1. Early Modern English Grammar EModE

2. Typology Typology is simply linguistic word for word order in a sentence. By the time of EModE, we have a more strict word order to help make sense of sentences. Keep in mind that English had been transcending from a synthetic (inflecting) language to an analytical one.

3. Possible Word Order Combinations Subject-verb-object Subject-object-verb Verb-subject-object Verb-object-subject Object-subject-verb Object-verb-subject Not all of these word combinations are for the English language. You are most familiar with S-V-O as an English speaker. There are instances of an inverted order such as O-S-V (think Yoda from Star Wars)

4. English and Class There is much variety in Early Modern English. Like today, people used their word choices and “accent” as markers of identity. One example stressed in the text is do- periphrasis. Periphrasis is just a fancy word to describe what people do when they want to sound fancy. They tend to use more words! For example: “more intelligent” rather than “smarter”

5. Regulation If it makes you feel any better, grammarians found the use of extra fancy words to be pleonastic (okay, that was a nerd joke, but seriously, look up the word). EModE went through a round of prescriptivism. That means that a bunch of highly educated people took it upon themselves to regulate and codify English. They stated what is proper and improper speech.

6. Printing and Spelling Much of the regulation of English was dictated by the printing presses. It was very confusing that “u” stood for “u” at times and “v” for others. Also, “m” and “n” looked very much alike. The printing presses began to differentiate. At other times, the printers would turn to the Latin base of words to “correct” the spelling. For example, dette became debt due to its Latin root, debitus.

7. Printing and Spelling Continued In English, the way that we write contractions also changed. There were some forms of older spelling contained, and it is legible to this day. For instance: cutt, diner (for dinner), sav’d, lackd. Say these words out loud and they make perfect sense. English spelling was pretty fixed by the sixteenth century.

8. The Great Vowel Shift English went through a chain vowel shift in the EModE period involving the long vowel. Essentially, the vowels were diphthongized. This is another fancy word for saying lengthened. Some of the Great-Vowel-Shift is a result of the upperclasses trying to separate themselves from the lower classes. The short vowel system remained relatively stable.

9. Consonants The English language added two new phonemes: /ng/ as in “sung” and the hard /sh/ as in “vision.” There was a loss of voiced stops (b, d, g) after nasals. Imagine having to actually sound out the /d/ in the word “land.” Another phoneme lost in some words was /x/. It was replaced by /f/ as in “rough.”

10. Verbs As in the Middle English period, verbs went through great change in the EModE era. Inflections weakened further. Now, we only see some inflections in the KJV Bible. “s” became an informal variant of “eth.” This is why some people prefer the KJV, for its formality. It is the only place we still see “eth” today instead of “s.”

11. The Double Negative In EModE, it was perfectly acceptable to use a double negative. At the time, the word “ne” was used in addition to another negative. Over time, “ne” was dropped. Some linguists think it was because of the do-periphrasis.

12. Modals and the Subjunctive Mood Modals are helping verbs which denote chance and possibility: must, shall, will, should, would, could, may, might, can Modals are still going through a change. What is the difference between will and shall? In EModE, it was perfectly normal to express the future as “be going to.” It has been replaced by “will.”

13. Pronouns, Adjectives, Other Stuff There was a 3-way contrast in the demonstrative (pronouns that point to something) system: this/these (near the speaker), that/those (near the hearer), and yonder (distant from both). This was not always carefully maintained. At this time “who” became attributed to animals and “which” meant things or animals. Adjectives began to be paired with more/most instead of simply relying on inflections.

14. A Note on the Second Person There exists a dual second person in English. To see it more clearly, simply open the KJV. Thou/thee (nominative/accusative), and ye/you. Remember, the nominative case is simply showing who does the action. And accusative is the direct object. The way we use thou/thee and ye/you depends on the level of formality we want to maintain.

15. Vocabulary Changes Many words were still being borrowed, mainly in science, medicine, and religion. Most of the words were borrowed from Latin, but some came from Dutch. Inkhorn terms became a source of ridicule. Words changed meaning. For instance, “secure” used to mean something closer to the term, “carefree.” This is why some EMonE texts are difficult to interpret.