modern english final

Modern English (1500 to the present):
There were some big developments in the world at the beginning of Modern English period.
The Renaissance
The Great Vowel Shift
The Invention of Printing
The Industrial Revolution
The British Colonialism. The new spirit of renaissance provided the people new disciplines and inquiries; industrial development opened the new vistas and dimensions of earning and life, in the same way the colonization brought cultures and norms to one center. Modern English developed after William Caxton established his printing press at Westminster Abbey in 1476.Printing also brought the standardization of the English language.
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
The early modern English period follows the Middle English period towards the end of the fifteenth century and coincides closely with the Tudor (1485–1603) and Stuart (1603-1714) dynasties. The first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. The Renaissance of Classical learning meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, became the standard form.
Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth 's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. The industrial revolution had also influenced greatly on the modernized form of the language and its urged varieties in the later centuries.
The Great Vowel Shift The evolution of Middle English into early Modern English involved a systematic change in the pronunciation of long, stressed vowels. The term “Great Vowel Shift” was coined by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen. The Great Vowel Shift is not something that happened overnight, but gradually evolved over several generations. The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in England between 1350 and 1700, separating Middle English from Modern English, a radical change in pronunciation Many languages have undergone vowel shifts, but the major changes of the English vowel shift occurred within the relatively short space of a century or two, quite a sudden and dramatic shift in linguistic terms. It was largely during this short period of time that English lost the purer vowel sounds of most European languages, as well as the phonetic pairing between long and short vowel sounds.
Causes:
The causes of the shift are still highly debated, although an important factor may have been the very fact of the large intake of loanwords from the Romance languages of Europe during this time, which required a different kind of pronunciation.
At the time of the Great Vowel Change there were migrations in English which brought people from the Midlands into contact with people from London. The mix of dialects coming into close contact may have resulted in social pressures to create pronunciations which would have new social status and prestige.
Another factor at this time is the loss of prestige for French and the growing prestige for English. As French lost status, there would have been social pressures to develop a new prestige for English.

The Great Vowel Shift involved six vowels:
All were long, stressed monophthongs -- vowels in stressed positions which were pronounced long and had a pure sound.
The vowel /a: / is a low back vowel. The modern word “name” would have been pronounced “nahm” in Middle English, became /e: / e.g., in cake, fake and make.
The vowel /e: / as in “feet” is considered a mid-vowel. In Middle English “feet” would have been pronounced “fate”, became / i: / e.g., in heat, keen and meet.
The vowel / i: / as in “mice” is a high front vowel. In Middle English “mice” would have been pronounced “mees”, became a diphthong, /ai / e.g., in kite and might, life and five.
Another mid-vowel is /o: / as in “do” which would have been pronounced “dough” in Middle English, became /u: / e.g., in boot and shoot.
The modern word “mouse” would have been pronounced “moos” having long vowel /u: / in Middle English. It then evolved into “mah-oose” and then finally into the dipthong /au/ which we have today in mouse and house.
The long open “o” which was pronounced “aw” became the long “o”. Thus the modern English word “so” would have been pronounced “saw” in Middle English.
Linguists summarize that in the Great Vowel Shift, High vowels were made into diphthongs. The Great Vowel Change was accompanied by the loss of the pronunciation of the final “e”. Thus “made” would have been pronounced “mah-duh”. The Shift comprises a series of connected changes, also preceded at different times and speeds in different parts of the country. It should be noted, that the tendency of upper-classes of southern England to pronounce a broad “a” in words like dance, bath and castle (to sound like “dahnce”, “bahth” and “cahstle”) was merely an 18th Century fashionable affectation which happened to stick, and nothing to do with a general shifting in vowel pronunciation.
Pronunciation of different consonants: Consonants also changed, but not as dramatically. In fact, it was the Frisians and Dutch who changed their consonants more.
One change was the dropping of l 's between vowels and consonants (so talk became "tawk").
One more is the silent k in words like know and knight, which was originally pronounced. Knight, in fact, was originally pronounced as spelled.
Finally, several dialects began to drop r 's after vowels until, by the 1600’s; r-dropping was the standard for the Queen 's English.
The Printing Press
The invention of printing: Printing historically was a Germanic contribution. Johann Gutenberg had originally invented the printing press in Germany around 1450.The final major factor in the development of Modern English was the advent of the printing press, one of the world’s great technological innovations; introduced into England by William Caxton, an English merchant, diplomat and writer brought the printing press to England in 1476. The Printing Press has revolutionized the world of literature, since it’s evident from history that in ancient times books were hand written mostly in Latin onto parchments, animal skin that became scrapped until it was made clean and smooth. It resulted into scripts being more expensive. Printing changed the life of the people and its standards as well. Books became cheaper and as a result, literacy became more common.

Standardization of English: At the time of the introduction of printing, there were five major dialect divisions within England - Northern, West Midlands, East Midlands (a region which extended down to include London), Southern and Kentish - and even within these demarcations, there was a huge variety of different spellings. For example, the word church could be spelled in 30 different ways, people in 22, receive in 45, she in 60 and though in an almost unbelievable 500 variations. It was the printing press that was really responsible for carrying through the standardization process. With the advent of mass printing, the dialect and spelling of the East Midlands (more specifically, that of the national capital, London, where most publishing houses were located) became the de facto standard and, over time, spelling and grammar gradually became more and more fixed.
Effect on literature and language: Up to 20,000 books were printed in the following 150 years, ranging from mythic tales and popular stories to poems, phrasebooks, devotional pieces and grammars, among the best sellers were Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and Thomas Malory’s “Tales of King Arthur”). As mass-produced books became cheaper and more commonly available, literacy mushroomed, and soon works in English became even more popular than books in Latin. The vernacular language became common and conventions made their way to the splendid advancement in all fields.
The Bible: Two particularly influential milestones in English literature were published in the 16th and early 17th Century. In 1549, the “Book of Common Prayer” was introduced into English churches, followed in 1611 by the Authorized, or King James, Version of “The Bible”, the culmination of more than two centuries of efforts to produce a Bible in the native language of the people of England. John Wycliffe had made the first English translation of “The Bible” as early as 1384, and illicit handwritten copies had been circulating ever since. But, in 1526, William Tyndale printed his New Testament, which he had translated directly from the original Greek and Hebrew. Tyndale’s “Bible” was much clearer and more poetic than Wycliffe’s early version. The Early Modern Period is remembered for the significant translation of the Bible made during the reign of James I (1603-1625). This was done by a group of clerics, begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The translation was designed to be definitive, hence the label Authorized Version which is given to it. Because it was prepared in the reign of James I (of England) it is also known as the King James Bible.
Dictionaries:
The first English dictionary, “A Table Alphabeticall”, was designed by English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604 (8 years before the first Italian dictionary, and 35 years before the first French dictionary),although it was not actually a very reliable resource (even the word words was spelled in two different ways on the title page alone, as wordes and words). But the first dictionary considered anything like reliable was Samuel Johnson’s “Dictionary of the English Language”, published in 1755, over 150 years after Cawdrey’s. An impressive academic achievement in its own right, Johnson’s 43,000 word dictionary remained the pre-eminent English dictionary until the much more comprehensive “Oxford English Dictionary” 150 more years later. In addition to dictionaries, many English grammars started to appear in the 18th Century.
Newspapers:
The first English newspaper was the “Courante” or “Weekly News” (actually published in Amsterdam, due to the strict printing controls in force in England at that time) arrived in 1622, and the first professional newspaper of public record was the “London Gazette”, which began publishing in 1665. The first daily, “The Daily Courant”, followed in 1702, and “The Times” of London published its first edition in 1790.
The Impact of Printing: Printing vastly affected the intellectual thought resulting to the scientific growth and rapidly aided towards the rise of new ideas and philosophies that endorsed for the spread of information to the common people. The emergence of middle class was also a milestone of the printing press that replaced the expensive romances of nobility with the common access to the classical learning of all disciplines of the Renaissance. Printing made documents more authentic and reliable instead of old concept of eye-witness and personal testimony. People changed the concept of fact’ to printed fact’ i.e. show me in black and white.

Late Modern English Period (1800-present) The principle distinction between early and late English period is Vocabulary, grammar and fixed spellings. It has absorbed many more words and modifications in the result of great industrial revolution and the rise of the technologies. From the 1800s the English entered the Late Modern English period. The language was solid by this point, but it became more refined. English is an ever evolving language, and advances in technology often lead to changes in English.
World War I and World War II threw together people from different backgrounds and the greater social mobility afterwards helped to lessen the differences between social accents.
The industrial and scientific revolutions created a need for new words to describe the new creations and discoveries.
The rise of British Empire and the growth of global trade served not only to introduce English to the world but to introduce words into English. All these elements resulted in wide –ranged vocabulary and inflectional simplicity in the language.

Cosmopolitan vocabulary: Prominent among the assets of the English language must be considered the mixed character of its vocabulary. English being classified as a Germanic language shares the grammatical structures and many common words of German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. Some of its borrowings are directly from French and Romance languages. About half of its vocabulary has words of Latin language. English has shown a marked tendency to go outside her own linguistic resources and borrow from other languages which means a directive blessing for foreigners to understand on the basis of mutual roots.
Some examples:
The words Chipmunk, moose, raccoon, from the American Indian.
We don’t become ever conscious about the words, brandy, duck, golf, wagon are from Dutch.
From Italian we have piano, volcano, opera and umbrella.
Alligator, cargo, vanilla, cork, mosquito are derivations from Spanish.
From Greek, anthology, chronology, barometer, magic, elastic etc.
From Russian, the words droshky, vodka and ruble.
A wide range of common words from Persian including; paradise, jasmine, lemon, lilac, spinach, borax, chess, turban and many others.
Cosmopolitan vocabulary is an undoubted asset to any language that seeks to attain international use.
Contribution of Shakespeare: During Shakespeare times, known as Elizabethan era or English Renaissance, there was a flux of cultural manifestations and enlightened sense of learning. The grammar and rules of English were not fixed. Shakespeare is probably the most famous of all Englishmen. One of the things he is famous for is the effect he had on the development of the Early Modern English language. For example, without even realizing it, our everyday speech is full of words and phrases invented by Shakespeare. Many familiar words and phrases were coined or first recorded by Shakespeare under the influence of Italian, Greek and Roman learning. Some 2,000 words and catch phrases of Shakespeare became a part of English language like flesh and blood, vanish into air and created words like majestic, dwindle, pedant.etc .He expanded the scope of English literature by writing sonnets and plays by introducing new devices and words with phrases.
Inflectional Simplicity: Another important asset which English language possesses to a preeminent degree is inflectional simplicity. Inflections mean ending words, a change in the form of a word usually modification, affixation, change in grammatical functions as voice, mood, person, gender, number or case. Inflections determine the function of a word in the sentence.
Sanskrit, Greek and Latin as classical languages have inflections of the noun, the adjective
The verb and to some extent the pronoun that are no longer found in Russian or French, German.
In modern English, inflections in the noun as spoken have been reduced to a sign of the plural and a form for the possessive case.
The elaborative Germanic Inflection of the adjective has been completely eliminated except for the simple indication of the comparative and the superlative degrees.
The neuter pronoun as it was first used in old English has been modified as an article and gender simplification has been bounded to masculine and feminine nouns depending upon the natural sex.
The classical distinctions between formal and informal YOU were decreasing so today there is no difference between them.
More strong verbs became weak and the third person singular form-(e)s instead of –(e)th. Modern English only really has six grammatical affixes left: -s for plural nouns, -s’ for genitive nouns, -s for third person singular verbs, -ed for the past tense, -ed for the past participle, and –ing for the present participle. For most of the learners of English it has several irregular verbs (to be, to have) with a number of strong verbs (sing, sang, sung) plus a few irregular plurals (child, children-man, men) Such inflections compensated for reductions can hardly be considered anything but an advantage for English learners as compared to any other language, and profoundly resulted in shaping English as analytical language.
Varieties of English From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example loan as a verb instead of lend).
Spanish also had an influence on American English with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English. Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA 's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.
British English and American English British people and American people can always understand each other – but there are a few notable differences between British English and American English.
Grammar:
Americans use the present perfect tense less than speakers of British English and a British teacher might mark wrong some things that an American teacher would say are correct.
• US: Did you do your homework yet?
• Brit: Have you done your homework yet?
• US: I already ate.
• Brit.: I’ve already eaten.
In British English, ‘have got’ is often used for the possessive sense of ‘have’ and ‘have got to’ is informally used for ‘have to’. This is much less common in American English.
• Brit: I’ve got two sisters.
• US: I have two sisters.
• Brit: I’ve got to go now.
• US: I have to go now.
There are a number of other minor grammatical differences.
Vocabulary:
There are a lot of examples of different words being used in British and American English. Here are a few of the commonest.
BRITISH: AMERICAN
• angry = mad autumn = fall cupboard = closet flat = apartment
• lift = elevator rubbish = trash trousers = pants There are British words which many Americans will not understand and vice versa. There are also words which exist in both British and American English but have very different meanings.
Spelling:
There are also a number of different spelling rules between British English and American English.
1. Some words that end in ‘-tre’ in British English end in ‘-ter’ in American English.
• US: theater, center, fiber
• Brit. theatre, centre, fibre
2. Some words that end in ‘-our’ in British English end in ‘-or’ in American English.
• US: color, labor, humor.
• Brit. colour, labour, humour.
3. Some words are shorter in American English than in British English.
• US: catalog, program, jewelry.
• Brit. catalogue, programme, jewellery. Although the differences between American and British spellings are often subtle, they are still significant. The debate over the correct spelling of words first began when Samuel Johnson 's Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755, followed by Noah Webster 's An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. While people in England preferred Johnson 's spellings, Webster 's simplified variations became increasingly popular in the United States.

ENGLISH:As a Global language and Tool of Communication We call English as the language of communication because it seems all the people in the world have agreed to use English to talk to each other. About 1,500,000,000 people in the world speak English and another 1,000,000,000 are learning it. 75% of the world’s letters and postcards are written in English. Almost all international conferences and competitions are conducted in English. For example, the Olympics and the Miss World contest. The language is considered to be an international medium of communication
An International Language of Communication:
English occupies an international position in rest of the world.
Educational, scientific and cultural movements are carried out in the English language.
First language: United Kingdom, America, Canada, Australia.
Second language: Africa, China, Pakistan, India, Burma, Ceylon.
50% newspapers are published in English and 60% radio programmes are recorded in English language.
A Rich Store of Literature:
Western Civilization and Culture is prestigiously found in English language.
English Literature surpassed from other language for its glorified history and rich store.
Read and appreciated almost in every University.
Translation of literatures of other languages and cultures is carried out in English language throughout the whole world.
English a Major Window on the World:
Distilled essence of modern knowledge in all fields of human activity, is depicted by English as language.
F.G.French observed that “anyone who can read English can keep in touch with the whole world without leaving his own house”.
The Experts of scientific, technological, agricultural, cultural and literary fields, got specializations and researches in influential vital English language.

A Language of Standard Terminology:
A vast treasure of scientific terms in English vocabulary is Available in Science and technology based dictionaries and features.
Translation into the national language causes confusion into minds of young researchers, so English as global language got prominent importance for scientific translations as well.
A Library Language:
English is the key of storehouses of knowledge.
Mostly this knowledge is not available in our local language.
Maximum knowledge can be imparted to students.
English play a vital role in higher education as an important library language.
Social Life:
Highly educated and sophisticated sections of society find it more convenient to talk in English; they write letters in English.
Marriages and other parties, invitation cards are presented in English as common source of understanding.
Seminars and lectures are mostly oriented in English.
Educated people put signatures in English.
English the language of world Diplomats:
The language of U.N.O and the International court of justice is English.
Diplomats of any country can only make an effective contribution at any international forum when they have a sound command of English language.
Knowledge of English is indispensable.

Cultural Value:
‘Give and take’ among different nations of the world takes place due to English language.
Literature is full of unending information and rich thought.
Culture aim implies that the study of English should give the students an insight into the secret of the success of western people
Commerce, science, technology and industry, has been optimizing a significant place through common use of English.

References:
Boeree, “The Evolution of English”. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/evolenglish.html
Course Notes: History of English language.
Saif-ul-Haq, Importance of Communication”, Teaching of English.
Slideshare.com: History of English language. American and British English.
Tahir, Modern Approach to Teaching of English.
Vocabulary changes: www.literary-articles.com/2013/03/w.... www.englishclub.com

References: Boeree, “The Evolution of English”. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/evolenglish.html Course Notes: History of English language. Saif-ul-Haq, Importance of Communication”, Teaching of English. Slideshare.com: History of English language. American and British English. Tahir, Modern Approach to Teaching of English. Vocabulary changes: www.literary-articles.com/2013/03/w.... www.englishclub.com