Early Modern English
Post-medieval British speech
Early Modern English is the form of English spoken and written roughly from 1500 to 1700—the language of Shakespeare, the King James Bible, and the Elizabethan era.
It sits between Middle English and the modern language, close enough to be readable today but marked by thee/thou pronouns, verb endings like *-eth* and *-est*, and unfamiliar vocabulary: Wherefore art thou Romeo?
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- Great Vowel ShiftHistorical English pronunciation change
- Globe TheatreHistoric circular London playhouse
- linguisticsScience of language structure
- thouArchaic second-person pronoun
King James Bible · Elizabethan · neologisms · prose style · word formation · sonnet · folio · Renaissance · blank verse · standardization · Tudor · Marlowe · vernacular · wherefore · courtly · parchment · forsooth · quill pen
Early Modern EnglishOld English
Germanic language of early Britain
Modern English · Anglo-Saxon · Middle English · Proto-Germanic