History of English Language

The Renaissance

Tiara Candra O / 194214087

Hendrawan K / 194214089
Adelbertus Hugo / 194214102 Class C / Group 8
Bayu Alexander / 194214107
The Renaissance, 1500–1650
Era Background
The Term of “Renaissance” is from the same French word, meaning
“rebirth”. It comes from the Italian Rinascimento, ‘Re” meaning “again” and
“nascere” meaning “be born”
The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the
17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and
modern era nowdays.
It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Mediavel period and
later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beinning of the Early
Modern Age.
Changing Conditions in The Modern Period

In the Modern English period (1500), certain conditions that had not existed before or
were present in only a limited way came into play.The new factors were the printing
press, the rapid spread of popular education, the increased communication and
means of communication, the growth of specialized knowledge, and the emergence
of various forms of self-consciousness about language.

The invention of the process of printing from movable type, which occurred in
Germany about the middle of the 15th century had a far reaching influence on all the
vernacular languages of Europe.Printing was introduced into England in 1476 by
William Caxton.Printing made such rapid progress that not yet a century later,
manuscript books were seldom seen and almost never used.
 Education was making rapid progress
among the people and the literacy was
becoming more common.

In the later Middle Ages, a surprising number of the people of the middle class could read
and write.The different parts of the world have been brought together through commerce,
transportation and the rapid means of communication.
In the early modern period, Latin became less and less the vehicle for learned discourse,
thus the growth of specialized knowledge by the creation of new words for many different
fields of knowledge.People and language experts were becoming more self conscious
about the language than ever before.
 There were radical forces to vocabulary, but conservative forces to
grammar.The printing press, the reading habit, the advances of
learning and science, and all forms of communication provided the
growth in the vocabulary. In grammar and usage, a standard was
promoted and maintained.

Education had its influence not only through formal instruction in language-grammar
pronounciation, spelling, but also making possible more important; the unconcious absorbtion
of more less standard English through books, magazines, and news.
 The Problems of the Vernaculars

In the Middle Ages, because of Norman Conquest, the development of English were largely
peculiar to England. But, by the end of the Middle English period, English had made a
remarkable recovery.

In the 16th century, the modern languages faced three great problems:

1. recognition in the fields where Latin had for centuries been supreme.
2. The establishment of a more uniform orthography.
3. The enrichment of vocabulary.
 The Struggle for Recognition

Though established in popular culture, English still had to contend with Latin
dominance. Latin used in almost all fields of knowledge .This tradition enhanced by
“revival of learning” from Greek civilization via the Crusades .Latin and Greek were key
to knowledge learning and were ”the languages in which much highly esteemed poetry,
oratory, and philosophy were to be read” .Latin and Greek were the true classical
tongues and made all vulgar tongues descended from them appear “immature,
unpolished, and limited” and only scholars tended to have access to these tongues.
 The Problem of Orthography

Spelling is for most people a pedestrian subject, but for the English, as for French and
Italians, in the sixteenth century the question of orthography or ‘right writing’. was a
matter of real importance and the subject of much discussion. English spelling was bad
and had no general accepted system of guidance. Spellings would gradually became
conventional all while their pronunciation slowly changed
English spelling was chaotic. Desire for consistency lead Sir John Cheke, trying to create a
system. Lead to long vowels being doubled – a long “a” was written as “aa”, also got rid of –
e endings (give to giv), also using –i in place of –y (day to dai).
In short, it was neither phonetic nor fixed, with a language like Latin, and to many English
spelling that seemed chaotic.
 The Problem of Enrichment
In 1531, Sir Thomas Elyot published first book on education in English, he called it "The
Governour". It was a manual for training those who would be courtiers and was dedicated
to Henry VIII.
The passage represented early attempt to improve English language and to o experience
enlarging of vocabulary was one of three problems confronting 16th century scholars and
writers. Increased fields of study demanded vocabulary to fuel the spirit of inquiry that saw
“discovery of America, the reform of the church, the Copernican theory, and the revolution
of thought in many fields”.
Revival of Learning in Renaissance had similar effect on language.
Translation: “The very act of translation brings home to the translators the limitations of their
medium and tempts them to borrow from other languages the terms whose lack they feel in
their own”. Many words borrowed from Latin during this period and also came in from Greek
as well. Heavy borrowing from French occurred more, as well as a few from Spanish and
Italian. Even local dialects of English came into play as flourishes in poetry .
The Opposition to Inkhorn Terms

The Opposition to Inkhorn Terms can defined as "the art borrowing or adapting words
from one languange to another".

The phrase "inkhorn term" came into English in the early to middle sixteenth century, with
the first attested usage dating from 1543.

It was from the outset a term of gentlemanly abuse, referring to words which were being
used by scholarly writers but which were unknown or uncommon in ordinary speech. Most
of these words sounded strange to the people who objected the use.
 The Defense of Borrowing
Objection was not the general or prevailing attitude. Precedent was on the side of innovators
in English.“Not only had English borrowed much in the past, but, as they frequently pointed
out, all other languages, including Latin and Greek, had enriched themselves in this way”.
Bullokar in 1616 said “it is familiar among best writers to usurpe strange words”.

Compromise
The opposition to inkhorn terms was at its height in the middle of sixteenth century,
and largely died out by end of Elizabeth’s reign in 1603.
One critic, Puttenham, although opposed to Inkhorn Terms admits to having made use
of some of them and tried to offer justification of some of them.
Most people saw compromise as the best option for dealing with new words. “Writers
differed chiefly in the extent to which they allied themselves with the movement or
resisted the tendency. and It is noted that, most often, “the safest course was a middle
one, to borrow, but ‘without to manifest insolence and to wanton affection.
Permanent Additions.

The words that were introduced at this time Indeed most of the Greek words in English
were often basic words—nouns, adjectives, until lately have come to us either through
verbs. Most of the words in this list are Latin or French. But in the Renaissance the
Latin. But some of them were earlier renewed study of Greek led to the
acquired by Latin from Greek. introduction of some Greek words at first
hand.
Examples: anachronism, atmosphere,
autograph. Example, are acme, anonymous,
Others might be added, such as antipathy, catastrophe, criterion, ephemeral,
antithesis, caustic, chaos, chronology, heterodox, idiosyncrasy, lexicon,
climax, crisis, critic, dogma, emphasis, misanthrope, ostracize, polemic, tantalize,
enthusiasm, epitome, parasite, parenthesis, thermometer, and tonic.
pathetic, pneumonia, scheme, skeleton,
system, tactics.
Adaptation.

Some words, in entering the language, For the same reason nouns ending in -antia,
retained their original form; others -entia appear in English with the ending -
underwent change. The adaptation of others ance, -ence or -ancy, -ency, while adjectives
to English was effected by the simple ending in -bilis take the usual English (or
process of cutting off the Latin ending. But French) ending -ble.
more often a further change was necessary
to bring the word into accord with the usual Examples are consonance, concurrence,
English forms. constancy, frequency, considerable,
susceptible. Many English verbs borrowed
Thus the Latin ending -us in adjectives was from Latin at this time end in -ate (create,
changed to -ous; for example (conspicu- consolidate, eradicate).
us>conspicuous)
 Reintroductions and New Meanings.

Sometimes the same word has been A word when introduced a second time
borrowed more than once in the course of often carries a different meaning, and in
time. The Latin words episcopus and discus estimating the importance of the Latin and
appear in Old English as bishop and dish and other loanwords of the Renaissance it is just
were again borrowed later to make our as essential to consider new meanings as
words episcopal and disc (also dais, desk, new words. Indeed, the fact that a word had
and discus). In the same way chaos and been borrowed once before and used in a
malignity were apparently reintroduced in different sense is of less significance than
the sixteenth century. its reintroduction in a sense that has
continued or been productive of new ones.
Rejected Words.

It is in fact not uncommon to find words In some cases we have preferred word in a
discarded in favor of somewhat similar shorter form: cautionate (caution), consolate
formations. Examples are exsiccate (to dry) (console), attemptate (attempt), denunciate
alongside of desiccate, emacerate (denounce). Often there seems to be no
(emaciate), discongruity (incongruity), explanation but chance or caprice to
appendance (appendage). account for a word’s failure to survive.
Reinforcement through French.

It is not always possible to say whether a word borrowed There still remain, however, a good many
at this time was taken over directly from Latin or
words that might equally well have come
indirectly through French, for the same wholesale
enrichment was going on in French simultaneously and into English from Latin or French. It is really
the same words were being introduced in both languages. not important which language was the
Often the two streams of influence must have merged.
direct source of the English words because
But that English borrowed many words from Latin in either case they are ultimately of Latin
firsthand is indicated in a number of ways. Sometimes the origin. In many cases French may have
occurrence of a word in English earlier than in French offered a precedent for introducing the
(e.g., obtuse) points to the direct adoption from Latin, as
Latin words into English and may have
do words like confidence, confident, which are expressed
in French by the forms confiance, confiant, but which in assisted in their general adoption.
English are used in senses that the French forms do not
have.
Words from the Romance Languages.

The English vocabulary at this time shows But the English also traveled frequently in Italy,
words adopted from more than fifty languages, observed Italian architecture, and brought back
31 the most important of which (besides Latin not only Italian manners and styles of dress but
and Greek) were French, Italian, and Spanish. also Italian words. Like Italian words, Spanish
English travel in France and consumption of words sometimes entered English through
French books are reflected in such words as French or took a French form. Thus the
alloy, ambuscade, baluster, bigot, bizarre, cosmopolitan tendency, the spirit of exploration
bombast, chocolate, comrade, detail, duel, and adventure, and the interest in the New
entrance, equip, equipage, essay, explore, World that was being opened up show
genteel, mustache, naturalize, probability, themselves in an interesting way in the growth
progress, retrenchment, shock, surpass, of our vocabulary and contributed along with
talisman, ticket, tomato, vogue, and volunteer. the more intellectual forms of activity to the
enrichment of the English language.
The Method of Introducing New Words.

The Latin words that form so important an If the words themselves have not always been
element in the English vocabulary have learned words, they have needed the help of
generally entered the language through the learned people to become known. This was
medium of writing. Unlike the Scandinavian particularly true in the Renaissance. Even the
influence and to a large extent the French words borrowed from the Romance languages
influence after the Norman Conquest, the in this period often came in through books, and
various Latin influences, except the earliest, the revivals and new formations from native
have been the work of churchmen and scholars. material were due to the efforts of individual
writers and their associates.
Enrichment from Native Sources.

By far the greater part of the additions to the The poets, of course, were rather more given to
English vocabulary in the period of the the revival of old words, especially words that
Renaissance was drawn from sources outside of were familiar to them in Chaucer. For this
English. But, as we have seen, there were reason their revivals and new formations that
purists like Cheke, and there were also others suggested an older period of English were
who believed that English could very well sometimes referred to as “Chaucerisms.” Some
develop new words from old roots or revive were definitely coinages, such as Spenser’s
expressions that had gone out of use. Cheke bellibone (a fair maid, possibly from belle et
was so strongly opposed to the borrowing of bonne), blatant, braggadocio, chirrup, cosset
Latin and Greek words that he sought wherever (lamb), delve (pit, den), dit (song), scruze
possible English equivalents. (apparently a telescope word combining screw
and squeeze), squall (to cry), and wrizzled
(wrinkled, shriveled).
 New Words & Hard Words
1. New words difficulty
In many cases the context or the people's knowledge of Latin was expected to make the meaning
clear. But the interpretation was not left entirely to chance. Explanations were sometimes added
parenthetically. there is a more simple way where an equivalent word or expression existed, was to
combine the new and the old in a self-interpreting pair.

2. Hard words
when Nathaniel Bailey published his Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721), that anyone
attempted to list all the words in the language.
The earliest dictionaries were those explaining the words in Latin or some other foreign language,
and the earliest English dictionaries were dictionaries of hard words. Example: a little book of 120
pages by Robert Cawdrey, called A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words (1604)
Which was later developed by many other authors such as Henry Cockeram who developed
dictionaries as a consequence of the extensive additions that had been made to the language and in
turn helped to facilitate their adoption into general use.
 Nature and Extent of the Movement.

Based on the data of the Oxford dictionary, there are moreover 12,000 vocabularies
enriched by the renaissance era, most of them are influenced by Latin of the fourth
period and help to create many synonyms.

Some new words from Shakespeare’s works also gave or enrich some vocabulary until
today. Shakespeare had the largest vocabulary of any English writer due to his ready
acceptance of new words of every kind. (example : exist, initiate, accommodation,
apostrophe)

Most of the new words entered English by way of the written language. they are the
evidence that written words can pass or be used in everyday speech.
 Shakespeare’s Pronunciation.

in Shakespeare’s day there was much fluctuation in the pronunciation of words

containing the Middle English vowel, both in the different parts of the country and in
the usage of different individuals.
Therefore, during that time we find in the poetry of the period a word like flood
rhyming not only with blood but also with mood and good.
It is only in recent times that the pronunciation of these words has been standardized,
and even today there is some vacillation between a long and short vowel in some of
them. for example: in broom, room, and roof
On the whole, however, it is probably a little more difficult understanding
Shakespeare’s pronunciation than we experience in listening to a broad Irish brogue.
 Changes from OE -> ME -> Modern
The subject of sound-changes is just as important in the history of languages as the
changes in grammar and vocabulary.
In considering the changes in pronunciation that English words underwent in passing
from Old to Middle English we may say that qualitatively they were slight, at least in
comparison with those that. Changes in the consonants were rather insignificant, as
they have always been in English. Some voiced consonants became voiceless, and vice
versa, and consonants were occasionally lost.
All Middle English long vowels underwent extensive alteration in passing into Modern
English, but the short vowels, in accented syllables, remained comparatively stable.
 THE GREAT
VOWEL SHIFT

The term great vowel shift was coined by Otto Jespersen,

a Danish linguist, It affected the pronunciation of almost
all vowels most distinctively the long monophthongs. The
shift began in the 14th century and took until 18t century
to fully develop
The great Vowel Shift
ME{e:}: meet, speak,
see>EME
ME{o:}: loose, moon
>EME
 new homophones :
piece/peace, see/sea,
tee/tea
 {i:}: high, exercise
{əi}: I, like, write desire
{əi}: my, why, by
 Weakenings of Unaccented Vowels
"Weakening" means the sound of a vowel is
sometimes shifted.
"Unaccented vowels" is a vowel or syllable that is
pronounced with little or no stress.
The spelling does not accurately represent the
pronunciation today, because, in all periods of the
language, the vowels of unstressed syllables have had a
tendency to weaken and then often to disappear. It is true
of all parts of word, for example, we do not distinguish in
ordinary or rapid speech between the vowels at the
beginning of ago, upon, opinion.
Another example would be the unstressed middle or final
syllable in the word introduce /ˌɪntrəˈdjuːs/, elegant/
ˈelɪɡənt/, drama /ˈdrɑːmə/, color /ˈkʌlə(r)/, kingdom /
ˈkɪŋdəm/, breakfast /ˈbrekfəst/, monday /ˈmʌndeɪ/.

The weakening is especially noticeable in words from

French where an accented vowel came to be unaccented
in English, such as moutton = mutton /'mətn, raisin=
raisin /ˈreɪz(ə)n/, bounty = bounty
 Grammatical features
The retention of certain forms and usages that have since
vanished characterizes English grammar in the sixteenth and
early seventeenth centuries more than any major changes.
Great changes had already occurred, reducing the inflections of
OE to their present proportions. The reader of Shakespeare or
the Authorized Version is aware of minor differences in the
form in the few parts of speech that retain some of their
original inflections, as well as differences in syntax and idiom
in the framing of sentences that, while noticeable, do not
interfere seriously with understanding.
Nouns
The only inflections retained in the
noun were the marking of singular and
plural
Plural marked by s or es
while irregular plurals:
1. mutated vowels: feet, geese, teeth, lice,
mice, men, women.
2. -n plurals: kneen (knees), fon (foes),
fleen (fleas), eyen (eyes), shoon (shoes)
oxen, kine, brethren, children.
3. Uninflected plurals: deer, sheep, swine,
folk, kind .
The his-genitive develops to spell out the -s in the genitive
singular. By analogy, a her-genitive and a their-genitive
develop. Especially seen with proper names and especially
after proper names ending in sibilants, such as, "Characters
as red as Mars his heart", "Margery Brewys her mark", "the
House of Lords their proceedings"
Group genetive: 's is added to the last word in the word
group, not to the word it actually inflects "The King of
England's nose " {(King+genetive) nose}. 's is an enclitic
ending attached to the closestword, not to the word it
morphologically modifies.
 Adjective and Adverb
Increased use of analytical forms of comparatives and
superlatives (more/most rather than -er/-est)
1. violentest
2. longer
3. strenger
4. more bold
5. the most stillest night
Loss of strong or weak distinction but sometimes the survival
of a silent -e on the end
Only adjectives that still have to agree in number with the
nouns they modify are this/these and that those
 Pronouns

The most changed part of speech in the EMoDe Period

I is almost always capitalized
Loss of second person singular pronouns (thou,thee,thy, thine)
Neuter nominative singular loses its initial {h}; now it instead of hit
Second person singular agreement (you was not, you were)
 Verbs
Lexical verbs- Present tense
The suffixes -est and -st were used to indicate the second person
singular in early modern English. In Late Modern English, these
suffixes do not exist. In The Merchant of Venice II, this shift is
depicted."Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?"
With would, should, can, and may, modal auxiliary verbs were also
marked with -st to relate to the second person singular. And with -t
to correspond to the second person singular with will and shall, but
in late modern English, these suffixes were deleted with these
verbs."With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife" The Merchant of
Venice III
The verb to be
The -t suffix was often used to signify the second person singular in
the present tense of the verb are. "Thou naughty gaoler, that thou
art so fond, to come abroad with him at his request" The Merchant
of Venice III.
The suffix -s and its equivalent -es, which are also used with -eth
and -th in Early Modern English, replace the suffix above and its
alternative in Late Modern English. "There must be needs a like
proportion of lineaments, of manners and of spirit;Which makes me
think that this Antonio, being the bosom lover of my lord, Must
needs be like my lord" The Merchant of Venice III.
Lexical regular verbs- past tense
When the subjects of regular verbs were second person singular
pronouns, the past tense was denoted by -est and -st. In Late
Modern English, this term was no longer used. For example, "Thou
call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause" The merchant of Venice
III.
The -st ending was also used with did in the past tense to denote
second person singular. However, in Late Modern English, this
ending is no longer used. For example, "I am sorry thou wilt leave
my father so: Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil, didst rob it
of some taste of tediousness" The Merchant of Venice II.
Forms of irregular verbs:present, past and past
During Early Modern English, the past tense and past participle
forms of irregular verbs were not yet regularized. During this time,
there was a lot of variance in strong verbs. For example, in "The
Merchant of Venice," the verb "write" had the past form "writ," as
well as wrote, which did not exist in the play but was found in other
works."I know the hand:in faith, 'tis a fair hand; And whiter than
the paper it writ on. Is the fair hand that writ". Another example is
when the verb "speak" is used in the past tense, as in "The merchant
of Venice." Also spoken was the participle form. "I spoke with some
of the sailors that escaped the wreck" The Merchant of Venice III
 Usage and Idiom
Language is more than just a collection of words and inflections. If we
neglected to account for the many traditional aspects, we would be
overlooking a very important aspect. Idiom and usage that transcend
explanation or logical classification but are nonetheless characteristic of
the language at a given moment and, like other conventions, serve as an
example. "Lie low", "Good riddance", "Green-eyed monster", "Love is
blind", "Creeping like snail, with as big heart as thou, in number of our
friends, within this mile and half, thy beauty's form in table of my
heart".
General characteristics of the period
A conscious interest in the English language and attention to its
problem is manifested. In the 15th century, we had seen many
sporadic attempts by individual writers to embellish their style with
"aureate terms". These attempts represent the desire to develop the
language to a certain limit. And in the 16th century, we met
literature such as books and pamphlets, making people to compare
the language to Latin and other foreign languages, thus making
people to stand up to defend English, recognizing it as the national
speech. Furthermore urging it to be learned, worthy to be learned,
looked after in the education for the young and use for literary
purposes.
The second thing we achieve in this age is something similar to a
standard, something which is recognized as "modern." The Great
Vowel Shift had the capacity to bring the pronunciation to within
measurable distance of what it is today. The printing press's
influence, together with spelling reformers' efforts, has resulted in a
form of written English that poses minimal difficulties to the
modern reader. And the numerous new terms that the approaches
we described had introduced to our vocabulary had given us a
vocabulary.
Third, English in the Renaissance was far more plastic than it is
now, at least as we perceive it in texts. People felt freer to shape it
according to their preferences. Words did not always fall into neatly
defined grammatical groups. Adjectives can be used as adverbs,
nouns, or verbs, while nouns can be used as verbs. In fact, any
component of speech can be used as virtually any other element of
speech.
Finally, we emphasize that, despite all of the effort made toward a
universal standard, many aspects of the language remained
unresolved. There was still a significant range of use-alternative
forms in the grammar, as well as new word explorations,
pronunciation and spelling changes.