1
This invention helped to standardize English spelling and made books more widely available during this period.
What is the printing press
This important playwright and poet used the English language in creative and innovative ways, influencing the vocabulary of the time.
Who is William Shakespeare?
This was a period of renewed interest in classical learning that led to the borrowing of thousands of new words into the English vocabulary.
What is the Renaissance
What was the name of the first English dictionary, published in 1604?
What is Table Alphabeticall?
Name one language that contributed many new words to English during this period, specifically in areas like law, art, and governance.
What is French?
English grammar during this period shifted from relying heavily on word endings (synthetic) to relying more on this to establish meaning (analytical).
What is word order? (Subject-Verb-Object order)
Name one major religious event that significantly impacted literacy and the use of English religious texts in this period.
What is the Reformation?
Shakespeare is known for his influence on the vocabulary of the period. Give two examples of words or phrases he coined or popularized.
They are bedroom, lonely, swagger, alligator, or similar examples from the list given?
This major historical event in 1066 led to French becoming the language of power in England.
What is the Norman Conquest?
What major disease outbreak in the 14th century helped increase the use of English, leading to its social rise?
What is the Black Death?
Give an example of a word that was borrowed into English from a non-European language during this period, thanks to exploration.
chocolate (Nahuatl/Spanish), tomato (Spanish), or similar loanword from that period?
Name a significant linguistic change in verb forms during the Early Modern English period.
simplification of verb forms, decline of inflections (e.g., holpen became helped) or standardized past tense forms
This period, marked by a massive influx of French vocabulary, the simplification of grammar, and the rise of a new literary voice, served as a crucial bridge from a highly inflected Germanic language to the more streamlined and analytic one we know today.
What is the Middle English Period?
What major linguistic family does Old English belong to?
What is the West Germanic family?
The Anglo-Saxons used what type of writing system before adopting the Latin alphabet?
What are runes?
Besides the influence of the printing press, what other major change led to the East Midlands dialect becoming the basis for Modern English?
What is the Great Vowel Shift (or the fact that it forms the basis for Modern English)
Name two significant authors (or works if the author is not named) and explain the importance of their works in Middle English literature.
Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales (for showcasing the dialect and varied social class)
Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight (for alliterative verse)?
Name a major type of Old English literature, providing an example.
What is heroic poetry (Beowulf) or religious texts (various homilies or biblical translations)
Briefly describe the difference between "strong" and "weak" verbs in Old English.
strong verbs changed vowels in the past tense (e.g., sing/sang/sung), whereas weak verbs use a dental suffix (like -ed in English) for past tense
What two areas of vocabulary in the Middle English period were primarily influenced by borrowings from Latin?
What are religion and scholarship (or science)?
Turn the sentence into modern English
Sēo mōdor lufaþ þæt cild.
The mother loves the child.
Þæt cild gǣþ.
Turn the sentence into modern English
The child goes.
Mīnne sweord ic āhōf and ic slōg þone fēond.
Turn the sentence into modern English
I raised my sword and struck the enemy.
Turn the sentence from Middle English to modern English.
"In a somer seson, whanne softe was the sonne, I sholde han journeyed and had a ful fair rout."
In the summer season, when the sun was soft, I should have journeyed and had a very fair route.
But for to speke of wommen, I shalle saye that they ben not alle of one accord, for som are wise and som are fooles.
Turn the sentence from Middle English to Modern English
But to speak of women, I shall say that they are not all of one accord, for some are wise and some are fools.