Fernanda Zafiro Espinosa Olvera 1873784 i66

Early Modern English

The Early Modern English period followed the Middle English period at the end of
the 15th century and was closely related to the Tudor (1485-1603) and Stuart
(1603-1714) dynasties. The Battle of Bosworth (1485) marked the end of the long
civil war known as the War of the Roses and the establishment of the Tudor
dynasty under Henry VII (1485-1509), which brought a greater degree of stability to
the central British government. Not so long ago, the introduction of printing by
William Caxton in 1476 marked a new beginning in the spread of the written word.
The end of this period marked the religious and political settlement of the Glorious
Revolution (1688), the transition to the Augustan era during the reign of Queen
Anne (1702-14), and the political unification of the British Isles with the Act of
Union of England and Scotland ( 1707).
The defining event of the 16th century was the Reformation initiated by Henry VIII
in the 1530s, which severed religious and political ties with Catholic Europe. During
the 17th century, from the beginning of the writings of Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
to the founding of the Royal Society (founded in 1662), the new science gradually
gained prominence.
During the Middle English period multitudinous indigenous cants was in England
and Scotland. Middle English calligraphies, indeed, clones of the same work, differ
linguistically from one another to a lesser or lower degree. In the after Middle
Periods London gradationally surfaced as the seat of administration and the court.
The speech of the capital acquired social prestige and written forms of it came
usual in sanctioned documents and literature, though it could only approximately
be called a‘ standard’. Since printing was grounded in London this form of English
was espoused by the early printers. But Caxton himself was acutely apprehensive
of variation and change within English. Beforehand in the period, English was
constantly compared unfavorably as an erudite language with Latin. It was also
originally seen as not enjoying advantages over other European languages, as this
dialogue shows.
The vocabulary of English expanded greatly during the early ultramodern period.
Pens were well apprehensive of this and argued about it. Some were in favour of
coinages to express new generalities, especially from Latin. Others supported the
use of being English words, or new composites of them, for this purpose. Others
supported the reanimation of obsolete words and the relinquishment of indigenous
shoptalk.
A notable supporter of the preface of new words was the humanist and diplomat
Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 1490 – 1546). Among now common words, he introduced in
five of the senses given in OED and persist. in three. Among lower popular words,
he introduced obtestation n. and pristinate adj. Elyot constantly explained his
contrivances for illustration his use of the words maturity (maturity n. 3 he was
 Fernanda Zafiro Espinosa Olvera 1873784 i66

unaware that the word had already been used in other senses in English) and
modesty (modesty n. 1) in The Boke Named the Gouernour (1531).

References
Weiner, E. D. (2020, 17 junio). Early modern English - an overview. Oxford English

Dictionary. https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-an-overview/