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Linguistic prestige and nationalism

It is a known fact that languages are in continuous evolution, which can depend on social, chronological or space-related factors. This notwithstanding, an idea of a linguistic “purity”, determining linguistic prestige, was widespread in the past and is still debated nowadays, although its supporters are highly outnumbered.

The inkhorn controversy

In the specific case of English, there was a controversy over the so-called “inkhorn” terms from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century, during the transition from Middle English (conventionally from 1066 to 1476) to Modern English (conventionally from 1476 to nowadays). The controversy in question perfectly reflected the two attitudes towards language at the beginning of the Early Modern period: one was in favour of foreign linguistic influences and the other was against them, advocating for a “pure” language instead.

Periodisation of the English language

In order to reconstruct and periodise the development of a language, English in this particular case, the assumption of some conventional truths, which are generally accepted for the sake of convenience, is required. These truths are the division in various periods typically of the same length and the consideration in two different moments of external and internal factors, which could not really be separated, having a key role in the linguistic evolution.

Indeed, the development of the English language can be periodized according to two paradigms: external, mainly historical events and shifts in internal, structural terms.

Phases of English language development

First and foremost, the development of English is usually divided into three phases of five hundred years each: Old English, which conventionally starts in 450, with the first Anglo-Saxon settlement, Middle English, from 1066 with the Norman conquest under William the Conqueror, and Modern English, from 1476 with the establishment of the first English printing press by William Caxton.

Before what is called Old English, there is the Roman occupation, from the 1^st century BC to the 5^th century AD, which leaves some words linked with constructions and the history of the territory (street, wall, Manchester). Old English starts to be shaped thanks to the Anglo-Saxon (Germanic tribes) settlement (450).

Influences and identity issues

There is an important issue of identity in the 8^th and 9^th centuries: Viking raids in 792 and Danish ones in 865 are perceived as real invasions, people in England do not see themselves anymore as connected with the north of Europe.

Middle English sees a limited influence of French, which is the elite language at the beginning, spoken in parliament, but it is gradually replaced by English, used in the English Parliament for the first time in 1362. It also replaces Latin as the main language in schools in 1385, apart from universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This is the beginning of the rise of English both as a literary and institutional language.

Modern English and its subdivisions

Concerning Modern English, it can be further divided into Early (until the half of the XVIII century) and Late Modern (until today). Early modern witnesses issues due to the printing press, which, instead of solving problems due to standardisation, creates them by making people aware of the existence of different varieties of language; the publication of Shakespeare’s plays (end of the 16^th century-beginning of the 17^th)