1. The Development of English
Early Modern English (2)

2. Extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
What do you notice about:
Vocabulary
Grammar
Spelling
What is noticeably similar to present-day English, as compared to Middle English?

3. Vocabulary
Words we no longer use with the same meaning: maid, fair, yea, but, worthy, wanting, to be held, I would, befall, morne
‘but’ still means ‘only, nothing but
would = wish

4. Grammar
I know not, What say you: no use of auxiliary verbs to make questions and negatives: use of inversion only
There will I stay for thee (word order, like modern German)
I do entreat your Grace, I did meet (use of do with no implication of emphasis, as part of tense indicator in affirmative sentence; do later used to form questions and negatives, found also elsewhere in Shakespeare)
use of you / thou for distinction between distance / familiarity
hath for has, but ‘she respects me’ (move from third person th to third person s)

5. Spelling eyes/eies – inconsistent spelling, later become consistent
modestie, marrie – ie ending, later y (but ie preserved in plural forms)
heere, widdow – double vowels and consonants, later dropped
haue, perswasion, reuenue, vs – u and v the same letter, but pronounced u before a consonant, v before a vowel
iudgment, - i and j same letter, later differentiated
extra ‘e’ at the end of words, later discarded, e.g. forme

6. Punctuation lack of apostrophe ‘s
Capital letters for a lot of the nouns (when referring to people)

7. Similar to PDE
vocabulary: gentleman, judgement, look, pardon, in this case, refuse,
modals: should be
spelling: ‘th’ no ‘thorn’;
use of ‘you’ for singular
use of will for future (‘will I stay for thee’)

8. The Dictionary Early ‘hard word’ dictionaries Johnson’s dictionary
Webster’s dictionary

9. The development of writing
Key concepts:
pictogram / pictograph
logograph / logogram
phonogram
syllabic scripts
consonantal scripts
alphabetic scripts