Standardization Of The English Language Essay Research

Standardization Of The English Language Essay, Research Paper

Standardization of the English Language

There are several important events before 1500 that when listed together show a

series of steps in the struggle for English language supremacy. These steps are

mainly governmental, legal and official events that pushed English usage. In

1356 The Sheriff’s Court in London and Middlesex were conducted in English for

the first time. When Parliament opened in 1362 the Statute of Pleading was

issued declaring English as a language of the courts as well as of Parliament,

but it was not until 1413 that English became the official language of the

courts everywhere. Thirteen years later in 1423, Parliament records start being

written in English. 1400 marks date that English is used in writing wills, a

seemingly small step, but one that impacted many people and began a legacy of

record keeping in English. In 1450 English became the language used in. writing

town laws and finally 1489 saw all statutes written in English. But it was not

until 1649 that English became the language of legal documents in place of Latin.

The formal rules intended to keep the use of French in official capacities were

not enough to combat the effects of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War

between France and England, which both contributed greatly to the rise of

English and fall of French. By the fourteenth century, English was again known

by most people, although French was not forgotten, and the people who spoke

French were generally bilingual. The. Statute of Pleading made it law that

English and not French would be used in the courts. However, it needs to be

emphasized that at the end of this statement, it says that after the pleadings,

debates, etc. in English were finished, they should be entered and enrolled in

Latin. English became the official language of the court in 1413, but French was

permitted until the eighteenth century.

More than the official bureaucratic changes in rules and law were the changes in

the use of the language by the everyday speakers. The changes that distinguish

Early Modern English from Middle English are substantial. The rules for spelling

were set down for the first time. The key is the new consistency used by

teachers, printers and eventually by the general populace. The sign of maturity

for English was the agreement on one set of rules replacing the spelling free-

for-all that had existed.

Out of the variety of. local dialects there emerged toward the end of the

fourteenth century a written language that in course of the fifteenth century

won general recognition and has since become the recognized standard in speech

and writing. The part of England that contributed most to the formation of this

standard was the East Midland type of English that became itst basis,

particularly the dialect of the metropolis, London. East Midland district was

the largest and most populous of the major dialect areas. There were also two

universities, Oxford and Cambridge. In the fourteenth century the monasteries

were playing a less important role in the spread of learning than they had once

played, while the two universities had developed into important intellectual

centers. So far as Cmbridge is concerned any ist influence was exerted in

support of the East Midland dialect. That of Oxford is less certain because

Oxfordshire was on the border between Midland and Southern and its dialect

shows certain characteristic Southern features.

Written London English of the close of the fourteenth century as used by a

number of Middle English authors, such as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer, had

not achived the status of a regional standard but was soon to become the basis

for a new national literary standard of English. It was the language of the

capital. Geographically, it occupied a position midway between the extreme North

and the extreme South. Already by 1430, this new standard had assumed a

relatively mature form. It was spread throughout England by professional clerks

in the administrative apparatus of the country and also became the model for

business aand pri-vate correspondence in English. It was this Chancery standard,

the normal language for all official written communication by the time when

Caxton set up his Printing Press in West-minster (1476), which became the direct

ancestor of Modern Standard English. As a result of this developments, the use

of regional dialects in writing receded more and more in the course of the.

fifteenth century until, in the Early Modern English period, writing came to be

exclusively done in the standard literary language.

The language of Chaucer’s late fourteenth century and of the fifteenth were

often describe as Late Middle English. It could as well be called Early Modern

English. Ich and I ran side by side in Chaucer’s language, and the distin

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