LVOT influences

• historical influences on Old English

  -England was invaded by three Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) in the 5th century-The Germanic tribes drove the Celtic tribes towards the edge of Britain -The Celtic language was almost completely taken over by Old English - only a small number of Celtic lexis survived -Towards the end of the 8th Century, Vikings from Scandinavia invaded (their Old Norse language was absorbed into Old English)
• historical influences on Middle English

  -Normans invaded England in 1066 -French became the language of the royal court, government, and law (linked with prestige)-English survived but was mainly spoken by the lower classes (it was also heavily influenced by French)(mixture of Old English and French produced middle English)
• the great vowel shift


  (1400s - 1600s)(early modern english)-manner of articulation of vowels changed to be pronounced in the front of the mouth -often caused a chain reaction in which each shifting vowel pushed the next one forward (e.g. the 'o' in 'spot' became the 'a' in 'spat' whilst 'spat' became 'speet', etc)-not all vowels were affected-unknown for why it happened
• Renaissance


  (1400 - 1600)(early modern english)-Cultural and intellectual movement that was heavily tied to society and politics-Period of European cultural, artistic, political, and economic 'rebirth'-Promoted the rediscovery and application of classical philosophy, literature, and art - time of great social change-Introduced many loan words and bound morphemes were added to spellings to explicitly show their Latin/Greek origins (Latin was appreciated by humanists)
• Caxton's printing press


  (1476)(early modern english)-Many texts could now be mass-produced - led to a move towards standardisation of punctuation/spelling-Caxton chose the East Midlands (e.g. London) dialect to print works in - became the most prestigious form of English-Could explain why common nouns were capitalised (printing press originated in Germany where all nouns were capitalised)-May be the explanation for the use of ' in words (e.g. 'press'd') as spellings would be played around with to justify lines (make them fit orderly on the page)
• Samuel Johnson


  (1755 - prescriptivist movement)(late modern english)published the first 'recognised' English dictionary
• Robert Lowth


  (1762)(late modern english)published the first English Grammar Book (A Short Introduction to English Grammar) which laid out some rules for 'correct' usage (e.g. no double negatives, never put a preposition at the end of a sentence, no split infinitives)
• Swift & Dryden


  (1770s)(late modern english)put in places rules for capitalisation that are still used today (e.g. capitalisation of the first person singular 'I' and of proper nouns)
• first 'recognised' dictionary (year + person + English era)

  1755Samuel Johnson Late Modern English
• first English Grammar Book(year + person + English era)

  1762Robert LowthLate Modern English
• rules for capitalisation (year + people + English era)

  1770sSwift & Dryden Late Modern English
• printing press(year + person + English era)

  1476Caxton Early Modern English
• When did the Industrial Revolution begin?


  late 1700s