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Pronouns Early Modern English, as with most European languages, had T-V distinction. That is, there were two versions of the second person pronoun: "ye" (plural and formal singular, superseded by the accusative "you") and "thou" (accusative or casus generalis "thee", from Proto-Indo-European " Verb Verb conjugations in the "thou" form (second person informal singular) end in -(e)st (e.g. "thou takest"). In Early Modern English, third person singular conjugations end in -(e)th instead of -s (e.g. "he taketh"). Both the second person informal singular and third person singular lost their endings in the subjunctive, which utilizes the bare stem of the verb. From Middle English to Early Modern English The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of vocabulary or pronunciation changing — it was the beginning of a new era in the history of English. The introduction of printing meant that more books were produced, and more people would have had access to books. People who already read books would have read a greater number of different books, and the average literate person's vocabulary would have been enlarged. Greater political stability and prosperity led to a flowering of lasting literature, which would have helped to stabilise the language and broaden its vocabulary. Greater prosperity would also have led to more trade, with people from different parts of England coming into contact with each other. English was used in church services, making the general population more familiar with a standard version of the language, rather than the liturgy being in Latin, which was totally incomprehensible to most people. The great differences between the Middle English dialects would have started to be ironed out to some extent. An era of linguistic change in a language with large variations in dialect was replaced by a new era of a more standardised language with a richer lexicon and an established (and lasting) literature. Shakespeare's plays are familiar and comprehensible today, 400 years after they were written, but the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland, written only 200 years earlier, are considerably more difficult for the average reader. Timeline: Early Modern English From Early Modern to Modern English The 17th century was a time of political and social upheaval in England, particularly the period from about 1640 to 1660. Certain forms of pronunciation or vocabulary may have lost or gained prestige, as parts of the upper echelons of society were replaced by people from lower classes. The increase in trade around the world meant that the English port towns (and their forms of speech) would have gained in influence over the old county towns. England experienced a new period of internal peace and relative stability, encouraging the arts including literature, from around the 1690s onwards. Another important episode in the development of the English language started around 1600 — the British settlement of America. See also | ||||||||||
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