THE RENAISSANCE

(Early Modern English)

1500-1650

INTRODUCTION

It was during the  English Renaissance that most of the words

from Greek and Latin entered English. This period in English

cultural history (early 16th century to the early 17th century) is

sometimes referred to as "the age of Shakespeare" or "the

Elizabethan era", taking the name of the English Renaissance's

most famous author and most important monarch, respectively.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I there was an explosion of

culture in the form of support of the arts, popularization of the

printing press, and massive amounts of sea travel.

CHANGING CONDITIONS IN THE MORDEN PERIOD.

.The invention of the printing press

Now the masses, not just nobility, have access to the printed word

with books in the hands of most everyone, Standard English is not only

promoted, it is spread throughout the populace . Standard English is

spread primarily because with mass production (of a sort), the same

"grammar" is read time and time again by all types of people

Education

Probably not less than a third and at least one half of the people could

read during Shakespeare's time, with the rise of a prosperous middle

class, there are demands and means for more people to be educated;

1.great increase in the number of schools

2.access to newspapers

3.rapid rise of the novel

increase in communication/means of communication

with the advent of tremendous & successful commerce comes

exposure to other countries/cultures/peoples--English spreads, the

urbanization of England gives rise to unification and the diffusion of

English through the populace.

growth of specialized knowledge

a. Latin is less and less the vehicle for learned discourse

b. new vocabulary

awareness of the language;

anytime a new social strata is established, language acquisition

flourishes, the new class needs ways of conforming and

belonging, hence furthering the study of English & English

grammar, a & b above give rise to "language policies“.

VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

 prior to the 16th and 17th centuries, the grammar was

in a constant state of flux.

prior to the 16th and 17th centuries, (with the possible

exception of the Norman Conquest), vocabulary changes

were stable (words were borrowed, not "invented").

In EME (16th & 17th centuries), a & b above reverse

themselves. Grammar is stable; vocabulary is    changed

extensively.

Vocabulary

a. English deficient to keep up with increased experiments and inventions

b. back to borrowing (from Latin, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish) called

Inkhorn terms

English deficient to keep up with increased experiments and inventions, back

to borrowing (from Latin, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish) called Inkhorn terms.

Great opposition to inkhorn terms and opposition at its height during the mid

16th century. Generally, borrowing continued, but with care and prudence

Borrowings include: atmosphere, autograph, disability, disrespect,

expectation, expensive, appropriate, external, impersonal,emancipate,

erupt,exist, crisis, critic,scheme,system, tactics,etc.,from Latin & Greek

adaptation of borrowed words;

a. by cutting off the Latin ending--consultare becomes consult

b. the Latin ending us in Latin adjectives changed to ous or replaced by al--conspicuous,

external

c. the Latin noun ending tas changed to ty --brevity

d. the Latin noun endings antia, entia changed to ance, ency, ancy, ency concurrence,

frequency

e. the Latin adjective ending bilis changed to ble—considerable

reintroduction of already-borrowed words and new meanings;

a. OE words like bishop and dish from Latin episcopus and discus

b. re-entered as episcopal and disc

rejects--sometimes words simply do not remain and sometimes for no discernible

reason.

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

the Great Vowel Shift and affected all long

vowels of English including those which became

long through ME lengthening. GVS took place in

the following stages:

1./i:/ became dipthongized to / / 

     /u:/ became dipthongized to / U/ 

     ex. time [ti:m ] > [t m] 

      town [tu:n] > [t Un] 

   2./e:/ was raised to /i:/ 

     /o:/ was raised to /u:/ 

     ex. me [me:] > [mi:] 

      fode [fo:d ] > [fu:d] 

   3./ :/ was fronted to /æ:/ 

      ex. name [n :m] > [næ:m] 

   4./ :/ was raised to /e:/ 

      / :/ was raised to /o:/ 

      ex. clene [kl :n ] > [kle:n] 

      bon [b :n] > [bo:n] 

   5. /æ:/ was raised to / :/ 

      ex. name [næ:m] > [n :m] 

   6. Step #2 repeated for front

vowels 

      ex. clene [kle:n] > [kli:n] 

   7. Step #4 repeated for front

vowels 

      name [n :m] > [ne:m] 

   8./ / was lowered to /ai/ 

      / U/ was lowered to /au/ 

      ex. time [t m] > [taim] 

      town [t Un] > [taum] 

LITERATURE

Literature in Britain in the period beginning in around 1500

and lasting until the mid-1600s. Influenced by the artistic and

cultural Renaissance, the transformation of both English

language and literature in this period can be seen to move

away from the medieval Middle English literature period and

into the more recognizably modern Elizabethan literature. The

period is characterized by the influence of the classics (in

literature, language, and philosophy), as well as an optimistic

forward-thinking approach to the potential of humans (known

as Renaissance humanism.

EFFECT ON GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY.