ENG 121: Changes from ME to EMoE; Background Notes

October 6, 1997

 
								October 6, 1997
 
ENG 121: Changes in English from Middle English (ME) to Early Modern English (EmoE). 	
		Notes to accompany October 6 lecture.
 

I. Changes in Vocabulary
 
	1. Major influx of Latin words due to Renaissance and Reformation impact on 
		England.
	2. Heaviest period of loan-word borrowings: 1580-1660.  As English literacy 
		spread to new domains, it needed new words; since these domains were
		previously handled in Latin, Latin was the best source for new words 
		in these domains: science, math, law, arts, logic, theology.  Rise 
		in literacy and rise in schooling also contributed to mixing with 
		Latin.
	3. Rise of "Inkhorn Terms": Many writers of English borrowed many fancy 
		ords from Latin to sound more educated, even when there were 
		equivalent words in English (same as what happened centuries earlier 
		with French).
	4. Many words were "remodelled." Words gained new letters because people 
		thought the words were from a Latin origin even when they weren't. 
		So they added letters to look more like a Latin origin to the word! 
			avantage -- advantage, dette -- debt.
	5. English borrowed many words from French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch.
	6. Word-Formation practices greatly expanded, we made many new words from 
		existing words:
	
		a. Affixation: Use of suffixes and prefixes to make many new words:
			comfort -- comfortable -- comfortably -- uncomfortable
			ADJ to Noun: happy -- happiness
			Verb to Noun: wander -- wanderer
			Noun to Verb: itemize, customize
		b. Compounding: Combine words to make new words:
			waterdock, freshman, cheeseburger, handmade
		c. Conversion: Just use a noun like a verb or a verb like a noun:
			N to V: to bayonet, to gossip, to invoice
			V to N: an invite, a laugh
 

 
II. Changes in Morphology
 
	1. Many inflectional uses disappear by 1600 (but not completely--Shakespeare 
		mixes some older inflectional uses with more modern uses.
	2. EMoE still uses subjunctive extensively, but Modal verbs become an option 
		for subjunctive.
	3. Adjective forms become modern (no inflections)
	4. Determiners become modern (modern forms, no inflections)
	5. "You" becomes standard form (though 'thou' is still around today in a few 
		English dialects).
 


III. Changes in Syntax
 
	1. Who, which, that become modern forms for relative pronouns and questions 
		words. 	'Which' is still used in relative clauses to refer to people. 
		Modern uses of these relative pronouns does not happen until after 
		1700--Modern English. 	
	2. SVO ordering strengthens; still some VSO ordering, but more poetic. 
	3. Preposition use increases.
	4. Verb auxiliary system increases in use.
		a. Increasing use of 'have' for perfect tense, almost modern by 1700.
		b. Increasing uses for modal verbs
		c. Beginning of progressive tenses, not in place fully until after 
			1700.
		d. Increasing use of dummy "do" auxiliary.
	5. Emergence of third-person singular 's'.
	6. The growing dominance of the 's' plural.
 
 

IV. Changes in Pronunciation
 
	1. The biggest change in EMoE pronunciation was with the "Great Vowel Shift." 
		This shift lasted approximately from 1450 to 1675 (tough some say it 
		is still continuing in some dialects).  Figure 11 on 192 gives a good 
		description of the GVS.  The long high vowels become diphthongs.  
		The long mid vowels become long high vowels, and the long low vowels 
		become long mid vowels.  The low [a] sound later emerged from the 
		[a ] diphthong.

		The case of [ee], [ea], and [a] is an interesting story that you 
		should pay attention to (192-193).  It explains the matching of 
		spellings such as 'see' and 'sea', 'steel' and 'steal', but also the
		differences between 'steal' and 'steak', and 'beak' and 'break'.

	2. In other cases, vowels moved from long to short in length, even though 
		they often retained their long-vowel spelling )bread. sweat, breath).  
		In particular, the time of change from long to short vowel explains 
		why certain 'oo' spellings have two different pronunciations.  
		Earlier changes in such words were pronounced as [ ] (e.g., blood, 
		flood); other words changed later and became pronounced as [ ] (e.g., 
		look, foot, book).

	3. There were relatively few changes with short vowels from EMoE to MoE.
	
	4. Two new consonants were created during this period; they were allophones 
		but now became separate phonemes: [n] and [z] (sing, judge).

	5. Some consonant sounds were also lost: e.g., [kn], [wr], [x], as in knee, 
		write, night, respectively.
	
	6. Table 8.1 gives a good set of examples of changes from EMoE to MoE.

	7. In unstressed syllables, vowels usually developed weak forms, typically 
		[ ] (schwa).