History of English Language: Middle English to Modern English
Middle English: Timeline and Orthography
1066: Normans conquer England, replacing English nobility with Anglo-Normans. Norman French becomes the language of English government. 1204: King John loses Normandy to the French, loosening ties between England and the Continent. 1258: Henry III issues the first English-language royal proclamation — growth of the English constitution and Parliament. 1337: The Hundred Years’ War begins (and lasts until 1453), promoting English nationalism. 1348: The Black Death (one third of England’s population is killed). 1430: The Chancery office (where legal records are deposited) begins record-keeping in a form of East Midland English, pushing it to become the written standard. 1476: William Caxton brings printing to England, promoting literacy. 1485: Henry Tudor becomes King of England, ending the Wars of the Roses.
Orthography and Early Borrowing
Not only words were borrowed from French, but also spelling conventions. Orthography and spelling were heavily influenced by French scribes, and there is considerable variation among texts. In Old English (OE): ash ⟨æ⟩, eth ⟨ð⟩, thorn ⟨þ⟩ and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ (plus about 20 Latin-alphabet letters).
Letters Not Used and Replacements
OE did not use the letters ˂j, v, w, k, q, z˃ in the same way as later English. The OE vowel ⟨æ⟩ was no longer used in Middle English (ME). The symbol was sometimes kept to represent the digraph ˂ae˃ in words with Latin or Greek origin (also ˂œ˃ was used for ˂oe˃). ð and þ represented /θ/ and its allophone [ð] in OE. ˂ð˃ stopped being used first, though ˂þ˃ was still used by some scribes to represent these sounds, especially in Early ME. Both sounds came to be represented by ˂th˃, e.g. OE ðringan (‘to press’) becomes ME thringen. Scribes wrote “the” as þͤ or þᵉ. With the invention of printing, ˂y˃ replaced ˂þ˃. This led to the modern misrepresentation of ˂þ˃ as ˂y˃ (e.g. ye for the). The digraph ˂ch˃ replaces OE ˂ċ˃ to represent the phoneme /tʃ/, e.g. OE ċīld (‘child’) becomes ME child. The phoneme /ʃ/ is now represented by the digraph ˂sh˃ as opposed to the OE ˂sc˃: OE sceran (‘to shear’) → ME sheren; OE sceal → ME shall.
Other Letter Changes
˂ƿ˃, which at some points had been written as ˂uu˃, gets replaced by ˂w˃ (double-u) by the 13th century. Yogh ˂ȝ˃ was used for [j], [x], [ç], whereas ˂g˃ was used for [g] and [dʒ]. Yogh was later replaced by ˂j˃ or ˂y˃, and by ˂gh˃, e.g. niȝt → night.
New Letters Added
New letters were added (from French): ˂j˃ (varied with ˂i˃), ˂v˃ (OE ˂u˃), ˂q(u)˃ (OE ˂cw˃) and ˂z˃ (varied with ˂s˃). OE didn’t use ˂v˃ but ˂f˃ to spell the sound that developed internally: e.g. drifen ‘driven’, hæfde ‘had’. No native Old English words begin with /v/. When ˂v˃ is introduced in ME, ˂v˃ and ˂u˃ are used indistinctively for the [v] and [u] sounds (typically, word-initially ˂v˃ is used and ˂u˃ is used elsewhere), e.g. very, vsury, euer.
˂q(u)˃ and Sound-to-Spelling Correspondences
˂q(u)˃ increasingly used for the OE sequence ˂cw˃: OE cwellan → ME quellen ‘to kill’, OE cwēn → ME queen. ˂c˃ represented /k/, but also /s/ before ˂e˃, ˂i˃, ˂y˃ (e.g. citee, grace). This encouraged use of ˂k˃ increasingly before ˂e˃, ˂i˃, ˂y˃ to spell /k/. OE cynn ‘race’ → ME kin, kyn. OE h at the start of words was deleted in some positions: hring → ring. ˂gg˃ replaces OE ˂cg˃ to spell [dʒ]: OE ecg → ME egg ‘edge’.
Phonology: Vowels
Vowels: Few changes to vowels in stressed syllables. Scribes sometimes used double vowels to indicate long vowels. There was sound reduction in unstressed syllables, changes in vowel quantity, and changes in vowel quality (11th–13th centuries).
Short Vowels
Short vowels: V → [ǝ] (and later loss of [ǝ] in final position). e.g. OE nacod → ME naced, OE oxa → ME oxe. In contexts where [ǝ] was followed by /d/ or /s/ (preterite, plural, genitive), [ǝ] was also lost (OE botes → ME boats), except for word endings in a sibilant for –s, and alveolar for –d.
Long Vowels and Quantity Changes
Long vowels: V: → V. e.g. wīsdōm → wisdom; hāmtūn → Hampton; -līc → -ly; ān → one.
Changes in vowel quantity — Pre-cluster shortening: V: → V / ___CC(C). Examples: fīftīg → fifty; wīsdōm → wisdom; fēdde → fed; lǣdde → led; nēhste → next. Paradigmatic variation also appears (keep – kept; wise – wisdom).
Pre-cluster lengthening: V → V: / ___ld, mb, nd. Example: OE [tʃɪld] → ME [tʃild]; note ME [tʃɪldrǝn].
Trisyllabic shortening: V: → V / ___C(C)VCV. Examples: hāliġdæġ → holiday; sūderne → Southern; scōlere → scholar.
Changes in Vowel Quality (11th–13th c.)
[æ] → [ɑ], which affected spelling; ˂æ˃ was no longer used. ▪ OE cræft → ME craft. [æ:] → [ɛ:], affecting spelling; ˂æ˃ was no longer used. ▪ OE sæ → ME se ‘see’. [y] → [ɪ] / [y:] → [i]. ▪ OE brycg → ME brigg. [ɑ:] → [ɔ:] (NOT IN THE NORTH, where [ɑ:] → [a:]). ▪ OE ban → ME bon ‘bone’, OE bat → ME bot ‘boat’.
Phonology: Consonants
Consonants: Sound reduction in unstressed syllables.
Final Consonant Changes
Final consonants: [m] → [n] / ___# e.g. dagum → dagen (day); þæm → þan (than). [n] → Ø / ___# e.g. verb inflections: singen → singe → sing.
Main Consonantal Developments
Phonologization of voiced fricatives: [v, ð, z] → /v, ð, z/. In OE, <f>, <ð, þ>, <s> represented voiced [v, ð, z] and voiceless [f, θ, s] sounds and they were found in complementary distribution. Context determined which sound was used in OE: between vowels or with a voiced consonant [v, ð, z]; word-initial, word-final, or adjacent to other consonants [f, θ, s]. In ME they became separate phonemes because they occurred in environments that were no longer predictable.
Causes: French borrowings (e.g. veal, victory, zeal, zodiac, vine, vein); unstressed function words (the, that, this, these, those, though, is, of, was…); southern voicing (vixen < fixen; vader < fadar; zonne < sonne); loss of final schwa (nosu → nose; lufu → love; wifen → wives).
Loss and Change of Consonants
Loss of consonants: [x] → Ø / #___[l, r, n] e.g. hlaford → lord; hrafn → raven; hnutu → note. [x] → Ø / #___[w] e.g. hwære → where; hwa → who; hwæt → what. [x] → Ø or [f] / __# e.g. dah → dough; ruh → rough; þurh → through; dwerh → dwarf; enuh → enough; heah → high.
[x, ç] → Ø /__C (esp. [t]) (plus compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel) e.g. dohter → daughter; brohte → brought; kniht → knight; briht → bright; auht → ough. [r] → Ø / __C e.g. marster → master. [l] → Ø / __C, # e.g. ælċ → each; swylċ → such; hwylċ → which; mulche → much.
[w] → Ø / __V [+front, +high] e.g. sweoster → sister; swylċ → such; swote → sweat. [j] → Ø / __V [+front, +high] e.g. gyċċan → itch; gif → if. [b] → Ø / [m] __# e.g. lamb, limb, climb. [v] → Ø / V __V e.g. loverd → lord. [tʃ] → Ø / __# e.g. Iċ → I; -liċ → ly. [jǝ] → [i] / # __ e.g. perfect prefix (regionally reduced to Ø).
Minor Consonantal Developments
Fricative weakening: [d] → [ð] / __V+[r] ▪ e.g. fæder → father; modor → mother; gæderian → gather.
Assimilation: [ð] → [d] / __ [n, l] ▪ e.g. fiðl → fiddle; burðn → burden. [m] → [n] / __ C [+alveolar] ▪ e.g. skammt → scant; æmete → ant; Mamechestre → Manchester.
Dissimilation: [θ] → [t] / C [+fricative] __ ▪ e.g. þeofþu → theft; nosþyrl → nostril; hehþu → height; druhþu → drought.
Epenthesis and Metathesis
Epenthesis: Insertion of a stop homorganic to a nasal preceding another stop or liquid. This results from mistiming: raising the velum prematurely in transition from a nasal to an oral segment. Examples: þunre → thunder, æmetig → empty, þymel → thimble, sċæmles → shambles, nimel → nimble.
Metathesis: Inversion in order of two usually adjacent segments, especially when one of the consonants is [s] or [r]. Examples: wæps → wasp, forst → frost, brinnan → burn, þride → third, bride → bird, þurh → through.
Language: Lexicon and Borrowing
Growth of the English vocabulary through borrowing from French, Latin, and Norse. Borrowings often came from areas of life associated with the donor languages: Latin → religion (rosary, scripture), French → prestige (majesty, chivalry), Norse → day-to-day concepts (freckle, egg).
French Borrowings
French: French is the main source for ME lexical borrowing. It started slowly (fewer than 1,000 loans before 1250). Examples by domain: Religion: nativity, mercy. Court: countess, chancellor, noble. Literature: story, rhyme. From 1250 onwards, borrowing steadily increases, especially in administration (government, state, parliament, treaty, tax, county, justice, court, crime, judge, complaint, accuse, arrest, seize), fashion (fashion, dress, coat, button, jewel, pearl, blue, brown, lace), social life (music, conversation, chair, lamp, wardrobe, luxury), food (dinner, appetite, taste, bacon, venison, pork, sausage, salad, roast, boil, fry), military (army, navy, peace, enemy, battle, soldier, spy, guard), religion (religion, prayer, faith, temptation, divine, devout, preach, repent), kinship (aunt, uncle, nephew, niece), trade (butcher, barber, tailor), art/learning/medicine (beauty, color, image, prose, romance, pain, anatomy).
“The introduction of French words into English follows closely the progressive adoption of English by the upper classes.” There are many borrowings from French, but words often look different in French and English because they evolved differently in the two languages.
Anglo-Norman and Central French Dialects
Anglo-Norman was a dialect of French, as was Central French. Dialectal differences included: Anglo-Norman retained ca- (carry, cauldron) while Central French became cha- (charrier, chaudron). Anglo-Norman kept w- (waster → waste) while Central French had gu- (gaster). Other examples: reward, warren, wait. Anglo-Norman used kw- (quitter → quit) while Central French had k- (quitter). Examples include quality, quarter.
English sometimes borrowed the same word from both dialects: catch (AN: cachier) and chase (CF: chacier / chasser). This also explains why words like rouge or beige have /ʒ/ instead of /dʒ/ (compare judge, just, jewel).
A clear distinction between French and Latin loans is often problematic. There are also double borrowings (doublets) from French and Latin: loyal (< Fr) / legal (< L); declension (< Fr) / declination (< L); straight (< Fr) / strict (< L).
Latin Borrowings
Latin: Latin loans are relatively rare before the middle of the 14th century, but they become frequent towards the end of the ME period, typically through written language. They occur in domains where Latin was widely used: Religion: credo, requiem, limbo, psalm; Administration: client, arbitrator, pauper, conviction; Medicine: aggravate, diaphragm (from Greek); Science: ligament, dissolve, orbit, immortal, alienate, essence, equal, medicine, mercury, admit, discuss, commit.
Old Norse Borrowings
Old Norse: Most Norse loans entered the spoken language of the Danelaw in the OE period but first appeared in ME texts. Due to close contact, most Norse loans occur in everyday vocabulary and in many word classes: awe, birth, dirt, kettle, leg, sister (nouns); awkward, flat, happy, weak (adjectives); call, crawl, raise, want (verbs); they, them, their (pronouns); till, fro (prepositions); though (conjunctions). Norse words either replaced native ones (egg for ‘ey’; take for ‘niman’) or resulted in doublets (skirt < ON skyrta vs. shirt < OE scyrte).
Minor Sources
Celtic: birling ‘a kind of boat’, commorth ‘a gathering’, laggen ‘make dirty’, malloke ‘cursing’. Dutch / Low German: bounce, snatch, huckster, rover, skipper, dock, sloop. Greek, Arabic and Persian (often borrowed indirectly): hypocrisy, saffron, admiral, algorism, azure, scarlet, alchemy.
Semantic Change, Loss and Word Formation
Semantic shift: Borrowing of new words may lead to specialization of meaning of original terms and/or loanwords. Modern English (PDE) specialized meanings: deer (from OE) ≠ beast (from NF) ≠ animal (from L/F) ≠ venison (from CF).
Lexical loss: Borrowing may result in disappearance of original terms. Examples: here-toga → chieftain; æhte → tresur; munuclif → abbey; marmon-stane → marbre; boc-rune → letter.
Word Formation: Surnames, Affixes and Phrasal Verbs
Surnames: Early on, surnames for nobility consisted of name + of + place (Robert of Monfort). Later: name + patronymic + fitz (from OFr. John Fitz Robert). Commoners: name + patronymic + son/sen/’s (Scots) (John Robertson); name + place (William Caxton); name + profession (John Miller, Baker, Butcher, Smith, Taylor, Butler, Chandler (from Fr.)).
Prefixes and suffixes: Many OE prefixes and suffixes died out (e.g. -lock, -red) or became unproductive in ME (for-, with-). A large number of French and Latin prefixes were borrowed as part of complex words (dis-, in-/im-, en-). New formations first combined these foreign prefixes with foreign roots, but in late ME hybrid formations appear with foreign prefixes and native roots (e.g. enthrallen). Some imported Romance suffixes did not immediately become productive (-ive, -ate), while others were used in hybrid formations from the 14th century onward (e.g. suffix -age in barnage ‘infancy’, -ess in shepherdess, and -able in eatable).
Phrasal verbs: The development of phrasal verbs such as farenn forth, commenn off (particularly from the 12th century on) is most likely due to the model of Old Norse. Phrasal verbs increasingly replaced native prefixed verbs such as ūtgān, utfaran, often after a period of coexistence, changing English syntax.
Compounding: Compounding was extremely productive in OE (e.g. bōchūs). After the Norman Conquest, compounding continued but frequently a ready-made borrowed word was used instead (e.g. library).
Middle English Morphology
3.5 Language: Morphology — Morphological leveling: the process by which distinct morphological forms get simplified, regularized, or reduced. Tendency: leveling of inflections and weakening of endings. ME marked the beginning of the transition between synthetic Old English and more analytic Modern English.
Why Morphology Simplified?
1. Changes in the sound system of English. 2. Language contact with the Danes. 3. Language contact with the French. Grammatical gender was lost.
Articles, Nouns and Pronouns
Articles: OE se/seo/þat/þa… → þe (˂þ˃ given most forms in the paradigm and ˂e˃ [ə] by vowel weakening). OE: Se cyning seah þone hund / þone hund seah se cyning. ME: þe kyng saw þe dogge. Early ME instances of case marking þen-. Survivors: þe, þæt, þis. Introduction of “an” as an indefinite article, derived from OE one. The “n” was eventually dropped except before a vowel (just like in PDE). Articles lost inflectional endings because they had little stress within a sentence (vowel reduction) and due to contact with Scandinavian and French.
Nouns: Only two basic inflections survived: plural and genitive. Plural became “-(e)s” for most words. Plural “-(e)n” was also used in some dialects: eyen, toon, earen, shoen, handen. Genitive case gave way to the possessive: all nouns added “-(e)s” to show possession; PDE convention “’s” comes from this ME convention.
Pronouns: The least drastic changes occurred in pronouns. ME personal pronouns preserved three gender categories but shifted from grammatical gender to natural gender. Dual number disappeared by the 13th century; singular and plural remained. The three-person distinction was preserved. Biggest change: the case system — personal pronouns kept a possessive and an oblique (object) case for accusative and dative (case syncretism).
Verbs and Adjectives
Verbs: In OE and ME, the strong conjugation was restricted to a minority of verbs. Some strong verbs were lost after the Norman Conquest (about one third). Newly created verbs were mostly weak. Many strong verbs changed into weak verbs before or during ME (help, climb, burn, walk). Without counting the strong verbs lost or weakened, in PDE 68 OE strong verbs survive. OE only had two simple tenses: present and preterite. Through periphrastic constructions, ME added more tenses: present perfect, past perfect, future and progressive using auxiliaries such as habben/haven, be(n), shullen/shal, willen/wil.
Present and past perfect alternated the use of habben/haven (transitive verbs) and be(n) (intransitive verbs): “The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.” / “But finally yecomen is the day…” The progressive aspect started to be used more frequently, often after the verb to be. Cases of be + preposition in (OE on)-ing were also common. ME retained several forms of the verb ‘be(n)’ (infinitive, participles, imperative), ‘wesan’ forms (preterite), and ‘sindon’ (present indicative and subjunctive singular).
Adjectives: Few adjective inflections survived the ME period, except “-e”. This caused adjective position to become fixed before the noun (with a few exceptions from Norman French). Nasals were disappearing from final positions; analogy leveled forms (nom sg used for all sgs, nom pl used for all pls). No number distinction in weak adjectives. OE comparative “-ra” became “-re”, then “-er”. OE superlative “-ost”/”-est” became “-est”. A new periphrastic comparative/superlative from Norman French emerged: “more” + adjective and “most” + adjective. Double comparatives and double superlatives were common well into the early Modern period.
Middle English Syntax
3.6 Language: Syntax
OE: V2 in main clauses; V-final in subordinate clauses; relatively free word order; weight ordering (light elements moved leftwards).
ME: Main clause: SVO (unmarked); different orders were marked. SOV with light objects occurred in early ME; VSO often with interrogatives and initial adverbs. Dependent clauses could be SVO or SOV (early ME) with light objects. Some SOV in main clauses with light objects. In VSO questions, the lexical verb preceded the subject.
Changes: towards unmarked uses of SVO and VSO; markedness of other orders increased; progressive abandonment of SOV in dependent clauses.
NPs and Negation
NPs: While adjectives tended to precede nouns, sometimes they did not. Sometimes elements were ordered in ways not allowed in PDE. In general, ME NPs resembled PDE NPs.
Negation: Double negatives were still common. Ne is the negative particle, and it could combine with other negative-polarity words. Subordinate clauses could be introduced by a variety of subordinators, most commonly þa. In the 14th century, use of there (þer)/it to fill the empty subject position appears; until then, impersonal or subject-less constructions were common. “If you please” is a survival of the ME impersonal construction.
Early Modern English: Historical Background
UNIT 4: MODERN ENGLISH — Historical Background 1476: Arrival of the printing press in England. 1776: Independence of American colonies. In the 16th century, English faced three problems: recognition, orthography, and lexical enrichment.
Recognition
Latin (and, to a lesser extent, Greek) were the languages of the academy, medicine, and law. English had to win recognition in fields where ancient languages had been predominant. Vernaculars were seen as immature and less apt than ancient languages for expressing certain concepts.
Orthography
Orthography was controversial in the 16th century. No generally accepted system existed. Spelling was no longer purely phonetic and had no fixed rules. Mismatch between sound and spelling increased when conventions became fixed by usage while pronunciation changed (Great Vowel Shift). Additional variation was caused by insertion of letters in spellings where they were not pronounced due to Latin influence. Authors and printers often followed their own conventions.
Lexical Enrichment
With the progressive demise of Latin, many Latin words were borrowed into English. Some caught on; others passed out of usage relatively quickly.
Factors That Shaped Early Modern English
Printing Press
Introduced to Britain in 1476 by William Caxton. By 1500, over 35,000 items had been printed (many in Latin), but books in English sold better. The printing press plus increased access to education impacted literacy. In the 15th century, literacy was largely confined to church and commerce. By the late 17th century, around half of the population were literate, though differences by region, gender, class, and uniformity of language (especially spelling) remained.
Religious Reform
Act of Supremacy (1534): Henry VIII and successors become supreme heads of the Church of England; ties with the Catholic Church and the Pope were severed. The vernacular (English) became the language of the church; religious texts were no longer exclusively in Latin. By 1539, every church in England had an English translation of the Bible.
Colonial Expansion and Social Mobility
The British Empire expanded (North America, Jamaica, India, Africa, Australia). More rapid communication, commerce, and transport increased lexical growth and local varieties of English. Internal colonialism affected Ireland and Scotland. Social mobility increased: people became more educated and literate, Protestant reform shifted power and wealth, and early industrialization (from 1700 onwards) promoted adoption of prestigious linguistic conventions.
Cultural Activity and Standardization
Cultural activity flourished in English: acting companies, building of theatres, and authors such as Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and Philip Sidney. Publication of the King James Bible (1611). The Renaissance and later Rationalism created a desire for system, regularity, and correctness. There was a push to stabilize language and create standards.
Dictionaries and Grammars
Need for lexical record: The Elementarie (1582; Mulcaster) listed about 8,000 words with no definitions. A Dictionary of the English Language (Johnson; 1755) gave about 40,000 entries and fixed spelling; it became a reference. English never had a formal language academy, though many desired one. From 1760 onwards grammarians codified rules of usage and promoted prescriptive grammar based on logic, etymology, and classical languages. Results: codification of grammar, resolution of many disputes, and establishment of norms without a formal academy.
Early Modern English Characteristics
By the beginning of Early Modern English (EModE), English was already close to Present-Day English (PDE). Early ModE (1500–1650): conscious interest in the language; language still more flexible than PDE; many features were not yet fixed. Late ModE (1650 onwards): rise of prescriptive grammars and grammarians. The lexicon changed markedly, reflecting changes in society, arts, science, and religion. Inflectional endings for case and conjugation had almost disappeared by the start of EModE. New grammatical features were added, such as auxiliary do for negatives and questions. Second-person singular pronouns (thou/thee/thy/thine) fell out of use. The possessive pronoun its was added, replacing the old genitive his.
Spelling and Pronunciation in Early Modern English
Between the 15th and 17th centuries, spelling gradually became regularized. After the mid-17th century, spelling was largely the same as in PDE. The letters ˂i˃ and ˂j˃ were interchangeable for a while: ˂i˃ used at the start and middle of words, ˂j˃ often used at ends. ˂u˃ and ˂v˃ were also interchangeable: ˂v˃ at the beginning of words and ˂u˃ elsewhere (e.g. vsual, iustice). Spelling became fairly fixed with the printing press. Latin influenced the spelling of some words of French and Latin origin, separating spelling from phonetic origins: ME iland was influenced by Latin insula via French, resulting in ModE island. ME dette (from Latin debitum via French) added a silent ˂b˃: debt. Nouns were often capitalized regardless of common or proper status. New punctuation symbols appeared: the comma replaced the virgule or slash as a sign of pause, and the apostrophe came into use for the possessive and for omitted letters in contractions.
Consonant Changes in Early Modern English
Two new phonemes entered the language: /ʒ/ (genre, pleasure — from French) and /ŋ/ (sing). Previously ˂ng˃ was pronounced as two sounds ([ŋg]); [ŋ] became a phoneme. Reduction of onset clusters continued trends from ME: /h/ was no longer pronounced except when preceding a vowel. Post-vocalic allophones of /h/ (i.e., [χ] and [ç]; as in sight) disappeared or became /f/ (as in cough). Some sounds became silent in certain positions: /l/ after low back vowels preceding consonants (talk, half, almond, folk); /t/ and /d/ in combination with /s/ (castle, hasten); /g/ and /k/ before /n/ (gnat, knight); /w/ before /r/ word-initially (write, wrong). /d/ became /ð/ when it followed primary stress and preceded /r/ (father, gather, slither) — this change did not affect many French loanwords or certain comparatives (wider). In Early ModE the “r” was still pronounced in all positions; the loss of /r/ after vowels (non-rhoticity) began in some dialects in late ME and concluded in ModE in certain regions. Non-rhotic varieties later spread to parts of the United States and to British colonies.
[j] developed before some unstressed vowels in word-medial position when following primary stress (ME: [ˈtɛnər] vs ModE: [ˈtɛnjər]). If the preceding consonant was /s, z, t, d/, this [j] fused with the consonant to produce a fricative or affricate (/ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/): gradual, creature, pressure. By 1800, the consonant inventory matched that of PDE.
Vowel Changes and the Great Vowel Shift
Vowels: ME unstressed vowels continued to be reduced in ModE. Unstressed ˂e˃ in final syllables was pronounced only in certain plurals (after sibilants: boxes, judges), in possessives (after sibilants: Ross’s, fox’s), and in past tense and past participles of regular verbs ending in -t and -d (shouted, granted). Final -e was no longer pronounced by early ModE but was retained in spelling.
The vowel system inherited from ME differed globally from PDE: OE and ME vowels contrasted mainly in quantity (many monophthongs occurred in long/short pairs). Lengthenings and shortenings created by ME changes persisted (e.g. keep – kept, child – children, holy – holiday, wise – wisdom, wild – wilderness).
THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
One of the defining events of early ModE is the completion of the Great Vowel Shift (GVS). The GVS affected long vowels and started in ME or earlier. The change was not fully completed until later ModE; some dialects in Britain did not fully implement it. The exact causes remain unclear. Broadly: all long vowels shifted upward, or, if there was no higher position, monophthongs shifted to diphthongs. A pull-chain or push-chain mechanism likely operated: gaps created in the phonological system caused other sounds to move into vacated positions. Not all varieties implemented the changes (especially diphthongization), and some dialects diphthongized later. Exceptions occur: ME (ME: /ɛ:/) might have ended /i:/ (e.g. reason, sea, beat) but not always (e.g. swear, bear, great, break, dead, head).
Lexicon Expansion in Early Modern English
Lexicon: Period of unprecedented lexical growth due to colonialism, science, trade, and literature. Approximately 4,500 new words per decade (OED). About two thirds were coined from existing material and one third borrowed. About 20,000 borrowings were adopted permanently.
Causes: translations, literary creativity (e.g. Shakespeare), scientific writing, exploration and trade. Attitudes: some welcomed new words; others rejected “inkhorn terms” (learned, often Latin, seen as pretentious). Main donor languages: Latin and Greek (exclusive, chaos, economy); French (law, government, court culture); Spanish/Portuguese (breeze, rodeo, mustang); Dutch (cookie, spook); Italian (opera, balcony); Arabic (giraffe, sheikh); Hindi (jungle, shampoo); Swahili (zombie, safari).
Morphological Processes
Derivation: Heavy use of Latin/Greek affixes: dis-, re-, inter-, pre-, -ate, -ise (telegraph, epitomize, prefabricate). Zero-derivation (conversion): N → V (to shoulder); V → N (a backup). Stress shift: con’vict → ‘convict. Back-formation: editor → edit; babysitter → babysit. Compounding: railway, highlight, chronometer. Clipping: bike, phone, flu. Eponyms: sandwich, boycott, watt, atlas. Initialisms: AM, PM, USA, RIP.
Morphology and Syntax in Modern English
Morphology (Grammar): No major new grammatical systems emerged; continued regularization of nouns and verbs. ‘Its’ becomes the neuter possessive. ‘You’ increasingly used for singular. Some preposition uses changed.
Syntax
Word order: Strong SVO tendency. Still variable in Shakespeare; non-SVO orders largely disappear after the 17th century.
Periphrastic do: Not yet fixed early on: “Seamen do call” = “Seamen call.” Do-support standardizes after 1700.
Negation: With or without do: “I doubt it not” / “I do not doubt it.” By 1700, post-auxiliary not becomes standard; double negatives are prescriptively rejected.
Questions: Early forms include “Came he?” and “Do you love me?” Do-support becomes standard after the 17th century.
Verb periphrases: Present perfect vs. preterite distinctions were not yet fixed. Have and be were both used as auxiliaries: “I am gone” vs. “I have seen.” Have fully replaces be as the perfect auxiliary by the 19th century (with some relics remaining).