historical linguistics from middle english to early modern english
TRANSCRIPT
Historical Linguistics
From Middle English to Early Modern English
Middle English Early Modern English
• 1300s: All religious texts in England were in Latin– Bible– Mass– Most people didn’t understand Latin.
Priest rang a bell during the important parts of Mass so people would pay attention.
• Street performers did “Mystery Plays”—soap opera versions of Bible stories in English
Middle English Early Modern English
• 1380s: People wanted a Bible to belong to them• Thomas Wycliff
– Believed the church was corrupt– Translated the Bible from Latin to English– Hand-copied and distributed translations– Popularized regionalisms:
• zeal, puberty, childbirth, envy, barbarian, birthday, communication, crime, dishonor, humanity, injury, madness, novelty, pollute, tramp, visitor
– Kept some Latin words with no English equivalents• emperor, justice, city, cradle, angel, glory
– Wycliff excommunicated, Bibles burned, but continued to be read in secret
Middle English Early Modern English
• Spellings not uniform throughout England—people sounded it out the way they talked.
• Example: CHURCHKirk, kyrk, kyrke, kirke, kerk, kerc,
kerke, churche, cherche, chirche, cherch, chyrch, cherge, chyrche, schyrche
Middle English Early Modern English
• 1500 AD: Chancery: Public records office– Kept records in English– Had to be consistent with spellings– Spellings become uniform, don’t change– English becomes recognizable
• XalSchallShall• RitheRight• HathHas• DothDoes• IcheI
Middle English Early Modern English
• Why doesn’t English make any sense?– “Mongrel” nature of English (many
influences)– Workers at Chancery standardized “how
it’s always been spelled” vs. how it sounds
– Words with Latin roots given a “Latin look” (like “debt”)
– “Rhyme” has a /y/ because “rhythm” does
– Words were spelled how they sounded at the time, but the pronunciation changed (/l/ in “should” wasn’t silent)
Middle English Early Modern English
• Great vowel shift– Happened in 1400s, same time as
Chancery was standardizing spelling– /oo//oh/ (stoon stone)– /ee/ /i/ (weef wife)– /eh/ ee (mete meet)
Middle English Early Modern English
• 1435 AD: The Gutenberg Press– Widespread
distribution of books
– Printers had to choose spellings from many regional pronunciations
– Further standardized spellings
Middle English Early Modern English
• 1530s: Henry VIII wants a divorce, splits from the Catholic church, creates the Church of England– Needed an English Bible to create separate
identity– Used one that had been illegal previously– Popularized many words and sayings:
• scapegoat, let there be light, the powers that be, my brother’s keeper, milk and honey, a man after my own heart, fight the good fight, the apple of my eye, sign of the times, beautiful, landlady, brokenhearted, fisherman, zealous, Jehovah, Passover
Early Modern English
• By 1550, English is now the language of literature, the court, the legal system, and religion
• English considered authorized by God
Early Modern English
• 1588: Queen Elizabeth I– Defeated the Spanish Armada– Opened up new trade routes
• Brought in 10,000-12,000 new words from other languages
Early Modern English
• Loanwords: Words brought from one language to another– From French: creue (crew), detail, passeport,
progresse, moustache, explorer– From Spanish and Portuguese: embargo, tronada
(tornado), canoa (canoe), port– From Dutch: kielhalen (keyhole), smokkelen
(smuggle), jaghte (yacht), kruisen (cruise), reef, knapzak (knapsack), landschap (landscape); also swear words from sailors: fokkinge, krappe, bugger
– From Italian: balcony, piazza, villa, miniature, design, opera, violin, solo
– More than 50 other languages loaned new words
Early Modern English
• Around 1600: The Renaissance– Huge growth in scholarship and learning– Scholars needed to communicate with scholars
in other countries, so revived Latin as common language
– Needed new words for scientific discoveries and philosophical terms
– Old Latin words became part of English lexicon• excavate, horrid, cautionary, pungent, submerge,
specimen, manuscript, atmosphere, chaos, critic, paradox, eternal, chronology, technique, skeleton, tendon, larynx, temperature, parasites, pneumonia, thermometer
Early Modern English
• Some words came from Latin that we don’t use:– nidulate—to build a nest– electrobus—delicat– deruncinate—to weed– absygify—to cleanse– latirate—to bark like a dog– expede—opposite of impede
Early Modern English
• The theatre’s influence on language– Shakespeare, Marlowe, Johnson, Webster,
etc.– Theatres held 3000-3500 people– Half the people in London saw any given play– Everyone in London went to the theatre– Had to include language for common people
and rich people– Common people heard aristocratic words;
rich people heard slang– Here’s what Shakespeare’s English would ha
ve sounded like
Early Modern English
• Shakespeare’s language exported to other countries and around England– Shakespeare invented 2000 words (or
recorded them for the first time)– Shakespeare’s vocabulary was 21,000
words– Gave words to new thoughts: “To thine
own self be true” • What is the nature of personal identity?