Orthographical change Flashcards
Non-standard spelling is common in old texts, but where might we see examples of modern non-standard spelling?
✔in text messaging (and related forms such as MSN, Facebook or Twitter postings, blogs, emails, etc.)
✔ in brand names and marketing, e.g.
✔ in popular music, e.g. Snoop Dogg, 2 Chainz
✔ in representations of dialect, e.g. “Don’t deny it, bruv, cos I was dere when u was actin all smoove wid her n dat” (Gautam Malkani’s 2006 novel, Londonstani)
English spelling is complex and irregular, and it has only been largely fixed since the eighteenth century. What two things began this process of fixing spelling?
Printing and Samuel Johnson’s dictionary.
Name five influences on English spelling.
- Conquest of England by the French-speaking Normans in 1066.
- Scholars eager to find connections to Latin introduced some obscure spellings:
- The introduction of printing in the 15th century began to fix English spelling.
- Belgian printers made mistakes and were paid by the line. They lengthened words to earn more money, or to make margins look neater.
- Spelling began to be standardised by teachers. In 1595, Edmond Coote, published ‘The English Schoolemaister’.
Name three things that happened after the Great Vowel shift.
- Long vowel sounds (e.g. ay, ee, etc) changed hence the mismatch of the long vowel sounds of English with their counterparts in other European languages.
- A number of sets of vowel sounds that had formerly been distinct became identical, while their spelling distinction was largely maintained. Important examples are:
o the long vowel a in mane and the diphthong ay or ai in may, main
o the long mid vowel o in sloe, so and the diphthong ow or ou in slow, sow
o the diphthong represented by u in due and the diphthong ew, eu in dew, neuter.
- Numerous conditioned changes (i.e. changes in the sound of a vowel or consonant when in the vicinity of another sound) also contributed to the mismatch. When long vowels were shortened in certain positions a given spelling could show either a long vowel or diphthong or a short vowel that would normally be spelt another way. For example:
o ou in double, trouble and oo in blood, flood and good, hook became identical with short u (either as in bud or as in put).
o similarly originally long ea in bread, lead (the metal) became identical with e in bred, led.
o in southern (standard) English the short vowel u became an unrounded central vowel in most words (bud, cut) but remained a close rounded vowel in certain environments (full, put); the latter vowel subsequently merged with the originally long vowel spelt oo which had become short in certain environments (good, hook).
List three consequences of changes in the pronunciation of consonant sounds during the early modern English period.
o initial k- and g- ceased to be pronounced before n (as in knight, gnaw) as did initial w- before r (as in write).
o final -b and -g ceased to be pronounced after nasal consonants (lamb, hang) as did medial -t- in such words as thistle and listen.
o in late Middle English l became a vowel after back vowels or diphthongs in certain positions (as in talk, folk), but the spelling remained.
o in certain dialects of Middle English the velar fricative [x] (like ch in loch), written gh, either disappeared (as in night, bought) or became [f] (as in rough); in standard English the old pronunciation of gh continued until about 1600, but was then replaced by the present pronunciation. Because gh was now mainly silent it was introduced into several words where it did not etymologically belong (delight, inveigh, sprightly).
Which pairs of letters were used differently at the start of the sixteenth century from present-day English?
1). u and v were graphic variants of a single letter.
And we defende thee that thou be not so hardy for euer to do vyolence vnto the holy token of the crosse the whiche we put in his forhede.
2). Similarly, j was only an extended form of i.
by the whiche they ben Justely adiuged
3). The letter y was commonly used for the vowel i,
And man ought to byleue that the fayth of this artycle is deed that bereth not here the fruyte of this werke.
4). Instead of t in the ending now usually spelt -tion the letter c was frequently used.
He is very lorde by creacyon by redempcyon & for ye resurreccyon.
Why did printers stop using the long s?
To give the lines ‘the effect of being more open’ and to avoid the confusion of long s with f.
When did Samuel Johnson publish his English dictionary?
1755
When did Noah Webster publish his American dictionary?
1828
Name two reasons why American spelling is often different to English.
- Following the American War for Independence from 1775 to 1783, Americans were keen to break free from their association with England.
- Webster reasoned that many spelling conventions were artificial and needlessly confusing, so he urged altering many words: musick to music, centre to center, and plough to plow, for example
