The Formation of the National Literary English language

The Formation of the National Literary English language, or Standard English, is

considered to date from the period between the 15th and the 17th centuries. After that time

the language continued to change, yet, henceforth one can speak of the evolution of

Standard English instead of tracing the similar or different trends in the history of its

dialects.

We must mention at least two of the external factors that led to this development: the

unification of the country and the progress of culture.

Spread of London Dialect in the 15th Century

In the course of the .15th century the London literary language gradually spread all over

the country, superseding local dialects. Spoken English in various parts of Britain gradually

approaches the literary norm, and differences between the norm and popular speech tend to

become obliterated. According to this classification, written documents of the 15th century

can be classified into three types: (1) those written in the London literary language, (2)

those written in a more or less pure local dialect, (3) those written in a more or less pure

local dialects. This classification cuts right across another classification, that according to

the kind of documents: (1) official documents, (2) literary texts, (3) private letters.

The formation of a national language was greatly fostered by two events of the late

15th century.

The most significant event of the period was the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485),

which marked the decay of feudalism and the birth of a new social order. The political

result was the rise of an absolute monarchy. This meant a high degree of political

centralization and thus contributed to centralization in language as well, that is, to a

predominance of the national language over local dialects.

Another great event was the introduction of printing by William Caxton (1422-1491).

He founded the first English printing office in London in 1476, and in 1477 appeared the

first book to be printed in England, namely, The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers.

Introduction of printing greatly helped normalization of spelling. Norms adopted by the

first printers have basically survived up to our own days. Phonetic changes which have

occurred since then have hardly been reflected in the spelling. As a result vowel letters in

English acquired meanings different from those they have in French, German, Italian, and

other European languages; besides each vowel letter acquired different sound values

depending on its environment. Thus the letter a denotes different vowel sounds in the words

make, cat, water, any.

Existence of a language norm becomes evident in the 16th century. The literary

language is apprehended as a model which must be followed, wherever this or that user of

English may happen to live. On the entire territory of Southern and Midland dialects in all

written documents, including private letters, only literary English is used. All other dialects,

except Scottish, were reduced to the state of merely oral languages.

Social changes of the 16th century created the conditions for a great literary

achievement. The most famous poets were Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser. The 80s and 90s

witness the rise of a great number of dramatists. The greatest of these was William

Shakespeare (1564-1616). ;