Modern English (with a focus on British
English)
At
the culmination of the 1400 CE century, Chaucer died. His demise marked the
transition from Middle to early Modern English. As the era of Middle English
was waning, there was an unexpected and clear change in pronunciation described
as the ‘the great vowel shift’. The vowels were pronounced more briefly as the
years flew past. Striking features of 15th century CE England were the
growing popularity of London English, the invention of the printing press and
the propagation of the advanced knowledge of the Renaissance.
In
1476 CE, the world’s first English printing press was set up by William Caxton. As more books became available to the public, they
became less expensive. That made it easier for more to learn reading. As
printing standardised the English language, grammar and spelling rules came
into being. London was the hub of most publishing houses. The city’s dialect became
the correct style for entire England. In 1604 CE, the first English dictionary
was published.
Since
the 16th century CE, Britishers started meeting many people from
various global cultures. The linguistic infiltration this time wasn’t the
effect of invading tribes. People voraciously started reading books in Latin
and Greek. Thereby, they borrowed words from these classical languages to the
English dictionary. This predominantly occurred from 1500 CE to 1800 CE.
There
are multiple great writers of early English. The greatest genius among them is
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616). Apart from penning timeless plays and poems,
he invented new words.
In
1702 CE, ‘The Daily Courant’, the
foremost English language daily newspaper began publication in London. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was founded
in 1922. In 1928, the Oxford
English Dictionary was published.
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#Shakespeare, #plays, #drama, #prose, #dictionary, #OUP, #BBC, #English,
#literature, #language, #philology, #Britain, #England, #printing, #publication,
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https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vintage-arthur-rackham-christmas-1705150/: (Picture courtesy: Image by Prawny from Pixabay) This illustration is from A Christmas Carol by Charles
Dickens from Modern English
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