Features of Early Modern English

Question 1

When was the Early Modern English period?

Answer 1

Second half of 15th century (1450) to 1650

Question 2

Who’s writing is most famous for this time period?

Answer 2

Shakespear

Question 3

What was different about their second personal pronouns?

Answer 3

They had two formations:
“thou” - informal singular
“ye” - the plural formation and the formal singular

Question 4

What was another property of the pronouns?

Answer 4

They had different forms depending on their grammatical case

Question 5

The “thou” formations:

Answer 5

objective form - thee
possessive forms - thy and thine
reflexive and emphatic forms - thyself

Question 6

The “ye” formations:

Answer 6

objective form - you
possessive forms - your and yours
relexive and emphatic forms - yourself and yourselves

Question 7

The letter ‘S’

Answer 7

Had two distinctive lowercase forms and (long s)

Question 8

What was the difference between the use of and the ?

Answer 8

was only used at the end of the word
was used everywhere else
however double-lowercase-s was interchangeable of or

Question 9

What was another distinctive difference in orthography involving <u> and ?</u>

Answer 9

They were not two distinct different letters

Question 10

How were and <u> used differently from each other?</u>

Answer 10

was used at the beginning of words

<u> was used everywhere else </u>

Question 11

What was another distinctive difference in orthography involving <i> and ?</i>

Answer 11

They were not two distinct different letters

Question 12

What are the rules for using <i> and ?</i>

Answer 12

There was no rule to which order they were used in

Question 13

What was the letter and what was it used for?

Answer 13

The letter thorn which was used for the |th| sound

Question 14

What is the letter thorn sometimes written as?

Question 15

What is the silent ?

Answer 15

An was added onto the end of words

Question 16

What did the addition of the silent do?

Answer 16

Sometimes the consonant before it was doubled

Question 17

How was the sound |u| sometimes written as?

Question 18

What is one thing to remember with orthography in Early Modern English?

Answer 18

Nothing was stable. Quite often, in one text, the same word was written in multiple ways

Question 19

What was the old inflection of the third person singular present pronouns?

Answer 19

“eth” e.g. eateth

however, “s” survived

Question 20

What was different about the plural present form?

Answer 20

It used to be inflected

Question 21

What happened to the plural present form?

Answer 21

It became uninflected as they used to be marked with “en”, “th” or “s”

Question 22

How was the second person singular marked?

Answer 22

In both the present and past tense with “st” or “est”

Used instead of “ed”

Question 23

What became more common of modal auxiliaries?

Answer 23

They adopted their role which they still have today.

Question 24

What did this new meaning for modal auxiliaries mean?

Answer 24

There was no use of modals without the infinitive

e.g. I must _ to coventry

Question 25

What is the final “e” in some words known as?

Answer 25

Indeterminate “e”

Question 26

What happened to the Indeterminate “e”?

Answer 26

It disappeared from the spelling as it was no longer used in the pronunciation of the word (in Middle English it was pronounced?)

Question 27

What was the Great Vowel Shift?

Answer 27

A chain effect where the pronunciation of words was altered between 1300 and 1700