Historical background: Tudor Britain, Stuart Britain

The period from 1475 till 1660 was very important in development of the English language, as in this period the National English language was formed. Before this time, English existed in forms of different dialects which played different roles in different periods of history.

One of them, the London dialect, was the basis for the formation of the National English language.

This process was launched and backed up by the following tendencies and events:

1) The power became highly centralized after the years of discord and the Civil War of Roses. After Henry the VII Tudor established absolute monarchy, London became a bureaucratic and administrative centre, where the documents and bills were issued.

2) Latin was ousted from many spheres under Henry the VIII who split up with the Catholic Church.

3) The invention of printing and subsequent spread of literacy.

4) Oxford and Cambridge, two basic centres of education, were very close to London and also propagated London dialect.

5) Popularity of great literary works by Chaucer, who deliberately created in English.

As a result, people apprehended the literary, written language as the model that must be followed. It was not that easy to change the spelling of words any more; that was why the later phonetic changes in English did not find their reflection in spelling.

In the 16^th century the first standard grammars appeared. The first grammarians tried to describe all elements of the language and to find the universal strict rules. In 1755 Dr Johnson issued the first English dictionary.

Until the 17^th century English was spoken only in the British Isles. In the time of Great Geographical discoveries and of first settlements in the New World, the English Language started to spread all round the world. It was the first important premise that made English so popular nowadays.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 947