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Development of English literary language. 15-20 century
The English language underwent extensive sound changes during the 1400s, while its spelling conventions remained rather constant. 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. Consequent to the push toward standardization, the language acquired self-conscious terms such as "accent" and "dialect".[15] By the time of William Shakespeare (mid 16th - early 17th century),[16] the language had become clearly recognisable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published, the Table Alphabeticall.
Increased literacy and travel have facilitated the adoption of many foreign words, especially borrowings 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. During the period, loan words were borrowed from Italian, German, and Yiddish. British acceptance of and resistance to Americanisms began during this period.[17]
The Dictionary of the English Language was the first full featured English dictionary. Samuel Johnson published the authoritative work in 1755. To a high degree, the dictionary standardized both English spelling and word usage. Meanwhile, grammar texts by Lowth, Murray, Priestly, and others attempted to prescribe standard usage even further.
Early Modern English and Late Modern English vary essentially in vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from the Industrial Revolution and the technology that created a need for new words as well as international development of the language. The British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and American English, the two major varieties of the language, are spoken by 400 million persons. Received Pronunciation of British English is considered the traditional standard. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one billion.
The grammarians of the 18th century like Robert Lowth and James Buchanan etc. took a critical view and spent a lot of time in correcting the shortcomings and the improprieties of the English language that were commonly in use. For example: ‘I had rather not,’ ‘a third alternative,’ ‘more perfect,’ and ‘you was’ etc. The ‘you was’ term was very commonly used among educated people in those days. It was changed to ‘thou wast’ and then to ‘thou wert’ and finally to ‘you were.’ They held the view that Latin was still a superior language. During that time Lindley Murray published hisGrammar in 1795 followed by English Reader in 1799 and English Spelling Book in 1804. During that period Noah Webster (1758-1843) produced his Spelling Book in 1783, the first edition of hisAmerican Dictionary of English Language in 1828 and a subsequent edition in 1840.
Vocabulary of Modern English.
The vocabulary of English language is a mixture of Germanic (Old English and Scandinavian), Greek, Latin and French where almost half of it is Germanic and Greek and half is Latin and French with some of the words from almost all of the notable languages of the world as it had taken free admission from everywhere.
A sample of other adaptations are: Spanish-cigar, mosquito, tornado, tomato (tomate) and potato (patata). Hebrew-amen, manna, messiah, rabbi and jubilee. Norwegian-ski. Finnish- sauna.Russian-mammoth and vodka. Czech-robot. Hungarian-paprika. Portuguese-marmalade, flamingo and molasses. Turkish-turban, coffee and caviar. Hindi-sahib, maharajah, jungle, cheetah, karma, mantra and dhoti. Persian-divan, purdah, bazaar and chess. Tamil-curry. Chinese-tea. Japanese-judo and jujitsu. Malay-ketchup, sago and bamboo. Polynesian-taboo and tattoo. African languages-mumbo jumbo and voodoo. Caribbean-hammock, hurricane and tobacco. These are just a few examples of adaptations.
(19th and 20th century) In 1864 Frederick James Furnivall founded the Early English Text Society to initiate the revival of the Medieval English literature and to synchronize it with the gradual development of the English language. As a result of that “A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles,” edited by Sir James A.H. Murray and assisted by three more editors, Bradley, Charles Onions and Craigie, was published in 12 volumes along with its supplements from 1884 to 1928. It gives the inventory and the history of words in use from 1150 up to 1500 of all the five dialects of the Middle English. After 1500 only literary English words are taken, not the dialecticals. It enormously contains the quotations from the English literature and records, and incorporates the words that have entered into English vocabulary from the earliest records to the existing date along with their history and origin. It contains more than 15,000 pages and over 400,000 words. A revised and concise edition of this dictionary called “The Oxford English Dictionary” was first published in 1933.
Dialects of Modern English. There are a number of dialects and subdialects in United Kingdom. For instance, Southeast England, Northern, Midland, Norfolk, South Western, Wales and Lowland Scottish etc. Then, the English speech of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, India, Gulf countries and Africa has its own peculiarity.
The latest form of the most advanced English language.
The English language is considered to be the world language of today. It has an extensive amount of words not found in other languages and its rich vocabulary may sufficiently accommodate all the situations of a social and technical nature. But, even at the maximum height of its evolution (which took a full 1,500 years since the arrival of the Germanic people in England in the 5th century AD) could you be sure of the spellings of the names of people or their pronunciations unless you are told? Isn’t it a dilemma that the vowels have no fixed sound or phonetic value, like, father, eye, now, son, sun, wherea, e, o and u, all of them sound as a, (long or short), and o is either o or a as in Joan, John, Johnny? It is because the basic alphabetic structure was scientifically wrong from the very beginning; and this is the case with all other languages of the world.