English, Later Modern (ca. 1700–1900)

Abstract

The first linguist to recognise ‘Late Modern English’ as a separate period in the history of English appears to be Poutsma (1914), whose A grammar of Late Modern English was effectively a synchronic study of what, to him, was present-day English. Although Wyld (1936) saw the need for a division between ‘Early Modern English’ (1400 to mid-16th century) and the later centuries, the study of Late Modern English as a coherent period is very recent. In this article, a discussion of the external history of Late Modern English will be followed by a review of major changes in morphology and syntax, phonology and lexis.