Factors In The Shaping Of Modern English
FACTORS IN THE SHAPING OF MODERN ENGLISH
The movement toward the standardization of vernacular languages proceeded apace throughout Western Europe in the late sixteenth century. The abandoning of Latin as the language of government and diplomacy led to an increased interest in the standardization, refinement, and fixing of national languages. The question of who should be allowed to determine the shape of “standard” English, French, or Italian was immensely contentious, in that highly subjective matters of taste were involved. It Italy, the Accademia della Crusca, founded in 1582, set as its stated aim the refinement of the Italian language, and published works designed to encourage this process. Cardinal Richelieu founded the Académie Française in 1634, again with the aim of rendering the French language “pure, eloquent, and capable of treating both arts and sciences.”
James I had little interest in such matters. Indeed, the one national society that might have acted as a catalyst to the development of English—the Society of Antiquaries, founded in 1572—languished and eventually folded during his reign. It was not until the reign of Charles II that serious discussion began in England over the establishment of an English equivalent to the much-admired (at least, in private) Académie Française.
In the absence of any official body willing to take a lead in such matters, the development of English was shaped by a number of influential factors. One factor of growing importance was the ready availability of printed material. As George Puttenham pointed out in 1589, speakers of English “were already ruled by the English dictionaries and other books written by learned men, and therefore need none other direction in that behalf.” Even in the time of William Caxton, the potential of the printing press for shaping living languages had been recognized. The English of Caxton's translations was largely based on London English, as used by civil servants and lawyers. The more published English was read, the more its English would be accepted as “normative.”
One of the unintended functions of the King James Bible was to establish norms in written and spoken English. Should not the language of the Bible shape the language of the people? The growing acceptance of the King James Bible in shaping public and private religious discourse inevitably had its impact on the language as a whole. Yet the English used in the King James Bible was not a “universal” English, accepted by all throughout King James's realm. Northern forms of English made little, if any impact on the translation. As we stressed when considering the identity and origins of the companies of translators, virtually all were drawn from the southeast of England. The King James Bible is written in a standard literary language, free from the confusing variations of local dialects.
Initially, the language of the King James Bible might seem unnatural, artificial, and stilted to some. Yet continuity of usage, private and public, soon diminished the apparent “strangeness” of the translation. Hebraic phrases—initially regarded with some amusement—became accepted parts of the English language. The growing acceptance of the King James Bible must be seen as a major force in the shaping of standard English. The production of editions of the King James Bible suitable for personal use—such as the quarto and octavo editions—increased the influence of the work on the growing reading public.
By the first decade of the seventeenth century, it was clear that the English language was in a state of flux. The Elizabethan and Jacobean periods can now be seen to have been the periods in which modern English received its distinctive cast. The influence of printed books had been of critical importance: fixed forms of spelling were now beginning to emerge, and certain lexical patterns were becoming accepted as normative. The King James Bible was published within a window of opportunity, which allowed it to exercise a substantial and decisive influence over the shaping of the English language. It is no accident that the two literary sources most widely identified as defining influences over English—the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare—both date from this critical period.