Project Update 08/05/2012 to 18/03/2013

Greetings,

Now it is time to bring you up to date with what I have been doing with regard to this project. The obvious part of this is the articles which have been published on this blog about the various aspects of Elizabethan English. What is not known is what has been happening at about the same time.

I had indicated extracting words from Saviolo's (1595) His Practice in Two Bookes, well this was merely the beginning of gaining words from the appropriate period. I had considered only using sources of significance to the overall project, thus fencing manuals, but then decided that this would not provide the rounded picture that was required, thus I expanded my search.

Following Saviolo, I extracted words from Elizabeth I (1591) Restitution of Goods Lately Taken on the Seas, which is a statement to here parliament at the time discussing the returning of some goods taken from the Spanish during the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Thus this was an official document with the appropriate language associated.

Following Elizabeth I, was Marlowe (1598) Hero and Leander, clearly a play written by Christopher Marlowe. This was in order to further round out the language this being a poetry rather than prose as the previous two had been. This also allowed for words which would not have otherwise been found.

Next it was back to the fencing manuals with di Grassi (1594) His True Art of Defence, which of little surprise is another martial arts manual from the period, and one that I was interested in previously. This once again, supplied more technical language associated with the martial arts of the period, increasing that which was gained from Saviolo. With these four sources having had words collected from them an placed in an electronic form, it was suitable to start looking at a lexicon.

With regard to each source, each was recorded with the word from the Elizabethan period along with the modern, and organised by the modern spelling. There were words of significance which were used either in a different way, or are now simply absent from the language, these were noted and their meanings discovered to form the beginning of a glossary for these different and difficult words. This collection of definitions will also be included in the lexicon.

Collecting all the words from the four sources which have been indicated above resulted in a document of some 75-pages long with approximately 6,300 lexemes. This is only from four sources. In order to cover the entire time-span of Elizabeth's reign using the current method and doing it, for the most part alone, would take too much time. The result of this was a reduction in the scope and a focus on the 1590s rather than the entire Elizabethan period.

Most recently I have started extraction from Chettle (1592) Kind-Harts Dreame. Once again the same process will follow. Words will be extracted and placed with their modern counter-parts in a book in the order found in the source. Following this they are recorded alphabetically on single leaves of paper with all records of the spelling of that word. This is then transferred to an electronic medium and any different or difficult words are recorded and their meanings found. The final step is then to add them to the lexicon. This would seem like a slow process with faults associated, but it results in two records of the words on paper, and two in electronic form. This reduces the chance of losing the data collected.

The further updates to this project will no doubt be shorter than this one, and hopefully a little more frequent.

Cheers,

Henry.

Progressive Updates: An Explanation

Greetings,

You will have noticed, if you read the earliest articles on this blog that my aim was not merely an intellectual pursuit with regard to discovering Elizabethan English. My research has always been pointed toward a more practical end. The purpose of this study has always been to learn this language in order that I would be able to produce, or re-produce as the case may be, articles using the language which has been the focus of the discovery.

From this point forward the articles for this blog will be less of the formal nature which has been presented thus far, and more an accounting of my own research into Elizabethan English and notes toward the projects which I am engaged in. The intellectual investigation lays the foundation for the further pursuit of actually producing the language in order that it can be used and brought to the light. With regard to this I have my own particular focus in achieving this end as the earlier blogs would have indicated.

For anyone who has not read my profile, I have a deep and involved interest in Historical European Martial Arts and it is for the better understanding of the manuals of the Elizabethan period that I have embarked upon this particular rather long project. My particular favourite manual is on which was written in 1595 and published in England by a fellow by the name of Vincentio Saviolo. The shortened name of this manual is His Practice in Two Books. This manual investigates the use of the rapier alone and also the rapier and dagger in a combative situation, and also contains a second part of the manual dealing with duelling, or as he would put it "honor and honorable quarrels".

While the modern reader can read this manual and get and idea of what  Saviolo is discussing, certain expressions and explanations in the text are lost on the modern reader. This is compounded by unfamiliar words and technical jargon which are an integral part of this particular art. The investigation which is presented here is designed to allow me to better understand the language in which this manual was written in order that I can reproduce the actions which are presented and gain a better understanding of the social concepts which are described.

Further to this particular project, there is another of equal, in some instances greater, significance. In this I will be taking a manual which I have written and translating this into Elizabethan English. This manual is  based on my own experiences of the use of the rapier over the past approximately twenty years, and the social conventions with regard to its use, based on various historical research into the concepts along with my own understandings of it. These manuals will be presented side-by-side in order that the reader is able to see both the Present Day English and Elizabethan English presented. This is in order that they may understand the  language better and thus have less fear of and greater access to the manuals of the period.

The updates which are presented will be of varying length, and only with the regularity of the points of significance actually found in the process of the research. This serves a two-part function in that it allows me to see how my progress is going and also allows the reader to understand the processes which I am going through in order to achieve my end.

Cheers,

Henry.

Elizabethan Dialect

Greetings,

The final part of the formal investigation of the language consists of looking at the concept of dialect with regard to Elizabethan English. While this subject is more often associated with Asian languages and the differences in dialect, it also applies very much in the investigation of Western languages as well.

Introduction

            When the discussion of dialects comes up it is often assumed that such a discussion is most appropriate for eastern languages, often with a focus on the Chinese, however it is important to note that English has its own dialects. This is the case even if the language differences are not as dramatic. The issue of dialects even is present when discussing the language from an earlier period. When discussing Elizabethan English it is important to discuss dialect as this aspect of the language is one of the developments of the language which made the language what it was.

            An overview of the dialects and concepts of dialects in Elizabethan English illustrates the differences in the language. This will present a language which is not the same all throughout the area in which English was spoken, but that there were variations in the language. The second part of the language focuses on the London dialect of Elizabethan English and how it spread and became the dominant dialect of the language and thus the foundation upon which the modern language is based.

Overview

“Alongside colourless English, there is evidence for other kinds of usage restricted to particular genres or even particular authors; and in the early modern English period there is evidence that spelling took on ideological significance.” (Mugglestone, 2006:135)

            Mugglestone (2006) is highlighting the fact that even within a particular dialect there were variations in the language depending on the author and also the audience. When examining a dialect it is important that this is a generalisation of the common elements of a language used in a particular geographic area. Indeed the concept of a dialect even belongs to the Elizabethan period, “dialect, referring to a kind of language dates from 1577, according to the OED.” (Mugglestone, 2006:214).

            This concept of dialect is important as it acknowledges the presence of variations in the language depending on geographical area and the people found within this geographical area. The differences in language are one argument that it is claimed that English as a single concept is inaccurate, “Renaissance English was ‘broken’ or divided by divergent, local forms” (Mugglestone, 2006:213). The fact that these divergent forms of the language had similar bases to the language and many common areas defines them as a single language.

            Not only could the language and the dialects be divided by the geographical area but also, especially in this period, by religion. In the sixteenth century in Scotland, with regard to the Bible, the Catholics use Older Scots, while the Protestants use the Anglicized version in English vernacular (Mugglestone, 2006:136). The significance of the audience is clearly apparent in this particular instance; the Catholics would have wanted to keep with the traditional language while the Protestants would have wanted the newer language associated not only with the new religion but also nationalistic toward both.

Penetration of Dialect

            The examination of the penetration of a dialect presents how the particular dialect of a language spread and often displaced the older dialects present. In the case of English this was also a spread based on class, the upper classes had the most modern language and this filtered to lower classes, the origin London (South England) and this then spread outward (Mugglestone, 2006:141). This is in no way and instantaneous process, but takes an extended period of time.

            The time of Shakespeare could be seen as the time in which English and the dominant dialect of the time from London should have been the time of its greatest expansion, but this is not actually the case, “language of England and lowland Scotland, but it had barely penetrated into Wales, Ireland, and the Scottish Highlands and islands” (Bryson, 2009:58). What should be noted is that while the dialect took time to spread and replace other dialects, the strength of the London Dialect was such that it would eventually dominate.

“George Puttenham noted that the English of London stretched not much more than sixty miles from the city [London]. But its influence was growing all the time.” (Bryson, 2009:52)

            London was very cosmopolitan in the Elizabethan period and was modernising all of the time. This was not just with regard to science, but also in fashion and other areas as well, including the language. As new ideas were introduced so the language had to change. The strength of this modernisation process also affected the language. The English of London went from a medieval to a modern language in a short space of time (Bryson, 2009:52). This modernisation process in the language greatly assisted its expansion.

Conclusion

            The dialect of a language is an important consideration regardless of its nationality or age. This becomes even more important for the researcher investigating the language and looking for specifics. The language of the Elizabethan period cannot be counted as being one universal language, but must take into account the dialects of the period.

            The dialect of a language affects all the important parts of the language and is not merely restricted to pronunciation and spelling of words in the language. The dialect can also affect grammar and even punctuation. In the examination of a language these effects need to be taken into account in order to attain a clear idea of the language, especially if the language is to be understood properly.
            The London Dialect or the Southern Dialect of Elizabethan English is the one which would come to dominate. In researching the language it is important that documents which are used to investigate the language not only come from the correct time period but also the same dialect. For a single author this is not so much of a problem, but over various authors this can have an effect on understanding. Changes in the meaning of words due to dialect can greatly change the meaning expressed by author or interpreted by the reader.

Bibliography

Bryson, B. (2009) Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language, Penguin Books Ltd, London, UK

Mugglestone, L. (ed) (2006) The Oxford History of English, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK