Early Modern English

        It was during 1500-1800 that Early Modern English begun. As one of the topic we discussed in History of English Language,I learned the following events that transpired during this era.

• Radical changes occur in the vowel sounds of English, creating most of the vowel sound we used today.
• Examples of  works during this period were  found in the plays of Shakespeare and the King James Bible.
• This was the first major period of Bible translation into the English language.
• Many words were coined or first recorded by Shakespeare,some 2,000 words and countless idioms are his.
• "One fell swoop,"vanish into thin air,"and "flesh  and blood"are all Shakespeare's. Words he bequeathed to the language include "critical," " leapfrog," "majestic," dwindle ," and "pedant." 
• The great printer William Caxton set up the first printing press in England at the end of the 15th century and with its use the language began to take the first step towards standardisation.
• Early Modern English translations are those translations ofthe Bible which were made between about 1500 and 1800.
• This was the first major period of Bible translation into the English language.
• It began with the dramatic introduction of the Tyndale Bible.
• Tyndale was the first of the Middle English translators to use the printing press to help distribute several thousand copies of this translation though out England.
• It included The Great Bible( 1539),the Geneva Bible ( 1560);the Bishop's Bible ( 1568); Douay - Rheims Bible  and the Authorized King James Version of 1611.
• The Douay-Rheims Bible was the first complete English Catholic Bible.

         These are  just some  of the important events that occurred and changed during the Early Modern English.