Editing History of English (section)

==Early Modern English==
{{Main|Early Modern English}}
English underwent extensive sound changes during the 15th century, while its spelling conventions remained largely constant. [[Modern English]] is often dated from the [[Great Vowel Shift]], which took place mainly during the 15th century. The language was further transformed by the spread of a standardized London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardizing effect of printing, which also tended to regularize [[Capitalization in English|capitalization]]. As a result, the language acquired self-conscious terms such as "accent" and "dialect".<ref>Crystal, David. 2004. ''The Stories of English''. London: Penguin. pp. 341–343.</ref> As most [[History of printing#European movable type (1439)|early presses]] came from continental Europe, a few native English letters such as þ and ð died out. For some time ''þe'' (modern "the") was written as ''ye.'' By the time of [[William Shakespeare]] (mid 16th – early 17th century),<ref>See [[Fausto Cercignani]], ''Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.</ref> the language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published, ''[[Table Alphabeticall|A Table Alphabeticall]]''.

Increased literacy and travel facilitated the adoption of many foreign words, especially borrowings from [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]], often terms for abstract concepts not available in English.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Franklin |first1=James |date=1983 |title=Mental furniture from the philosophers |url=http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/mental.pdf |journal=Et Cetera |volume=40 |issue= |pages=177–191 |doi= |access-date=29 June 2021}}</ref> In the 17th century, Latin words were often used with their original inflections, but these eventually disappeared. As there are many words from different languages and English spelling is variable, the risk of [[mispronunciation]] is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in the [[West Country dialects|West Country]]. During the period, loan words were borrowed from Italian, German, and Yiddish. British acceptance of and resistance to [[American English|Americanisms]] began during this period.<ref>Algeo, John. 2010. ''The Origins and Development of the English Language''. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. pp. 140–141.</ref>