ENGLISH THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Why do historians of English tend to divide the stages of the language’s development
into Old, Middle and Early Modern English? What distinguishes these different forms
of the language from each other?
I. Foreword: Brief Introduction to English.
- English, as a medium of expression, has today become the dominant language, favoured
over any other around the globe. It is estimated to house the highest number of native
speakers, standing at roughly 1.3 billion native speakers as of today.

- This exceptional figure of speakers is mostly due to its worldwide use in fields of
commerce, science, literature and a myriad of others. Furthermore, English is also the
official language in the US, granting it an especially substantial authority, due to
the US’s being home to tech capitals and information centres.

- Despite its influential stature today, however, English has not always held such
power. During its development, the language had faced trials and tribulations abound,
traversing three main stages until culminating into what it is today. All of which
will be covered in the following paragraphs.

II. Stage One: Old English.

- Generally, the development of English is agreed to be composed of three main phases,
namely Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English. The language itself is
vastly different over these three periods, yet scholars and linguists have yet to
arrive at a consensus over the timestamps and naming of said periods.
- Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is majorly known as the first stage within English’s
development. Its emergence dates back to the early days of the fifth century, when
German tribes first arrived at the British Isles, imposed their culture, practices and
ultimately, their language upon the land. Despite its deep-rooted origin, Old
English’s influences remain today, in the forms of a few recognizable words like he,
him and varieties thereof.
- Literature-wise, Anglo-Saxon’s was bereft, or extremely lacking, of good poetic uses
and works of the like. However, it set a solid foundation for English today, including
the language’s name English (originally Angles).
- Contrarily, perhaps, the use and development of Old English were by no means stagnant,
spanning a course of about 700 years between the original German settlement in the 5 th
century and the late 11th century, after the Norman invasion. Due to this long-winded
process, establishing exact dates within the development is particularly arbitrary.
Albert Baugh determined the language harks back to 450 and ended in 1150, enduring
inflexions and alterations. Today, about 85% of Old English words are obsolete, but
the minority that remains went on to establish the rudimentary basis of English as we
know it today.

III. Stage Two: Middle English.

- The second phase, Middle English, came into being as a result of the collapse of the
Anglo-Saxon rules under the influences of Viking invasions, the Norman conquest and
Latin, the widely accepted language of the church. There came shifts in the sound of
the language and influences from mainland Europe began to become more and more
apparent.
- At some point during the 12th century, the transition occurred, use of late Old English
was abolished, and Middle English was embraced strongly. Grammatically changes
included the strict word orders and syntax of the language applied by Old Norse, the
influences were amalgamated starkly due to the similarity in structure of Old Norse
and Old English, both synthetic languages, complicated by inflexions. However,
inflexions gradually deteriorated, due to communicational difficulties regarding the
neighboring Vikings of Danelaw.
 ENGLISH THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Why do historians of English tend to divide the stages of the language’s development
into Old, Middle and Early Modern English? What distinguishes these different forms
of the language from each other?
- The transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English occurred at some time
during the 12th century. The influence of Old Norse aided the development of English
from a synthetic language with relatively free word order to a more isolating language
with more strict word order. Both Old English and Old Norse (as well as the
descendants of the latter, Faroese and Icelandic) were synthetic languages with
complicated inflexions. The eagerness of Vikings in the Danelaw to communicate with
their Anglo-Saxon neighbors resulted in the erosion of inflexion in both languages.
Old Norse may have had a more profound impact on Middle and Modern English development
than any other language.

- Syntax and grammar were not the sole subjects of the change to Middle English,
however, as there were also significant changes to its vocabulary, pronunciation,
and orthography. The writings of this period followed a variety of different norms,
mostly depending on physical and regional differences, resembling that of spoken
dialects. Old English, at this point, was broken down, restricted to small areas, and
remained largely untouched thenceforth. By 1470, thanks to the invention of the
printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439, the people had come to an agreed
orthodox standard, one resembling the London dialects. Thus, preparing the very first
building blocks for what was to become Modern English spelling.

- During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became
simplified or disappeared altogether. Noun, adjective and verb inflexions were
simplified by the reduction (and eventual elimination) of most grammatical
case distinctions. Middle English also saw considerable adoption of Norman
French vocabulary, especially in the areas of politics, law, the arts, and religion,
as well as poetic and emotive diction. Conventional English vocabulary remained
primarily Germanic in its sources, with Old Norse influences becoming more apparent.
Significant changes in pronunciation took place, particularly involving long vowels
and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great
Vowel Shift.
IV. Third Stage: Modern English.
- Modern English is largely seen to have began in the 16th century and remained
influential up until today. The great transition is marked by the ‘Great Vowel Shift’,
helping to stabilize vowel sounds and formulate a convention for the spoken English.

- The written form of the language, in addition, also wielded great influences upon
English of the modern day, its established grammatical and orthographical norms since
the late 16th early 17th century is most evident. Most modern readers of English can
understand texts written in the late phase of Early Modern English, such as the King
James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, and they have greatly influenced
Modern English.

- With some differences in vocabulary, the aforementioned texts from the early 17th
century are considered to be in Modern English, or more specifically, are referred to
as to be written in a written variation called the Early Modern English or Elizabethan
English. English was adopted in regions around the world, such as North America, the
Indian subcontinent, Africa, Australia and New Zealand through colonisation by the British
Empire.
 ENGLISH THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Why do historians of English tend to divide the stages of the language’s development
into Old, Middle and Early Modern English? What distinguishes these different forms
of the language from each other?
- Modern English has many dialects spoken in many countries throughout the world,
sometimes collectively referred to as the anglosphere. These dialects include American
English, Australian English, British English (containing English English, Welsh English
and Scottish English), other variations include Canadian, Caribbean, Indian,
Pakistani, Nigerian, New Zealand, Phillipine, Singaporean, South African and Hiberno-
English