The History of English
Ch 8
The 15
thcentury following the death of Chaucer
marked a turning point in the internal history of
English, especially its pronunciation. During this
period, the language underwent great and very
important changes in pronunciation. Despite radical
changes in pronunciation, the old spelling was
It is a very important phonological change in the history of English. It helped to demark Middle English from Modern English. The pronunciation of all long vowels, and some short vowels was altered and changed. Simply stated, long vowel sounds began to be made higher (raised) and further forward in the mouth (fronted). These major changes
occurred within the relatively short space of a century or two, quite a sudden and dramatic shift in linguistic terms. The cause of this change is still unknown, and is the subject of a number of hypotheses under study until now. This shift is also one of the reasons of the discrepancy of the English pronunciation and its spelling. Spelling has been fixed
before the shift took place. In addition, after the shift, the vowel quality generally became more important than
quantity.
In phonological terms:
1. The Middle English high vowels
[i:]
and
[u:]
were diphthongized into
[ai]
and
[au].
2. Middle English mid-vowels were
raised one step, so the higher mid
[e:]
and
[o]
were raised to
[i]
and
[u]
, and
lower mid
[
ɛ:]
and
[
ɔ:]
to
[e]
and
[o]
,
respectively.
3. The low vowel
[a:]
was fronted and
raised in a number of steps to
[e]
.
The great vowel shift
vowel example i: → aɪ tyme/teem(ə)/ → time
u: → ɑʊ Hous→ house e: → i: /fet/ → feet
o: → u: goos /gohs/ → goose
ɛ: →e: → i: deel, dele /del/ → deal
ɔ: → oʊ ston /ston/ → stone
•
In the
Modern English period, which roughly started at
1500, certain new conditions came into play and
affected the English language in many different ways
.
The new factors were:
1. the printing press
2. rapid spread of popular education
3. The increased communication and means of
communication
4. The growth of specialized knowledge
5. the emergence of various forms of self consciousness
about language.
The invention of the process of printing which occurred in Germany during the middle of the 15th century exercised a far reaching
influence on all languages of Europe. It was introduced to England by William Caxton in 1476 and it made such a rapid progress
throughout the coming century. All old manuscripts were printed. In 1640, over 20,000 titles of books were printed ranging from small pamphlets to massive folios. The result was to bring books, which were formerly the expensive luxury of the few, within the reach of many. More importantly was the possibility of reproducing a book in a thousand or a hundred thousands of copies. A powerful force thus existed for promoting a standard, uniform language, and the means are now available for spreading the language throughout
England.
Such a widespread influence of printing would not be possible were it not for the fact that education was making
rapid progress among people and literacy was becoming much more common. At the later stages of the Middle English period, a surprising number of people of middle class could read and write. In Shakespeare’s London, it is probable that not less than a third and probably as many as
half of the people could at least read. In the 17th and 18th
centuries, prosperity among trade classes helped to obtain an education with ease, with the increase in the number of schools, journals, and the invention of novels. As a result of popular education, the printing press has been able to exert
its influence upon language and upon thought.
A third important factor is the rapid development in communication, through commerce, transportation, and other means of communication. The exchange of goods and the exchange of ideas are both stimulating to
language. The expansion of the British Empire through colonization and
the extension of trade enlarged the English vocabulary by words drawn
from every part of the world, beside spreading English over vast areas in the planet. But while diversification has been one of the results of transportation, unification has also resulted from ease of travel and communication. The steamship and railroad, the airplane, and cars have
brought people into contact with one another and joined communities hitherto isolated. Post office, telegraph, radio, telephone, television, and
electronic data transmission have been influential in unifying the language and lessening of language differences.
The fourth factor, the growth of specialized
knowledge, has been important not only
because new knowledge often requires new
vocabulary, but also because in early
centuries of the modern periods, Latin
became less and less the vehicle for learned
discourse. The rapid accumulation of new
knowledge was matched by a rapid trend in
publishing specialized knowledge in English.
This has two aspects: one individual and one public. At the individual level ,we may observe a phenomenon that has become intensely important in modern times: as people lift themselves into a different economic or intellectual or social level, they are likely to make an effort to adopt the standards of grammar and pronunciation of the people with whom they
have identified, just as they try to conform to fashions and tastes. However superficial such conformity might be, people
are as careful of their speech as of their manners. Awareness that there are standards of language is a part of their social
consciousness. Most people are less aware that such standards are largely accidental rather than absolute.
At the public level, a similar self-consciousness has
driven
issues of language policy
over the past four
centuries. The beginnings of this public discussion are
evident in the debates about orthography (spelling) and
enrichment of vocabulary. Anxiety about language
policy reached a new urgency in the second half of the
17
thC. From that time,
proposals for a language
academy continued and for the
‘
pure
’
shape English
ought to have had been an endless source of concern
.
These factors mentioned clearly affected the course of the English language. They were radical in matters of vocabulary and conservative in matters of grammar. By ‘radical’ we mean
a force that promotes change, as opposed to ‘conservative’
which promotes preserving and stableness of a condition. The printing press, the reading habit, the advances in learning and
science, and all forms of communication all stimulates the growth of vocabulary. These same factors, in addition to social
consciousness regarding language worked actively toward the establishment and maintenance of a standard in grammar and
in writing. Thus, changes in grammar in the modern period were slight but changes in vocabulary were extensive and
huge.
With all these changes and advances, modern
languages in Europe (including England) faced three
major problems:
1.
Recognition in the fields where Latin had been
supreme (learning and research).
2.
The establishment of a more uniform orthography
3.
The enrichment of the vocabulary so that it would
be adequate to meet current demands.
4.
In addition to the decision on a standard dialect.
English spelling was chaotic at that time. It was the
subject of much discussion. The trouble was not merely
that English spelling was bad, for it is still bad today, but
because there was no generally accepted system that
everyone could conform to. It was neither phonetic nor
fixed, because the Norman scribes introduced
considerable confusion when they tried to write a
language they imperfectly know, and carried over habits
that they had formed in writing French. The confusion
was increased when certain spellings gradually became
conventional while the pronunciation slightly changed.
The variability of English spelling was an important
part of the instability that people felt. Spelling
varied from one writer to another according to his
education and temperament. Some double the
long vowels, others add a final
–
e as to indicate a
long vowel. Some called to give up the writing
system available altogether and called for a
phonological system in which direct
correspondence between form and meaning can
be achieved.
There were many attempts among educated people to
improve the English language. The Renaissance was a period of increased activity and revolution of thought in almost every field (including language). The result was a healthy desire for
improvement. The scholarly domination of Latin throughout the Middle Ages left English undeveloped in many respects. English vocabulary was inadequate when compared to classical
languages. Translation from Greek and Latin revealed such great inadequacies. Thus, translators attempted to borrow from these languages. The greater number of these new words
came from Latin.
The first half of the 18th c. is often referred to as the Augustan Age.
In England, the age was characterized by a search for stability.
There was a strong sense of order, a high value of regulation, and a desire for system and regularity. This involves conformity to a standard that is generally regraded as correct. The era sets up correctness in language as an ideal and attempts to formulate
rules or principles by which correctness may be defined and achieved. And these standards must be established on valid reasons. The spirit of scientific rationalism in philosophy was
reflected in many other domains including language. Great
satisfaction was felt regarding things that can be logically justified.
Latin was considered a classical model (which was
seen as a model to be followed), and there were
attempts to build English
‘
pure
’
grammar on its rules.
So, the standard which they aimed at: 1) having its
basis in regularity, 2) justified by reason, 3)
supported by classical authority is regarded as
approaching perfection. Refinement and purification
were topics often discussed at this age, in addition to
permanence and stability of a language.
These intellectual tendencies are clearly seen in the 18th C. efforts
to standardize, refine, and fix the English language. Before the 18th
C., previous interests were in discussions such as 1) whether the English language was worthy of being used for science such as Latin (even though it was full of imperfections), 2) whether the
huge additions to vocabulary were justified, 3) and whether a more adequate system for spelling could be used. 4) But during the 18 C., the English grammar was under focus for the first time.
It was discovered that English had no grammar. Its grammar was largely uncodified and unsystemized. The ancient languages (Such
as Latin) were reduced to rules, one knew what was right and what was wrong. But in English everything was uncertain. In many
matters of grammatical usage, there was much variation even among educated people.
The respect for authoritative example, especially for classical example, takes the form of appeals to the analogy of Latin. There
was repeated demand for an English Academy (such as the French Academy). An idea which was usually expressed is that
English has been and is being daily corrupted, that it needs correction and refinement, and that when the necessary reforms
have taken place, it should be fixed permanently and protected from change. These goals were clearly mistaken, though.
Uncertainty was not the only problem that the 18th c. found in
English. The lack of a standard to which all might conform was believed to have resulted in many corruptions that were growing up unchecked. It was a subject of frequent lament
that for some time the language had been steadily going down. There was always a regretful backward glance at the good old days. Various periods of the past were supposed to
represent the highest perfection of English. For instance, Dryden considers the purity of English to start with Chaucer,
while Swift believed that the golden age of the English
language was the Elizabethan age. There were many attempts in the course of the century to purify the language and rid it of
supposed imperfections.
Jonathan Swift was an important figure of the period, who criticized the status of English during that time. He published a
well known book Proposal for Correcting, Improving and
Ascertaining the English Tongue (1710). In matters of language, he was a conservative. The things that specifically troubled him in his reflections of the current speech of his time were chiefly negative innovations such as the tendency to clip and shorten words that should have retained their full polysyllabic
dignity. He would have objected to taxi, phone, bus, ad, and the like. A second innovation that Swift opposed was the tendency to contract verbs like disturb’d in prose and verse. He
also objected to the use of some new words which were constantly added to the language.
One of the most ambitious hopes of the 18th C, was to stabilize
the language, to establish it in a form that would be
permanent. Swift talked about ‘fixing’ the language, and the word was echoed for fifty years later by many writers who believed the possibility of realizing it. The fear of language
change was an old one. Many notable people in various intellectual spheres thought that it would be possible to suspend the inevitable processes of growth and decay that characterize any living language. For that reason, there were
many calls to establish an English Academy similar to the earlier French and Italian academies.
The publication in 1755 of
A Dictionary of the English
Language
by
Samuel Johnson
in two huge Volumes was
a great achievement of the century. It was not perfect,
but it was
the first actual dictionary of English which
attempted to list all the English words
. It exhibited the
English vocabulary much more fully than had ever been
done before. It offered a spelling, fixed, even if
sometimes badly, that could be accepted as standard. It
supplied thousands of quotations illustrating the uses of
different words.
What Dr. Johnson had done to the vocabulary was
attempted for the syntax by the grammarians of
the 18
thC. There were numerous writers of the
field who aimed at establishing rules of
‘
correct
’
use of English. Among those are William Loughton
who published
Practical Grammar of the English
Tongue
(1734), and Robert Lowth (1762)
Short
Introduction to English Grammar
. All grammar
books were following the prescriptive school of
grammarians.
104. The 18
th
C. Grammarians and
What Dr. Johnson had done to the vocabulary was attempted for the syntax by the grammarians of the 18th C. There were
numerous writers of the field who aimed at establishing rules of ‘correct’ use of English. Among those are William Loughton
who published Practical Grammar of the English Tongue
(1734), and Robert Lowth (1762) Short Introduction to English Grammar. All grammar books were following the prescriptive
school of grammarians. An important aspect of the grammar of the period was the development and the wide extension of
progressive verb forms (-ing) forms.
104. The 18
th
C. Grammarians and
During this era, the foundation is being laid for the wide extension of English in the world which has resulted in its use throughout
more than a quarter of the earth’s surface. England entered the race for colonial territory late after Spain and France. The English settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth were the beginning of a process of colonization in North America. Meanwhile, England was also getting a foothold in India commercially first and political next. The beginnings of the English occupation of Australia and New
Zealand also occurred in the 18thC with the arrival of the English at the town of Sydney. The colonizing of Africa was largely the work of the 19th C. From Cape Town sprang the control of England over
many parts in Africa.
Such expansion of the English empire increased the opportunity for
local variation that has naturally resulted (American English,
Australian English, Indian English, South African English), but the
most obvious effects of English expansion are to be seen in the vocabulary. New territories mean new experiences, new things, new activities, new products, all of which are reflected in the
language. Contact with Native Americans resulted in a number of characteristic words such as moose, raccoon, skunk. From other parts of America, especially where the Spanish and the Portuguese were settles, English derived many words such as chili, chocolate, etc. From India come bandana, bungalow, cashmere. From Africa, English gained zebra, chimpanzee, gorilla, etc. Australia contributed many terms such as Kangaroo and Boomerang.
Among the most striking characteristics about our present day civilization is the part that advances in science has played in it. Many technical words which were there to serve science and were only known to the specialist are now part of the
vocabulary of any layperson and are in general use. In the
field of medicine, everyone talks about anemia, immunology, aspirin, insulin, iodine, penicillin, metabolism, proteins,
carbohydrates, enzymes, and Cholesterol. In the filed of electricity, we have words like dynamo, electron and electronics, atomic energy, hydrogen bomb, laser, etc.
Chemistry contributed words like benzine, radium, ozone, etc.
Chapter 10 the 19
th
Century and after
Another example of how great events leave their mark upon language can be seen in the effect of the two World Wars on
English. Many military terms representing new methods of warfare were added to English during World War I such as air raid, gas mask, etc. Some of these were borrowed, others were already in English but adapted to new uses. Some expressions were there in the
language but got popularized by the war such as machine, gun and periscope.
World War II was less productive of memorable words. But just as Word War I did, it added new words, new meanings, and increased the currency for some expressions. Among these words are shelter, jeep, bulldozer, radar, cold war.
The processes through which any language expands its vocabulary are usually the same. A principle source is borrowing. Borrowings was active in English especially during the Modern English period which remarked vast expansion in vocabulary. During the modern period, English borrowed from French words like Chauffeur, chiffon, garage, From Indian Karma, confetti, from Spanish canyon, patio, from Mexican Spanish in Southwestern United States fajita, nachos, tacos, tortilla, from German gestalt, from Russian vodka, from
Japanese sushi, soy. All such words gave English vocabulary a cosmopolitan, international nature and made it possible for it to gain international position as a lingua France of the whole world during the information age that we live in now.
1. Self-explaining compounds is one of the oldest methods of word formation in English which actually started in the Old English period. In the modern age we have compounds
such as fingerprint, lipstick, lifestyle, greenhouse.
2. Prefixes and suffixes: preschool age, prenatal, prehistoric, from WWI counterattack, superman.
3. 3. Coinages which means deliberate invention of new words as Kodak, refrigerator, Xerox, Kleenex, zipper.
Sometimes, the initial letters of a phrase make a new word such as radar (radio detecting and ranging).