M ODERN E NGLISH 1500-Present

E ARLY M ODERN E NGLISH ( ) Great Vowel Shift 15 th -18 th century Sound change affecting long vowels Boats becomes boots Fate becomes feet Weep becomes wipe Different pronunciation in different part of mouth Generational changes

M ODERN E NGLISH I NFLUENCES 1) British colonialism 2) Renaissance 3) Economic and technical development (the industrial revolution and the development of modern science)

B RITISH COLONIALISM The spread of English beyond UK English settlements in North America in the 17th and 18th centuries By the early 19th century, Britain had firm control of a number of islands in the Caribbean: Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica, St Kitts, Trinidad and Tobago British domination of the Indian subcontinent dates from the second half of the 18th century Economic interest in trading ports In the late 18th century Britain began settlements in Australia In the 19th century, the British took control over South Africa from the Dutch They also controlled Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong

A CLASS DIFFERENCE The merchant class, who settled British territories didn’t belong to the aristocracy which spoke standard London dialect New England was settled largely by speakers of the East Anglican dialect Social struggles between the two dialect groups were an instrumental cause for the American revolution and may have contributed to the radical shift in the pronunciation of English in modern times

PRINTING AND S TANDARDIZATION A powerful force for standardization was the introduction of printing 1476 William Caxton established England’s first printing press at Westminster Abbey Several publications Copies of Bible By the middle of the sixteenth century, although there was still no standard system, there were quite a number of widely accepted conventions

T HE R ENAISSANCE (14 TH -17 TH C ENTURY ) Explosion in culture and literature Greek and Latin influence During the peak, from 1580 to 1660, a flood of Latin loan words were borrowed into English We owe the b in our modern spelling of debt and doubt to Renaissance etymologizing, for the earlier spellings were dette and doute The b was inserted through the influence of Latin debitum and dubitare

I NDUSTRIAL R EVOLUTION (18 TH C ENTURY ) By about 1700 Great Vowel Shift changes completed Third person forms like loveth disappeared from ordinary speech The pronouns thou and thee disappeared from standard usage The language differed only slightly from present day English Rapid technological changes Addition of new vocabulary Train Engine Electricity Telegraph

E ARLY M ODERN E NGLISH S HAKESPEARE Writers took language where they wanted “You” was used by lower class to talk to upper class “Thou” and “Thee” used by lower class to one another and higher class to lower class and in addressing God and supernatural beings Similar to Spanish tu vs. Ud.

W ORDS S HAKESPEARE I NVENTED Invented about 1,700 words Accommodation Amazement Apostrophe Courtships Dwindle Generous Hurry Radiance “All that glitters isn’t gold” “The course of true love never did run smooth”

L ATE M ODERN E NGLISH (1800-P RESENT ) Proposal for Academy of English Language Standardization of grammar rules and conventions Radio broadcasting – lessens differences in social accents WWI and WWII

S PELLING In Middle English and early Modern English, there had been no standard spelling Spellings varied from writer to writer Even proper names were not fixed Shakespeare in the three signatures on his will used two spellings of his own surname 1775 Samuel Johnson publicizes dictionary

A MERICAN E NGLISH After the American Revolution, contact between two countries severed Americans make a conscious effort to de- Anglicize English We still understand each other, but there are noticeable differences Examples?

MAIN DIALECTS IN THE U.S. Western: Idaho, California, Oregon, Utah Northern: New England, New York, New Jersey Midland: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin Southern: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi

B UT W AIT, T HERE ’ S M ORE ! G ENDERLECTS Theory that type or style of speech pertains to gender Women talk vs. men talk? Descriptions Women: Lavender, adorable, lovely, precious Men: Purple, cool, chill