The History of the English Language
English through Age of Enlightenment (18th-19 th C.)
“I desire it may be
considered and carefully
examined, whether the
Disputes of the world, are
not merely verbal, and
about the signification of
words; and whether...
reduced... to determined
collections of the simple
ideas they do or should
stand for, those disputes
would not end of
themselves and
immediately vanish”
— John Locke
1
News & ‘the press’
• Printing presses in Europe were initially heavily
regulated. Over time, these regulations weakened.
• The German-language Relation: aller Fürnemmen
und gedenckwürdigen Historien, (‘Account of all
distinguished and commemorable news’) printed
from 1605 onwards often recognized as the first
‘newspaper’.
• Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. was the first
‘broadsheet’ (folio-size) newspaper, published in
June 1618 in Amsterdam. It was a regular weekly
publication.
2
News & ‘the press’ in England
The Daily Courant
• Liberal reformists in England (esp. John
Locke) were strong opponents of the Licensing
Act.
• Several other factors contributed to the thirst
for news:
• Britain’s first ever daily newspaper was published
on March 11, 1702.
• The Daily Courant had only two columns and
made up only a single sheet.
– High literacy rates (nearly 50% by 1700),
– Interest in science & literature
– Bourgeois culture in general, the rise of public
‘coffee houses’
– War & politics (though domestic news forbidden)
– It was prohibited, along with all contemporary
publications, from reporting on any domestic news.
– As a consequence, the content was restricted to
coverage of wars on the European continent, without
any critical commentary.
• The publication continued until 1735, when it
merged with The Daily Gazetteer.
3
The war and the language
• ‘Luxury loans’ often come from military culture
and mixing between lower and upper classes.
• The rise of literacy in conjunction with foreign
conflict had some influence English vocabulary:
– New slang, often borrowed ‘upwards’ from lower
classes
– New French loanwords (morass, reconnoitre, pontoon,
fascine, hauteur, etc.)
4
Pent up in their native mountains and principally
engaged in agricultural pursuits, the inhabitants of
this district had no opportunity of corrupting the
purity of their language by adopting foreign idioms.
But it has become a subject of much regret that
since the introduction of commerce, and in
consequence of that, a greater intercourse, the
singularity of the language has, of late years, been
much corrupted.
—Anon., On the Dialect of the Craven
“And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be?”
— Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism
Literary concern regarding
the ‘corruption’ of English
• Many literary figures in England felt they were facing a
crisis: the mortality of their own work due to language
change.
John Dryden (1631 – 1700)
poet, literary critic, translator,
and playwright. Poet Laureate from
1668-1688. He so dominated the
literary scene of Restoration
England, that it came to be known as
the Age of Dryden.
But who can hope his lines should long
Last in a daily changing tongue?
Poets that lasting marble seek
Must carve in Latin or in Greek:
We write in sand, our language grows
And like the tide, our work o’erflows.
—Edmund Waller, in Of English Verse (1645)
– ‘Why write all these great books, plays and poems if no
one will understand them in a few hundred years
anyway??’
• Their chief example was Chaucer – the father of
English literature who died in 1400, whose works were
now totally unintelligible to all but a tiny percentage of
the population who could read Middle English.
• On the other hand, anyone who could read Latin in
1700 (or today), could read the same Latin works that
were enjoyed centuries before.
“How then shall any Man who hath a Genius for
History equal to the best of the Ancients be able to
undertake such a Work with Spirit and
Chearfulness, when he considers, that he will be
read with Pleasure but a very few Years, and in an
Age or two shall hardly be understood without an
Interpreter?”
—Johnathan Swift
5
Swift’s vision for an academy
to ‘save’ English
• In 1712, Swift wrote A Proposal for Correcting,
Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue
• His aim was an attempt to create an academy to
make English as ‘stable’ as Classical Latin and
Classical Greek.
– (He was ignoring the fact that they were ‘stable’
because nobody spoke them anymore!)
• The academy never materialized at all, largely
due to political coincidences.
– (Queen Anne died and was replaced by George of
Hanover, a King who spoke mostly German anyway.)
Johnson’s
Dictionary of the English Language
• Begun in 1746, completed 1755 (several editions
followed)
• 42,000 entries with unprecedentedly thorough definitions
and illustrations of usage, usu. from literary quotes.
– E.g., Tak e had 134 definitions, running 8,000 words, over 5
pages
• Not an objective dictionary; humor and/or prejudice
appear in many of the definitions.
– “OATS: a grain which in England is generally given to horses,
but in Scotland supports the people”
• Johnson’s DEL was ‘The Dictionary’ from 1755 on.
– Despite this, it sold only 200 copies a year over the next 30
years. (It cost the equivalent of about 30000 NTD)
6
Reception of Johnson’s dictionary
• The one thing universally appreciated about J’s
dictionary is that he did it all by himself.
• It was generally acclaimed, and many Englanders took
pride in a dictionary in their language.
• Some critics complained about:
–
–
–
–
omissions
words that some suspected did not even exist
odd or inconsistent spellings (often based on...)
large amount of inaccurate etymologies
• instill but distil ; uphill but downhil ; inthrall but disenthral
• ake became ache, since J claimed it derived from Gk. αχος
• deign but disdain (not disdeign)
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Legacy of Johnson’s dictionary
• By today’s standards Johnson’s dictionary is not
considered a model for lexicographers.
• It did serve as a model for many in the 100 years
after its publication in 1755.
• American lexicographer Noah Webster had
numerous criticisms of Johnson, and proposed
numerous improvements (esp. spelling, and
general format).
• In England, Johnson’s dictionary remained the
standard until the 20th C.
• 1st edition of OED (10 volumes): begun in 1859; published 1928.
• 2nd edition (10 volumes) was published in 1983.
• 3rd edition: begun in 2000, expected completion: 2037; projected
cost 52 million USD.
The first OED reproduced around
1,700 of Johnson's definitions.
English
‘Highland’ English
Irish Gaelic
bun
clan
• The 1707 Acts of Union declared that the
kingdoms of England and Scotland were “United
into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”.
• The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of
Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801,
forming the “United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland”.
• The dialects spoken in Scotland and Ireland bore
more Gaelic influence than Southern English and
midlands dialects, some of which gradually
appeared in ‘standard’ English.
Scots Gaelic
bun
clann
crag
creig
galore
go leor
Gaelic Meaning
base, bottom
clan; tribe
creag
rocky outcrop
gu leòr
plenty, enough
glen
gleann
valley
pet
peata
tame animal
phony
fáinne
fàinne
shamrock
seamróg
seamrag
slob
slaba
slogan
smithereens
ring
shamrock
mud; slovenly person
sluagh ghairm call to the multitude
smidiríní
little bits
trouser
triubhas
whiskey
uisce (beatha) uisge (beatha) water (of life)
trews; pants
See you next time,
8