Features of Early Modern English Flashcards
When was the Early Modern English period?
Second half of 15th century (1450) to 1650
Who’s writing is most famous for this time period?
Shakespear
What was different about their second personal pronouns?
They had two formations:
“thou” - informal singular
“ye” - the plural formation and the formal singular
What was another property of the pronouns?
They had different forms depending on their grammatical case
The “thou” formations:
objective form - thee
possessive forms - thy and thine
reflexive and emphatic forms - thyself
The “ye” formations:
objective form - you
possessive forms - your and yours
relexive and emphatic forms - yourself and yourselves
The letter ‘S’
Had two distinctive lowercase forms and (long s)
What was the difference between the use of and the ?
was only used at the end of the word
was used everywhere else
however double-lowercase-s was interchangeable of or
What was another distinctive difference in orthography involving <u> and ?</u>
They were not two distinct different letters
How were and <u> used differently from each other?</u>
was used at the beginning of words
<u> was used everywhere else </u>
What was another distinctive difference in orthography involving <i> and ?</i>
They were not two distinct different letters
What are the rules for using <i> and ?</i>
There was no rule to which order they were used in
What was the letter and what was it used for?
The letter thorn which was used for the |th| sound
What is the letter thorn sometimes written as?
What is the silent ?
An was added onto the end of words
What did the addition of the silent do?
Sometimes the consonant before it was doubled
How was the sound |u| sometimes written as?
What is one thing to remember with orthography in Early Modern English?
Nothing was stable. Quite often, in one text, the same word was written in multiple ways
What was the old inflection of the third person singular present pronouns?
“eth” e.g. eateth
however, “s” survived
What was different about the plural present form?
It used to be inflected
What happened to the plural present form?
It became uninflected as they used to be marked with “en”, “th” or “s”
How was the second person singular marked?
In both the present and past tense with “st” or “est”
Used instead of “ed”
What became more common of modal auxiliaries?
They adopted their role which they still have today.
What did this new meaning for modal auxiliaries mean?
There was no use of modals without the infinitive
e.g. I must _ to coventry
What is the final “e” in some words known as?
Indeterminate “e”
What happened to the Indeterminate “e”?
It disappeared from the spelling as it was no longer used in the pronunciation of the word (in Middle English it was pronounced?)
What was the Great Vowel Shift?
A chain effect where the pronunciation of words was altered between 1300 and 1700
