Early Modern English
Shakespeare and the Bible
Created many new words and phrases that we still use today
Industrialisation
Created new words unknown to us before
Amelioration
The positive change in meaning of a word
Samuel Johnson
Wrote the Dictionary of English Language in 1755
Ballet
Capitalisation
Common nouns were often capitalised
Colonialism
Brought in more borrowed words from other countries
Broadening
When a word becomes more general in its meaning
S-Curve Model
A theory by Chen about the way language becomes more common over time but eventually plateaus
Bungalow
Indian
Great Vowel Shift
The change in pronunciation that took place between 1400-1700 that creates English as we know it today
American English
America created their own simpler form of English to distinguish themselves from Britain
Neologism
The creation of a new word
Bailey
Wave Model - the theory that language spreads out from an epicenter but people right at the edges are less likely to be affected by it
Canoe
Native Americans
The long S
Long S was often used in the start or middle of words but not at the end of words (lowercase s)
Non Standard English
English which is not American or British - usually a mix of languages (creole, pidgin)
Eponyms
When something is named after the person who created it
William Labov
Substratum Theory - influence of other languages on English. Non-standard English becomes standard over time. E.g. Selfie
Desperado
Spanish
thee and thou vs you
-th at the end of verbs
Noah Webster
Wrote the American English Dictionary in 1828
Conversion
When a word changes its part of speech
Charles Hockett
Random Fluctuation Theory - Language is unstable and changes randomly
Schmuck
Yiddish/Hebrew