Early Modern English

Question 1

Characteristics of Early Modern English period 7x

Answer 1

1485 - 1800

• War of the Roses = house of Plantagenet split into Lancaster & York. Red rose / White Rose. Lancaster won = Henry VII
• Tudors: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Bloody Mary I, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I & Charles II
• gunpowder plot during James I reign
• Charles I; beheaded in front of Banqueting House (London Palace of the Monarch)
• English Civil War (after beheading Charles I)
• English Common Wealth (interbellum period with no monarch)

Question 2

Renaissance 6x

Answer 2

1500-1650

• Tudors (Elizabethan period & Shakespeare)
• Discovering new worlds (Drake & Columbus)
• Englightenment = periode of science
• Coining new words to replace Latin + French
• Great changes in language; transfer from Middle E to Modern E.
  
  • Great vowel shift

Question 3

Great Vowel Shift 3x

Answer 3

• long vowels (monothongs) 1 or more steps up in use of tongue or become diphthongs
• short vowels remained the same
• unaccented endings (vowels) became schwa

Examples:

tide: ti:de [tiede] => taid [taid]
house: hu:s [hoes] => heus [hous]

Question 4

Changing conditions Modern Period 6x

Answer 4

• rapid spread of popular education
• more literacy
• increased communication + means of communication
• trade to new worlds = spreading languages + new words entered language
• Growth of specialized knowledge (science)
• New knowledge = new language & Latin not sufficient

Various forms of self-consciousness about language (move up society = adjust to language policies)

Question 5

Affects of changes Modern Period on Grammar & Vocabulary 2x

Answer 5

• changes in society = changes in vocabulary
• strive for a standard = stability in grammar & vocab + future readability

Question 6

Problem of Orthography 6x

Answer 6

• neither phonetic nor fixed
• descrepancy between symbol & sound
• spelling chaotic; different from one person to the next
• final -e indicating lengthened vowel
• Richard Mulcaster: analogy for words that sounded the same (standard rules of the masses)
• By 1650 spelling reasonably standard

Question 7

What is orthography?

Answer 7

An accepted way of spelling

Question 8

Why was there still a lot of borrowing words in the 2nd half of the 16th century from other languages? 4

Answer 8

• Developments in knowledge and learning
• Reform of the church by Henry VIII
• Discovery of America (1492 Columbus & 1566/67 Francis Drake)
• Revolution of thought

Question 9

What type of adaptations were common in the 16th century?

Answer 9

The Latin endings were dropped or changed.

Example: exoticus = exotic / frequentia = frequency

Question 10

Name 3 classes to which 16th century purists objected.

Answer 10

• inkhorn terms
• oversea languages
• Chaucerism

Question 11

What is an inkhorn term?

Answer 11

extraordinary word which is a foreign borrowing used to show off

Question 12

What are oversea languages and why would the 16th century purist object to them?

Answer 12

Words from Italy, Spain used by the upper class to show they were able to spend some time abroad (for their education.) Often refering to their ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. Purist disliked any foreign influence and showing off.

Question 13

What is Chaucerism?

Answer 13

Using old fashioned English words to show off ones knowledge. Most often words by Chaucer were used for this purpose like y-bore instead of born.

Question 14

How did new words enter the English language in the 16th century? 4x

Answer 14

• Latin = writing via churchmen & scholars
• Scandinavian = spoken (trade)
• French = spoken (trade, preference)
• Romance languages = Italian/Spanish = books/writers (literature)

Question 15

How were people explained how to interpret new words? 3

Answer 15

• Adding Latin translations = Using the reader’s knowledge of Latin
• Adding explanation to the words
• Add the English synonym. Ex: education or bringing up of children

Question 16

Dictionaries of Hard Words 3x

Answer 16

1582< In order to help facilitate their adoption into general use.

• only difficult words
• explained in Latin

Question 17

How did the English Renaissance affect the English language? (period + 4 elements)

Answer 17

late 15th century - early 17th century

• 12000 words added (6000 still in use)
• Majority derive from Latin (language of scholars and science)
• Introduced through written language
• Spread through printing press

Question 18

King James Bible

Answer 18

1611 Official translation of the Christian Bible in English, one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world. Sponsered by King James I.

Question 19

William Shakespeare 6x

Answer 19

1564 - 1616

• Sponsored by Elizabeth I
• Largest vocabulary
• accepted new words
• Changed pronunciation; tay for tea / blood-mood-good rhymed
• Different empahsis in words; sécure / demónstrate / welcóme

Question 20

Grammatical differences between Renaissance English & Modern English (5 categories)

Answer 20

1. Noun
   
   • -n / -s; kneen - knees
   • genitive; -es (-is/ys) + word order. Ex: The Duke’s niece of Gloucester
2. Adjective;
   
   • comparative -er/-est-more/most; Shakespearean honester/violentest
3. Pronoun;
   
   • thou, thy, thee => you, ye (opp thou = children/inferior / you = superior)
   • Neuter = neutral hit & his => it & its
   • whom => who
4. Verb;
   
   • Shakespeare no auxiliairy = Goes the King hence today?
   • Hardly any progressive forms (continuous); What do you read, my lord
   • Impersonal uses; It yearns me not, it dislikes me)
   • Third person -eth (South) => -s (women first = illiterate => spoken language)
   • Analogy; strong verbs => weak verbs
5. Usage & Idiom;
   
   • Shakespeare ommited article; with as big heart as thou)
   • Negative without auxiliairy; she not denies it.
   • Double negative; nor understood non neither.
   • Different uses preposition; One that I brought up of a puppy (from a puppy)

Question 21

General characteristics Early Modern English as a language. 8x

Answer 21

1. Conscious interest
2. Attention to its problems
3. English as worthy as Latin
4. Noblemen taught their children in English
5. Wish to enlarge its vocabulary
6. Wish to regulate its spelling
7. Rising of a Standard => great vowel shift, printing press
8. People experimented; nouns used as verbs