English and Its Historical Development, Part 26
(new words for new inventions)
The Industrial Evolution, about 1750-1950
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary
Late Modern English has many more words, coming from two principal factors:
- The Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words.
- The British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and so the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.
New inventions required technical terms, many of which came from Greek and Latin
English vocabulary has been considerably influenced by the great developments in science and every field of intellectual activity in the last 200+ years.
There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.
Proceed to Part 27, new travel and communication influenced speech patterns.
INDEX or Table of Contents, English and its historical development.
References: sources of information.