How William Caxton chose English

Most of us talk every day. Communication is a centerstone of our societies and lives. Like anything in life language itself shifts and morphs in time. We all know that old English is weird, Latin is “dead“ and that “hip words“ come and go quickly. What we often fail to realize just how fast language shifts. One particular period in time is emblematic of that: the great vowel shift of the English language. In a matter of years, the whole language was shaken to its core. Today, I want to give you a glimpse of that fascinating time by centring on the role that William Caxton played in it.

First things first: who was William Caxton? Caxton was a very successful English businessman. As a member of the Mercer‘s Guild, he lived a good part of his life in France and (modern) Belgium. But Caxton would come to our interest only in his fifties when he picked up a new trade: printing. Caxton wasn‘t the first to come to that field - Gutenberg had birthed a thriving German printing industry about fifty years before. What Caxton brought to the table was that he decided to go back to England and, most of all, to print his books in English.

This last decision was a lot more contentious than what you could expect. English, as a written language, was still in its infancy at the time. At that time, five versions of the language were still widespread: Southern, Northern, East-Midland, West-Midland and Kentish. Each had their own variations of words and not even the same number of letters in their alphabet. These languages caused a lot of problems in everyday life. One famous (probably fictional) story tells of a group of sailors that went ashore in Kent unexpectedly. One of the sailors, named Sheffield, went to a nearby village to ask for some provisions - specifically “eggys“ (eggs). The merchant retorded that he “knew no French“. After much debate, Sheffield learned that he had to ask for “eyren“ to get what he wanted.

Not only was written English not fully formed, but it was also quite unpopular in the field. Yes, it was the language of the people, but English rulers had for centuries spoken ONLY French. It was only in 1399 that Henry IV made an opening for English literature. At that time, Latin was THE written language and a mark of some prestige. Even French, the second most popular choice, was a distant second to it. Caxton saw the rise of English literature, saw the current war with France and made the keen business decision to print in English.

He put his plan into action.

In 1471 and 1472, he learnt printing in Cologne. He would return to Brugge in 1473 and print “Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye“ (Histories of Troyes) - the first book printed in English. Later, he would come back to England and print more than eighteen thousand pages in fourteen years in a printing spree that would influence the flourishing English language profoundly.

Now, as we mentioned, Caxton had a lot of hard decisions to make by printing the first English books. He had to decide which words, spelling, grammar and dialects to use. Let's explore some of the choices he made. He would use “them“ instead of “theym“. He chose “them“ and “their“ instead of “hem“ and “heir“. Without changes like these, the English language today would feel quite different. Not every change he made was a winner (to our eyes). He used “hit“ instead of “it“. His plural endings would use the formal “-eth“ instead of today‘s choice of “-es“. Sometimes, choices were so difficult that he simply gave up and adopted French words. That would include the word “Recuyell“ in the title of his first book (coming from the French “recueil“, meaning something like “collection“). We also have to consider that Caxton wasn‘t always consistent between books. For example, in 1481 “Reynard“, he used “auenture“ (adventure) but “aduenture“ in 1485 “Paris“. In the same texts, we can also oppose “faute“ and “faulte“ (fault). Moreover, sometimes he was inconsistent in one text itself. Take the modern word “default“. In “Reynard“, he used at different points three variations: “defawtes“, “defaulte“ and “deffaute“.

None of these should diminish his achievement - just prove how colossal his task was. And, broadly, he succeeded. We also have to mention that what Caxton decided to print would heavily influence the popular culture of his time. He was instrumental in making Chauncer‘s Canterbury Tales accessible and popular. The same can be said for Arthurian legend (by printing “Le Morte D‘Arthur“) and even chess in some regards (by printing “Game and Playe of the Chesse“). But most of all, he would push forward tales of chivalry of all kinds.

One last mention: the fonts he used. Caxton would use different fonts in his work. Each shares a very fascinating property: they all try to mimic written scribbles to the point (at the cost of readability sometimes). And he was good at it. Modern scholars sometimes mistake his fonts for actual written manuscripts! Why go to such an extent? Well, keep in mind that printing was still relatively new. At the time, the most common view was simple: a book that wasn‘t written by hand wasn‘t a book. Very strange view to our modern eye.

Anyway, I will close there for the day. I hope that this quick detour piqued your interest. In any case, I will see you next time.

References

Printing in England from William Caxton, https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/printing/#William%20Caxton
A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898, Henry R. Plomer.
Etymological Spellings in William Caxton‘s Translations, Yoko Iyeiri & Mitsumi Uchida, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2021.1952536