RENAISSANCE

Marchelline Berliandika.037
Valerianus Yudhistira.043
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 Changing Condition in the Modern Period
✣ The Modern English period begin at 1500.
✣ There are 5 factors behind this changing conditions in the modern period :
1. The printing press
2. The spread of popular education
3. The growth of specialized knowledge
4. The increased communication and means of communication
5. The emergence of various forms of self-consciousness about language.
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Effect upon Grammar and Vocabulary
The 5 factors affected the grammar and vocabulary :
1. The printing press
2. The spread of popular education
3. The growth of specialized knowledge
4. The increased communication and means of communication
5. The emergence of various forms of self-consciousness about language.

The Problems of the Vernaculars

Modern languages are usually imposed by the dominant social class and the native speech
or vernaculars imposed by lower social classes.

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 The Struggle for Recognition
✣ Although English had established a position as the
language of popular literature, there was a strong
tendency towards the use of Latin in all fields of
knowledge.

The Problem of Orthography

Spelling for the English and other Europeans in the 16th century was
important.
The problem that here was generally not accepted system that everyone could
conform to.

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The Problem of Enrichment

✣ The Renaissance was period of increased

activity in almost every field.
✣ The act of translation made the translator
borrow from other languages. This way many
foreign words were introduced.
✣ Words borrowed were mainly in particularly
needed in various technical fields (military
terms) English acquired in the 16th and early
17th century thousands of new words.

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 The Opposition of Inkhorn Terms
Inkhorn terms = words coined from Latin or Greek to make English sound
more dignified (the modern equivalent is jargon).

Opposition :
- Sir John Cheke was a figure opposed to Inkhorn terms
Sir John Cheke
- The opposition was at its height in the middle of the sixteenth century (the
end of Elizabeth’s reign).
- By this time borrowing had gone so far that the attack was directed at the
abuse of the procedure than at the procedure itself.

The defence of borrowings John Dryden

- There were many more who approved borrowings.

- Dryden was one of the figures defending borrowings. He inclined that borrowings contribute
to the enrichment of the native language and boost English’s greatness internationally.
- All other languages, including Latin and Greek, had enriched English.
- The defencer argued that the strangeness of the new words would soon wear off. Mulcaster
said that ‘we’ must become acquainted with any new thing.

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examples of borrowed words in Elisabethan era
- Methode, - figurative, - ventosity,
- methodicall, - inveigle, - strenuous,
- placation, - impression, - incubus,
- function, - penetrate, - lubrical,
Mostly are from Latin and - assubtiling, - penetrable - defunct,
French Words - refining, - indignitie, -magnificate
- compendious, - retrograde, - spurious,
- prolixe, - reciprocal, - inflate,
- obstupefact - turgidous

COMPROMISE
The attitude of most people seems to have been one of compromise.
No Elizabethan could avoid wholly the use of the new words.
Writers differed chiefly in the extent to which they allied themselves with, the
movement or resisted the tendency.
As is so often the case, the safest course was a middle one, to borrow, but “without too
manifest insolence and too wanton affectation.”

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 PERMANENT ADDITIONS
- There are so many Elisabethan words that we now still use and has become very common. The words are often
basic words—nouns, adjectives, verbs.
Some examples (most of them are from Latin):
Nouns : allurement, allusion, anachronism, atmosphere, autograph, capsule, denunciation,
dexterity, disability, disrespect, excursion, expectation, halo, inclemency, jurisprudence.
Adjectives : abject, agile, appropriate, dexterous, expensive, external, habitual, hereditary,
impersonal, insane, jocular, malignant.
Verbs : adapt, alienate, assassinate, benefit, consolidate, disregard, emancipate, emdicate, erupt,
excavate, exert, exhilarate, exist, extinguish, harass, meditate.
- Some examples of word rooted from Greek acquired by English from the use of Latin and France:
anachronism, atmosphere, autograph, antithesis, chaos, chronology, climax, crisis, critic, dogma,
emphasis, enthusiasm, epitome, parasite, pathetic, pneumonia, scheme, skeleton, system, tactics.
- Greek word acquired directly from Renaissance’ renewed study of Greek :
acme, anonymous, catastrophe, criterion, ephemeral, heterodox, idiosyncrasy, lexicon, misanthrope,
ostracize, polemic, tantalize, thermometer, and tonic.

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 Adaptations

Some words that underwent change ;

✣ Still have latin form : climax, appendix, epitome, exterior, delirium, and axis still
✣ Latin ending -us in adjectives was changed to -ous (conspicu-us>conspicuous) or was replaced by -al as in
external (L. externus).
✣ Latin nouns ending -tas were changed in English to -ty (brevity<brevitas).
✣ Latin –tatem regularly became –té in france, and in English became -ance, -ence or -ancy, -ency.
Examples are consonance, concurrence, constancy, frequency, considerable, susceptible.
✣ Latin end in -ate . These verbs were formed on the basis of the Latin past participle (e.g., exterminatus, whereas
the French exterminer represents the Latin infinitive exterminare and in english became exterminate).
Other examples : create, consolidate, eradicate.
✣ Latin past participle was often equivalent to an adjective, and it was a common thing in English to make verbs
out of adjectives (busy, dry, darken).

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 ENRICHMENT FROM NATIVE SOURCES

In 1500-1650, the awareness that English had loaned and adopted too
many words from foreign sources rose a movement to enrich English
from its own native sources.
Conservative writers like John Cheke, opposed word loans from Greek or
Latin and preferred older native sources.
In his “The Gospel of St. Matthew” he used words; mooned (lunatic),
hundreder (centurion), foresayer (prophet), byword (parable), crossed Sir John Cheke
(crucified), and gainrising (resurrection).
The revival of old English words is often called ‘Chaucerism’ since poets
often sourced from Geoffrey Chaucer’s works for the old words. Some
poetical revived old words are astound, blameful, enroot, doom, forby , empight,
askew, flout, freak.
Geoffrey Chaucer
The revived words might be resulted from adaptations and derivatives
from Old English words, such as briny, baneful, drear, hapless, oaten, sunshiny,
or wolfish.
The revived words were critized as sounded strange, like the words
introduced by Edmund Spenser. However, the words have survived the
time and are still used today, like belt, bevvy, craggy, dapper, forthright, glee,
glance, changeling, endear, disrobe, don, enshrine, gaudy, gloomy, merriment, Edmund Spencer
wakeful, wary, witless.
 METHODS OF INTERPRETING NEW WORDS
❖ Writers tried to overcome the readers’ confusion by by explaining the new words parenthetically.
❖ For example, Sir Thomas Elyot’s use of the word circumspection followed with parenthetic explanation
“whiche signifieth as moche as beholdynge on every parte”.
❖ Besides long and expressive parenthetic explanation, another method is by combining new and old word in a
self-interpreting pair, such as “animate or give courage”, “difficile or hard, “education or bringing up the
children”.

Thomas Elyot
DICTIONARIES OF HARD WORDS
❖ In 1582, Richard Mulcaster promoted the inventorying of all words in English
“whether naturall or incorporate, out of all professions, as well learned as not,
into one dictionarie”.
❖ Earliest dictionaries in England were the dictionary of hard words, the 120-
page A Table Alphabetical of Hard Words (1604) by Robert Cawdrey, followed by
John Bullokar’s English Expositor (1616), English Dictionarie (1623) by Henry
Cockeram, Glossographia (1656) by Thomas Blount, and New World of Words
(1658) by Edward Phillips.
Richard Mulcaster
❖ In 1721, an attempt had been made to incorporate all words, not just hard Universal
words, in English language into a dictionary. The result was Nathaniel Bailey’s Etymological English
Universal Etymological English Dictionary. Dictionary
 NATURE AND EXTENT OF MOVEMENT
❖ Renaissance played a big role in the enrichment of English vocabulary, according to Oxford
Dictionary , there are estimatedly around 12,000 words added during this era.
❖ Many of the new words only lasted for short period of time, but a large number survived and
are still in use today, becoming permanent part of English language.
❖ New word additions have given the language a wealth of synonyms and later become
differentiated in meaning.
❖ Most of the new words were introduced via written language, such as from Shakespeare’s
works.

William Shakespeare

THE MOVEMENT ILLUSTRATED IN SHAKESPEARE

❖ William Shakespeare is arguably the English writer who had the largest vocabulary.
❖ Among Shakespearian words are found agile, allurement, antipathy, catastrophe, critical, demonstrate, dire, emphasis,
emulate, extract, hereditary, horrid, meditate, modest, pathetical, prodigious, vast, etc.,
as well as Romance words ambuscado, armada, barricade, bastinado, cavalier, mutiny, etc.
❖ Shakespeare’s use of new words at that time displayed the word-meaning relations that were different from ours.
❖ The words were closer to their etymological meanings in Latin, thus communicate which now means ‘exchanging
information’ meant ‘to share or make common’ in Shakespearan time, expect, meaning ‘to wait’; humorous, meaning
‘damp’; enlargement, meaning ‘freedom or liberation.
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 SHAKESPEARE’S PRONUNCIATION
❖ Shakespeare’s pronunciation was much more like modern times, but with slight differences
like ē in Middle English that was sometimes open or close [ε: e:].
Example: the word sea can now rhyme with see but could not in shakespeare era.
❖ Towards the end of 15 th century, an attempt was made to distinguish open and close sound
by the spelling, using ee or ie for more close sound like in deep and field; and ea for more open
sound like in sea or clean.
❖ There was more fluctuation in pronunciation from individual or regional pronunciation.
❖ Shakespearan pronunciation contains distinct accentuation of words that are different from
today, such as demon’strate (modern: de’mon’strate), and charact’er (modern: char’act’er).

William Shakespeare
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND CHANGES
❖ Some sounds in English language have been subjected to radical changes.
❖ Example of unchanged sound: Old English word bĕdd, precursor of bed in our time, which sounds just the same.
❖ Example of changing sound: Old English stān into stone in modern time.
❖ The changes of sounds is caused by independent developments or influences from neighboring sounds and varying
conditions of the accent, often noting significant differences in dialect developments and word modifications.
❖ The great vowel shift in the 15 century had a major impact to the sound changes.
th

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 FROM OLD TO MIDDLE ENGLISH
❖ Pronunciation changes in Middle English compared to Old English was just
little compared to the later stages of language development in the history of
English.
❖ Changes in consonants were insignificant and some voiced consonants
became voiceless, and vice versa.
❖ Consonants were occasionally lost. For example, w before a following o was
lost when it followed another consonant: sō(Old English swā), hō (who, Old
English kwā).
❖ Changes in vowels were not so much either, as most short vowels, unless
lengthened, passed over Middle English unchanged.
❖ Slight changes that happened were, for instance, æ became a (Old English croeft
into Middle English craft) and y [y] was unrounded to i (Old English brycg into
Middle English brigge).
❖ Among the long vowels, some examples of most important changes occurred in
ā to ǭ like in bone (Old English bān into Middle English bǭn) and in ȳ to shorter Ῑ
like in fire (Old English fȳr to Middle English fῙr).
❖ Old English diphthongs were all simplified and all diphthongs in Middle
English are new formations resulting chiefly from combination of a simple
vowel with a following consonant (γ, w) which vocalized.

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 FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH TO MODERN
❖ All Middle English long vowels experienced extensive change in the Modern
English, but the short vowels, in accented syllables, remained comparatively
stable.
❖ There are only two changes of importance, in a and u.

❖ For the sound a, we compare our modern, Chaucerian, and

Shakespearan pronunciation. In Shakespearan time, [a] in cat, thank,
and flax became [æ] and in modern time it reverts back to [a]. The [a] in
Middle English words at, apple, and back is now pronounced [æ] in
modern English, like in Chaucerian or Old English time, and is
considered common in American English or in English spoken in
certain areas of Southern England.

❖ The change of the sound u was called ‘unrounding’. In Chaucher’s

time, [u] sounded like in full but by the 16th century many words with
the sound [u] began to sound [ʌ] like the sound we have in but, cut, and
sun.

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 The Great Vowel Shift
✣ The reason of the great vowel shift was the fact that English has large intake of loanwords from romance
languages that required different kind of pronunciation.
✣ For example: sheep would've been pronounced as shape, me as may, and flour as floor. So the great vowel shift
try to differentiate the long vowels.
✣ The long vowels of this period are pronounced differently.
For example: the a pronounced like the a in father and not as in name.
✣ In the 15th century, all the long vowels become pronounced with a greater elevation.
✣ The most important development in this period is the further raising of ME to ī
✣ The Great Vowel Shift is responsible to the unorthodox use of the vowel symbols in English spelling.

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 Weakening of Unaccented Vowels
✣ The spelling does not accurately represent the pronunciation nowadays.
✣ For example: ago, upon, opinion.
✣ The weakening especially noticeable in words from French where an accented vowel came to
be unaccented in English.
✣ For Example: French mouton, raisin and bonté, with English mutton, raisin and bounty.

Grammatical Features
✣ 16th - 17th Century marked by the survival and usages that have since
disappeared than by any fundamental developments.
✣ It changed the inflection of Old English to their modern proportions.
✣ The reader of Shakespeare or the Authorized Version is conscious about the
minor difference but not sufficient with the understanding.
 The Noun
• The only inflections retained in the noun were those marking the plural and the possessive
singular. Those come with the expectations of nouns sheep and swine.
• In the 16th century the plural form were in-n. For example: fon, kneen, fleen.
• In Shakespearean modern forms we can find the word eyen, shoonn and kine.
• In Middle English, the –es of the genitive was pronounced as –is or –iys, the lost of h when
unstressed in the ending was often identical to pronoun his. For example: stonis and ston is (his)

The Adjective
• The comparative and superlative degrees are the chief of this part of speech in the
modern period.
For example: comparative such as lenger, strenger, are remind us of the
word elder that is still common nowadays.
• The chief development in the modern times has been continuously settling down usage
of monosyllables –er and -est (especially those with suffixes like those in frugal, learned
and careful), while most adjectives of two syllables use more and most.
 The Verb
• The differences give unfamiliar tone to the constructions.
• The noticeable difference can be found in the progressive form.
• In the whole south and southern east of England the standard speech was –eth through Middle English period. It is
universal in Chaucer: talleth, giveth, etc .
• In the 15th century the forms with –s occasionally appears and it caused Northern Dialect exerted an important influence
upon the language of London and the south.
• In the 16th century the number increased and by the end of the century forms such as tells, gives, says predominate.
• In some word such as doth and hath is till use because it’s still more common.

The Pronoun
• In the 16th century , the establishment of the personal pronoun had begun.
• Thou, thy, and thee, the substitution of you for ye as a nominative case, and the introduction of its as the possessive of it.
• In the earliest period of English, thou was the singular and ye was the plural for the second person pronoun. In the 13th century, the
singular forms (thou, thy, thee) used to addressing children or persons of inferior rank, while the plural forms (ye, your, you) used to be a
mark of respect in addressing a superior.
• The nominative ye and the objective you had a clear distinction and in the 14th century, the objective you became a nominative.
• The most interesting development in the pronoun at this time was the form of a new possessive neuter, its.
• It became its from the unstressed positions hit weakened to it, in modern era, it used to be the usual form for the subject and object.
Although it’s the form of possessive case of he, its is very common down to the middle of 17th century.
 Usage and Idiom
• The lapse of the article where we customarily use it is an illustration in point.
For examples: Shakespeare says creeping like snail, and with as big heart as thou, where modern idiom requires an
article in all these cases. While, when we say at length and at last, Shakespeare says at the length and at the last.
• Usage permitted a different placing of the negative, for a long time English permitted the use of a double negative.
For example: I not doubt, it not appears to me, she not denies it.
• The false application of mathematical logic to language have abandoned. The idiomatic changes in a language from one age
to another as the uses of prepositions.
For Example: Shakespeare says I’ll rent the fairest house in it after threepence a bay, we should say at.
• The single preposition of shows how many changes in common idioms have come about since 1600.
For Example: One that I brought up of (from) a puppy; he came of (on) anerrand to me;
• The matters of the idiom claim less attention from the student of language.

General Characteristics of the Period

• An attentive interest in the English language and an attention to its problems are now widely manifested.
• This period obtain of something in the nature of a standard, something moreover that is recognizably “modern”
• In this Renaissance era, English was much more plastic than now, it’s because people felt freer to mold it to their wills, it
caused the Adjectives appear as adverbs or nouns or verbs, nouns appear as verbs.
• In spite of all of the progress had been made toward a uniform standard, a good many features of the language were still
unsettled.
thankyou