Unit 23 The Formation of the National English Language

The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain in the 5^th-6^th c. spoke closely related tribal dialects belonging to the West Germanic group. Their common origin and their joint evolution in Britain transformed them eventually into a single tongue, English. But at the early stages of their development in Britain the dialects remained disunited.

The dialectal division which existed in Old English was on the whole preserved in later periods. In the Middle English period we find the same grouping of local dialects: the Southern group, including Kentish and the South-Western dialects, the Midland group and the Northern group. And yet the relations among them were changing. The development of trade, the growth of towns with a mixed population favoured the intermixture of the regional dialects. The most important event in the changing linguistic situation was the rise of the London dialect as the prevalent written form of language.

The Early Middle English records made in London show that the dialect of London was fundamentally East Saxon. In terms of the Middle English division, it belonged to the South-Western dialect group. Later records indicate that the speech of London was becoming more mixed, with East Midland features gradually prevailing over the Southern features. The explanation for the change of the dialect type and for the mixed character of London English lies in the history of the London population.

In the 12^th and 13^th c. the inhabitants of London came from the south-western districts. In the middle of the 14^th c. London was practically depopulated during numerous outbreaks of bubonic plague. Later, most of the new arrivals came from the East Midlands, though these regions did not border immediately on the capital. As a result, the speech of Londoners was brought much closer to the East Midland dialect; the London dialect became more Anglian than Saxon in character. This dialect, which had extended to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, ousted French from official spheres and from the sphere of writing.

The complete reestablishment of English as the language of writing took place in the 14^th century. The second half of the 14^th c. was marked by the flourishing of English literature. This period of English literature is known as the age of Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) was the most outstanding figure of the time. ‘The Canterbury Tales’ is Chaucer’s best-work, and the first major work in English literature. In many books on the history of England Chaucer is characterized as the founder of the literary language. But in fact, it isn’t so. He did not really create the literary language, but as a poet of outstanding talent he made better use of it than his contemporaries and set up a pattern to be followed in the 15^th c. Chaucer’s literary language, based on the London dialect, is known as classical Middle English. In the 15^th and 16^th c. it became the basis of the national literary English language.

The written standard of English had been established by the middle of the 17^th c., but it was far less normalized than the literary standards of later ages. The writings of this period display a wide range of variation at all linguistic levels: in spelling, in theshape of grammatical forms and word-building devices, in syntactical patterns and in the choice and use of words. The 18^th c. is remarkable for deliberate attempts to fix the language and interfere with its evolution.

Among the exponents of this movement were not only the authors of prescriptive English grammar books and the great 18^th c. lexicographers, but also the writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the founders of the first English newspapers R. Steele and J. Addison.

The greatest achievement in the process of normalization of Modern English is connected with the name of Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Samuel Johnson was one of those scholars who believed that the English language should be purified and corrected. He undertook to compile a new dictionary based upon the usage of recognised authors. In the two volumes of his dictionary (1755) he included quotations from several hundred writers and poets of the 17^th and 18^th c. His dictionary also contained a special section devoted to grammar. The weight of Johnson’s authority was so great that later writers did not dare to deviate from the spellings prescribed by the dictionary. Even today some authors blame him for fixing English spelling and thus making it conservative. Johnson’s dictionary passed through many editions and revisions and is still relevant for present-day English.