Development of the Literary Language

L 462. The 17th and 18th centuries witnessed some great social and political upheavals, which influenced the language as well. The most outstanding events of the time were the bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, the Restoration of 1660, and the industrial revolution in the 18th century. But e^en before these events an important development took place in the history of the language.

463. Until the early 17th century the English language was only spoken in the British Isles. In the 17th century it crossed the borders. With the first English settlers in America-the language entered the New WorldHA first attempt at founding an English colony in America was made in 1584, but this brought about no'results: most settlers died of famine and epidemics. In the 17th century colonizing began again. It was caused now by acute political struggle in the mother country. L-The official Anglican church created by the 16th-century Reformation was persecuting the Puritans^ Political and religious persecution made them seek a way out in emigration. (First a group of Puritans crossed into the Netherlands, and in 1620 the famous ship The Mayflower reached North America, in the region which is now the state of Massachusetts? This was the start of English colonies in AmericaTj which eventually separated from the metropolis and became the United Stales of America.CThis was also the beginning of history of English in the New World??

464J_Meanwhile political struggle in Britain became more and more acute and led to civil war, which ended with a puritan victory and proclamation of a Commonwealth in 1649.

The language of the Commonwealth belongs to the Early Modern English period, which lasted till about 1660П

Qjhe literary language of the time bears~~a strong imprint of puri-taii ideology p

^However, puritan influence had made itself felt even before the revolution. It is very tangible in a famous Bible translation published in 1611, the authorized version, also often called the king James' Bibler)This was the work of a commission appointed by the king for the purpose. The translators set themselves the task of achieving a clear, simple, and easily intelligible language. But they also strove for a solemn and grand style and would therefore often use archaic expressions.

\As for Milton, the greatest poet and writer of the epoch (1608—1674), he created a peculiar individual style coloured by Greek and biblical influences] and he cannot be considered to be typical of the literary language of the time.

The language of John Bunyan (1628—1688), whose allegory The Pilgrim's Progress was published in two instalments in 1678 and 1684, shows a strong influence of biblical tradition, on the one

pset, neuter gender form of the pronoun se which functioned as relative pronoun (alongside fie); who and which appeared as relative pronouns in the Middle English period only.

The author of a paper published in issue No. 135 of The Spectator on 4 August 1711 under the title On the Conciseness of the English in Common Discourse protested against the wide use of colloquial abbreviations, such as mob (from Lat. mobile), incog (from incognito), etc.

A paper published in issue No. 285, on 26 January 1712, speaking about Milton's language, says: 'If clearness and perspicuity were only to be consulted, the poet would have nothing else to do but to clothe his thoughts in the most plain and natural expressions. But since it often happens, that the most obvious phrases, and those which are used in ordinary conversation, become too familiar to the ear, and contract a kind of meanness by passing through the mouths of the vulgar, a poet should take particular care to guard himself against idiomatic ways of speaking."

467^From the viewpoint of this new trend, the language of the 16th and early 17th century was bound to appear wild and clumsy. Publications of Shakespeare's works appearing in the 18th century are full of arbitrary changes designed to make Shakespeare's text conform to the "correctness" of the 18th century. The greatest poet of the time, Alexander Pope (1688—1744), who edited Shakespeare's works in 1725, entirely failed to understand the forms in Shakespeare's text|U

468.Dn the 17th and 18th century a great number of grammarians and orthoepists appeared, who set as their task the establishing of correct language forms.

In 1621 Alexander Gill's book, Logonomia Anglica (that is, English Word-law) was published. Gill stuck to conservative views in the sphere of pronunciation and condemned new tendencies in this field. However, his work is not devoid of inter.esQ he quotes in a peculiar system of transcription the variants of pronunciation which he disapproves of, and in this way gives us some valuable information about the pronunciation of his time.

(Next came Charles Butler, author of English Grammar, which appeared in 1634. Butler proposed a modernized and rationalized spelling system?] Mentioning some vacillations in spelling, he declares: "We have" in our language many syllables which having gotten a nu pronunciation, doo yet retain their old orthography, so that their letters doo not now rightly express their sound... the which errour if we will correct... the question will be whether we should conform our writing to the nu sound, or reform our sound and return to the old." >

¹ H. C. Wyld. A History oj Modern Colloquial English. Oxford, 1953, p. 169.

At the time of the Commonwealth there appeared John Wallis's Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae (1653). Wallis was able to make objective observations of pronunciation and he was not limited by conservative views of the language.

IjThe most serious of the orthoepists was Christopher Cooper, author of Grammatica Anglicana, published in 1685. Cooper was fully aware of the difference between sounds and letters and gave a list of homonyms resulting from phonetic change.]He testifies that the following words were pronounced alike: heart — hart; a notion — an ocean; are — air — ere — heir, etcj

In the early 18th century we find a valuable source of information about the pronunciation of the time in Jones's book Practical Phpnographer (1701). Jones states it as his task to.describe "English speech... as it is commonly used in England, particularly in topdon, the Universities or at Court".

William Baker's book, Rules for True Spelling and Writing English, appeared in 1724. Baker noted divergencies between pronunciation and spelling and gave lists of words showing such divergencies.")

469.fAbout the middle of the 18th century there appears a tendency to limit the freedom of phonetic and grammatical variants within the national languageQThe influential statesman Lord Chesterfield (1694—1773) wrote in one of his letters: "The common people of every country speak their own language very ill; the people of fashion (as they are called) speak it better, but not always correctly, because they are not always people of letters. Those who speak their own language most accurately are those who have learning and are at the same time in the polite world; at least their language will be reckoned the standard of the language of that country."! So Lord Chesterfield thought that the right to set the law in language matters should go to a narrow circle of educated society people.

fThe idea of a strict norm in language was expressed with yet greater clarity in a preface appended by Samuel _Johnson (1709— 1784) to his famous-Dictionary, published in 1755,'lThis is what he says: "Most of the writers of English Grammars "have given long tables of words pronounced otherwise than they are written, and seem not sufficiently to have considered that of English, as of all living tongues, there is a double pronunciation, one cursory and colloquial, the other regular and solemn. The cursory pronunciation is always vague and uncertain, being made different in different mouths, by negligence, unskilfulness and affectation. The solemn pronunciation, though by no means immutable and permanent, is yet always less remote from the orthography, and less liable to

¹ Lord Chesterfield's Letters, Letter 103; quoted by H. C. Wyld, A History of Modern Colloquial English. Oxford, 1953, p. 19—20.

capricious innovation. They have generally formed their 4ables according to the cursory speech of those with whom they happened to converse: and concluding that the whole nation combines to vitiate language in one manner, have often established the jargon of the lowest people, as the model of speech... For pronunciation the best general rule is, to consider those the most elegant speakers who deviate least from the written words."

So Dr Johnson preferred the "regular and solemn" pronunciation to the "cursory and colloquial". This view is most characteristic of the mid-18th century.

Expansion of English

470.Lln the early 17th century the English language penetrated into America. In the course of the following centuries it spread over the greater part of North America and reached the Pacific. On its way westwards the English language overcame its two rivals — French and Spanish/!

Meanwhile within the British Isles the English language gradually supplanted the Celtic languages, which had survived since the earliest times.

uln the extreme South-West of England, in Cornwall, the local Celtic language, Cornish, died out in the 18th century.-¹

In Wales there arose in the late 19th century a tendency to revive the local Celtic language, Welsh, and Celtic culture. In 1893 the Welsh University was founded; every year there is the National Welsh Eisteddfod — a singers' competition. According to a 1961 census, 656,000 people spoke Welsh, and of these about 26,000 spoke Welsh only.

i-The Celtic language of the Isle of Man (in the Irish Sea), called Manx, is dying out.--¹

In the extreme North-West of Scotland, according to the 1961 census, 76,000 people knew Gaelic, of these 1,100 spoke only Gaelic.

¹ In Ireland, which was conquered by the English in the early 17th century, struggle against English power lasted all through the 17th and the 18th centuriesj Towards the end of the 19th century national movement was resumed and so was the struggle for -the Irish language. In 1893 the "Gaelic League" was founded, which set as its aim reviving the Irish language by way of lectures, classes, etc. The national liberation movement reached its climax in 1916 with the Irish rebellion. In 1922 the Irish Free State was established, which since 1937 bears the name of Eire. In 1949^Eire left the Commonwealth of Nations. Eire now occupies the whole territory of the island, except its north-eastern part, which under the name of North- _f ern Ireland makes part of Britain.

Struggle against English domination is steadily going on in Northern Ireland in our own time.

The number of people speaking Irish rose from 300,000 in 1929 to 666,000 in 1961; however, most Irish people speak English.""/