The Renaissance, 1500–1650

From the specifics of the Great Vowel Shift to the broad cultural background of the Renaissance, this chapter considers the changing conditions for English in the modern period. The shifts of long vowels and the weakening of unstressed vowels to schwa set English pronunciation apart from that of French, Italian, Spanish, German, and other European languages. English did share with these languages the problems that the vernaculars faced where Latin had been supreme: the recognition of the modern language, the establishment of a more uniform orthography, and the enrichment of the vocabulary. We begin to see the actions of individual writers and scholars in treatises and in lexicography. In all of this William Shakespeare shines in borrowing and adapting new words into the language.