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See also:MODERN See also:ENGLISH thus See also:dates from See also:Caxton. The See also:language had at length reached the all but flectionless See also:state which it now presents. A single older verbal See also:form, the See also:southern -eth of the third See also:person singular, continued to be the See also:literary See also:prose form throughout the 16th See also:century, but the See also:northern form in -s was intermixed with it in See also:poetry (where it saved a syllable), and must ere See also:long, as we see from See also:Shakespeare, have taken its See also:place in See also:familiar speech. The See also:fuller an, none, mine, thine, in -the See also:early See also:part of the 16th century at least, were used in positions where their shortened forms a, no, my, thy are now found (none other, mine own = no other, my own). But with such See also:minute exceptions, the See also:accidence of the 16th century was the accidence of the 19th. While, however, the older inflections had disappeared, there was as yet no See also:general agreement as to the mode of their replacement. Hence the 16th century shows a syntactic See also:licence and freedom which distinguishes it strikingly from that of later times. The language seems to be in a plastic, unformed state, and its writers, as it were, experiment with it, bending it to constructions which now seem indefensible. Old distinctions of See also:case and See also:mood have disappeared from noun and verb, without See also:custom having yet decided what prepositions or See also:auxiliary verbs shall most fittingly convey their meaning. The laxity of word-See also:order which was permitted in older states of the language by the formal expression of relations was often continued though the inflections which expressed the relations had disappeared. Partial See also:analogy was followed in allowing forms to be identified in one case, because, in another, such See also:identification was accidentally produced, as for instance the past participles of write and take were often made wrote and took, because the contracted participles of bind and break were See also:bound and See also:broke. Finally, because,.in dropping inflections, the former distinctions even between parts of speech had disappeared, so that iro;,, e.g., was at once noun, See also:adjective and verb, clean, adjective, verb and adverb, it appeared as if any word whatever might be used in any grammatical relation, where it conveyed the See also:idea of the See also:speaker. Thus, as has been pointed out by Dr See also:Abbott, " you can happy your friend, malice or See also:foot your enemy, or fall an See also:axe on his See also:neck. You can speak and See also:act easy, See also:free, excellent, you can talk of See also:fair instead of beauty (fairness), and a See also:pale instead of a paleness. A he is used for a See also:man, and a See also:lady is described by a See also:gentleman as `the fairest she he has yet beheld.' An adverb can be used as a verb, as `they askance their eyes'; as a noun, `the backward and See also:abyss of See also:time'; or as an adjective, a `seldom See also:pleasure.' " For, as he also says, " clearness was preferred to grammatical correctness, and brevity both to correctness and clearness. Hence it was See also:common to place words in the order in which they came upper-most in the mind without much regard to syntax, and the result was a forcible and perfectly unambiguous but ungrammatical See also:sentence, such as The See also:prince that feeds See also:great natures they will slay him. See also:Ben See also:Jonson. or, as instances of brevity, Be guilty of my See also:death since of my See also:crime. Shakespeare. It cost more to get than to lose in a See also:day. Ben Janson." These characteristics, together with the presence of words now obsolete or archaic, and the use of existing words in senses ! A Shakspearian See also:Grammar, by Dr E. A. Abbott. To this See also:book we are largely indebted for its admirable See also:summary of the characters of Tudor English.
different from our own, as general for specific, literal for metaphorical, and See also:vice versa, which are so apparent to every readet of the 16th-century literature, make -it. useful to See also:separate Early Modern or Tudor English from the subsequent and still existing See also:stage, since the consensus of usage has declared in favour of individual senses and constructions which are alone admissible in See also:ordinary language.
The beginning of the Tudor See also:period was contemporaneous with the See also:Renaissance in See also:art and literature, and the See also:dawn of modern discoveries in See also:geography and See also:science. The revival of the study of the classical writers of See also:Greece and See also:Rome, and the See also:translation of their See also:works into the See also:vernacular, led to the introduction of an immense number of new words derived from these See also:languages, either to See also:express new ideas and See also:objects or to indicate new distinctions in or grouping of old ideas. Often also it seemed as if scholars were so pervaded with the form as well as the spirit of the old, that it came more natural to them to express them-selves in words borrowed from the old than in their native See also:tongue, and thus words of Latin origin were introduced even when English already possessed perfectly See also:good equivalents. As has already been stated, the See also:French words of See also:Norman and Angevin introduction, being principally Latin words in an altered form, when used as English supplied See also:models whereby other Latin words could be converted into English ones, and it is after these models that the Latin words introduced during and since the 16th century have been fashioned. There is nothing in the form of the words procession and progression to show that the one was used in See also:England in the 11th, the other not till the 16th century. Moreover, as the formation of new words from Latin had gone on in French as well as in English since the Renaissance, we often cannot tell whether such words, e.g. as persuade and persuasion, were borrowed from their French equivalents or formed from Latin in England independently. With some words indeed it is impossible to say whether they were formed in England directly from Latin, borrowed from contemporary See also:late French, or had been in England since the Norman period, even photograph, See also:geology and See also:telephone have the form that they would have had if they had been living words in the mouths of Greeks, Latins, French and English from the beginning, instead of formations of the 19th century.' While every writer was thus introducing new words according to his notion of their being needed, it naturally happened that a large number were not accepted by contemporaries or posterity; a long See also:list might be formed of these mintages of the 16th and 17th centuries, which either never became current See also:coin, or circulated only as it were for a moment. The revived study of Latin and See also:Greek also led to modifications in the spelling of some words which had entered See also:Middle English in the French form. So Middle English doute, dette, were changed to doubt, See also:debt, to show a more immediate connexion with Latin debitum, debitum; the actual derivation from the French being ignored. Similarly, words containing a Latin and French t, which might be traced back to an See also:original Greek 0, were remodelled upon the Greek, e.g. theme, See also:throne, for Middle English teme, Crone, and, by false association with Greek, See also:anthem, Old English antefne, Latin See also:antiphon; See also:Anthony, Latin See also:Antonius; See also:Thames, Latin Tamesis, apparently after See also: The voyages of English navigators in the latter part of the 16th century introduced a considerable number of See also:Spanish words, and See also:American words in Spanish forms, of which See also:negro, See also:potato, See also:tobacco, See also:cargo, See also:armadillo, See also:alligator, galleon may serve as examples. The date of 1611, which nearly coincides with the end of Shakespeare's literary See also:work, and marks the See also:appearance of the Authorized Version of the See also:Bible (a compilation from the various 16th-century versions), may be taken as marking the See also:close of Tudor English. The language was thenceforth Modern in structure, See also:style and expression, although the spelling did not See also:settle down to See also:present usage till about the revolution of 1688. The latter date also marks the disappearance from literature of ' Evangelist, See also:astronomy, See also:dialogue, are words that have so lived, of which their form is the result: Photograph, geology, &c., take this form as if they had the same See also:history.a large numbet of words, chiefly of such as were derived from Latin during the 16th and 17th centuries. Of these nearly all that survived 1688 are still in use; but a long list might be made out of those that appear for the last time before that date. This sifting of the literary vocabulary and See also:gradual fixing of the literary spelling, which Went on between 161i, when the language became modern in structure, and 1689, when it became modern also in form, suggests for this period the name of Seventeenth-Century Transition. The distinctive features of Modern English have already been anticipated by way of contrast with preceding stages of the language. It is only necessary to refer to the fact that the vocabulary is now much more composite than at any previous period. The immense development of the See also:physical sciences has called for a corresponding See also:extension of terminology which has been supplied from Latin and especially Greek; and although these terms are in the first instance technical, yet, with the spread of See also:education and general See also:diffusion of the rudiments and appliances of science, the boundary See also:line between technical and general, indefinite at the best, tends more and more to melt away—this in addition to the fact that words still technical become general in figurative or metonymic senses. Ache, See also:diamond, See also:stomach, See also:comet, See also:organ, See also:tone, See also:ball, See also:carte, are none the less familiar because once technical words. Commercial, social, See also:artistic or literary contact has also led to the See also:adoption of numerous words from modern See also:European languages, especially French, See also:Italian, Portuguese, Dutch (these two at a less See also:recent period) : thus from French soiree, seance, See also:depot, debris, See also:pro-gramme, See also:prestige; from Italian bust, See also:canto, See also:folio, See also:cartoon, See also:concert, regatta, See also:ruffian; from Portuguese See also:caste, See also:palaver; from Dutch yacht, skipper, See also:schooner, See also:sloop. Commercial intercourse and colonization have extended far beyond See also:Europe, and given us words more or fewer from See also:Hindostani, See also:Persian, Arabic, See also:Turkish, See also:Malay, See also:Chinese, and from American, Australian, Polynesian and See also:African languages .2 More important even than these, perhaps, are the See also:dialect words that from time to time obtain literary recognition, restoring to us obsolete Old English forms, and not seldom words of See also:Celtic or Danish origin, which have been pre-served in See also:local dialects, and thus at length find their way into the See also:standard language. As to the actual proportion of the various elements of the language, it is probable that original English words do not now form more than a See also:fourth or perhaps a fifth of the See also:total entries in a full English See also:dictionary; and it may seem See also:strange, therefore, that we still identify the language with that of the 9th century, and class it as a member of the See also:Low See also:German See also:division. But this explains itself, when we consider that of the total words in a dictionary only a small portion are used by any one individual in speaking or even in See also:writing; that this portion includes the great See also:majority of the Anglo-Saxon words, and but a minority of the others. The latter are in fact almost all names—the vast majority names of things (nouns), a smaller number names of attributes and actions (adjectives and verbs), and, from their very nature, names of the things, attributes and actions which come less usually or, it may be, very rarely under our See also:notice. Thus in an ordinary book, a novel or See also:story, the See also:foreign elements will amount to from so to 15% of the whole; as the subject becomes more recondite or technical their number will increase; till in a work on See also:chemistry or abstruse See also:mathematics the proportion may be 4o%. But after all, it is not the question whence words may have been taken, but how they are used in a language that settles its See also:character. If new words when adopted conform them-selves to the manner and usage of the adopting language, it makes absolutely no difference whether they are taken over from some other language, or invented off at the ground. In either case they are new words to begin with; in either case also, if they are needed, they will become as thoroughly native, i.e. familiar from childhood to those who use them, as those that possess the longest native See also:pedigree. In this respect English is still the same language it was in the days of AIfred; and, comparing its history with that of other Low German See also:tongues, there is no See also:reason to believe that
2 See See also:ext ended lists of the foreign words in English in Dr See also:Morris's See also:Historical Outlines of English Accidence, p. 33.
See also: See also:Ellis and Dr See also: The See also:concord of adjectives has entirely disappeared; the concord of the pronouns is now regulated by rationality and See also:sex, instead of grammatical gender, which has no existence in English. The man who lost his See also:life; the See also:bird which built its nest_ Our remarks from the end of the 14th century have been confined to, the standard or literary form of English, for of the other dialects from that date (with the exception of the northern its grammar or structure would have been very different, however different its vocabulary might have been, if the Norman See also:Conquest had never taken place. A general broad view of the See also:sources of the English vocabulary and of the dates at which the various foreign elements flowed into the language, as well as of the great See also:change produced in it by the Norman Conquest, and consequent influx of French and Latin elements, is given in the accompanying See also:chart. The transverse lines represent centuries, and it will be seen how limited a period after all is occupied by modern English, how long the language had been in the See also:country before the Norman Conquest, and how much of this is prehistoric and without any literary remains. Judging by what has happened during the historic period, great changes may and indeed must have taken place between the first arrival of the See also:Saxons and the days of 9 -,7010 ,- boy ~, ENGL See also:INN p4~~' a L A T I N CONQUES 0 BI- IN 000 ENO! ;SR - ONVERSIO / ® ~• creeltnon II/ a.L s... uaid. ir u a e0o DANISH CLD ENGLISH ° See also:Ill K. See also:Alfred .00 RAMalral W.rd../Cwaa.n,LU. \Irv, 1 1000--- OLD aue Dula ` ENGLISH 1 ~r •r i ~ NORMAN CONQUEST f' -__-.._. II.• ENGLISH TRANSITION _-. --' o er -:rlrin ~. OHO EMIDDLE EARLY 0 1 ••~ 190 ---~ ENGLISH ~' See also:LIME ----F:.ria-aa:'a.it Otau 4' RD'1 RE b'! : *~
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See also: Thus See also:Puttenham in his Arte of English Poesie (1589) says:
" Our maker [i.e. poet] therfore at these dayes shall not follow Piers Plowman, nor See also:Gower, nor See also:Lydgate, not yet See also:Chaucer, for their language is now not of use with us: neither shall he take the termes of Northern-men, such as they use in dayly talke, whether they be See also:noble men or See also:gentle men or of their best clarkes, all is a [=one] See also:matter; nor in effect any speach used beyond the See also:river of See also:Trent, though no man can deny but that theirs is the purer English Saxon at this day, yet it is not so Courtly nor so See also:currant as our Southern English is, no more is the far Westerne mans speach: ye shall therefore take the usual speach of the See also:Court, and that of See also:London and the shires lying about London within Ix myles, and not much above. I say not this but that in every shyre of England there be gentlemen and others that speake but specially write as good See also:Southerne as we of See also:Middlesex or See also:Surrey do, but not the common See also:people of every shire, to whom the gentlemen, and also their learned clarkes do for the most part condescend, but herein we are already ruled by th' English Dictionaries and other bookes written by learned men."—See also:Arber's Reprint, p. 157.
In comparatively modern times there has been a revival of See also:interest in these forms of English, several of which following in the See also:wake of the revival of See also:Lowland Scots in the 18th and 19th centuries, have produced a considerable literature in the form of local poems, tales and " folk-See also:lore." In these respects Cumber-See also:land, See also:Lancashire, See also:Yorkshire, See also:Devon, See also:Somerset and See also:Dorset, the " far north " and " far See also:west " of Puttenham, where the dialect was See also:felt to be so See also:independent of literary English as not to be branded as a See also:mere vulgar corruption of it, stand prominent. More recently the dialects have been investigated philologically, a See also:department in which, as in other departments of English See also:philology, the See also:elder See also:Richard See also:Garnett must be named as a See also:pioneer. The work was carried out zealously by Prince See also: From the whole of the glossaries of the Dialect Society, and from all the earlier dialect works of the 18th and 19th centuries, amplified and illustrated by the contributions of local collaborators in nearly every part of the See also:British Isles, Professor Joseph Wright has constructed his English Dialect Dictionary, recording the local words and senses, with indication of their See also:geographical range, their pronunciation, and in most cases with illustrative quotations or phrases. To this he has added an English Dialect Grammar, dealing very fully with the phonology of the dialects, showing the various sounds which now represent each Old English sound, and endeavouring to define the See also:area over which each modern form extends; the accidence is treated more summarily, without going minutely into that of each dialect-See also:group, for which special dialect grammars must be consulted. The work has also a very full and valuable See also:index of every word and form treated.
The researches of Prince L. L. Bonaparte and'Dr Ellis were directed specially to the See also:classification and mapping of the existing dialects,' and the relation of these to the dialects of Old and Middle English. They recognized a Northern dialect lying north of a line See also:drawn from See also:Morecambe See also:Bay to the See also:Humber, which, with the kindred Scottish dialects (already investigated and classed),2 is the See also:direct descendant of early northern English,
1 See description and See also:map in Trans. of Philol. See also:Soc., 1873-1876, p. 570.
2 The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, its Pronunciation, Grammar and Historical Relations, with an Appendix on the present limits of the Gaelic and Lowland Scotch, and the Dialectal Divisions of the Lowland Tongue; and a Linguistical Map of Scotland, by See also: This dialect must in the r4th Century have been spoken everywhere south of Thames; but the See also:influence of London caused its extinction in Surrey, See also:Sussex and See also:Kent, so that already in Puttenham it had become " far western." An See also:East Midland dialect, extending from south See also:Lincolnshire to London, occupies the See also:cradle-land of the standard English speech, and still shows least variation from it. Between and around these typical dialects are ten others, representing the old Midland proper, or dialects between it and the others already mentioned. Thus " north of Trent " the North-western dialect of south Lancashire, See also:Cheshire, See also:Derby and See also:Stafford, with that of See also:Shropshire, represents the early West Midland English, of which several specimens remain; while the North-eastern of See also:Nottingham and north Lincolnshire represents the dialect of the See also:Lay of Havelak. With the North Midland dialect of south-west See also:York-shire, these represent forms of speech which to the modern Londoner, as to Puttenham, are still decidedly northern, though actually intermediate between northern See also:prow,and midland, and preserving interesting traces of the midland pronouns and verbal inflections. There is an Eastern dialect in the East Anglian counties; a Midland in See also:Leicester and See also:Warwick shires; a Western in See also:Hereford, See also:Worcester and north See also:Gloucestershire, intermediate between south-western and north-western, and representing the dialect of Piers Plowman. Finally, between the east midland and south-western, in the counties of See also:Buckingham, See also:Oxford, Berks, Hants, Surrey and Sussex, there is a dialect which must have once been south-western, but of which the most salient characters have been rubbed off by proximity to London and the East Midland speech. In east Sussex and Kent this South-eastern dialect attains to a more distinctive character. The Kentish form of early Southern English evidently maintained its existence more toughly than that of the counties immediately south of London. It was very distinct in the days of See also:Sir Thomas More; and even, as we see from the dialect attributed to See also:Edgar in See also:Lear, was still strongly marked in the days of Shakespeare. In the south-eastern corner of See also:Ireland, in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, in See also:county See also:Wexford, a very archaic form of English, of which specimens have been preserved, 8 was still spoken in the 18th century. In all See also:probability it dated from the first English invasion. In many parts of See also:Ulster forms of Lowland Scotch dating to the See also:settlement under James I. are still spoken; but the English of Ireland generally seems to represent 16th and 17th century English, as in the pronunciation of See also:tea, See also:wheat (lay, whait), largely affected, of course, by the native Celtic. The subsequent work of the English Dialect Society, and the facts set forth in the English Dialect Dictionary, confirm in a general way the classification of Bonaparte and Ellis; but they bring out strongly the fact that only in a few cases can the boundary between dialects now be determined by precise lines. For every dialect there is a central region, larger or smaller, in which its characteristics are at a maximum; but towards the edges of the area these become mixed and blended with the features of the contiguous dialects, so that it is often impossible to define the point, at which the one dialect ends and the other begins. The fact is that the various features of a dialect, whether its distinctive words, characteristic pronunciations or special grammatical features, though they may have the same centre, have not all the same circumference. Some of them extend to a certain distance See also:round the centre; others to a much greater distance. The only approximately accurate way to map the area of any dialect, whether in England, See also:France, See also:Germany or elsewhere, is to take a well-chosen set of its characteristic features—words, senses, sounds or grammatical peculiarities, and draw a line round the area over which each of these extends; between the innermost and outermost of these there will often be a large border See also:district. If the same See also:process be followed with the contiguous dialects, 3 A Glossary (with some pieces of See also:Verse) of the Old Dialect of the English See also:Colony of Forth and Bargy, collected by See also:Jacob See also:Poole, edited by W. See also:Barnes, B.D. (London, 1867). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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