Language Focus: Early Modern English

The Modern English period is usually divided into two subperiods – the Early Modern English period, which began in the XVI century and ended late in the XVIII century and the Present-Day English period that began in the XIX century and lasts till our days.

The period of Early Modern English coincided with great political, economic, technological and social changes in Britain and all over the world. Colonial expansion led to the spread of English in different countries – North America, Madras, India and its establishing as a state language.

The Early Modern English period saw a great number of significant changes in society which influenced the development of the language – introduction of the printing press, access to education, increased commercial and social contacts. Due to these changes English established itself as a language of state and society. The development of science and new discoveries increased the vocabulary of English and the invention of the printing press established English as the accepted form of communication in all fields.

The structure of the English language at that period was very close to the structure of Present-Day English, though the number of different variants was much bigger. The period of language stabilization lasted till 1700 when the texts got a form much similar to the Present-Day forms. In the Early Modern English period characteristics of some main parts of speech changed.

The lexicon in the XVI century was an area of significant change in the language. It expanded dramatically due to colonial expansion and the Renaissance. The contacts with aborigines and new lands allowed English speakers to come into contact with ideas and concepts, which had been unknown before. The words borrowed from Native Americans were canoe, wigwam, buffalo and many others. The Renaissance brought to English many words from Greek and from Romance languages. The words from Romance languages are still in wide use today: armada, cavalier, palisade, renegade. The words borrowed from French at that period preserved French pronunciation and spelling. These are the words like machine, chemise, ballet, buffet, bouquet.

Italian borrowings of the period mainly included the words related to arts: andante, libretto, duet, violin, opera, studio. Spanish borrowings included such words as armada, canyon, cigar, guerilla, hurricane, mosquito, potato, quinine and tobacco.

While English was developing as a medium in every-day communication, its status as a scientific medium remained uncertain. Still a great number of scientific works were written in Latin. To fulfil the needs of English as a future medium of scientific communication the words from the Greek language were borrowed into English and often functioned equally with native words and Latin borrowings. With the course of time they acquired specific meanings.