English Literature / Unit 19 ENL 1823 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Spelling, Diction and Date
Captions available
The idea
Spelling and diction help date a passage. Middle English spellings point before about fifteen hundred; thee, thou, doth and hath point before the eighteenth century; Latinate polish suggests the Augustans; plain diction of common life suggests the Romantics; colloquial speech and fragments suggest the twentieth century.
In practice
Spelling and word choice as clues.
Where people slip
Modernized texts hide old spelling.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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