History of the English Language

-The English language belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest
undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and Frisian. Frisian is a language spoken by approximately half a million
people in the Dutch province of Friesland, in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North Sea.

-The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain
during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what
today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most
of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and
Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc - from which the words England
and English are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.
Old English (450-1100 AD)

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English (An example of Middle English by Chaucer)
-Grammar

[edit]Phonology

Main article: Old English phonology

The inventory of classical Old English (i.e. Late West Saxon) surface phones, as usually reconstructed, is as follows.

Labiodenta
  Bilabial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
l

Stop p  b     t  d     k  ɡ  

Affricate         tʃ  (dʒ)      

Nasal m     n     (ŋ)  

Fricative   f  (v) θ  (ð) s  (z) ʃ (ç) (x)  (ɣ) h

Approximant       r   j w  

Lateral
      l        
approximant

The sounds marked in parentheses in the chart above are allophones:

 [dʒ] is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminated

 [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and /ɡ/

 [v, ð, z] are allophones of /f, θ, s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants

 [ç, x] are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels respectively

 [ɣ] is an allophone of /ɡ/ occurring after a vowel, and, at an earlier stage of the language, in the syllable onset.

Short Long

Monophthongs

Front Back Front Back

Close i  y u iː  yː uː

Mid e  (ø) o eː  (øː) oː

Open æ ɑ æː ɑː

The front mid rounded vowels /ø(ː)/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect.

Diphthongs Short (monomoraic) Long (bimoraic)

First element is close iy[6] iːy

Both elements are mid eo eːo

Both elements are

æɑ æːɑ
open

[edit]Morphology

Main article: Old English morphology

Unlike modern English, Old English is a language rich with morphological diversity. It maintains several distinct cases:

the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and (vestigially) instrumental, remnants of which survive only in a few pronouns in modern

English.

[edit]Syntax
[edit]Word order

The word order of Old English is widely believed to be subject-verb-object (SVO) as in modern English and most Germanic languages. The

word order of Old English, however, was not overly important because of the aforementioned morphology of the language. As long

as declension was correct, it did not matter whether you said, "My name is..." as "Mīn nama is..." or "Nama mīn is..."

[edit]Questions

Because of its similarity with Old Norse, it is believed that the word order of Old English changed when asking a question, from SVO to VSO;

i.e. swapping the verb and the subject.

"I am..." becomes "Am I...?"

"Ic eom..." becomes "Eom ic...?"

[edit]Orthography

Main articles: Anglo-Saxon runes and Old English Latin alphabet

The runic alphabet used to write Old English before the introduction of the Latin alphabet.

Old English was first written in runes (futhorc) but shifted to a (minuscule) half-uncial script of the Latin alphabet introduced by

Irish Christian missionaries[7]from around the 9th century. This was replaced by insular script, a cursive and pointed version of

the half-uncial script. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continental Carolingian minuscule (also known

as Caroline) replaced the insular.

The letter ðæt ‹ð› (called eth or edh in modern English) was an alteration of Latin ‹d›, and the runic letters thorn ‹þ›

and wynn ‹ƿ› are borrowings from futhorc. Also used was a symbol for the conjunction and, a character similar to the number

seven (‹⁊›, called a Tironian note), and a symbol for the relative pronounþæt, a thorn with a crossbar through the ascender

(‹ꝥ›). Macrons ‹¯› over vowels were rarely used to indicate long vowels. Also used occasionally were abbreviations for

following m’s or n’s. All of the sound descriptions below are given using IPA symbols.

[edit]Conventions of modern editions

A number of changes are traditionally made in published modern editions of the original Old English manuscripts. Some of

these conventions include the introduction of punctuation and the substitutions of symbols. The symbols ‹e›, ‹f›, ‹g›, ‹r›, ‹s› are

used in modern editions, although their shapes in the insular script are considerably different. The long s ‹ſ› is substituted by

its modern counterpart ‹s›. Insular ‹ᵹ› is usually substituted with its modern counterpart ‹g› (which is ultimately a Carolingian

symbol).

Additionally, modern manuscripts often distinguish between a velar and palatal ‹c› and ‹g› with diacritic dots above the

putative palatals: ‹ċ›, ‹ġ›. The wynnsymbol ‹ƿ› is usually substituted with ‹w›. Macrons are usually found in modern editions to

indicate putative long vowels, while they are usually lacking in the originals. In older printed editions of Old English works,

an acute accent mark was used to maintain cohesion between Old English and Old Norse printing.

The alphabetical symbols found in Old English writings and their substitute symbols found in modern editions are listed below:

Symbo
Description and notes
l

Short /ɑ/. Spelling variations like ‹land› ~ ‹lond› "land" suggest it may have had a rounded allophone [ɒ] before [n] in some
a
cases)

ā Long /ɑː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹a› in modern editions.

Short /æ/. Before 800 the digraph ‹ae› is often found instead of ‹æ›. During the 8th century ‹æ› began to be used more
æ frequently was standard after 800. In 9th century Kentish manuscripts, a form of ‹æ› that was missing the upper hook of the ‹a›
part was used. Kentish ‹æ› may be either /æ/ or /e/ although this is difficult to determine.

ǣ Long /æː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹æ› in modern editions.

Represented /b/. Also represented [v] in early texts before 800. For example, the word "sheaves" is spelled ‹scēabas› in an early
b
text but later (and more commonly) as ‹scēafas›.

Except in the digraphs ‹sc›, ‹cg›, either /tʃ/ or /k/. The /tʃ/ pronunciation is sometimes written with a diacritic by modern editors:
most commonly ‹ċ›, sometimes ‹č› or ‹ç›. Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always /k/; word-finally after ‹i› it is
c
always /tʃ/. Otherwise, a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the word is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed.
(SeeThe distribution of velars and palatals in Old English for details.)

cg [ddʒ] (the surface pronunciation of geminate /jj/); occasionally also for /ɡɡ/

d Represented /d/. In the earliest texts, it also represented /θ/ but was soon replaced by ‹ð› and ‹þ›. For example, the word
meaning "thought" (lit. mood-i-think, with -i- as in "handiwork") was written ‹mōdgidanc› in a Northumbrian text dated 737, but
 later as ‹mōdgeþanc› in a 10th century West Saxon text.

Represented /θ/ and its allophone [ð]. Called ðæt in Old English (now called eth in Modern English), ‹ð› is found in alternation
with thorn ‹þ› (both representing the same sound) although it is more common in texts dating before Alfred. Together with ‹þ›
ð it replaced earlier ‹d› and ‹th›. First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 7th century. After the beginning of Alfred's
time, ‹ð› was used more frequently for medial and final positions while ‹þ› became increasingly used in initial positions,
although both still varied. Some modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between ‹þ› and ‹ð› by using only ‹þ›. [8]

e Short /e/.

Either Kentish /æ/ or /e/ although this is difficult to determine. A modern editorial substitution for a form of ‹æ› missing the
ę
upper hook of the ‹a› found in 9th century texts.

ē Long /eː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹e› in modern editions.

ea Short /æɑ/; after ‹ċ›, ‹ġ›, sometimes /æ/ or /ɑ/.

Long /æːɑ/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹ea› in modern editions. After ‹ċ›, ‹ġ›,
ēa
sometimes /æː/.

eo Short /eo/; after ‹ċ›, ‹ġ›, sometimes /o/

ēo Long /eːo/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹eo› in modern editions.

f /f/ and its allophone [v]

/ɡ/ and its allophone [ɣ]; /j/ and its allophone [dʒ] (when after ‹n›). In Old English manuscripts, this letter usually took its insular
form ‹ᵹ›. The /j/ and [dʒ] pronunciations are sometimes written ‹ġ› by modern editors. Before a consonant letter the
g pronunciation is always [ɡ] (word-initially) or [ɣ] (after a vowel). Word-finally after ‹i› it is always /j/. Otherwise a knowledge of
the historical linguistics of the word in question is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution of
velars and palatals in Old English for details.)

h /h/ and its allophones [ç, x]. In the combinations ‹hl›, ‹hr›, ‹hn›, ‹hw›, the second consonant was certainly voiceless.

i Short /i/.

ī Long /iː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹i› in modern editions.
i.e. Short /iy/; after ‹ċ›, ‹ġ›, sometimes /e/.

Long /iːy/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹ie› in modern editions. After ‹ċ›, ‹ġ›,
īe
sometimes /eː/.

k /k/ (rarely used)

l /l/; probably velarised (as in Modern English) when in coda position.

m /m/

n /n/ and its allophone [ŋ]

o Short /o/.

ō Long /oː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹o› in modern editions.

oe Short /ø/ (in dialects with this sound).

ōe Long /øː/ (in dialects with this sound). Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹oe› in modern editions.

p /p/

qu A rare spelling of /kw/, which was usually written as ‹cƿ› (= ‹cw› in modern editions).[9]

/r/; the exact nature of /r/ is not known. It may have been an alveolar approximant [ɹ] as in most modern accents, an alveolar
r
flap [ɾ], or an alveolar trill [r].

s /s/ and its allophone [z].

sc /ʃ/ or occasionally /sk/.

t /t/
 Represented /θ/ in the earliest texts but was soon replaced by ‹ð› and ‹þ›. For example, the word meaning "thought" was
th
written ‹mōdgithanc› in a 6th century Northumbrian text, but later as ‹mōdgeþanc› in a 10th century West Saxon text.

An alternate symbol called thorn used instead of ‹ð›. Represents /θ/ and its allophone [ð]. Together with ‹ð› it replaced the
earlier ‹d› and ‹th›. First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 8th century. Less common than ‹ð› before Alfred's time,
þ from then onward ‹þ› was used increasingly more frequently than ‹ð› at the beginning of words while its occurrence at the end
and in the middle of words was rare. Some modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between ‹þ› and ‹ð› by using
only ‹þ›.

u /u/ and /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. The /w/ ‹u› was eventually replaced by ‹ƿ› outside of the north of the island.

uu /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. Outside of the north, it was generally replaced by ‹ƿ›.

ū Long /uː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹u› in modern editions.

w /w/. A modern substitution for ‹ƿ›.

ƿ Runic wynn. Represents /w/, replaced in modern print by ‹w› to prevent confusion with ‹p›.

x /ks/ (but according to some authors, [xs ~ çs])

y Short /y/.

ȳ Long /yː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ‹y› in modern editions.

z /ts/. A rare spelling for ‹ts›. Example: /betst/ "best" is rarely spelled ‹bezt› for more common ‹betst›.

Doubled consonants are geminated; the geminate fricatives ‹ðð›/‹þþ›, ‹ff› and ‹ss› cannot be voiced

-The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old
English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great
difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English
have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was
spoken until around 1100.
-During the 5th Century AD three Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes) came to the British Isles from various parts
of northwest Germany as well as Denmark. These tribes were warlike and pushed out most of the original, Celtic-
speaking inhabitants from England into Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of
France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today.

Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different Germanic dialects. This group of dialects forms
what linguists refer to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon. The word "English" was in Old English "Englisc", and that comes
from the name of the Angles. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin.

Before the Saxons the language spoken in what is now England was a mixture of Latin and various Celtic languages which
were spoken before the Romans came to Britain (54-5BC). The Romans brought Latin to Britain, which was part of the
Roman Empire for over 400 years. Many of the words passed on from this era are those coined by Roman merchants and
soldiers.
-The invaders' Germanic language displaced in some areas the indigenous Brythonic languages of what became England. The original Celtic
languages remained in parts of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (where Cornish was spoken into the 19th century). The dialects spoken by the
Anglo-Saxons formed what is now called Old English. The most famous surviving work from the Old English period is the epic poem Beowulf
composed by an unknown poet.
Old English did not sound or look like the Standard English of today. Any native English speaker of today would find Old English unintelligible
without studying it as a separate language. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English
roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English; and many non-standard dialects such as Scots and Northumbrian
English have retained many features of Old English in vocabulary and pronunciation.[2] Old English was spoken until sometime in the 12th or
13th century.[3][4]
Later, English was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Norsemen who invaded and settled mainly in
the north-east of England (see Jórvík and Danelaw). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic
family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distinct.
The Germanic language of these Old English-speaking inhabitants was influenced by contact with Norse invaders, which might have been
responsible for some of the morphological simplification of Old English, including the loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case
(with the notable exception of the pronouns). English words of Old Norse origin include anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, and
many others, possibly even including the pronoun they.
The introduction of Christianity added another wave of Latin and some Greek words. The Old English period formally ended sometime after the
Norman conquest (starting in 1066 AD), when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Norman-French speaking Normans.
The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development

Middle English (1100-1500)

-Construction

With its simplified case-ending system, the grammar of Middle English is much closer to that of modern English than that of Old English.

Compared to other Germanic languages, it is probably most similar to that of modern Dutch.

[edit]Nouns

Main article: Middle English declension

Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from the more complex system of inflection in Old English. The early Modern

English words engel (angel) and name (name) demonstrate the two patterns:

strong weak

singula singula
plural plural
r r

nom/ac
engel engles name namen
c

gen engles* engle(ne)* name namen

 *

dat engle engle(s) name namen

The strong -(e)s plural form has survived into Modern English. The weak -(e)n form is now rare in the standard language, used only

in oxen, children, brethren; and it is slightly less rare in some dialects, used

in eyen for eyes, shoon for shoes, hosen for hose(s) and kine for cows.

[edit]Verbs

As a general rule (and all these rules are general), the first person singular of verbs in the present tense ends in -e ("ich here" - "I hear"), the

second person in -(e)st ("þou spekest" - "thou speakest"), and the third person in -eþ ("he comeþ" - "he cometh/he comes"). (þ is pronounced

like the unvoiced th in "think").

In the past tense, weak verbs are formed by adding an -ed(e), -d(e) or -t(e) ending. These, without their personal endings, also form past

participles, together with past-participle prefixes derived from Old English: i-, y- and sometimes bi-.

Strong verbs, by contrast, form their past tense by changing their stem vowel (e.g. binden -> bound), as in Modern English.

[edit]Pronouns

Post-Conquest English inherits its pronouns from Old English, with the exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the

original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped):

Personal pronouns in Middle English

Singular Plural

Subject Object Possessive Subject Object Possessive

First I me mi(n) we us oure

Second þou/thou þee/thee þy/thy ye you your

Third Impersonal hit it/him his he hem hir

þey/they þem/them þeir/their

Masculine he him his

Feminine sche hire hir

Here are the Old English pronouns. Middle English pronouns derived from these.

First, Second and Third Person

First Person Second Person Third Person

singula
singular plural plural masc. fem. neut. pl.
r

nom
ic wē þū gē hē hēo hit hīe
.

acc. mec, mē ūsic, ūs þec, þē ēowic, ēow hine hīe hit hīe

his,
gen. mīn ūser, ūre þīn ēower his, sīn hiere heora
sīn

dat. mē ūs þē ēow him hiere him heom

The first and second person pronouns in Old English survived into Middle English largely unchanged, with only minor spelling variations. In

the third person, the masculine accusative singular became 'him'. The feminine form was replaced by a form of the demonstrative that

developed into 'she', but unsteadily—'ho' remained in some areas for a long time. The lack of a strong standard written form between the

eleventh and the fifteenth century makes these changes hard to map.

The overall trend was the gradual reduction in the number of different case endings: the dative case disappeared, but the three other cases

were partly retained in personal pronouns, as in he, him, his.

[edit]Orthography

[edit]Pronunciation

Main article: Middle English phonology

Generally, all letters in Middle English words were pronounced. (Silent letters in Modern English come from pronunciation shifts, which

means that pronunciation is no longer closely reflected by the written form because of fixed spelling constraints imposed by the invention of

dictionaries and printing.) Therefore 'knight' was pronounced [ˈkniçt] (with a pronounced <k> and the <gh> as the <ch> in German 'Knecht'),

not [ˈnaɪt] as in Modern English.

In earlier Middle English all written vowels were pronounced. By Chaucer's time, however, the final <e> had become silent in normal speech,

but could optionally be pronounced in verse as the meter required (but was normally silent when the next word began with a vowel). Chaucer

followed these conventions: -e is silent in 'kowthe' and 'Thanne', but is pronounced in 'straunge', 'ferne', 'ende', etc. (Presumably, the final

<y> is partly or completely dropped in 'Caunterbury', so as to make the meter flow.)

An additional rule in speech, and often in poetry as well, was that a non-final unstressed <e> was dropped when adjacent to only a single

consonant on either side if there was another short 'e' in an adjoining syllable. Thus, 'every' sounds like "evry" and 'palmeres' like "palmers".

[edit]Archaic characters

The following characters can be found in Middle English texts. Ash may still be used as a variant of the digraph <ae> in many English words

of Greek or Latin origin; and may be found in brand names or loanwords. Ẏogh lingers in some Scottish names as z, as in McKenzie with a z

pronounced /j/. Ẏogh became indistinguishable from cursive z in Middle Scots and printers tended to use z when ẏogh wasn't available in

their fonts. Thorn was similarly approximated with y, hence the archaic variant spelling of the, ye pronounced the same as the. Icelandic uses

æ, ð, and þ; Faroese uses æ and ð; and Norwegianand Danish use æ. Ẏogh is not used, although Dutch g is pronounced similarly to one

variant pronunciation of ẏogh. Wẏnn represented the barbarian pronunciation of the letter W. Due to its similarity to the letter 'P', it is often

replaced with W, nowadays.

letter name pronunciation

Æ æ Ash [æ]

Ðð Eth [ð]

Ȝȝ Ẏogh [ɡ], [ɣ], [j] or [dʒ]

Þþ Thorn [θ]

[ʋ] (Pronounced [ʍ] when in the consonant

Ƿƿ Wẏnn
group Hƿ)

These were direct hold-overs from the Old English alphabet (a Roman alphabet variant, which drew some additional letters from Germanic

(Anglo-Saxon) Runes.

-The development from the very Germanic and highly inflected language Old English into Middle English was in two main directions. Like
Old English, Middle English was a language that varied greatly over time and space. Several distinct dialects can be distinguished through

the period. All language development is of course continuous, and children can understand their parents, but the cumulative change from
Middle English to the present Modern English means that Middle English is hard to read for modern English speakers without some teaching.

So none of what follows is absolute truth. It must always be read with an understanding that it describes general trends, not actual changes.

With that in mind, no precise dates can be given to define the period of Middle English. , Old English is the most appropriate name for the

language spoken in some parts of the country into the thirteenth century; in other parts, Middle English was developing as early as the

eleventh century. (More at Middle English (History).) A thumbnail sketch of the main features of Middle English follows.

 Although Middle English retained much Germanic structure and basic vocabulary, the inflections were much simplified: for most

everyday purposes, a speaker of Modern English finds no difficulty in the structures, inflection and word order of fourteenth century

English.

 The word order of Middle English becomes, as a result of the loss of inflections, much more important. The

basic Subject + Verb + Complement word order of Modern English became paramount now.

 The phonetics of Middle English were very different. The large changes in pronunciation of vowels involved in the Great English

Vowel Shift were accompanied by shifts in the realisation of consonants, particularly in pronouncing many letters that are 'silent' in

Modern English, e.g. kn-, -gh- and wr-.

The difficulties that students find in reading Chaucer and other Middle English writers lies in the vocabulary, and above all in the unfamiliar

appearance of the vocabulary.

 Spelling had not been standardised. It was largely phonetic (writers tried to represent the sounds of words as closely as

possible), and as the phonetics of Middle English were very different from those of Modern English (see Great English Vowel Shift for

more detail), it can be hard to recognise even familiar words. It may help readers to point out that every letter written was normally

pronounced.

 Not all the vocabulary of Middle English is familiar. Not only were many words used to represent features of real life which no

longer exist (like ploughing with horses and knightly jousting with lances), or which have less importance to us (such as monasteries

and direct royal government), but the vocabulary of English was greatly enriched by word drawn from the Romantic elements of French.

It is for this reason more than any other that our present-day English can boast a bigger vocabulary than most European languages,

and has - with the possible exception of Mandarin Chinese - the largest vocabulary of any known language. English has

a Germanic and a Romance heritage, and this allows such subtleties of usage as are permitted by the

near synonyms kingly, regal and royal, which are derived from Old English (Germanic), Latin (Italic) and French (Romantic - and

therefore indirectly from the Latin) respectively. Minster is an Old English word, but we also have the French-derived

equivalent cathedral.

You can see Project Gutenberg's e-text of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (in Skeat's edition of 1890 (2nd edition) at [[1]], and at Librarius at

[[2]] ("Private use and educational use is free"). In the alliterative tradition, Tolkien and Gordon's edition of Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight (2nd ed, 1967) is at [[3]], and Piers Ploughman can be read at [[4]]. Menner's edition of Purity is at [[5]]. Various facsimiles of the

original manuscripts can be accessed on line, not least in Wikipedia.

- After William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered
England in 1066 AD with his armies and became king, he brought his nobles, who
spoke French, to be the new government. The Old French took over as the
language of the court, administration, and culture. Latin was mostly used for
written language, especially that of the Church. Meanwhile, The English language,
as the language of the now lower class, was considered a vulgar tongue.

By about 1200, England and France had split. English changed a lot, because it
was mostly being spoken instead of written for about 300 years. The use of Old
English came back, but with many French words added. This language is called
Middle English. Most of the words embedded in the English vocabulary are words
of power, such as crown, castle, court, parliament, army, mansion, gown, beauty,
banquet, art, poet, romance, duke, servant, peasant, traitor and governor.
("Language Timeline", The British Library Board)

Because the English underclass cooked for the Norman upper class, the words for
most domestic animals are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer) while the
words for the meats derived from them are French (beef, veal, mutton, pork,
bacon, venison). ("The Origin and History of the English Language", Kryss
Katsiavriades)

The Middle English is also characterized for the beginning of the Great Vowel Shift.
It was a massive sound change affecting the long vowels of English. Basically, the
long vowels shifted upwards; that is, a vowel that used to be pronounced in one
place in the mouth would be pronounced in a different place, higher up in the
mouth. The Great Vowel Shift occurred during the fifteenth to eighteenth
centuries.

The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", a
collection of stories about a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to
Canterbury, England. The portraits that he paints in his Tales give us an idea of
what life was like in fourteenth century England.

-In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England.
The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the
Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where
the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant
in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of
the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.
Modern English
-For about 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and their high nobility spoke only one of the langues d'oïl
called Anglo-Norman, which was a variety of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-
Norman period and originating from a northern dialect of Old French, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people.
Middle English was influenced by both Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo-French (see Anglo-Norman language, "Characteristics").
Even after the decline of Norman, French retained the status of a formal or prestige language and had (with Norman) a significant influence on
the language, which is visible in Modern English today (see English language, Word Origins and List of English words of French origin). A
tendency for Norman-derived words to have more formal connotations has continued to the present day; most modern English speakers would
consider a "cordial reception" (from French) to be more formal than a "hearty welcome" (Germanic). Another example is the very unusual
construction of the words for animals being separate from the words for their meat: e.g., beef and pork (from the Norman bœuf and porc)
being the products of 'cows' and 'pigs', animals with Germanic names.
English was also influenced by the Celtic languages it was displacing, especially the Brittonic substrate, most notably with the introduction of
the continuous aspect—a feature found in many modern languages but developed earlier and more thoroughly in English.[5]
While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old Norman or Latin. A large number of
Norman words were taken into Old English, with many doubling for Old English words. The Norman influence is the hallmark of the linguistic
shifts in English over the period of time following the invasion, producing what is now referred to as Middle English.
The most famous writer from the Middle English period was Geoffrey Chaucer, and The Canterbury Tales is his best-known work.
English literature started to reappear around 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline in Anglo-Norman made it more
respectable. The Provisions of Oxford, released in 1258, was the first English government document to be published in the English language
since the Conquest. In 1362, Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English. By the end of that century, even the royal court
had switched to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.
English spelling was also influenced by Norman in this period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the Old English
letters þ (thorn) and ð (eth), which did not exist in Norman. (These letters remain in the modern Icelandic alphabet, which is descended from
the alphabet of Old Norse.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

-Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started,
with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many
peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and
phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in
print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English.
Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the
standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.
Modern English is often dated from the Great Vowel Shift, which took place mainly during the 15th century. English was further transformed by
the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardising effect of printing. By the time of
William Shakespeare (mid-late 16th century),[6] the language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English
dictionary was published, the Table Alphabeticall.
English has continuously adopted foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek, since the Renaissance. (In the 17th century, Latin words were
often used with the original inflections, but these eventually disappeared). As there are many words from different languages and English
spelling is variable, the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in the
West Country.
-pronouns

In Early Modern English, there were two second person personal pronouns: thou, the informal singular pronoun, and ye, which was both the

plural pronoun and the formal singular pronoun, (like modern French tu and vous and modern German du and Sie). (Thou was already falling
out of use in the Early Modern English period, but remained customary for addressing God and certain other solemn occasions and

sometimes for addressing inferiors.)

Like other personal pronouns, thou and ye had different forms depending on their grammatical case; specifically, the objective form

of thou was thee, its possessive forms were thy and thine, (compare modern German; thou - du, thee - dich, thine - dein); and its reflexive or

emphatic form was thyself, while the objective form of ye was you, its possessive forms were your and yours, and its reflexive or emphatic

forms were yourself and yourselves.

In other respects, the pronouns were much the same as today. One difference is that my and thy became mine and thine before words

beginning with a vowel and letter h; thus, mine eyes, thine hand, and so on.

Personal pronouns in Early Modern English

  Nominative Objective Genitive Possessive

singular I me my / mine[# 1] mine

1st Person

plural we us our ours

singular informal thou thee thy / thine[# 1] thine

2nd
Person
plural or formal
ye you your yours
singular

him / her /
singular he / she / it his / her / his (it)[# 2] his / hers / his[# 2]
it
3rd Person

plural they them their theirs

Verbs
[edit]Marking tense and number

During the Early Modern period, English verb inflections became simplified as they evolved towards their modern forms:

 The third person singular present lost its alternate inflections; '-(e)th' became obsolete while -s survived. (The alternate forms'

coexistence can be seen in Shakespeare's phrase, "With her, that hateth thee and hates vs all").[6]
 The plural present form became uninflected. Present plurals had been marked with -en, -th, or -s (-th and -s survived the longest,

especially with the plural use of is, hath, and doth).[7] Marked present plurals were rare throughout the Early Modern period, though,

and -en was probably only used as a stylistic affectation to indicate rural or old-fashioned speech. [8]

 The second person singular was marked in both the present and past tenses with -st or -est (for example, in the past

tense, walkedst or gav'st).[9] Since the indicative past was not (and is not) otherwise marked for person or number [10], the loss

of thou made the past subjunctive indistinguishable from the indicative past for all verbs except to be.
[edit]Modal auxiliaries

The modal auxiliaries cemented their distinctive syntactical characteristics during the Early Modern period. Thus, modals' use without an

infinitive became rare (as in "I must to Coventry"; "I'll none of that"). Use of modals' present participles to indicate aspect (from 1556:

"Maeyinge suffer no more the loue & deathe of Aurelio"), and of their preterite forms to indicate tense ("He follow'd Horace so very close, that

of necessity he must fall with him") also became uncommon. [11]

Some verbs ceased to function as modals during the Early Modern period. The present form of must, mot, became obsolete. Dare also lost

the syntactical characteristics of a modal auxiliary, evolving a new past form (dared) distinct from the modal durst.[12]

[edit]Perfect and progressive forms

The perfect of the verbs had not yet been standardized to all use the auxiliary verb "to have". Some took as their auxiliary verb "to be", as in

this example from the King James Bible, "But which of you ... will say unto him ... when he is come from the field, Go and sit down..." [Luke

XVII:7]. The rules that were followed as to which verbs took which auxiliaries were similar to those still used

in German and French(see unaccusative verb).

The modern syntax used for the progressive aspect ("I am walking") became dominant by the end of the Early Modern period, but other

forms were also common. These included the prefix a- ("I am a-walking") and the infinitive paired with "do" ("I do walk"). Moreover, the to be

+ -ing verb form could be used to express a passive meaning without any additional markers: "The house is building" could mean "The house

is being built."[13]

[edit]Vocabulary

Although the language is otherwise very similar to that current, there have in time developed a few "false friends" within the English language

itself, rendering difficulty in understanding even the still-prestigious phrasing of the King James Bible. An example is the passage, "Suffer the

little children"; meaning, "Permit..." (this usage of the word "suffer" is still sometimes used in some dialects in formal circumstances; it is also

where we get the words "sufferance" and "suffrage" from).

Late Modern English (1800-Present)

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

-The two principal factors responsible for the rise in the density of vocabulary in the Late Modern English language are the Industrial Revolution
and the British Empire. While the advancing technology in the Industrial Revolution created the need for new words, the British Empire, covering
one quarter of the Earth's surface at its pinnacle, encouraged the language to adopt many new foreign words from many countries. Read on to
know more on Late Modern English origin and how it developed.

The new creations and discoveries in the industrial and scientific fields developed the need for neologisms, describing the new creations and
discoveries. For this, Late Modern English had to rely heavily on Latin and Greek. The classical languages did not support words like oxygen,
nuclear, protein, and vaccine. They were created from Latin and Greek roots. This burst of neologisms continues even today, and are perhaps
most evident in the field of computers and electronics. Some examples are byte, cyber-, bios, hard-drive, and microchip etc;

The ascent of the British Empire and the expansion in global trade served two purposes.

First, it introduced the English language to the world and secondly, also introduces new words into English. Practically every language on Earth
has had some contribution to the development of Late Modern English language. Some examples are: Finnish (sauna), Japanese (tycoon), Hindi
(pundit, shampoo, pajamas). As the British Empire was a maritime empire, one can see the influence of nautical terms on the origin of Late
Modern English. Some examples: Phrases like three sheets to the wind.

Finally, one cannot overlook the influence of the military influence on the language during the late Modern English period, the second half of
twentieth century. Before the Great War, small, volunteer militaries were maintained by both Britain and the United States. The mid-20th century
saw a large number of British and American men serving in the military. As a consequence, lots of military slang entered the language like never
before. Some examples of military terms that made their way into late Modern English are - camouflage, blockbuster, radar, roadblock,
spearhead, nose dive etc;

-In 1755, Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary, his Dictionary of the English Language.
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising
from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its
height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

-The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English
has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a
need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the
English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Varieties of English
From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety
of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American
English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British
call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time
in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another
example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an
influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and
vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West.
French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American
English (and so, to an extent, British English).
Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular
music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the
world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English,
Indian English and Caribbean English.
 The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.

Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.

Early Modern English

(1500-1800)

Outer History

Political Events

 HENRY VIII (r. 1509-1547), establishment of Church of England, incorporation of Wales

 ELIZABETH I (r. 1558-1603), defeat of the Armada 1588, begins period of colonial expansion
 JAMES I (VI of Scotland) (r. 1603-1625), patron of King James Bible
 CIVIL WAR, 1642, royalists vs. parlamentarians, execution of Charles I (1625-1649)
 OLIVER CROMWELL, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (1653-1658)
 RESTORATION, Charles II (1660-1685)
 ACT OF SETTLEMENT (1701), provision by Parliament for throne to be transferred to German house of
Hanover in the event of no heirs from William III or Queen Anne--succession to go to Sophia, electress of
Hanover and granddaughter of James I and her protestant heirs
 ACT OF UNION (1707), England and Scotland united to form Great Britain
 GEORGE I (r. 1714-1727), great grandson of James I, could not speak English, begins Hanover dynasty (five
kings) which ended with Queen Victoria
 GEORGE III (r. 1760-1820), independence of American colonies 1783, beginning of industrial revolution,
eventual insanity of king
  WAR WITH FRANCE (1789-1815), English against French revolution and later Napoleon I, emperor of France
(1804-1814), English victories by Nelson at Trafalgar 1806 and finally by Wellington at Waterloo 1815,
Napoleon's death1821.
 IRELAND incorporated to England 1801
 QUEEN VICTORIA (r. 1837-1901), granddaughter of George III, succeeded William IV who was brother of
George IV

PRINTING: William Caxton1476; fixing of spelling; literacy; translations of classics; loanwords from Latin and Greek

RENAISSANCE: interest in classical learning, loanwords, English style affected, attempts to improve English

REFORMATION: Henry VIII's disputes with the Pope, Reformation, Church of England, reading of Bible, translations
into English, Authorized Version 1611 (King James Bible), effect on style, education transferred to state, emphasis on
English

ECONOMY: wool production, large sheep pastures, migration to cities, urbanization, dialectal mixing, rise of middle
class, upward mobility, quest for correct usage, authoritarian handbooks; Industrial Revolution: more intensive
urbanization, technical vocabulary based on Latin and Greek roots, decreased literacy due to child labor

EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION: defeat of Spanish Armada 1588, control of seas, acquisition of colonies
throughout the world (Bermuda, Jamaica, Bahamas, Honduras, Canada, American colonies, India, Gambia, Gold Coast,
Australia, New Zealand); exotic products, loanwords from non-Indo-European languages, spread of English around the
world

AMERICAN REVOLUTION: separation of English speakers, beginning of multiple national Englishes

SCHOLARLY WRITING: 17th c. scholarly writing still mostly in Latin, Newton, Bacon; middle class embraced English
as scholarly language during18th c.

LINGUISTIC ANXIETY: perceived lexicon inadequacies, borrowing from Latin, deliberate attempts to improve the
language: Sir Thomas Elyot, definition of neologisms; critics of such borrowings termed them inkhorn terms, Thomas
Wilson, Roger Ascham, Sir John Cheke (translated New Testament using only English words); attempt to preserve purity
of English, reviving of older English words; archaizers, Edmund Spenser (1552-1599); compounding of English words:
Arthur Golding (1587); attempts to produce English technical vocabulary: threlike (equilateral triangle), likejamme
(parallelogram), endsay (conclusion), saywhat (definition), dry mock (irony)

LOANWORDS: Greek and Latin technical vocabulary; continued borrowing from French (comrade, duel, ticket,
volunteer), also Spanish (armada, bravado, desperado, peccadillo), Italian (cameo, cupola, piazza, portico)

SPELLING REFORM: John Cheke (1569): proposal for remove all silent letters; Sir Thomas Smith (1568): letters as
pictures of speech, elimination of c and q, reintroduction of thorn, use of theta, vowel length marked with diacritics;
similar proposals by John Hart (1569-70), elimination of y, w, c, capital letters; William Bullokar (1580): diacritics and
new symbols, dictionary and grammar to set standards; public spelling standardized by mid 1700's, under influence of
printers, scribes of Chancery

DICTIONARIES: desire to refine, standardize, and fix the language

 William Caxton, French-English vocabulary for travelers (1480)

 Roger Williams's Key into the Languages of America (1643)
 Richard Mulcaster's treatise on education,The Elementarie (1582), 8000 English words but no definitions
 first English dictionary, Robert Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall (1604), 2500 rare and borrowed words,
intended for literate women who knew no Latin or French, need to read Bible, concern with correctness
 John Bullokar's An English Expositor (1616), marked archaic words
 Henry Cockeram's English Dictionarie (1623), including sections on refined and vulgar words and mythology
 Thomas Blount's Glossographia (1656), 11000 entries, cited sources and etymologies
  John Kersey's A New English Dictionary (1702), first to include everyday words
 Nathaniel Bailey's An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721) and Dictionarium Britannicum (1730),
48000 entries, first modern lexicographer, ordinary words, etymologies, cognate forms, stress placement
 Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), 40,000 entries, illustrative quotations, model for
OED

ENGLISH ACADEMY MOVEMENT: 17th-18th c., language sentinel, regulate excesses of the Renaissance, precedents
in Académie Française (1635); proponents: scientist and philosopher Robert Hooke(1660), curator of experiments of
Royal Society; Daniel Defoe (1697); Joseph Addison (1711); Jonathan Swift (1712), Queen Anne supported idea but died
in 1714 and her successor George I was not interested in English; opposition from liberal Whigs who saw it as Tory
scheme; Johnson's dictionary substituted for academy; John Adams's proposal for American Academy

GRAMMAR: attention given to proper and improper usage after mid 18th c.; aspiring middle classes, desire to acquire
appropriate linguistic behavior; Age of Reason, logic, organization, classification; attempts to define and regulate grammar
of language; notion of language as divine in origin, search for universal grammar, Latin and Greek considered less
deteriorated, inflection identified with grammar; William Jones's Indo-European hypothesis, end of 18th c.; 18th c.
grammarians: attempts to provide rules and prevent further decay of language, to ascertain, to refine, to fix

 Thomas Wilson's The Arte of Rhetorique (1553) based on classical models

 Henry Peacham's The Garden of Eloquence (1577), dictionary of rhetorical tropes
 William Bullokar's Bref Grammar (1586)
 Alexander Gil's Logonomia Anglica (1621), very tied to Latin
 Jeremiah Wharton's The English Grammar (1654), accepted lack of inflections
 Robert Lowth's A Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762), most prominent of 18th c. grammars,
authoritarian tone
 Joseph Priestly's The Rudiments of English Grammar (1761), more liberal attitude
 Noah Webster's Plain and Comprehensive Grammar (1784), American grammar, based on usage but concerned
with misuse by Irish and Scots immigrants

Lowth and Priestly: grammar as art, issue of propriety, effects of analogy; 18th c. grammarians: usage as moral issue,
attempt to exterminate inconvenient facts

Phonology

Fossilization of spelling, difficulty ascertaining phonology, help from written statements about the language; dialectal
variations

Consonants

addition of phonemic velar nasal [ng, as in 'hu/ng/'] and voiced alveopalatal fricative [z, as in 'mea/s/ure']

disappearance of allophones of /h/ after vowel; disappeared before t: sight, caught, straight; disappeared or became f in
final position: sigh, tough

loss of l after low back vowel and before labial or velar consonant: half, palm, talk

loss of t/d in consonant clusters with s: castle, hasten

loss of ME instrusive t after s: listen, hustle

g/k lost in initial position before n: gnaw, gnome, know, knight

w lost in initial position before r: wrong, wrinkle, wrist

g lost in ng in final position, producing the phonemic velar nasal; in some dialects further simplification occurred so that
the velar nasal became n, alternate spellings: tacklin/tackling, shilin/shilling

general loss of r before consonants or in final position; also regular loss of r in unstressed positions or after back vowels in
stressed positions: quarter, brother, March

development of palatal semivowel /j/ in medial positions (after the major stress and before unstressed vowel:
tenner/tenure, pecular/peculiar; when semivowel j followed s, z, t, d, the sounds merged to produce a palatal fricative or
affricate: pressure, seizure, creature, soldier (this phenomenon is known as assibilation and is the origin of voiced
alveopalatal fricative /z/); dialectal exceptions and reversals: graduate, immediately, Injun/Indian

d > / th/ after major stress and before r: OE faeder> father; th > d after r or before l: OE morthor>murder

Spelling pronunciations:

 French loans spelling /t/ as th led to /th/pronunciation in English: anthem, throne, author, Anthony, Thames
 French and Latin words with unpronounced initial h led to English words with pronounced initial h: habit, hectic,
history, horror (exceptions: hour, honor) (compare heir/heritage)
 influence of Latin roots led to introduction of l into loans from French without l: Latin fallita, OF faute, EMnE
fault; other consonants also introduced in pronunciation in the same manner a/d/venture, perfe/c/t, bapti/s/m (ME
aventure, perfit, bapteme); some exceptions featuring resistance to the pronunciation of the unhistorical p or b:
receipt, debt, doubt (Latin receptus, debitus, dubitare)

Vowels

Long Vowels

Great Vowel Shift (GVS): major changes in ME long vowels, loss of vowel length; long vowels came to be pronounced in
higher positions, the highest were diphthongized. GVS example: ME bite > PDE bite

exceptions to GVS:

 long E> E: threat, head, death, deaf (instead of following normal GVS development and becoming i: cheat,
plead, wreath); this might be explainable by a possible shortening of long E to E before GVS)
 in other words long E became e but did not continue on to i: break, steak, great
 in some words the normal u (boot, loose, mood) resulting from GVS went on to become the shorter and lower U
(foot, good, hook); in some cases U became a schwa (flood, blood)

Short Vowels

further loss of final unstressed -e (exceptions: judges, passes, wanted)

in general a became æ; but then æ > a before r: harm, scarf, hard; also æ > a before voiceless fricatives: staff, class, path;
original /a/ remained however when the fricative was followed by another vowel: classical, passage
a before l became lax o: all, fall, walk; also after w: want, wash, reward; but not if the vowel preceded a velar consonant:
wax, wag, quack

U> schwa: run, mud, gull, cut, hum, cup; but not if preceded by labial and followed by l, or palatal s, or palatal c: full,
pull, push, bush, butcher

lax i (I) and E stable but often confused with each other as attested by alternate spellings: rever/river, derect/direct,
niver/never

E followed by nasal became I: wenge>wing, sengle>single

lax o before l became o (bolt, cold, old, bowl) but was retained in other environments; notice British dialectal variant: lax
o > a: hot, rock, pocket

Influence of following R:

 r tended to lower vowels (lax e + r>ar) when following them, fer>far, sterre>star, derk>dark, ferme>farm; often
however pronunciation reverted to higher positions: sarvant>servant, sarmon>sermon; consider doublets:
clerk/Clark, person/parson, university/varsity; sergeant (pronounced /ar/)
 lax i, lax e, lax u before r were lowered and centered to schwa: girl, dirty, her, fern, early
 following r blocked GVS so that long lax e, long o and long u did not become the expected i, u, and au. e.g.:
wear, bear, floor, sword, course, court

Diphthongs

tendency for diphthongs to smooth into simple vowels; also tendency for new dipththongs to come into being

iu and lax e + u > iu>ju (pure, mute, hew, cute) and sometimes (after non-labials) ju>u (new, glue, rude)

au>lax o (cause, hawk, claw); but before l+labial au> a or æ: half, calf, calm, palm (notice also the loss of l in these
examples)

lax o + u> o (know, blow, soul, grow) (notice how o is actually also a diphthong)

æi > e (day, pay, raise, stake, eight) (notice how e is also a diphthong)

ui and lax o + i> laxoi (toil, joy)

Prosody

rising pitch in questions; falling pitch in statements; tendency to stress on first syllable; but actually quite a bit of variation
in placement of major stress in polysyllabic words

often secondary stresses in syllables which today have only reduced stress

variant pronunciations were common

extensive use of contractions. EMnE preferred proclitic contractions ('tis), while PDE prefers enclitic contractions (it's)

Graphics

abandonment of yogh; thorn became indistinguishable from y; i and j (Iohn) and u and v used interchangeably, v at
beginning of words, u elsewhere; use of long s, except at end of word (s)

spelling fixed in printed words by end of 17th c.

respellings under Latin influence

common nouns often capitalized

comma replaced the virgule (/)

apostrophe used in contractions

heavier 18th c-punctuation than in PDE

Morphology

blurring of boundary morphology/syntax, grammatical functions defined primarily by syntax

loss of 2nd person singular pronouns (pu and thou)

loss of 2nd person singular indicative endings of verbs

Nouns: only two cases (common and possessive), two numbers (singular and plural), no grammatical gender; some
mutated plurals, a few -n plurals (shoes/shoon, housen, eyen), some unmarked plurals (month, year, horse, fish); some
unmarked genitives (mother tongue, lady slipper); -s of genitives sometimes omitted when word ended in sibilant (s-like
sound) or following word started with one (peace sake); misinterpretation of genitive ending -s as 'his' (e.g. John Browne
his meaddow, Ann Harris her lot)

Adjectives: adjectives had lost all inflections except comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) by the end of ME; use of more
and most as intensifiers, mixing and combination of more/most with endings -er/-est

Pronouns: most heavily inflected word class; development of separate possessive adjectives and pronouns (my/mine, etc);
possessive of it: his > it > its sometimes spelled it's; 2nd person singular forms thou and thee disappeared in 17th c, the
plural forms (ye/you) prevailed for both singular and plural; subject ye became you; demonstrative form tho used instead
of those

Relative pronouns: that, which, who, as ("all the goods as was brought to our view"), omission of relative sometimes
acceptable ("I have a brother is condemn'd to die")

Reflexive pronouns: simple object form or self + personal pronoun; decline in use of reflexives

Indefinite pronouns: every, other, some, somewhat, something

Verbs: development of verb phrases; transformation of strong verbs into weak; further reduction of verbal inflections;
decline in use of subjunctive; strong verbs were becoming weak, disappearing or losing separate forms for past and past
participle (cling/clung/clung), perhaps following pattern of some irregular weak verbs which featured vowel changes but
identical past and past participle forms (hear/heard/heard); regular and irregular verbs; survival of some strong past
participles as adjectives (molten, sodden); weak verbs became regular verbs; infinitive -n ending disappeared; present
indicative plural endings -n or -th disappeared; -ing became universal present participle ending; -s and -th were 3rd person
singular present indicative endings, eventually just -s; many changes in modal auxiliaries, instability, loss of all non-finite
forms, can/could, mote/must, may/might, will/would as modal, dare as regular verb, need as modal in some contexts; two-
part verbs very common (shorten up, wear out, cut off)

Uninflected word classes: loss of some prepositions (maugre, sans, betwixt, fro), development of new phrasal prepositions
(by means of, in spite of, because of); ac > but; new compound subordinating conjuctions (provided that, insofar as);
adverbs formed by adding -ly to adjectives, also plain adverbs (absolute dead, exceeding worn); intensifying adverbs:
very, pretty; interjections: excuse me, please (if it please you), hollo, hay, what, God's name in euphemistic distortions
(sblood, zounds, egad)

Syntax

possessive and demonstrative adjectives sometimes used together (that their opinion); adjectives sometimes allowed to
follow noun (faith invincible, line royal); increased use of noun adjuncts (sugar almonds, merchant goods)

Adverbial Modifiers

tendency to place adverbial modifier before words modified (is again come); double negatives still acceptable

Verb Phrases

full-fledged perfect tense, be as auxiliary for verbs of motion (he is happily arrived); have displacing be as auxiliary;
reduction of have to schwa in speech (should a return'd); progressive tense use increased; periphrastic use of do (I do
weep, doth heavier grow); do as auxiliary in questions and negatives (I doubt it not, why do you look on me?); phrasal
quasi-modals: be going to, have to, be about to; some continued use of impersonal constructions (it likes me not, this fears
me, methinks) but former impersonal verbs were more often used personally with a nominative subject

Syntax in clauses

 more flexibility than today

 SVO order regular in independent and dependent declarative clauses
 SOV acceptable for pronoun objects and for emphasis (as the law should them direct, Richard that dead is)
 VSO in questions and conditional statements (how hast thou offended?, Were he my kinsman ...); imperatives
often had expressed subject (go, my servant, to the kitchen; do thou but call my resolution wise)
 OSV or OVS used to emphasize object

Syntax of sentences
influence of Latin, "elegant English," long sentences featuring subordination, parallelism, balanced clauses; bus also native
tradition, parataxis, use of coordinators (but, and, for)

Lexicon

heavy borrowing from Latin and other languages, including non-Indo-European ones

Classical languages: free borrowing and reconstitution of roots and affixes often in combination with native words and
other loans; many Latin borrowings were doublets of words previously borrowed from French or Latin (invidious/envious,
camera/chamber, paralysis/palsy, fragile/frail); Greek loans were highly specialized, scholarly words (anarchy, aorist,
aphrodisiac)

Other European Languages: French, many borrowings in specialized words (hospitable, gratitude, sociable); Italian, terms
in trade, architecture, the arts (tariff, sonata, oratorio, balcony, ghetto); Spanish and Portuguese, terms related to
exploration, colonization, exotic products (Spanish: cigar, potato, tomato, hammock, breeze, cockroach; Portuguese:
mango, tank, yam, molasses); Dutch, terms in trade, seafaring, painting (cruise, yacht, landscape, sketch, brandy, uproar);
German, terms in geology, mining, etc. (quartz, zinc, noodle, plunder, waltz); Celtic (leprechaun, plaid, shamrock,
trousers, whiskey).

Non-Indo-European Languages: English settlements in North America, borrowings mostly from from Algonquian
languages, cultural terms, names of plants, animals, objects (moose, raccoon, skunk, hominy, pecan, squash); Asian
languages, Chinese (ketchup, tea, ginseng), Japanese (soy, sake), Hindi (jungle, shampoo, bandanna)

Formation of new words: affixing was the largest source of new words in English; new derivational affixes from Latin and
Greek; compounding (buttercup, jellyfish, nutcracker, pickpocket, good-looking, old-fashioned); functional shift or zero
derivation (noun to verb: badger, capture, pioneer); clipping (arrear > rear); back-formation (greedy > greed, difficulty >
difficult, unity > unit); blending (dumb + confound > dumfound); proper names>common nouns (Fauna > fauna); echoic
words (boohoo, boom, bump, bah, blurt); folk etymology (Dutch oproer [up + motion] > uproar); verb + adverb (take-out
pick up); reduplication (so-so, mama, papa); words of unknown origin (baffle, chubby, lazy, pet, sleazy)

lost vocabulary, shedding off of many French loans

Semantics

narrowing was the most common, ('deer' formerly had meant 'animal'); generalization ('twist' formerly meant twig or
branch); amelioration ('jolly' had meant arrogant) and pejoration ('lust' had meant pleasure, delight); strengthening
('appalled' had meant only pale or weak) and weakening ('spill' had meant destroy, kill); shift of stylistic level (stuff, heap,
lowered in stylistic level); shift in denotation ('blush' had meant look or gaze)

Dialects

fixing of written language obscured dialectal differences; information about dialects from personal letters, diaries, etc; e.g.
New England dialect features observable in spellings like 'Edwad', 'octobe', 'fofeitures', 'par', 'warran', 'lan'
Tribes in English development

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th
century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066.[1] The Benedictine monk, Bede, writing three centuries
later, identified them as the descendants of three Germanic tribes: [2]
The Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a
district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The Angles were one of the main groups that settled in Britain in the post-Roman period,
founding several of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, and their name is the root of the name "England".
The Saxons (Latin: Saxones) were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants are generally considered
ethnic Germans,Dutch, or English. They are primarily found in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-
Anhalt, Westphalia, Drenthe, Overijssel, and England. The modern German state of Saxony is not inhabited by Saxon descendants, and was
so-named because it came to be ruled by the medieval Saxon dynasty.
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their
time.[1] They are believed to have originated from Jutland (called Iutum in Latin) in modern Denmark, Southern Schleswig (South Jutland)
and part of the East Frisian coast.