Modern English

Modern English Period

The birth of Modern English began in the late 15th century (i.e., at the end of the 1400s). We know this sounds like a very long time ago, but believe it or not, English hasn't changed all that much since the late 1500s. Modern English is actually as old as Shakespeare, and many of his plays and poems were written in what we now call 'Early Modern English' - that's why we can still read them today without getting too much of a headache!

Modern English is often divided into two sections; Early Modern English (the 1500s-1700s) and Late or Contemporary Modern English (the 1700s - today).

Fig. 1. - Modern English is actually as old as Shakespeare.

Development of Modern English

So, we know that English went through several changes, but how did we get to modern English? To understand that, we need to start at the beginning - Old English (don't worry, this won't take too long!).

Old English

Old English, otherwise known as Anglo-Saxon English, was brought to Britain in the 5th century by the Anglo-Saxons (migrants from Northern Europe), where it was spoken and written from 450 CE to 1150 (that's around 1500 to 900 years ago!). Old English had a mainly Germanic vocabulary and was very different from the English we know today.

Middle English

The term Middle English refers to the everyday language spoken and written in Britain during the years 1100 and 1500 (that's approximately 900 to 500 years ago!). This period saw significant changes in English, primarily due to the Norman (Vikings who came from the North of France) conquest of Britain in 1066. Changes included;

• The borrowing of Norman (French) words

• A simplification of grammar

• A change in orthography (the writing system) to reflect the French style

• The emergence of dialects, such as Southern, Midland, and Northern dialects

• The Great Vowel Shift

Standardization - Early Modern English

Whereas Middle English was largely fragmented and improvised, Early Modern English underwent a standardization process. In 1439, Johannes Gutenberg invented the modern printing press - this required an agreed-upon language to print, and a standardized Modern English, based on the London dialect, was formed.

Early Modern English soon grew in popularity, and dictionary creators, writers, lawyers, grammarians, and the government all began using and sharing this new standardized version of English.

Over the years, Early Modern English underwent a simplification process (e.g., simpler syntax and removal of many inflections), and, by the late 18th century, English looked a lot like how it looks today.

Late Modern English

English, as we know it today, evolved from Early Modern English. We typically consider 'late' or 'contemporary' to be the use of English from the 1800s onwards. The main change from Early to Late English was the vocabulary, as the spelling, pronunciation, and grammar largely remained the same.

Differences in vocabulary included the introduction of more Latin and Greek words and Skakespearian words, such as majestic, obscene, amusement, suspicious, and many more.

Technical and scientific advancements in the 19th century also created a need for the creation of new vocabulary, many of which had Greek roots.

Global English and Colonization

From the 17th century, Modern English began to spread, and in 1607 the first British settlers arrived in the United States, bringing Modern English with them. By the mid-18th century, there were more than thirteen established British colonies in North America, and features of their speech and accent can still be heard today.

By the end of the 18th century, The British Empire had facilitated the further spread of Modern English to places such as Africa, India, Australia, and Southeast Asia, through colonization and geopolitical dominance.

Today, English is spoken worldwide with differing vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Each dialect is considered a version of Late Modern English or Present Day English and should arguably not be considered any more or less correct than any other form of English.

Fig. 2 - By the 1920s, the British Empire had spread Modern English to a quarter of the world.

Modern English Features

Let's now look at some common features of Modern English. We'll cover some features that are prominent in defining what Modern English is, as well as features that differ from Middle and Old English.

Phonology

• Modern English underwent a consonant cluster reduction, meaning clusters of two or more consonant sounds were reduced to singular sounds. This resulted in many 'silent' letters, e.g., knight, gnat.

• The emergence of rhotic and non-rhotic accents. The American accent is typically considered rhotic (i.e. does pronounce the /r/ sound), whereas the British accent is considered non-rhotic (doesn't pronounce the /r/ sound).

• Several changes in vowel sounds, resulting in the approximate 20 distinct vowel sounds used in English today.

Morphology

• A reduction in the use of the article 'the'
• A move from the use of 'whom' to 'who'
• Simplified inflection, e.g., adding 's' or 'es' for plural nouns, adding 'ed' for past tense verbs, and 'ing' for progressive verbs
• The introduction of more compound nouns, e.g., sunflower, landmark, aircraft
• An increase in phrasal verbs, e.g., pick up, put down, turn off

Syntax

• Using auxiliary (helping) verbs in interrogatives (questions) becomes compulsory, e.g., Are you happy?

• An increase in using 's to show a possession, e.g., Hannah's laptop

• Increased standardization in using the 'subject-verb-object' structure

• Increased use of modal verbs to show modality, e.g., could, can, might, may, etc.

• Sentences classified into simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex

• Adjectives always precede a noun, e.g., A black cat

Vocabulary

Modern English contains vocabulary from three main backgrounds, about a quarter Germanic (e.g., Old English, Dutch, and German), and two-thirds Romance (e.g., Latin, French, and Italian) and Greek. It also contains a significant and increasing number of loanwords from languages worldwide. Let's look at a few examples from each category;

• Germanic words - Abseil, Bagel, Angst, Waltz, Noodle

• Romance words - Ambiguous, Plausible, Flux, Sport

• Greek words - Galaxy, Democracy, Acrobat, Dinosaur

• Loanwords - Karaoke (Japanese), Ketchup (Malay), Caravan (Arabic), Bungalow (Hindi)

Orthography

Orthography refers to the alphabet and spelling system of a language. Modern English is based on the Latin alphabet, which originally had 20 letters (the present English alphabet minus J, K, V, W, Y, and Z). The Romans then added K, Y and Z to help them transcribe Greek words, and the English later added W, J, V, resulting in the 26-letter alphabet we use today.

The spelling of Modern English words have largely remained the same since the late 15 the century; however, the pronunciation differs greatly.

Modern English Examples

To best understand the journey of English, let's look at some examples of Modern English compared to Old and Middle English. Let's begin by looking at the opening verse of The Lord's Prayer.