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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An overview of the factors which affected changes in the English language from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, with reference to the Great Vowel Shift, the influence of colonisation, and social and demographic changes over this period. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLlangchange.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
There are a number of reasons which underpin the changes in language, both spoken and written, from the twelfth to the eighteenth century: some of these are
concerned with technological developments such as the printing press, others are the result of increased social mobility, and still others are derived from socio-cultural developments such as the phasing-out of
one language in common or elite usage and its replacement with another. For the most part, by the eighteenth century these changes and variations had stabilised to the extent that
whilst regional differences still existed, there was a generally-accepted form of English which was understood across the country, and was coming to be regarded as standard.
In order to analyse the stages which language went
through in order to reach this point, however, it is useful to look at some of the influences which gave rise to the changes over the preceding centuries. The Great
Vowel Shift, for example, was a significant change in the English language, and one which is still of importance today: it was a gradual development and its cause is still
not known, although the effects still influence the way we use language nowadays. It was a huge change in the way that English vowel wounds were pronounced, which took place
in the period between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries, and which affected the long vowel sounds in the language. It has affected all aspects of language, including the way
in which reading is taught and the way that English texts were written in the period before the GVS.
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