Early Modern English
Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle English, in the late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century.
| Early Modern English | |
|---|---|
| Shakespeare's English, King James English | |
| English | |
William Shakespeare's Sonnet 132 in the 1609 Quarto | |
| Region | England, Wales, Scottish Lowlands, Ireland and English overseas possessions |
| Era | developed into Modern English in the late 17th century |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| ISO 639-6 | emen |
| Glottolog | None |
| IETF | en-emodeng |
Before and after the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland.
The grammatical and orthographical conventions of literary English in the late 16th century and the 17th century are still very influential on modern Standard English. Most modern readers of English can understand texts written in the late phase of Early Modern English, such as the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, and they have greatly influenced Modern English.
Texts from the earlier phase of Early Modern English, such as the late-15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) and the mid-16th-century Gorboduc (1561), may present more difficulties but are still closer to Modern English grammar, lexicon and phonology than are 14th-century Middle English texts, such as the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.