Socio Cultural Background

The sociocultural background of EmodE

Briefly date the EModE period of the English language, also giving reasons for the dates.

Most linguists dealing with Early Modern English are claiming that this period is set between 1500 and 1700. This is a traditional description of the era’s dates and because languages are always developing providing EModE with an exact date is something I am rather sceptical about. Nevertheless, the arriving of the printing press in England in 1475 had a major impact for linguistic development in the country. Increase of literacy and a population that became more and more eager to read thanks to printing, which succeeded the old form of scribal text-production is the reason for a linguistic development. In 1485 many

People in the middle ages just weren’t mobile. Of course there were traders and people would go to the city to sell goods or harvest, but actually leaving the villages or moving around the country was nothing common. This also changed with the early modern times. Population growth meant that there was not enough land to farm and the people had to leave to find their luck somewhere else. Mobility became a normal thing for the English population and around 1700 every 6th person had at least lived in London once.

In conclusion it is clear that the early modern period changed life in England drastically. In 200 years the old habits from the medieval were gone. England rose from being just an European island to one of the powerhouses of the continent. Changes in society like fluidity in social ranks and growth of population as well as in literacy and education, also for women, and mobility, which made London the largest city in the western hemisphere and melting pot had not just effects on the country but also on the

The weak literacy in the beginning of EModE and fewer documents such as letters from lower social classes are not preserved as often as documents and letters from the gentry. The same can be applied to gender differentiation. Nevertheless Nevalainen provides an example in her text that can lead to assumptions about disparities. It seems like women were often writing their English letters with forms that can be identified as new and found their way into present day English. An example is you which is used instead of ye in letters from Sabine Johnson to her husband John. Quite interesting about these letters is the fact that John Johnson in contradistinction to his wife did not use multiple negation. Educated people stopped using the multiple negation first. Taking in account this letter exchange between husband and wife it can be said that language change neither comes from the educated elite (few people) of a country nor from the people at the bottom of the social scale (many