The Renaissance: Language and Literature
Week 8/9: The Renaissance
1. Introduction
- Development of new concepts and techniques: flowering of arts and sciences.
- Many literary, scientific, and religious texts in Latin.
- Latin still the language of scholarship and scholarly literature.
- Thomas More’s Utopia written entirely in Latin.
- Around 13,000 new loanwords entered the language in the 16th century: 7,000 were from Latin.
2. The Problem of the Vernaculars
In the sixteenth century, the modern languages faced three great problems:
- Recognition in the fields where Latin had for centuries been supreme.
- The establishment of a more uniform orthography.
- The enrichment of the vocabulary so that it would be adequate to meet the demands that would be made upon it in its wider use.
3. The Struggle for Recognition
English was the spoken language and the language of popular literature, whereas Greek and Latin were the written languages of knowledge and culture.
The “revival of learning”: Latin and Greek were the languages of highly esteemed poetry, oratory, and philosophy.
The demand for recognition supported by translation.
From the beginning, English needed more recognition.
Great attempts at self-justification had as their strongest motive the desire to reach the whole people in the language best understood. By the end of the 15th century, English had won recognition.
4. The Orthographic Problem
“Right Writing,” as it was called, a matter of discussion and great relevance. No generally accepted system: Neither phonetic nor fixed spelling.
Certain spellings gradually became conventional while the pronunciation slowly changed. Treatises written to attack the problem. Some writers ready to discard current spelling entirely and respell the language phonetically with the aid of additional symbols were needed.
The alphabet increased to 34 letters; long vowels were marked.
Many more published books on the topic, most of them pure exercises and attempts in absurdity.
4.1 Richard Mulcaster’s Elementaire
- Which entreateth chiefly of the right writing of our English tongue.
- The most important treatise on English spelling in the 16th century.
- Willing to compromise between the ideal and the practical.
- Did not think that spelling could perfectly represent sound.
- Openly refused to go along with the phonetic reformers.
- The basis of his reform: custom or usage.
Gave the recommended spelling for some 7,000 of the most common words.
English spelling developed with him.
5. The Defence of Borrowing
English had already imported much from French, Latin, and Greek.
- Compromise: the term “inkhorn” for words that could easily be overdone: ‘politien’, ‘method’, ‘placation’, ‘prolixe’, ‘inveigle’, etc.
- Compromise with those that have won a permanent place in the language: ‘audacious’, ‘egregious’, ‘compatible’, ‘reciprocal’, ‘incubus’, ‘inflate’, etc.
- Permanent Additions (from Latin and/or Greek): Not all the new words were pedantic or ill-advised: ‘allusion’, ‘anachronism’, ‘atmosphere’, ‘autograph’, ‘disability’, ‘excursion’, ‘expectation’, etc.
-
Adaptation:
- Some words retained their original form: ‘climax’, ‘appendix’, ‘exterior’, ‘delirium’, ‘axis’.
- Others underwent change: ‘conjectural’ (conjecturalis), ‘consult’ (consultare), ‘exclusion’ (exclusionem), ‘exotic’ (exoticum).
Reintroducing new meanings: a word introduced a second time often carries a different meaning.
Words from Romance languages: French, Italian, and Spanish.
English travel in France and Chaucerisms: bizarre, explore, essay
Italian fashions and literature: algebra, balcony, cameo
Spanish and Portuguese: alligator, mosquito, potato.
Thomas More and Shakespeare introduced new words: absurdity, emulate, agile, modest.
6. The Great Vowel Shift
The principal changes were roughly the following:
/a/ → /e/ : make
/e/→ /i/ : feet
/i/ → /ai/: mice
/o/ → /u/: boot
/u/ → /au/: mouse