View source for Early Modern English

{{short description|Stage of development of English, starting late 15th century}}
{{About|the stage of the language|the historical period|Early Modern Britain}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Early Modern English
| altname          = Shakespeare's English, King James English
| nativename       = English
| image            = File:Sonnet 132 1609.jpg
| imagescale       = 1.45
| imagecaption     = [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[Sonnet 132]] in the 1609 Quarto
| states           = [[England]], [[Wales]], [[Scotland]], [[Ireland]] and [[English overseas possessions]]
| region           = 
| ethnicity        = 
| era              = [[Early modern period]]; developed into [[Modern English]] in the late 17th century
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4             = [[Ingvaeonic languages|North Sea Germanic]]
| fam5             = [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]]
| fam6             = [[Anglic languages|Anglic]]
| fam7             = [[English language|English]]
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Germanic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Proto-West Germanic]]
| ancestor4        = [[Proto-English]]
| ancestor5        = [[Old English]]
| ancestor6        = [[Middle English]]
| isoexception     = historical
| iso6             = emen
| glotto           = none
| notice           = IPA
| ietf             = en-emodeng
}}

'''Early Modern English''' (sometimes abbreviated '''EModE'''<ref name=":0">For example, {{cite journal|last=Río-Rey|first=Carmen|date=9 October 2002|title=Subject control and coreference in Early Modern English free adjuncts and absolutes|journal=English Language and Linguistics|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=6|issue=2|pages=309–323|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=124085|access-date=12 March 2009|doi=10.1017/s1360674302000254|s2cid=122740133|archive-date=21 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221025332/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=124085|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> or '''EMnE''') or '''Early New English'''  ('''ENE''') is the stage of the [[English language]] from the beginning of the [[Tudor period]] to the English [[Interregnum (England)|Interregnum]] and [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]], or from the transition from [[Middle English]], in the late 15th century, to the transition to [[Modern English]], in the mid-to-late 17th century.<ref>Nevalainen, Terttu (2006). ''An Introduction to Early Modern English''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press</ref>

Before and after the accession of [[James VI and I|James I]] to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written [[Middle Scots]] of Scotland.

The grammatical and orthographical conventions of literary English in the late 16th century and the 17th century are still very influential on modern [[Standard English]]. 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.

Texts from the earlier phase of Early Modern English, such as the late-15th-century ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' (1485) and the mid-16th-century ''[[Gorboduc (play)|Gorboduc]]'' (1561), may present more difficulties but are still closer to Modern English grammar, lexicon and phonology than are 14th-century Middle English texts, such as the works of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]].

==History==
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2024}}

===English Renaissance===
{{See also|English Renaissance}}

====Transition from Middle English====
{{further|Late Middle English}}
The change from [[Middle English]] to Early Modern English affected much more than just vocabulary and pronunciation.<ref name=":0" />

Middle English underwent significant change over time and contained large dialectical variations. Early Modern English, on the other hand, became more standardised and developed an established canon of literature that survives today.
*1476 – [[William Caxton]] started printing in [[Westminster]]; however, the language that he used reflected the variety of styles and dialects used by the authors who originally wrote the material.

=====Tudor period (1485–1603)=====
*1485 – Caxton published [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', the first print bestseller in English. Malory's language, while archaic in some respects, was clearly Early Modern and was possibly a Yorkshire or Midlands dialect.
*1491 or 1492 – [[Richard Pynson]] started printing in London; his style tended to prefer [[Middle English#Chancery Standard|Chancery Standard]], the form of English used by the government.

====Henry VIII====
*{{c.}} 1509 – Pynson became the king's official printer.
*From 1525 – Publication of [[William Tyndale]]'s [[Tyndale Bible|Bible translation]], [[Censorship of the Bible|which was initially banned]].
*1539 – Publication of the ''[[Great Bible]]'', the first officially authorised Bible in English. Edited by [[Myles Coverdale]], it was largely from the work of Tyndale. It was read to congregations regularly in churches, which familiarised much of the population of England with a standard form of the language.
*1549 – Publication of the [[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|first edition]] of the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' in English, under the supervision of [[Thomas Cranmer]] (revised in [[Book of Common Prayer (1552)|1552]], [[Book of Common Prayer (1559)|1559]], [[Book of Common Prayer (1604)|1604]], and [[Book of Common Prayer (1662)|1662]]), which standardised much of the wording of church services. Some have argued that since attendance at prayer book services was required by law for many years, the repetitive use of its language helped to standardise Modern English even more than the ''[[King James Bible]]'' (1611) did.<ref>Stephen L. White, "The Book of Common Prayer and the Standardization of the English Language" The Anglican, 32:2(4-11), April 2003</ref>
*1557 – Publication of ''[[Tottel's Miscellany]]''.

====Elizabethan English====
[[File:Gorboduc TP 1565.jpg|thumb|Title page of ''[[Gorboduc (play)|Gorboduc]]'' (printed 1565). ''The Tragedie of Gorbodvc, whereof three Actes were wrytten by Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by Thomas Sackuyle. Sett forthe as the same was shewed before the Qvenes most excellent Maiestie, in her highnes Court of Whitehall, the .xviii. day of January, Anno Domini .1561. By the Gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London.'']]
;[[Elizabethan era]] (1558–1603)
*1560 – The [[Geneva Bible]] was published. The New Testament was completed in 1557 by English Reformed exiles on the continent during the reign of Mary, and the complete Bible three years later, after Elizabeth succeeded the throne.  This version was favoured by the [[Puritans]] and [[Pilgrims]] due to its more vigorous and forceful language. Its popularity and proliferation (due in large part to its copious notes) over the following decades sparked the production of the [[King James Bible]] to counter it.
*1582 – The [[Douay–Rheims Bible|Rheims and Douai Bible]] was completed, and the New Testament was released in [[Rheims]], France, in 1582. It was the first complete English translation of the Bible that was officially sponsored and carried out by the [[Catholic Church]] (earlier translations into English, especially of the Psalms and Gospels, existed as far back as the 9th century, but it was the first Catholic English translation of the full Bible). Though the Old Testament was already complete, it was not published until 1609–1610, when it was released in two volumes. While it did not make a large impact on the English language at large, it certainly played a role in the development of English, especially in heavily Catholic English-speaking areas.
*[[Christopher Marlowe]], {{floruit|1586–1593}}
*1592 – ''[[The Spanish Tragedy]]'' by [[Thomas Kyd]]
*{{Circa|1590|1612}} – [[Shakespeare's plays]] written {{see also|Chronology of Shakespeare's plays|Shakespeare's influence}}
{{further|Elizabethan literature|English Renaissance theatre}}

===17th century===
====Jacobean and Caroline eras====
=====Jacobean era (1603–1625)=====
{{further|Jacobean era}}
*1609 – [[Shakespeare's sonnets]] published
*Other playwrights:
**[[Ben Jonson]]
**[[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]]
**[[Beaumont and Fletcher]] ([[Francis Beaumont]] and [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]])
**[[John Webster]]
*1607 – The first successful permanent English colony in the New World, [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], is established in Virginia. Early vocabulary specific to [[American English]] comes from indigenous languages (such as [[:wikt:moose|moose]], [[:wikt:racoon|racoon]]).
*1611 – The ''[[King James Version]]'' was published, largely based on Tyndale's translation. It remained the standard Bible in the [[Church of England]] into the latter half of the twentieth century.
*1623 – Shakespeare's ''[[First Folio]]'' published

=====Caroline era and English Civil War (1625–1649)=====
{{further|Caroline era|English Civil War}}
*1630–1651 – William Bradford, Governor of [[Plymouth Colony]], wrote his journal. It will become ''[[Of Plymouth Plantation]]'', one of the earliest texts written in the [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonies]].
*1647 – Publication of the first [[Beaumont and Fletcher folio]]

====Interregnum and Restoration====
The [[English Civil War]] and the [[Interregnum (England)|Interregnum]] were times of social and political upheaval and instability.
The dates for [[Restoration literature]] are a matter of convention and differ markedly from genre to genre. In drama, the "Restoration" may last until 1700, but in poetry, it may last only until 1666, the ''[[annus mirabilis#1666 — The year of wonders|annus mirabilis]]'' (year of wonders), and in prose lasts until 1688. With the increasing tensions over succession and the corresponding rise in journalism and periodicals, or until possibly 1700, when those periodicals grew more stabilised.
*1651 – Publication of ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'' by [[Thomas Hobbes]].
*1660–1669 – [[Samuel Pepys]] wrote his diary, which will become an important eyewitness account of the Restoration Era.
*1662 – New edition of the ''Book of Common Prayer'', largely based on the 1549 and subsequent editions. It long remained a standard work in English.
*1667 – Publication of ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' by [[John Milton]] and of ''[[Annus Mirabilis (poem)|Annus Mirabilis]]'' by [[John Dryden]].

===Development to Modern English===
{{main|Modern English}}
The 17th-century [[port town]]s and their forms of speech gained influence over the old [[county town]]s. From around the 1690s onwards, England experienced a new period of internal peace and relative stability, which encouraged the arts including literature.

Modern English can be taken to have emerged fully by the beginning of the [[Georgian era]] in 1714, but [[English orthography]] remained somewhat fluid until the publication of Johnson's ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]'', in 1755.

The towering importance of [[William Shakespeare]] over the other Elizabethan authors was the result of his [[William Shakespeare's influence|reception]] during the 17th and the 18th centuries, which directly contributes to the development of [[Standard English]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}} [[Shakespeare's plays]] are therefore still familiar and comprehensible 400 years after they were written,<ref>[[Fausto Cercignani|Cercignani, Fausto]], ''Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.</ref> but the works of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] and [[William Langland]], which had been written only 200 years earlier, are considerably more difficult for the average modern reader.

==Orthography==
[[File:William Shakespeare by John Taylor, edited.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|[[Shakespeare]]'s writings are universally associated with Early Modern English.]]
The [[orthography]] of Early Modern English is recognisably similar to [[English orthography|that of today]], but spelling was unstable. Early Modern and Modern English both retain various orthographical conventions that predate the [[Great Vowel Shift]].

Early Modern English spelling was broadly similar to that encountered [[Middle English orthography|in Middle English]]. Some of the changes that occurred were based on etymology (as with the [[silent b|silent {{vr|b}}]] that was added to words like {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|debt}}, {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|doubt}} and {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|subtle}}). Many spellings had still not been standardised. For example, ''he'' was spelled as both {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|he}} and {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|hee}} in the same sentence in Shakespeare's plays and elsewhere.

Certain key orthographic features of Early Modern English spelling have not been retained:
*The letter {{angle bracket|S}} had two distinct [[lowercase]] forms: {{angle bracket|s}} (short ''s''), as is still used today, and {{angle bracket|ſ}} ([[long s|long ''s'']]). The short ''s'' was always used at the end of a word and often elsewhere. The long ''s'', if used, could appear anywhere except at the end of a word. The double lowercase ''S'' was written variously {{angle bracket|ſſ}}, {{angle bracket|ſs}} or {{angle bracket|ß}} (the last [[Ligature (writing)|ligature]] is still used in German [[ß]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Burroughs|first=Jeremiah|author-link=Jeremiah Burroughs|author2=Greenhill, William|title=The Saints Happinesse|publisher=M.S.|url=https://archive.org/details/saintshappiness00greegoog|year=1660}} Introduction uses both {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|happineſs}} and {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|[[wikt:blessedness|bleſſedneſs]]}}.</ref> That is similar to the alternation between medial (σ) and final lowercase [[sigma]] (ς) in Greek.
*[[U|{{angle bracket|u}}]] and [[V|{{angle bracket|v}}]] were not considered two distinct letters then but as still different forms of the same letter. Typographically, {{angle bracket|v}} was frequent at the start of a word and {{angle bracket|u}} elsewhere:<ref>{{Cite book|author=Sacks, David|title=The Alphabet|year=2004|publisher=Arrow|location=London|isbn=0-09-943682-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/alphabetunraveli0000sack/page/316 316]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/alphabetunraveli0000sack/page/316}}</ref> hence ''{{lang|en-emodeng|vnmoued}}'' (for modern ''unmoved'') and {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|loue}} (for ''love''). The modern convention of using {{vr|u}} for the vowel sounds and {{vr|v}} for the consonant appears to have been introduced in the 1630s.<ref name="Salmon">Salmon, V., (in) Lass, R. (ed.), ''The Cambridge History of the English Language'', Vol. III, CUP 2000, p. 39.</ref> Also, {{angle bracket|w}} was frequently represented by {{angle bracket|vv}}.
*Similarly, [[I|{{angle bracket|i}}]] and [[J|{{angle bracket|j}}]] were also still considered not as two distinct letters, but as different forms of the same letter: hence ''{{lang|en-emodeng|ioy}}'' for ''joy'' and {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|iust}} for ''just''. Again, the custom of using {{vr|i}} as a vowel and {{vr|j}} as a consonant began in the 1630s.<ref name="Salmon"/>
*The letter {{angle bracket|þ}} ([[thorn (letter)|thorn]]) was still in use during the Early Modern English period but was increasingly limited to handwritten texts. In Early Modern English printing, {{angle bracket|þ}} was represented by the Latin {{angle bracket|Y}} (see [[Ye olde]]), which appeared similar to thorn in blackletter typeface <big>{{angle bracket|𝖞}}</big>. Thorn had become nearly totally disused by the late Early Modern English period, the last vestiges of the letter being its ligatures, {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|y<sup>e</sup>}} (thee), {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|y<sup>t</sup>}} (that), {{lang|italic=yes|en-emodeng|y<sup>u</sup>}} (thou), which were still seen occasionally in the 1611 ''King James Version'' and in Shakespeare's Folios.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Sacks, David|title=Language Visible|year=2003|publisher=Knopf|location=Canada|isbn=0-676-97487-2|pages=356–57}}</ref>
*A [[silent e|silent {{angle bracket|e}}]] was often appended to words, as in ''{{lang|en-emodeng|ſpeake}}'' and ''{{lang|en-emodeng|cowarde}}''. The last [[consonant]] was sometimes doubled when the {{angle bracket|e}} was added: hence ''{{lang|en-emodeng|manne}}'' (for ''man'') and ''{{lang|en-emodeng|runne}}'' (for ''run'').
*The sound {{IPA|/ʌ/}} was often written {{angle bracket|o}} (as in ''son''): hence ''{{lang|en-emodeng|ſommer}}'', ''{{lang|en-emodeng|plombe}}'' (for modern ''summer'', ''plumb'').<ref>[[W. W. Skeat]], in ''Principles of English Etymology'', claims that the substitution was encouraged by the ambiguity between ''u'' and ''n''; if ''{{lang|en-emodeng|sunne}}'' could just as easily be misread as ''{{not a typo|sunue}}'' or ''{{not a typo|suvne}}'', it made sense to write it as ''{{lang|en-emodeng|sonne}}''. (Skeat, ''Principles of English Etymology'', Second Series. Clarendon Press, 1891, [https://archive.org/details/principlesengli00skeagoog/page/n137 page 99].)</ref>
*The final syllable of words like ''public'' was variously spelt but came to be standardised as ''-ick''. The modern spellings with ''-ic'' did not come into use until the mid-18th century.<ref>Fischer, A., Schneider, P., "The dramatick disappearance of the {{vr|-ick}} spelling", in ''Text Types and Corpora'', Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002, pp. 139ff.</ref>
*{{angle bracket|y}} was often used instead of {{angle bracket|i}}.<ref name="oed">{{Cite web |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/ |title=Early modern English pronunciation and spelling |access-date=26 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626171245/https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/ |archive-date=26 June 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*The vowels represented by {{angle bracket|ee}} and {{angle bracket|e_e}} (for example in ''meet'' and ''{{lang|en-emodeng|mete}}'') changed, and {{angle bracket|ea}} became an alternative.<ref name="oed"/>

==Phonology==
{{Contains special characters|IPA|section}}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|+Early Modern English consonants
!
![[Labiodental consonant|Labial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
![[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPA|m}}
|
|{{IPA|n}}
|
|
|'''{{IPA|ŋ}}'''
|
|-
![[Stop consonant|Stop]]
|{{IPA|p}} • {{IPA|b}}
|
|{{IPA|t}} • {{IPA|d}}
|{{IPA|tʃ}} • {{IPA|dʒ}}
|
|{{IPA|k}} • {{IPA|ɡ}}
|
|-
![[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|{{IPA|f}} • {{IPA|v}}
|{{IPA|θ}} • {{IPA|ð}}
|{{IPA|s}} • {{IPA|z}}
|{{IPA|ʃ}} • '''{{IPA|ʒ}}'''
|('''{{IPA|ç}}''')
|''{{IPA|x}}''
|{{IPA|h}}
|-
![[Approximant]]
|
|
|{{IPA|r}}
|
|{{IPA|j}}
|{{IPA|ʍ}} • {{IPA|w}}
|
|-
![[Lateral approximant|Lateral]]
|
|
|{{IPA|l}}
|
|
|
|
|}
Most consonant sounds of Early Modern English have survived into present-day English; however, there are still a few notable differences in pronunciation:
*Today's "silent" consonants found in the [[consonant cluster]]s of such words as ''knot, gnat, sword'' were still fully pronounced up until the mid-to-late 16th century and thus possibly by Shakespeare, though they were [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Other initial cluster reductions|fully reduced]] by the early 17th century.<ref name="OP"/>
*The digraph {{angbr|[[Gh (digraph)|gh]]}}, in words like ''night'', ''thought'' and ''daughter'', originally pronounced {{IPAblink|x}} in much older English, was probably reduced to nothing (as it is today) or at least heavily reduced in sound to something like {{IPA|[ht]}}, {{IPAblink|ç}}, {{IPAblink|h}}, or {{IPAblink|f}}. It seems likely that much variation existed for many of these words. Upon its disappearance, it lengthened the previous vowel.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
*The now-silent ''l'' of ''would'' and ''should'' may have persisted in being pronounced as late as 1700 in Britain and perhaps several decades longer in the [[British American colonies]].<ref>The American Language 2nd ed. p. 71</ref> The ''l'' in ''could'', however, first appearing in the early 16th century, was presumably never pronounced.
*The modern phoneme {{IPA|/ʒ/}} was not documented as occurring until the second half of the 17th century. Likely, that phoneme in a word like ''vision'' was pronounced as {{IPA|/zj/}} and in ''measure'' as {{IPA|/z/}}.
*Most words with the spelling {{angbr|wh}}, such as ''what'', ''where'' and ''whale'', were still pronounced {{IPAblink|ʍ|audio=y}}, rather than {{IPAblink|w|audio=y}}. That means, for example, that ''wine'' and ''whine'' were [[Wine–whine merger|still pronounced differently]], unlike in most varieties of English today.<ref name="Hark"/>
*Early Modern English was [[rhoticity in English|rhotic]]. In other words, the ''r'' was always pronounced,<ref name="Hark">{{cite web|last=Crystal|first=David|title=David Crystal – Home |url=http://www.davidcrystal.com/?fileid=-4254|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020080412/http://www.davidcrystal.com/?fileid=-4254|archive-date=20 October 2017|quote="Hark, hark, what shout is that?" Around the Globe 31. [based on article written for the Troilus programme, Shakespeare's Globe, August 2005: 'Saying it like it was'}}</ref> but the precise nature of the typical rhotic consonant remains unclear. {{citation needed|date=December 2014}} It was, however, certainly one of the following:
**The "R" of most varieties of English today: {{IPAblink|ɹ̠|audio=y}} or a further forward sound {{IPAblink|ɹ|audio=y}}
**The "trilled or rolled R": {{IPAblink|r|audio=y}}, perhaps with one contact {{IPAblink|ɾ|audio=y}}, as in modern [[Scouse]] and Scottish English
**The "retroflex R": {{IPAblink|ɻ|audio=y}}. 
*In Early Modern English, the precise nature of the light and dark [[allophone|variants]] of the ''l'' consonant, respectively {{IPAblink|l|audio=y}} and {{IPAblink|ɫ|audio=y}}, remains unclear.
*Word-final {{angbr|ng}}, as in ''sing'', was still pronounced {{IPA|[ŋɡ]}} until the late 16th century, when it began to [[ng-coalescence|coalesce]] into the usual modern pronunciation, {{IPAblink|ŋ}}. The original pronunciation {{IPA|[ŋɡ]}} is preserved in parts of England, in dialects such as [[Brummie dialect|Brummie]], [[Manchester dialect|Mancunian]] and Scouse.
*[[H-dropping]] at the start of words was common, as it still is in informal English throughout most of England.<ref name="Hark"/> In loanwords taken from [[Latin]], Greek, or any [[Romance language]], a written ''h'' was usually mute well into modern English times, e.g. in ''heritage'', ''history'', ''hermit'', ''hostage'', and still today in ''heir'', ''honor'', ''hour'' etc.
*With words originating from or passed through ancient Greek, ''th'' was commonly pronounced as ''t'', e.g. ''theme'', ''theater'', ''cathedral'', ''anthem''; this is still retained in some proper names as ''Thomas'' and a few common nouns like ''thyme''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+Early modern English vowels
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |[[Monophthong]]s
! colspan="2" |[[Diphthongs]]
|-
!Short
!Long
!+{{IPA|/j/}}
!+{{IPA|/w/}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Close vowel|Close]]
![[Front vowel|Front]]
|{{IPA|ɪ}}
|{{IPA|iː}}
|
|{{IPA|ɪw}}
|-
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|{{IPA|ʊ}}
|{{IPA|uː}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
![[Front vowel|Front]]
|
|{{IPA|eː}}
|
|
|-
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|
|{{IPA|oː}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPA|ə}}
|
|{{IPA|əj}}
|{{IPA|əw}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
![[Front vowel|Front]]
|{{IPA|ɛ}}
|
|{{IPA|ɛj}}
|
|-
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|{{IPA|ɤ}}
|{{IPA|ɔː}}
|{{IPA|ɔj}}
|{{IPA|ɔw}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Near-open vowel|Near-open]]
![[Front vowel|Front]]
|
|
|
|
|-
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|{{IPA|ɒ}}
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Open vowel|Open]]
|{{IPA|a}}
|{{IPA|aː}}
|
|
|}
The following information primarily comes from studies of the [[Great Vowel Shift]];<ref>Stemmler, Theo. ''Die Entwicklung der englischen Haupttonvokale: eine Übersicht in Tabellenform'' [Trans: The development of the English primary-stressed-vowels: an overview in table form] (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965).</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=William Elford|last=Rogers|publisher=[[Furman University]]|title=Early Modern English vowels|url=http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phone/eme/evowel.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113011226/http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phone/eme/evowel.htm|archive-date=13 January 2015|url-status=dead|access-date=5 December 2014}}</ref> see the related chart.
*The modern English [[phoneme]] {{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-I.ogg|aɪ}}, as in ''glide'', ''rhyme'' and ''eye'', was {{IPA|en-emodeng|əi|}}, and was reduced word-finally. Early Modern rhymes indicate that {{IPA|en-emodeng|əi|}} was similar to the vowel that was used at the end of words like ''happy'', ''melody'' and ''busy''.
*{{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-ow.ogg|aʊ}}, as in ''now'', ''out'' and ''ploughed'', was {{IPA|en-emodeng|əu||audio=en-uk-oh.ogg}}.
*{{IPAc-en|audio=Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|ɛ}}, as in ''fed'', ''elm'' and ''hen'', was more or less the same as the phoneme represents today, sometimes approaching {{IPAblink|ɪ|audio=y}} (which is still in the word ''pretty'').<ref name="Hark"/>
* {{IPAc-en|audio=en-uk-a.ogg|eɪ}}, as in ''name'', ''case'' and ''sake'', was a long [[monophthong]]. It shifted from {{IPAblink|æː|audio=y}} to {{IPAblink|ɛː|audio=y}} and finally to {{IPAblink|eː|audio=y}}. Earlier in Early Modern English, ''mat'' and ''mate'' were near-homophones, with a longer vowel in the second word. Thus, [[Shakespeare]] rhymed words like ''haste'', ''taste'' and ''waste'' with ''last'' and ''shade'' with ''sad''.<ref name="Sonnet"/> The more open pronunciation remains in some [[Northern England English]] and rarely in Irish English. During the 17th century, the phoneme variably [[Phonological change|merged]] with the phoneme {{IPA|en-emodeng|ɛi||audio=Nl-ei.ogg}} as in ''day'', ''weigh'', and the merger survived into standard forms of Modern English, though a few dialects kept these vowels distinct at least to the 20th century (see [[Pane–pain merger|''pane''–''pain'' merger]]).
*{{IPAc-en|audio=Close front unrounded vowel.ogg|iː}} (typically spelled {{angbr|ee}} or {{angbr|ie}}) as in ''see'', ''bee'' and ''meet'', was more or less the same as the phoneme represents today, but it had not yet [[fleece merger|merged]] with the phoneme represented by the spellings {{angbr|ea}} or {{angbr|ei}} (and perhaps {{angbr|ie}}, particularly with ''fiend'', ''field'' and ''friend''), as in ''east'', ''meal'' and ''feat'', which were pronounced with {{IPAblink|eː|audio=y}} or {{IPAblink|ɛ̝ː}}.<ref>Cercignani, Fausto (1981), ''Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation'', Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref><ref name="Sonnet"/> However, words like ''breath'', ''dead'' and ''head'' may have already split off towards {{IPAc-en|audio=Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|ɛ}}).
*{{IPAc-en|audio=Near-close_near-front_unrounded_vowel.ogg|ɪ}}, as in ''bib'', ''pin'' and ''thick'', was more or less the same as the phoneme represents today.
*{{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-o.ogg|oʊ}}, as in ''stone'', ''bode'' and ''yolk'', was {{IPAblink|oː|audio=y}} or {{IPAblink|o̞ː|audio=y}}. The phoneme was probably just beginning the process of merging with the phoneme {{IPA|en-emodeng|ow|}}, as in ''grow'', ''know'' and ''mow'', without yet achieving today's [[toe–tow merger|complete merger]]. The old pronunciation remains in some dialects, such as in [[Yorkshire dialect|Yorkshire]], [[East Anglia]], and [[Scottish English|Scotland]].
*{{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-awe.ogg|ɒ}}, as in ''rod'', ''top'' and ''pot'', was {{IPAblink|ɒ}} or {{IPAblink|ɔ|audio=y}}, much like the corresponding RP sound.
*{{IPAc-en|audio=Open-mid back rounded vowel.ogg|ɔː}}, as in ''taut'', ''taught'' and ''law'' was more open than in contemporary RP, being {{IPAblink|ɔː}} or {{IPAblink|ɑː|audio=y}} (and thus being closer to Welsh and General American {{IPA|/ɔː/}})
*{{IPAc-en|audio=en-uk-oi.ogg|ɔɪ}}, as in ''boy'', ''choice'' and ''toy'', is even less clear than other vowels. In the late 16th century, the similar but distinct phonemes {{IPA|/ɔi/}}, {{IPA|/ʊi/}} and {{IPA|/əi/}} all existed. By the late 17th century, they all merged.<ref>{{cite book|title=Early modern English|first=Charles Laurence|last=Barber|edition=second|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=1997|isbn=0-7486-0835-4|pages=108–116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Iat4Bk_YeR4C|location=Edinburgh|access-date=31 August 2020|archive-date=9 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109181145/https://books.google.com/books?id=Iat4Bk_YeR4C|url-status=live}}</ref> Because those phonemes were in such a state of flux during the whole Early Modern period (with evidence of rhyming occurring among them as well as with the precursor to {{IPA|/aɪ/}}), scholars<ref name="OP">See [http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html The History of English (online)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209013306/http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html |date=9 December 2014 }} as well as [[David Crystal]]'s [http://originalpronunciation.com/ Original Pronunciation (online).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209064651/http://originalpronunciation.com/ |date=9 December 2014 }}</ref> often assume only the most neutral possibility for the pronunciation of {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}} as well as its similar phonemes in Early Modern English: {{IPA|[əɪ]}} (which, if accurate, would constitute an early instance of the [[line–loin merger]] since {{IPA|/aɪ/}} had not yet fully developed in English).
*{{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-uh.ogg|ʌ}} (as in ''drum'', ''enough'' and ''love'') and {{IPAc-en|audio=Near-close near-back rounded vowel.ogg|ʊ}} (as in ''could'', ''full'', ''put'') had not yet [[foot–strut split|split]] and so were both pronounced in the vicinity of {{IPAblink|ʊ|audio=Near-close_near-back_rounded_vowel.ogg}}.
*{{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-ooh.ogg|uː}} occurred not only in words like ''food'', ''moon'' and ''stool'', but also all other words spelled with {{angbr|oo}} like ''blood'', ''cook'' and ''foot''. However, the vowel for some of those words was shortened at an early stage: either beginning or already in the process of approximating the Early Modern English {{IPAblink|ʊ|audio=y}}. That phonological split among the {{angbr|oo}} words was a catalyst for the later [[foot–strut split]] and is called "early shortening" by [[John C. Wells]].<ref>{{cite book | author=Wells, John C. | author-link=John C. Wells | title=Accents of English | location=[[Cambridge]] | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | year=1982 | isbn=0-521-22919-7 | id=(vol. 1). (vol. 2)., (vol. 3)| page=199}}</ref> The {{angbr|oo}} words that came to be pronounced with the shortened vowel {{IPAblink|ʊ|audio=y}} included, for example, ''good'' and ''blood''. They, like other words with /ʊ/, were subsequently subject to the [[foot–strut split]] and many of them, like ''drum'' and ''love'', came to be pronounced with the vowel {{IPAblink|ɤ|audio=y}} and eventually {{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-uh.ogg|ʌ}}. However, the words with a shortened vowel also seem to have included, at least in some pronunciations such as Shakespeare's and at certain stages, some words that are pronounced with the original non-shortened vowel {{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-ooh.ogg|uː}} in Present-Day English - e.g. ''brood'', ''doom'' and ''noon''. For example, ''doom'' and ''come'' rhyme in Shakespeare's writing for this reason.<ref>Crystal, David. "Sounding Out Shakespeare: Sonnet Rhymes in Original Pronunciation". In Vera Vasic (ed.), Jezik u upotrebi: primenjena lingvistikja u cast Ranku Bugarskom [Language in use: applied linguistics in honour of Ranko Bugarski] (Novi Sad and Belgrade: Philosophy Faculties, 2011), 295-306300. p. 300.</ref>
*{{IPA|/ɪw/}} or {{IPA|/iw/}}<ref>E. J. Dobson (English pronunciation, 1500–1700, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968, passim) and other scholars before him postulated the existence of a vowel /y/ beside /iu̯/ in early Modern English. But see [[Fausto Cercignani]], ''On the alleged existence of a vowel /y:/ in early Modern English'', in “English Language and Linguistics”, 26/2, 2022, pp. 263–277 [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/on-the-alleged-existence-of-a-vowel-y-in-early-modern-english/AC739707E998A98AFFD515678D9B1E14] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109181252/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/abs/on-the-alleged-existence-of-a-vowel-y-in-early-modern-english/AC739707E998A98AFFD515678D9B1E14|date=9 November 2023}}.</ref> occurred in words spelled with ''ew'' or ''ue'' such as ''due'' and ''dew''. In most dialects of Modern English, it became {{IPA|/juː/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}} by [[yod-dropping]] and so ''do'', ''dew'' and ''due'' are now perfect homophones in most American pronunciations, but a distinction between the two phonemes remains in other versions of English. There is, however, an additional complication in dialects with [[yod-coalescence]] (such as [[Australian English]] and younger RP), in which ''dew'' and ''due'' {{IPA|/dʒuː/}} (homophonous with ''jew'') are distinguished from ''do'' {{IPA|/duː/}} purely by the initial consonant, without any vowel distinction.

The difference between the transcription of the EME diphthong offsets with {{angbr IPA|j w}}, as opposed to the usual modern English transcription with {{angbr IPA|ɪ̯ ʊ̯}} is not meaningful in any way. The precise EME realizations are not known, and they vary even in modern English.

===Rhoticity===
The ''r'' sound (the phoneme {{IPAc-en|r}}) was probably always pronounced following vowel sounds, as in modern [[General American]], [[West Country Accent|West Country English]], [[Hiberno-English|Irish English]], and [[Scottish English]].

At the beginning of the Early Modern English period there were three non-open and non-[[schwa]] short vowels before {{IPA|/r/}} in the [[syllable coda]]: {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} (roughly equivalent to modern {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, {{IPA|/ɪ/}} and {{IPA|/ʊ/}}; {{IPA|/ʌ/}} had not yet developed). In London English they gradually merged into a phoneme that became modern {{IPAc-en|ɜr}}, known as the {{sc2|NURSE}} mergers. While {{angbr|ur}} spellings for {{angbr|ir}} words exist in the 1500s, these are descended from Old English words with the segments {{IPA|/yr/}} and {{IPA|/ri/}} suggesting that they may not be part of the merger. The earliest native speaker to comment on mergers between the classes is [[John Wallis]] in 1653, showing a near merger of {{IPA|/ur/}} and {{IPA|/ir/}}, with "turn" and "burn" having the vowel of "dull", and "virtue" with a slightly closer or unrounded vowel. However, a smaller number of speakers merge {{IPA|/ir/}} and {{IPA|/er/}} instead. The full three-way {{sc2|NURSE}} mergers only completed in England around 1800.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999| publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|pp=112-113}}</ref>

===Specific words===
''Nature'' was pronounced approximately as {{IPA|[ˈnɛːtəɹ]}}<ref name="Hark"/> and may have rhymed with ''letter'' or, early on, even ''latter''. ''One'' may have been pronounced ''own'', with both ''one'' and ''other'' using the era's long {{sc2|GOAT}} vowel, rather than today's {{sc2|STRUT}} vowels.<ref name="Hark"/> ''Tongue'' derived from the sound of ''tong'' and rhymed with ''song''.<ref name="Sonnet">Crystal, David (2011). "[http://www.davidcrystal.com/?fileid=-4836 Sounding out Shakespeare: Sonnet Rhymes in Original Pronunciation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020080423/http://www.davidcrystal.com/?fileid=-4836 |date=20 October 2017 }}". In Vera Vasic (ed.) ''Jezik u Upotrebi: primenjena lingvsitikja u cast Ranku Bugarskom''. Novi Sad and Belgrade: Philosophy faculties. P. 298-300.</ref>

==Grammar==
===Pronouns===
Early Modern English had two second-person personal pronouns: ''[[thou]]'', the informal singular pronoun, and ''ye'', the plural (both formal and informal) pronoun and the formal singular pronoun.

"Thou" and "ye" were both common in the early 16th century (they can be seen, for example, in the disputes over [[Tyndale]]'s translation of the Bible in the 1520s and the 1530s) but by 1650, "thou" seems old-fashioned or literary. It has effectively completely disappeared from Modern [[Standard English]].

The translators of the ''King James Version'' of the Bible (begun 1604 and published 1611, while Shakespeare was at the height of his popularity) had a particular reason for keeping the informal "thou/thee/thy/thine/thyself" forms that were slowly beginning to fall out of spoken use, as it enabled them to match the [[Hebrew]] and [[Ancient Greek]] distinction between second person singular ("thou") and plural ("ye"). It was not to denote reverence (in the ''King James Version'', God addresses individual people and even Satan as "thou") but only to denote the singular. Over the centuries, however, the very fact that "thou" was dropping out of normal use gave it a special aura and so it gradually and ironically came to be used to express reverence in hymns and in prayers.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}}

Like other personal pronouns, ''thou'' and ''ye'' have different forms dependent on their [[grammatical case]]; specifically, the objective form of ''thou'' is ''thee'', its possessive forms are ''thy'' and ''thine'', and its reflexive or emphatic form is ''thyself''.

The objective form of ''ye'' was ''you'', its possessive forms are ''your'' and ''yours'' and its reflexive or emphatic forms are ''yourself'' and ''yourselves''.

The older forms "mine" and "thine" had become "my" and "thy" before words beginning with a consonant other than ''h'', and "mine" and "thine" were retained before words beginning with a vowel or an ''h'', as in ''mine eyes'' or ''thine hand''.
{{Early Modern English personal pronouns (table)}}

===Verbs===
====Tense and number====
During the Early Modern period, the verb inflections became simplified as they evolved towards their modern forms:
*The third-person singular present lost its alternate inflections: ''-eth'' and ''-th'' became obsolete, and ''-s'' survived. (Both forms can be seen together in Shakespeare: "With her, that ''hateth'' thee and ''hates'' us all".)<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|page=163}}</ref>
*The plural present form became uninflected. Present plurals had been marked with ''-en'' and singulars with ''-th'' or ''-s'' (''-th'' and ''-s'' survived the longest, especially with the singular use of ''is'', ''hath'' and ''doth'').<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|pages=165–66}}</ref> Marked present plurals were rare throughout the Early Modern period and ''-en'' was probably used only as a stylistic affectation to indicate rural or old-fashioned speech.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Charles Laurence Barber|title=Early Modern English|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0835-5|page=171}}</ref>
*The second-person singular indicative was marked in both the present and past tenses with ''-st'' or ''-est'' (for example, in the past tense, ''walkedst'' or ''gav'st'').<ref>{{Cite book|author=Charles Laurence Barber|title=Early Modern English|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0835-5|page=165}}</ref> Since the indicative past was not and still is not otherwise marked for person or number,<ref>{{Cite book|author=Charles Laurence Barber|title=Early Modern English|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0835-5|page=172}}</ref> the loss of ''[[thou]]'' made the past subjunctive indistinguishable from the indicative past for all verbs except ''to be''.

====Modal auxiliaries====
The [[English modal verbs|modal auxiliaries]] cemented their distinctive syntactical characteristics during the Early Modern period. Thus, the use of modals without an infinitive became rare (as in "I must to Coventry"; "I'll none of that"). The use of modals' present participles to indicate aspect (as in "Maeyinge suffer no more the loue & deathe of Aurelio" from 1556), and of their preterite forms to indicate tense (as in "he follow'd Horace so very close, that of necessity he must fall with him") also became uncommon.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge |location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|pages=231–35}}</ref>

Some verbs ceased to function as modals during the Early Modern period. The present form of ''must'', ''mot'', became obsolete. ''Dare'' also lost the syntactical characteristics of a modal auxiliary and evolved a new past form (''dared''), distinct from the modal ''durst''.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999| publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|page=232}}</ref>

====Perfect and progressive forms====
The [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]] of the verbs had not yet been standardised to use only the auxiliary verb "to have". Some took as their auxiliary verb "to be", such as this example from the ''King James Version'': "But which of you... will say unto him... when he '''is''' come from the field, Go and sit down..." [Luke XVII:7]. The rules for the auxiliaries for different verbs were similar to those that are still observed in German and French (see [[unaccusative verb]]).

The modern syntax used for the [[progressive aspect]] ("I am walking") became dominant by the end of the Early Modern period, but other forms were also common such as the prefix ''a-'' ("I am a-walking") and the infinitive paired with "do" ("I do walk"). Moreover, the ''to be'' + -''ing'' verb form could be used to express a passive meaning without any additional markers: "The house is building" could mean "The house is being built".<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|pages=217–18}}</ref>

==Vocabulary==
A number of words that are still in common use in Modern English have undergone [[semantic field|semantic narrowing]].

The use of the verb "to suffer" in the sense of "to allow" survived into Early Modern English, as in the phrase "suffer the little children" of the ''King James Version'', but it has mostly been lost in Modern English.<ref>Doughlas Harper, https://www.etymonline.com/word/suffer#etymonline_v_22311 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104010424/https://www.etymonline.com/word/suffer#etymonline_v_22311 |date=4 November 2018 }}</ref> This use still exists in the [[idiom]] "[[suffer fools gladly|to suffer fools gladly]]".

Also, this period includes one of the earliest Russian borrowings to English (which is historically a rare occasion itself<ref>Mirosława Podhajecka Russian borrowings in English: A dictionary and corpus study, p.19</ref>); at least as early as 1600, the word "[[:wikt: steppe|steppe]]" (rus. [[:wikt: степь|степь]]<ref>Max Vasmer, Etymological dictionary of the Russian language</ref>) first appeared in English in [[William Shakespeare]]'s comedy ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''. It is believed that this is a possible indirect borrowing via either German or French.

The substantial borrowing of Latin and sometimes Greek words for abstract concepts, begun in Middle English, continued unabated, often terms for abstract concepts not available in English.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Franklin |first1=James |date=1983 |title=Mental furniture from the philosophers |url=http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/mental.pdf |journal=Et Cetera |volume=40 |issue= |pages=177–191 |doi= |access-date=29 June 2021 |archive-date=23 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123101442/http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/mental.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Early modern Britain]]
*[[English literature]]
*[[History of English]]
*[[Inkhorn term]]
*[[Elizabethan era]], [[Jacobean era]], [[Caroline era]]
*[[English Renaissance]]
*[[Shakespeare's influence]]
*[[Middle English]], [[Modern English]], [[Old English]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100616095827/http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/paleography.html English Paleography]: Examples for the study of English handwriting from the 16th–18th centuries from the [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]] at Yale University{{dead link|date=March 2019}}

[[Category:Early Modern English| ]]
[[Category:History of the English language]]
[[Category:Early modern languages|English]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 15th century]]
[[Category:15th-century establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 17th century]]
[[Category:17th-century disestablishments in Europe]]