Shakespeare's writings are universally associated with Early Modern English

Early Modern English refers to the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period (the latter half of the 1400s) to 1650. Thus, the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English, although the King James Bible intentionally keeps some archaisms that were not common even when it was published. Prior to and following the accession of James VI to the English throne the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. Current readers of English are generally able to understand Early Modern English, though occasionally with difficulties arising from grammar changes, changes in the meanings of some words, and spelling differences. The standardization of English spelling falls within the Early Modern English period, and is influenced by conventions predating the Great Vowel Shift, explaining much of the non-phonetic spelling of contemporary Modern English. Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is God Save the Queen. See also Proposed English National Anthems. ... Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Cha togar mfhearg gun dioladh (Scottish Gaelic) Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English (de facto) Recognised regional languages Gaelic, Scots1 Demonym Scot, Scots... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... An extinct language is a language which no longer has any native speakers, in contrast to a dead language, which is is a language which has stopped changing in grammar, vocabulary, and the complete meaning of a sentence. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... West Germanic is the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages, including such languages as English, Dutch, and German. ... The Anglo-Frisian languages (also known as Ingvaeonic languages or North Sea Germanic languages) are a group of West Germanic languages consisting of Old English, Old Frisian, and their descendants. ... The Anglic languages (also called Anglian languages) are one of the two branches of Anglo-Frisian languages, itself a branch of West Germanic. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ... Image File history File links Shakespeare. ... Image File history File links Shakespeare. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Category: ... Year 1650 (MDCL) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... In language, an archaism is the deliberate use of an older form that has fallen out of current use. ... Middle Scots describes the language of Anglic-speaking Lowland Scotland in the period 1450 to 1700. ... Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Cha togar mfhearg gun dioladh (Scottish Gaelic) Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English (de facto) Recognised regional languages Gaelic, Scots1 Demonym Scot, Scots... English spelling (or orthography), although largely phonemic, has more complicated rules than many other spelling systems used by languages written in alphabetic scripts and contains many inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation, necessitating rote learning for anyone learning to read or write English. ... The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in the south of England between 1200 and 1600. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

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 or the 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, thou's objective form was thee, its possessive forms were thy and thine, and its reflexive or emphatic form was thyself, while ye's objective form was you, its possessive forms were your and yours, and its reflexive or emphatic forms were yourself and yourselves. Most modern English speakers think of thou as a relic of Shakespeares day. ... In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ...

In other respects, the pronouns were much the same as today. One difference is that, much as a becomes an before a vowel, my and thy became mine and thine before vowels as well; hence, mine eyes, thine uncle, and so on.

Orthographic conventions

The orthography in Early Modern English was fairly similar to that of today, but spelling was phonetic and unstable; for example, the word acuity could be spelled either <acuity> or <acuitie>. Further, there were a number of features of spelling that have not been retained: The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ...

• The letter <S> had two distinct lowercase forms: <s> as today, and <ſ> (long s). The former was used at the end of a word, and the latter everywhere else, except that by the turn of the seventeenth century, double-lowercase-S was written <sſ> (instead of the older <ſſ>); hence earlier happineſſe and later happinesſe.
• <u> and <v> were not two distinct letters, but different forms of the same letter; <v> was used at the start of a word, and <u> in its interior; hence vnmoued (for modern unmoved), vſe (for use).
• Latin-derived words that today end in <-al> often ended in <-all>; hence maternall, actuall.
• The capital letter <v> was written double for capital <w>; hence VVeather, VVhen.
• Due to French influence,^{[citation needed]} a silent <e> was often appended to words. One-syllable words often doubled the last consonant before adding this <e>; hence ſpeake, cowarde, manne (for man), runne (for run).
• Also due to French influence, words that today end in <-ic> and <-ac> were often spelled with <-ique> or <-aque>. Later, these words began to be spelled with <-ick> or <-ack>; hence prophetique, zodiaque.
• Words and adjectives denoting a person's origin that today end in <-an> but not <-ian> were often written with <-ain> or <-aine>; hence Romain, Germaine.
• The sound /ʌ/ was often written <o>; hence ſommer, plombe (for modern summer, plumb).
• The pronouns me and ye were often written mee and yee, respectively (like thee).
• When, in poetry, the /ə/ of a preterite or past participle was dropped, the ending was written simply <-'d> or <-t>; hence touch'd, curſt.

An italicized long s used in the word Congress in the United States Bill of Rights. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

Verbs

Verb conjugations in the "thou" form (second person informal singular) end in -(e)st (e.g. "thou takest"). In Early Modern English, third person singular conjugations end in -(e)th instead of -s (e.g. "he taketh"). Both the second person informal singular and third person singular lost their endings in the subjunctive, which utilizes the bare stem of the verb. In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), and statements that are contrary to fact. ...

From Middle English to Early Modern English

The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of vocabulary or pronunciation changing: it was the beginning of a new era in the history of English. Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the...

The introduction of printing meant that more books were produced, and more people would have had access to books. People who already read books would have read a greater number of different books, and the average literate person's vocabulary would have been enlarged. Greater political stability and prosperity led to a flowering of lasting literature, which would have helped to stabilise the language and broaden its vocabulary. Greater prosperity would also have led to more trade, with people from different parts of England coming into contact with each other. English was used in church services, making the general population more familiar with a standard version of the language, rather than the liturgy being in Latin, which was completely incomprehensible to most people. The great differences between the Middle English dialects would have started to be ironed out to some extent. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...

An era of linguistic change in a language with large variations in dialect was replaced by a new era of a more standardised language with a richer lexicon and an established (and lasting) literature. Shakespeare's plays are familiar and comprehensible today, 400 years after they were written, but the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland, written only 200 years earlier, are considerably more difficult for the average reader. Shakespeare redirects here. ... Geoffrey Chaucer (c. ... Langlands Dreamer: from an illuminated initial in a Piers Plowman manuscript held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford William Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman. ...

Timeline: Early Modern English

• 1476 — William Caxton starts printing in Westminster, but the language he uses reflects the variety of styles and dialects used by the authors whose work he prints.
• 1485 — Tudor dynasty established — start of period of (relative) political and social stability.
• 1491 or 1492 — Richard Pynson starts printing in London — his style tends to prefer Chancery Standard, the form of English used by government.
• c1509 — Pynson becomes the king's official printer.
• From 1525 — Publication of William Tyndale's Bible translation (which was initially banned).
• 1539 — Publication of the Great Bible, the first officially authorised Bible in English, edited by Myles Coverdale, largely from the work of Tyndale. This Bible is read to congregations regularly in churches, familiarising much of the population of England with a standard form of the language.
• 1549 — Publication of the first Book of Common Prayer in English, under the supervision of Thomas Cranmer. This book standardises much of the wording of church services.
• 1557 — Publication of Tottel's Miscellany.
• c1590 to c1612 — Shakespeare's plays written — they are still widely read and familiar in the 21st century.
• 1611 — The King James Bible is published, largely based on Tyndale's translation. It remains the standard Bible in the Church of England for many years.
• c1640–1660 — Period of social upheaval in England (the English Civil War and the era of Oliver Cromwell).
• 1662 — New edition of the Book of Common Prayer, largely based on the 1549 and subsequent editions. This also long remains a standard work in English.
• 1667 — Publication of Paradise Lost by John Milton.

The printers device of William Caxton, 1478. ... The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor (Welsh: ) was a series of five monarchs who ruled England and Ireland from 1485 until 1603. ... Richard Pynson, one of the first printers of English books, was born in 1448 in Normandy and may have been a glover [1](Plomer, 1922/23, pp. ... Chancery Standard was a written form of English used by government bureaucracy and for other official purposes from the late 14th century to /date required/. It is believed to have contributed in a significant way to the development of the English language spoken today. ... William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tyndale,Tindall or Tyndall) (ca. ... The Great Bible was the first authorised edition of the Holy Bible in English, authorised by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. ... Myles Coverdale (also Miles Coverdale) (c1488 - January 20, 1568) was a 16th-century Bible translator who produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English. ... For the novel by Joan Didion, see A Book of Common Prayer. ... Thomas Cranmer (July 2, 1489 – March 21, 1556) was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of the English kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. He is credited with writing and compiling the first two Books of Common Prayer which established the basic structure of Anglican liturgy for centuries and... Songes and Sonettes, written by the ryght honorable Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other, usually called Tottels Miscellany, was the first printed anthology of English poetry. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... The 21st century is the present century of the Anno Domini (common) era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ... The Church of England logo since 1998 The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... The English Civil War consisted of a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians (known as Roundheads) and Royalists (known as Cavaliers) between 1642 and 1651. ... Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England, Scotland and Ireland into a republican Commonwealth and for the brutal war exercised in his conquest of Ireland. ... Title page of the first edition (1667) Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ...

From Early Modern to Modern English

The 17th century was a time of political and social upheaval in England, particularly the period from about 1640 to 1660. Certain forms of pronunciation or vocabulary may have lost or gained prestige, as parts of the upper echelons of society were replaced by people from lower classes. The increase in trade around the world meant that the English port towns (and their forms of speech) would have gained in influence over the old county towns. England experienced a new period of internal peace and relative stability, encouraging the arts including literature, from around the 1690s onwards. Another important episode in the development of the English language started around 1600: the British settlement of America. World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1] and South America with their associated islands and regions. ...

See also

• Early Modern Britain
• History of the English language
• Middle English
• Modern English