Establishment of the Written Standard

§ 328. Towards the end of Early NE, that is by the middle of the 17th c., one of the forms of the national literary language — its Written Standard — had probably been established. Its growth and recognition as the correct or "prestige" form of the language of writing had been brought about by the factors described in the preceding paragraphs; the economic and political unification of the country, the progress of culture and education, the flourishing of literature.

The Written Standard can be traced to definite geographical and social sources.

§ 329. As stated above (§ 303) the literary form of English used by Chaucer and his immediate successors arose from the dialect of 14th c. London, which was a mixed regional dialect combining Southern and East Midland types. In the 15th and 16th c. the speech of London became still more mixed owing to increased intermixture of the population: the capital attracted newcomers from different regions of the country. Elements of various provincial dialects were incorporated in the spoken and written forms of London speech.

§ 330. The social source of the Written Standard is a more problematic issue, H. C. Wyld, a prominent English linguist, maintains that in the course of the 15th and 16th c. the basis of the written f orm of English shifted from a regional dia­lect to largely a social one.

H. Wyld believes that the language of literature and writing in the 16th c. was identical to what could be termed "colloquial Court English", learnt either by personal experience or from books; it was a class dialect restricted to a very narrow social group — the highest nobility at the King's Court.

These views can be contested. It is true that by the end of the 16th c. social differentiation of English must have grown. Social divergencies in the language in­creased not so much owing to the growth of the population as to the new class dis­tinctions in the bourgeois society. Yet it was at that very time that people of dif­ferent ranks easily intermixed. The age of the Renaissance gave ample opportunity for individual ambition; distinguished sailors, successful merchants and manufac­turers, as well as outstanding men-of-letters came from different walks of life, 1| is known, for instance, that Christopher Marlowe was the son of a shoemaker, Ben Jonson — the son of a town clerk, William Shakespeare — the son of a trad­er in gloves from Stratford. After the Reformation education had lost its purely clerical character and was spreading to an increasing number of people. It follows that though the Written Standard originated from the speech of educated people, those educated people should not be identified with the nobility at the King's Court. The social basis of the written form of language in the early 17th c. was less restricted than that of the literary language of Caxton's day, just as its geo­graphical basis was not restricted to the city of London.

§331. The Written Standard of the early 17th c. was, however, far less stabilised and normalised than the literary standards of later ages. The writings of the Renaissance display a wide range of variation at all linguistic levels: in spelling, in the shape of grammatical forms and word-building devices, in syntactical patterns and in the choice and use of words. Variants are employed as equivalents or "near-equiva­lents" without any noticeable dialectal or stylistic connotations, al­though they may have originated from different localities, social groups or literary genres. This linguistic "freedom" is accounted for by the wide social and geographical foundations of the literary language, by the broad contacts of the literary language with folklore and oral speech, and by the increased amount of written matter produced: scientific and philosophical compositions, letters and diaries, poetry and literary prose, drama and official papers.

§ 332. The existence of a prestige form of English in Early NE, which may be regarded as a sort of Standard, is confirmed by some state­ments of contemporary scholars. The victory of English over French in the sphere of belles-lettres was already a matter of the past; but its rivalry with Latin in the sphere of science, philosophy, and didactics continued during the Renaissance period. It is noteworthy that writers used to preface their works with explanations why they chose to write in English instead of Latin. R. Ascham, the tutor of the Royal family and a well-known author of didactic books, wrote: "If any man would blame me, eyther for takynge such a matter in hande, or els for writting it in the Englysche tongue, this answere I maye make hym, that whan the beste of the realme think it honest for them to vse, I one of the meanest sorte ought not to suppose it vile for me to write" (R. Ascham, TOXOPHILUS, 1545). In books written by school-masters wefind the first references to a form of speech superior to other forms, which testifies to the recognition of a language Standard. John Hart, a phonetician and spelling reformer, looked upon Court English as the "flower" of the English tongue (ORTHOGRAPHIE, 1569); R. Puttenham recommended for the use of writers the best form of English: "the vsual speach of the Court, and that of London within IX myles and not much above" (THE ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, 1580). Incidentally, the latter definition does not restrict thebest spoken English to the form of speech used at the Court.