DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL LITERARY ENGLISH LANGUAGE

List of Principal Questions
1. Economic and Political Unification. Conditions for Linguistic Unity.
2. Progress of Culture. Introduction of Printing
Foreign Contacts in the Early New English Period
Expansion of English over the British Isles
3. Flourishing of Literature in Early New English (Literary Renaissance)
4. New Sources of Information about the Language. Private Papers. Didactic Compositions
5. Establishment of the Written Standard
5.1. The role of the London dialect
5.2. Normalising Tendencies. Grammars and Dictionaries in the Late 17th and 18th с.
6. Growth of the Spoken Standard
7. The main functional and dialectal divisions of the national English Language

What is a national language?
The formation of the national literary English language - the Early NE period (1475‑1660)
The “national” language = all the varieties of the language used by the nation (including dialects)
The “national literary language” = only recognized standard forms of the language, both written and spoken

External factors which favoured the rise of the national language and the literary standards
1) the unification of the country
2) the progress of culture

1. Economic and Political Unification. Conditions for Linguistic Unity
14th – 15th c. – famous peasants’ rebellions
New social groups: poor town artisants, the town middle class, rich merchants, owners of workshops, money-lenders
15th – 16th c. – trade extended the local boundaries + wool industry in the countryside
The new nobility + rich townspeople = a new class – the bourgeoisie
The poor artisans and monastic servants > farm labourers, wage workers, paupers

1. Economic and Political Unification. Conditions for Linguistic Unity
Political unification – 15th c. a centralised state
Civil War (the Wars of the Roses) – 1455-1485 → strong royal power under Henry VII (the Tudor dynasty)
The economic and political unification → consolidation of people into nations → the formation of national languages as the most important means of human intercourse

2. Progress of Culture. Introduction of Printing
15th -16th c. – a renewed interest in classical art and literature, a general progress of culture
The Universities at Oxford and Cambridge (12th c.) – the centres of new humanistic learning

Oxford

Cambridge

Introduction of Printing
“Artificial Writing” – 1438 Johann Gutenberg (Germany)
The first printer of English books – William Caxton

William Caxton (1422-1491)
1473 – own printing press in Bruges
1475 – the 1st English book: translation of the story of Troy
A few years later - Westminster

William Caxton (1422-1491)
Device of William Caxton

William Caxton (1422-1491)

William Caxton (1422-1491)
The specimen of W. Caxton’s publication

William Caxton (1422-1491)

William Caxton (1422-1491)
The earliest publications
Poems of Geoffrey Chauser
Poems of John Gower
Compositions of Lydgate

William Caxton (1422-1491)
The influence in fixing and spreading the written form of English
London Literary English
Cheap printed books available to a greater number of readers → spread of the London form of speech carried to other regions
Caxton’s spelling = standard

3. Flourishing of Literature in Early New English (Literary Renaissance)
16th c. – “age of Shakespeare” =
Literary Renaissance =
“Elizabethan Age”

Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603)

“Elizabethan Age”
Thomas More “Utopia” – 1516, translated into English in 1551
William Tyndale “Pamphlets” + translation of the Bible (1526)

Writers of the first order
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Bejamin Johnson (1573-1637)
John Fletcher (1579-1625)

Christopoher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Benjamin Johnson
(1573-1637)

John Fletcher (1579-1625)

“Elizabethan Age”:Golden Age Movie

“Elizabethan Age”:Golden Age Movie

“Elizabethan Age”:Golden Age Movie

4. New Sources of Information about the Language. Private Papers. Didactic Compositions
Spread of education – more people could read and write
Numerous private letters – a fair picture of colloquial speech
16th -17th c.: books of instruction for pupils, didactic works - “correct writing”(i.e.spelling and pronunciation)
Dictionaries

Dictionaries
1499 – the first English-Latin Dictionary
1604 - Robert Cawdrey's TABLE ALPHABETICALL CONTEYNING AND TEACHING THE TRUE WRITING, AND UNDERSTANDING OF HARD USUAL ENGLISH WORDS, BORROWED FROM THE HEBREW, GREEK, LATIN OR FRENCH
1616 - John Bullokar ENGLISH EXPOSITOR TEACHING THE INTERPRETATION OF THE HARDEST WORDS USED IN OUR LANGUAGE

Dictionaries
1623 - Henry Cockeram ENGLISH‑ENGLISH DICTIONARY
(a small volume contained explanations of common “hard” words, of “vulgar” words defined with the help of their bookish equivalents)

5. Establishment of the Written Standard
The middle of the 17th c.: written standard of the national literary language as the correct or “prestige” form of the language of writing
←
the economic and political unification of the country
the progress of culture and education
the flourishing of literature

5.1. The role of the London dialect
Political and cultural centre of England
Economic centre
Commercial centre of the country
→ London dialect > a national language
+ other factors:
Introduction of printing
The literary activity of Chaucer
→ a literary language

London Dialect
5th-9th c. – political supremacy of a kingdom meant the dominant role of its dialect
9th c. – West-Saxon dialect = the official language
After the Norman Conquest – French became the official language of the country
14th c. – English had taken the place of French

London Dialect
Southern + Midland elements:
East Midland - populated, most developed district + Oxford and Cambridge
East Midland features prevailed over Southern features
London dialect - mixed

5.2. Normalising Tendencies. Grammars and Dictionaries in the Late 17th and 18th с.
The age of the literary Renaissance → the period of “normalization” or period of “fixing the language”
Jonathan Swift (1667‑1745), the founders of the first English newspapers R. Steele and J. Addison, the authors of prescriptive English grammars and the great 18th с. lexicographers

“Fixing the Language”
J. Wallis GRAMMATICA LINGUE ANGLICANS (1653)
Robert Lowth A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR (1762)
J. Priestley RUDIMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR (1761).
Lindley Murray ENGLISH GRAMMAR ADAPTED TO THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF LEARNERS (1795)

“Fixing the Language”
1676 – E. Coles DICTIONARY OF HARD WORDS
1730 – Nathaniel Bailey DICTIONARIUM BRITANNICUM, A MORE COMPLEAT UNIVERSAL ETYMOLOGICAL ENGLISH DICTIONARY THAN ANY EXTANT (about 48,000 items).
1755 – Dr. Samuel Johnson DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (2 volumes)

Dr. Samuel Johnson DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Dr. Samuel Johnson DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

6. Growth of the Spoken Standard
17th – 18th c. – growth of the Spoken Standard
Private letters
Speech of various characters in 17th – 18th c/ drama

Spoken Standard
Spoken forms of the language were never stable and fixed
Oral speech changed under the influence of substandard forms of the language
+ professional jargons, lower social dialects
+ vulgar and incorrect forms from various functional and literary styles

7. The main functional and dialectal divisions of the national English Language
The main functional divisions of the national English language formed by the 19th c.: standard or literary forms
substandard forms
The literary language = Written + Spoken Standard
Written Standard - literary and functional styles:
the belles-lettres style (with further differentiation between poetry, prose and drama),
official style newspaper and
publicistic style,
scientific prose style

Spoken Standard
More formal and less formal, colloquial varieties
Local dialects
Lower social dialects

Varieties of English
Scottish – Robert Burns (1759-1796): Scottish dialect used for oral intercourse by the less educated people = local dialect → social local dialect
Anglo-Irish – the main language of the population of Ireland – a variety of English with a strong Irish accent
Celtic language are also spoken in Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Manx

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Dialectal Divisions in England
the Southern dialects, subdivided into East- and West-Southern;
the Midland dialects subdivided into Eastern, Central, and Western; (the term Midland is also used as an equivalent of Central);
the Northern dialects
The dialects are distinguished by counties or shires, e. g. the dialect of Somersetshire, the Yorkshire dialect

A Map of Modern English Dialects

Social Dialects
London’s Cockney is of particular interest
16th c. spelling
Oral speech used by the lower ranks of Londoners
PYGMALION by G.B. Shaw

G.B. Shaw

London’s Cockney