By 1400, London was the biggest city in England and speech was changing rapidly here. In fact, so much changed in pronunciation, it was even called “The Great Vowel Shift”. The Renaissance creeped into England bringing with it a renewed interest in Greek and a more liberal approach to the English language. By now, there were many different dialects and accents in England, the language was a mess. In 1662, a committee was set up to mirror the Académie Française with the French language. It worked to “improve the English language”, but failed. Then Jonathan Swift reattempted again in 1712, but when Queen Anne died in 1714, the Tories (including Swift) lost power and so this failed too.
Responses