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Evolution of English Post Shakespeare

In: English and Literature

Submitted By jaihimatsingka
Words 758
Pages 4
16th January 2014

Berthshire living
United States of America

Mr. Shakespeare,
C/o Church of the Holy Trinity
Stratford-upon-Avon
United Kingdom

Dear Mr. Shakespeare, I wish I could say that this letter finds you in the best of health and mental faculties, which it sadly doesn’t, as it is addressed to your grave. It’s been nearly four hundred years since the literary renaissance brought about a whole new aeon of English, courtesy of you. Everything is ethereal in the face of time, but you have defied that universal law. You have managed to render yourself immortal through your plays and sonnets, which are still considered to be the finest literature ever penned down by somebody. Your literary zealotry and fanaticism with the English language has forever changed and influenced it. But, Elizabethan English has been phased out and replaced by “modern” English, which is the lingua franca of the global world in the 21st century. You may have already gotten a sniff of that while reading my letter and my diction must have baffled you. Before this letter finds you turning in your grave, I’ll try to cover as much ground as I can about the changes in English and your influence on it.

Languages are dynamic and evolving. The English language has been in constant transition throughout its history, but the most significant transformation can be accredited to Queen Elizabeth’s voracious appetite for colonizing nations, which sowed the seeds of English in the farthest reaches of the world, including America, India, Asia, Africa and Australia. This pushed English to the top of the ladder, emerging as the lingua franca of the global world. But, The English language and its diction, spellings and grammar have drastically changed since the 17th century. Words have changed meanings over time and these language evolutions have made English the way that it is today.

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