History of British English Flashcards
Old English Period of Language
5th century to mid 1100s
The languages of Britain were Celtic. English developed from the speech of the Angles, Jutes and Saxons. Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse had significant influence; vocabulary being drawn from both. English was largely phonetic, with little consistency in writing.
Middle English Period of Language
mid 1100s-1500s
French was the verbal language of the court and administration (due to the Norman invasion), whilst Latin was the written language (due to the Church). English became more prominent due to writers, such as Chaucer, using English to write, rather than French. Dialectal differences remained around the country.
Early Modern Period of Language
1500s to 1700s
Caxton introduced the printing press (1476), contributing to the establishment of a standard English. The SE dialect was used as the basis for this. The popularity of English spread due to English writers and playwrights. James 1 commissioned the Authorised Version of the Bible.
Modern English period of Language
1700s to 1930s
The English language had grown at an incredible rate, with words borrowed from Latin, Greek and further afield; the spread of the British Empire also influenced this. Grammarians began to propose correct ways of speaking and writing.
Present English Period of Language
English has continued to develop and the influence of the media, technology and travel has helped to establish English as a global language.
y to i change
The spelling change from ‘y’ in Middle English to ‘i’ in Modern English in such words as wife or time is actually a consequence of the phenomenon known as the Great Vowel Shift.
Going back to Old English, the most common spelling for wife and time would be:
- For wife wīf and it would be pronounced something like “weef”
- For time tīma and it would be pronounced “teema” /ˈtiːma/1.
The letter ‘y’ in Old English does exist but it represents the sound /y/ (as in German ‘ü’ or French ‘u’). See for instance lȳtel /ˈlyːtel/ => “little”.
The upheaval triggered by the Norman Invasion, which eventually gave birth to Middle English was marked, among other things, by a change in the spelling conventions. The usage of the letter ‘y’ was generalised for all words with the sound /i/ or /i:/, thereby following the rules applied in medieval French.
Therefore, the spelling of /wi:f/ as wyf became the rule.
In Early Modern English the ‘y’ is pronounced ‘ee’ as in beauty and not ‘eye’ as in why.
In Modern English the Great Vowel shift was only starting and wyf was now wife (waif). As the pronunciation shifted, so did the the spelling. The most common letter for the diphthong /aɪ/ being the letter ‘i’ 2 the new spelling for /waɪf/ became our familiar wife.
The spelling used for Old English is a new system at the time of king Ælfred. It is based on an extended Latin alphabet and it closely reflects the pronunciation of the time. Although there are inevitably some spelling variants, we are pretty sure of the pronunciation of such common words as wīf and tīma.
u, v and w
As the Phoenician script spread through the Mediterranean world, neighboring cultures adapted it to their own languages. In Greek, it became the upsilon—Υ, or υ in the lower case. In Latin, it became the v, which, despite its appearance, had the phonological value of our long u. The current, rounded form did not emerge in the Latin alphabet until the second century, when a book script developed that lost the angularity of earlier Roman scripts principally used for carving into stone.
The letters u and v will be considered together, as in the medieval period they were interchangeable. In Latin there was no difference between them, and some Latin grammars refer to v as “consonantal u”. How it was actually pronounced is contentious.
In classical Latin, the alphabet didn’t have a “U” or “W” symbol; instead, they used “V” for both the vowel and consonant sounds “uh” and “wuh.” For example, Augustus was written as “Avgvstvs,” and the word “Volcanvs” was pronounced “wolcanus.” Over time though, the “wuh” consonant use of the “V” letter transitioned into the “vee” sound we know today. This evolution of letter pronunciation is a significant part of the history of the English alphabet.
The letter “W” is called “double u” because it was originally formed by placing two “U” letters side by side to represent the “wuh” sound in Old English, which adapted the Latin script. Although “W” looks like two “V” letters, its name reflects its historical writing as “UU,” influenced by the evolution of the English alphabet and Latin alphabet development.
The and Ye as definite articles
When printing was introduced to Great Britain, Caxton and other English printers used Y in place of Þ (thorn: Modern English th), which did not exist in continental typefaces. From this convention comes the spelling of the as ye in the mock archaism Ye Olde Shoppe. But, in spite of the spelling, pronunciation was the same as for modern the (stressed /ðiː/, unstressed /ðə/). Pronouncing the article ye as yee (/jiː/) is purely a modern spelling pronunciation.
Robert Lowth
Robert Lowth was a prescriptivist. Introduced the first grammar book for the English Language.
1700-1800 18th c
Inkhorn Controversy
The extended dispute from the 15th to 16th century over whether English should continue to add words from Greek and Latin.
The “controversy” arose over the massive influx of new words pouring into English from Latin (and other languages). Such words–called “inkhorn terms” because they were deliberately introduced into the language, largely by scholars, and were deemed by some to be “pretentious” or “artificial”–drastically increased the lexicon of English, and enabled authors like William Shakespeare to write with all the richness and variety they could muster.
The Great Vowel Shift
otto jesperson
Changed the way words were pronounced – vowels became shorter, so leef became life and teem became time.
William Caxton 1476
Caxton introduced the printing press from Europe. Caxton chose the East Midlands (London, Oxford, Cambridge) dialect to print works in and this soon became the most prestigious form of English. Many texts could now be mass-produced which meant that there was a move towards standardisation in how they were printed.
Shakespeare’s influence in the development of English
Wrote down his plays in English. Created new words and changed word classes - moving nouns to verbs, etc.
Shakespeare introduced 1,700 original words into the language, many of which we still use (despite significant changes to the language since Shakespeare’s time). These words include: “lonely,” “frugal,” “dwindle,” and many more.
In addition to all these words, many phrases that we use daily originated in Shakespeare’s work. When you talk about “breaking the ice” or having a “heart of gold,” or when you use any number of other phrases, you’re using Shakespeare’s language.
1611
King James I Bible - translated latin into English
Robert Cawdrey 1604
Published a dictionary solely in English. This was the first single-language English dictionary ever published. Cawdrey wanted the English Language to be better organised, and he felt that the dictionary would help the reader to understand challenging words and be able to read and write ‘properly’. He starts the dictionary with an address to the reader in which he criticises the poor standard of English spoken by many members of the public.
Académie Française
This is the principal French council for matters pertaining to the French language. This council regulates language in attempts to standardise it
Jonathan Swift 1712
He thought the English language was in chaos. He thought contractions were ‘corrupting’ English because they were inelegant. He proposed the appointment of experts to advise on English use.
Samuel Johnson 1755
He published his ‘Dictionary of the English Language’. Writers had attempted this before, but his was larger and more thorough than earlier versions.
