longer

Feet (Fet) – became feet Boot (Bot) – boot

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/paths.jsp

Our English today

• The language we use today was overall completed during the 18th and 19th century

• Internal changes within language slowed down and new external influences came from the colonies.

• Linguists searched for stability, correctness and standardisation

• The enlightenment brought new words such as: colonist, idealist

• In post revolution literature Romanticism brought us words like: colonial, hysteria, phobia

• Industrial Revolution needed machines, tools, and specific labour named. The most common new words were:

• Steam engine, sewing machine, camera, mines lamp, stethoscope, technician, machinist

19th and 20th saw new variations

• Pidgin English becomes recognised as actual versions of the language during the second half of the 19th century

• During the 20th century linguists started to study the varieties and established that:

• Pidgin English is a trade language built around slang (vocabulary, broken grammar)

• Creole English is a complete language like American English or Australian English (vocabulary, grammar, spelling)

• The most common creole and pidgin variations are: • Jamaican & Hawaiian

• Every since 1970 Linguists have moved from the study of standardisation and correctness to dialects/sociolects/pidgin/creole

• These varieties have also come to fascinate writers as well and some of the best loved novels and films contains these varieties.

Take a moment to think…

• Can you come to think of any books and films with a dialect/sociolect/pidgin/creole?