The story of English A muse of fire

Elizabethan Age was a time of exploration of the new world, the century of the English Renaissance, the Golden Age of the English language. Queen Elizabeth and her successor reigned for about 17 years, for the English that was a time of national triumph. They were as proud of their words as defying the Spanish Armada. It was also a century of great discoveries and inventions, in this respect the English vernacular borrowed about 12,000 new words; men of letters as Sir Thomas Moore looked back to classical models for many Latin words like active, communicate, education; men of science like Sir Francis Bacon took their inspiration from the Greeks and introduced terms like pneumonia, skeleton, encyclopedia. Together with, and partially in reaction to, this habit of borrowing and experimenting with foreign terms, there arose a movement to revive and adapt Old English words, adding to the language such forms as wolfish, briny, astound, doom, filch, and freak. It was largely through scholarly writing and literature that most of the new terms gained admittance to the language. But there was one writer whose work lies at the heart of the Elizabethan miracle : William Shakespeare. He was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, deep in the English countryside. He received his education at the local grammar school. In his twenties he left everything behind and began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. His extant works consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and several other poems. His great work consists in several elements, partly his sense of dramatic situations, the stories themselves but in the end above all is the language used. Shakespeare is credited with contributing more new words to the English language than any other single person. He had an inexhaustible passion for words and the largest vocabulary of any writer in English about 34,000 words, the double amount that an educated individual uses nowadays in a life time. William Shakespeare invented many of the words that he used in his plays. Shakespeare is credited with contributing more new words to the English language than any other single person Some of the many new words he invented to enhance the Elizabethan language and vocabulary are as follows: Accused Addiction Amazement Arouse Assassinate Blushing Champion Circumstantial Compromise Courtship Countless Critic Dawn Epileptic Elbow Excitement Exposure Frugal Generous Gossip Hint

Impartial Invulnerable Jaded Label Lonely Luggage Majestic Negotiate Obscene Premeditated Puke Scuffle Torture Tranquil Varied and Worthless The Elizabethan language and vocabulary had not been formalized. Elizabethan dictionaries were not available. Elizabethan words were therefore written in a variety of different formats. The name of William Shakespeare provides an excellent illustration of the confusion that this caused! The name Shakespeare was spelt in an astonishing variety of ways during Elizabethan times including Shakspere, Shakespere, Shakkespere, Shaxpere, Shakstaff, Sakspere, Shagspere, Shakeshafte and even Chacsper! Shakespeare himself always wrote Shakspere. However, in many formal documents his name generally appears as Shakespeare. Interestingly, another derivation of the name "Shake-speare" appears on the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. . Irregularities and variations within the language remained, however. Elizabethan idiom observed no rigid grammatical rules. Shakespeare could, for instance, use phrases like "stranger'd with an oath", "nor this is not my nose neither", "it dislikes me". The grammar seems foreign, but the sense does not. Kneen and knees, shoon and shoes, have wrote or have written, most boldest or most bold - all were equally correct. Service could be pronounced "sarvice", smart could be pronounced "smert". Not surprisingly, the major focus of the following centuries was to be on the continuing movement to standardize English. We know as well that Shakespeare lived at the time when what linguists call the Great Vowel Shift, an aspect of the transition from Middle English to Modern English, was still under way, so that the length of the vowels in his words was distinctly different from our own. It is also believed that the English of the time was rhoticthat is, that the r sound was prominent in phrases . Shakespeares English might have sounded not terribly American, but recognizably different from the standard dialect of London today. Research move the sound a shade closer to American shores, but the rhythm we associate with Ireland is very much present in his reconstruction as well. Shakespeare very likely sounded somewhat more like a speaker of mid-Atlantic American English, particularly in areas where Irish settlement was prominent. Elizabethan Age, through Shakespeare's writings greatly influenced the entire English language. Prior to and during Shakespeare's time, the grammar and rules of English were not standardized. But once Shakespeare's plays became popular, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language, particularly through projects such as Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language

which quoted Shakespeare more than any other writer. He expanded the scope of English literature by introducing new words and phrases, experimenting with blank verse, and also introducing new poetic and grammatical structures.