Early Modern English, Essay Example

Overview of Philology

Early modern English sections had differences with the Old and Middle English sections. Early Modern English allows the use of informants’ social backgrounds as a reliable criterion in selecting text. Early Modern English has standardization of spelling that affected written language. It also led to the disappearance of regional dialects in written materials. However, dialectal differences in both older and earlier English with Early Modern English did not disappear abruptly, but most of the standardization took place in grammar and in supralocal level during the period of Early Modern English. Early Modern English was made out of printed sources.

Early Modern English period started to develop at the beginning of the 16^th century and went on until the end of the 17^th century. Change happens in different rates; some changes are rapid while others take time to happen. Some changes take quite some time to be realized. They are only realized after they have happened. The situation changes are seen when compared between what was there before and what has happened after.

The social conditions in Early Modern England and linguistic changes were the same. There was diversification of English society from static and sparsely populated Catholics to diversified protestant society.

Discovery of Early Modern English

Early stages in the development of Early Modern English started with the standardization of a variety of public functions. Early popular literature was written in English, which included utilitarian and entertaining ones. Private writings, for example, diaries were also written in vernacular. This was the early stages of learning Early Modern English. Early Modern English combined both public and private writings. To develop Early Modern English, measures were taken to collect all the necessary materials that could be used in learning. These included personal letters exchanged. This was when the diary of King Edward Vi was taken to be used in comparison with that of Henry Machyn.

Although past synchrony was sought, it was difficult to find contemporary texts from different genres. These genres were used to make an Early Modern English that is being used in present day, though, some changes have been done. Standardization of language improved through many ways such as monitoring education level and literacy. Attendance in schools also increased as the level of literacy also increased between 1500 and 1700. However, literacy was not uniformly distributed. The level of literacy depended on both social and geographical distribution. Those who lived in towns could speak and write better than those in remote areas. Literacy in women was ragged behind by various issues regarding their gender roles in societies.. Spelling was regulated, and printing house practices unification was reached in 1950.

The first book to be written in English was Caxton’s in 1479. An example of other books that were printed in English after standardization of spelling was the Bible. It was not hard to identify authors of early modern English because there were many writers who had written various articles. An example of an article written is Statutes of the Realm, which comes as continuity of Chancery Standard Similarly. These articles included standardized English words. Samples with original spellings were used as guides to check on spellings of other articles before printing. Earlier Modern English word choice was limited because of standardization. There was a specific criterion that was used in choosing articles used in learning Early Modern English. This include Lexical and grammatical criteria. This ensured a balanced and representative material for studying Early Modern English.