Modern English

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Modern English is the term used for the contemporary use of the English language. In terms of historical linguistics, it covers the English language after the Middle English period; that is, roughly, after the Great Vowel Shift, which was largely concluded after 1550.

Despite some differences in vocabulary, material from the early 16th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, is considered to be in Modern English, or more specifically, they are referred to as Early Modern English, and most people who are fluent in the English of the early 21st century can read these books with little difficulty.

Table of contents

1 Outline of changes in Modern English 1.1 Phonology 1.2 Syntax

Outline of changes in Modern English

Phonology

• instability of (SAMPA) /E:/ with varying, semi-random results, causing meat, bread, and steak no longer to rhyme. (after 1550; perhaps the last event of the Great Vowel Shift in England.)

• (Southern England, after 1700): development of non-rhotic dialect, loss of /r/ at ends of syllables; non-rhotic dialects may develop a new class of falling diphthongs by substituting schwa for /r/.

• (Southern England, after 1700): /æ/ (/{/) -> /a/ before /f, s, th, z, v/ alone or preceded by /n/: bath -> bawth &c. (the British broad A)

• (Southern England, after 1800): intervocalic /t/ -> glottal stop; /bo`@l/ for bottle

• (Southern England, after 1850): loss of /o:/, replaced by /@u/; cf. southern English v. North American pronunciation of boat.

• upper-class southern English speech, esp. dialects associated with boarding schools, as prestige dialect in England.

• varying degree of prestige of Southern English changes in North America; some are imitated in North America, but most changes fail to penetrate past East Coast.

• (North America, after 1750): loss of distinction between /a/ and /O/; father and bother rhyme;

• (North America, after 1800): intervocalic /t/ -> /d/; ladder and latter sound very similar or identical, distinguished perhaps by degree of aspiration of consonant.

• (Scotland, parts of North America, date uncertain): /ai, au/ -> /@i, @u/ before voiced consonants; house (unvoiced) has a different diphthong from houses (voiced).

Syntax

• disuse of the T-V distinction (thou, etc).

• use of auxiliary verbs becomes mandatory in interrogative sentences.

• rise and fall of prescriptive grammarians.

• (North America, after 1800): Noah Webster and spelling reform.

• influence of Strunk and White, USA Today on prose styles.