William Caxton also wrote:
"Thereore, I, William Caxton, a symple person, have endevored me to wryte fyrst over all the said Book of Polycronycon, and sommewhat have changed the rude and old Englisshe that is to wéte, Certain words which in these days be neither usyd ne understanden."
[Printed some time after 1474/5, when he set up his first press.]
Caxton left England for Bruges in 1446 at the age of 24, and returned in 1476 when he was 54. So after spending two generations out of contact with English "as she is spoke", the changes must have been some shock! Bear in mind too that he is writing for a very small and rich audience- I suspect Tom Plowman and his kin carried on talking in their own old vernacular, far away from the thin atmosphere of the ivory towers for a few generations after.
The massive language changes might have had something to do with the Black Death, (pneumonic and bubonic plagues), which decimated Europe in the middle ages. In 1347-50 and 1360-61 and at times after, this disease carried off around a quarter of the populace, predominantly the elderly and the poor. The effects are reckoned to have been greater than a nuclear war would have now- Englands population collapsed from 3,700,000 in 1346 to 2,100,000 by 1400.
PS. I got an e-mail last week from my neice in England. It was written in 'text'[mobile phone speak]. Old tite, ere wi go agen!
Alan
edit typo
[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 01-18-2006).]
