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T. K. Rabb in his paper Puritanism and the Rise of Experimental Science in England made the following observation:
"The rise of Puritanism and the rise of experimental science were the two most striking features of of English intellectual life from the mid-XVIth to the mid-XVIIth century... Since the growth of these two phenomena took place at roughly the same time, it is natural to wonder whether there was any connection between them... The notable advances made by the study of science during the years of Puritan rule seems to be a clear hint that there is a positive connection between them to be found somewhere.''[I. B. Cohen, Puritanism, p.209]

Rabb's objective was to look at Merton's thesis, which has no relationship to this paper, but the principle of the observation still holds. Major events happening at the same time deserve a close look for for possible connections.

The Scientific Revolution has been given several dates with a special emphasis on the mid to late 1600s. It is not my intention to debate the dates. I choose instead to use the broad range of the mid 1500s to the mid 1700s. H. Floris Cohen labels the late 1400s and 1500s as the Renaissance for science and the late 1500s through the 1600s a the Scientific Revolution.[H. F. Cohen p.572] Any attempt to assign exact dates is, in my opinion, doomed to failure, but there are historical events that can be identified as useful reference points. Moreover, a revolution takes place over time while conditions are put in place which freeze in time the major identifiable event(s). Following the this event, more changes are put into motion, continuing until somehow the activity of change becomes the activity of stability.

A political example would be our own revolution. One can identify the Boston Tea Party, the battle of Lexington-Concord, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, etc. There were many different events that occurred leading up to these important events, some hardly noticed at all. Eventually, our country was officially founded and the change became our normal lives. My point is that it is very difficult to pinpoint the revolution itself, but it is easy to see that a comparison of 1770 with 1780 will show that change had indeed happened.

The rise of Puritanism, the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution are all somewhat nebulous when it comes to exact dates, but we give approximate start and end dates. More importantly, we can identify dates which when compared will show that change had occurred. With this background in mind, I will introduce one more idea which has the same characteristic of nebulous beginning and dates, but for which dates can be identified that show clear differences. To paraphrase Rabb, "The rise of Early Modern English and the rise of experimental science were the two most striking features of English intellectual life from the mid-XVIth to the mid-XVIIth century...'' Languages are historical entities that change over time. They have identifiable periods that are differentiated by particular variables, for example grammar and vocabulary. There are more technical variables, but this will be enough for the moment. Moreover, this paper will be limited to English simply keep the paper from an infinite expansion, and because I feel that the English experience is unique.

The historical periods of English are roughly Old: 450-1100, Middle: 1100-1500 and Modern: 1500-present. These dates are really convenient reference points. No one started speaking Modern English on January 1, 1500 while stopping Middle English speech. The dates are identified by several criteria, including grammar and vocabulary. The interesting position in which find ourselves is that if we were transported back in time to about 1500, we would be able to read books and converse with the people of the time, albeit with some difficulty. That is a leap of almost 500 years. However, if someone of the 1500 were transported back to 1000, the same 500 years, he would not be able to do the same, because the language had changed so dramatically. Furthermore, if someone from 1500 were transported back to even 1300, he would experience significant difficulty in understanding the people who lived then because of the changes that occurred between 1300 and 1400.

My interest is in the beginning of the Modern period, especially the Early Modern period, because it parallels the time frame of the Scientific Revolution, roughly 1500 to 1700. The English language underwent significant changes in structure and vocabulary that equaled the changes in science. I do not believe it is a coincidence. Language capability is part of our brain, as is mathematical symbol manipulation. To see a surge in both areas at the same time is important. There are many features of this coincidence including publications, the use of English instead of Latin and the growth of vernacular English to support the expression of the new intellectual expression.

The Scientific Revolution is identified as the beginning of modern science in the early 17th century. The beginning and end points are still the subject of debate, but the events of the first few decades of the 17th century are identifiable and remarkable. While the causes of the revolution may be a topic of discussion the consequences are not, for the resulting changes in civilization have been dramatic.

During the same period as English was maturing, the use of Latin was diminishing. Latin was not only being replaced by the vernacular, but the vernacular was becoming more sophisticated. Latin was not growing in a linguistic sense anymore. It was not just representative of the past, it was simply not capable of supporting new literary work as well as the new science. During this period one finds a growing number of books written in the vernacular and a diminishing number written in Latin.

When the Norman Duke William subjugated England in 1066, French was imposed on the citizens through official use in governmental, judicial and military affairs. English did not begin to regain its position until 1362 when Parliament declared that since French was no longer understood by most people, English would be the official language once again. There had been a gradual deterioration of French for a very long time, as evidenced by many examples such as King Edward (1239-1307) the first king to choose English instead of French as his main language.[Stevenson p.152] During the Black Plague of 1350 so many English speaking artisans and craftsmen died, that those who survived were in great demand. This increased demand permitted their English to be viewed as somewhat more respectable.

There are several important events before 1500 that when listed together show a series of steps in the struggle for English language supremacy. These steps are mainly governmental, legal and official events that pushed English usage. In 1356 The Sheriff's Court in London and Middlesex were conducted in English for the first time. When Parliament opened in 1362 the Statute of Pleading was issued declaring English as a language of the courts as well as of Parliament, but it was not until 1413 that English became the official language of the courts everywhere. Thirteen years later in 1423, Parliament records start being written in English. 1400 marks date that English is used in writing wills, a seemingly small step, but one that impacted many people and began a legacy of record keeping in English. In 1450 English became the language used in writing town laws and finally 1489 saw all statutes written in English. But it was not until 1649 that English became the language of legal documents in place of Latin.[Baugh p.176]

The formal rules intended to keep the use of French in official capacities were not enough to combat the effects of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War between France and England, which both contributed greatly to the rise in English and fall of French. By the fourteenth century, English was again known by most people, although French was not forgotten, and the people who spoke French were generally bilingual.[Baugh p.147] The Statute of Pleading made it law that English and not French would be used in the courts. However, it needs to be emphasized that at the end of this statement, it says that after the pleadings, debates, etc. in English were finished, they should be entered and enrolled in Latin. English became the official language of the court in 1413, but French was permitted until the eighteenth century.[Baugh p.176]

More than the official bureaucratic changes in rules and law were the changes in the use of the language by the everyday speakers. The changes that distinguish Early Modern English from Middle English are substantial. The rules for spelling were set down for the first time, although most people would agree that it was not done as well as it should have been. The key is the new consistency used by teachers, printers and eventually by the general populace. The sign of maturity for English was the agreement on one set of rules replacing the spelling free-for-all that had existed.

An important linguistic change was in syntax. Syntax governs the structure of a sentence as well as the structure of verbs. Auxiliary verbs came into use, for example the use of do and have which extended the capability of expression for verbs. The subtle differences between I walk, I do walk, and I am walking are not available in many other languages. This improvement assisted English in differentiating itself from other languages. The use of do as a "helping'' verb led the way for a host of other helping verbs: be, have, can, may, will and so forth. This significant innovation set in motion a new way for verbs to be used.

English nows uses subject-verb-object (SVO), which was not always true, nor must it be true. Other languages use SOV and some do not require a particular order. These languages use words such as particles, case endings or emphasis for order selection criteria. In the year 1000, the beginning of the Middle English period, the direct object appeared before the verb in 52% of the sentences. By 1500, it appeared before the verb in only 2% of the sentences.[O'Grady p.203] The biggest change was between 1300 (40%) and 1400 (14%). The result is that today we use the sentence order established at that time. The important point was the establishment of the convention of word order that helped to structure the language for general use. The significant change in English sentences was the level of complexity with new structures to support it. Science did not so much create the complexity, but rather used the available capability.

The changes in grammar during the early modern period were more far reaching the examples given. In fact, they were so far reaching that the grammar of English has changed very little since then. What changes have happened have been slight, gradual and not significant. The English language experienced a major upheaval in grammar followed by a stability for many centuries. The changes were fundamental and powerful enough to sustain tremendous change in science, literature, technology and all other facets of human existence.

Besides grammar, an unusual change in the 1300s occurred called the Great Vowel Shift. For no obvious reason the pronunciation of most vowels changed. There is a clear pattern of how they shifted, but not why. There is also no clear benefit to the language, only that it was part of the overall, dramatic metamorphosis of English. Every known aspect of the language experienced change and growth. [Gorlach p.66]

The decline of Latin had many aspects, but it is certainly notable that the Puritans contributed because of their association of Latin with Roman Catholicism.[Gorlach p.39 Merton may have been more correct than he thought when he linked the Puritans with the Scientific Revolution. English was used generally in public schools starting in 1385, but the universities of Cambridge and Oxford held out until the reforms of the 1850s.

Latin had been the source language for the great works of past scholarship, so it was only natural that medieval scholars would learn it in order to read the works. The extension of reading into writing, lecturing and conversing was probably quite easy. The European vernaculars had not quite come into their own, with those that were advancing still looked down upon even by the people who spoke them. There was a bit of snobbery involved, since educated and polite people used Latin. The continuation of Latin in universities was merely the continuation of tradition. Universities seem to like tradition, so real energy is required to change the tradition, not to keep it. With the exception of the Catholic church, they were really the last segment of society to give up Latin as a primary language, and not without a struggle of great proportions. Today we still see the remnants of the struggle with the constant debate over the role of the Classics, the importance of the liberal arts, and the place of the core curriculum in education.

Latin was used in the studia generalia before they became universities, so usage had been well established. There were still some problems, however, when it came to enforcing the use among the students. At Oxford in 1284 there was dissension between the Warden and the Scholars because the rules of Latin conversation were habitually broken.[Maxwell p.80] This kind of activity resulted in the formal establishment of rules that required Latin to be used. The Oxford Statute of 1292 established that Latin was the language for ordinary conversation; furthermore, the practice of reading aloud at meals was confirmed.[Maxwell p.83] If one broke the rule of Latin at Oxford, he was sent to a separate table at meals and if continued, was eventually expelled.[Maxwell p.86] The century of 1200-1300 was not only the real formalization of the universities in England, but the formalization of the use of Latin. The rules were set down for all to see with consequences for those who transgressed the rules.

The changes underway showing early hints of the deterioration of the Latin's use in the universities are well stated by the following quotes from Damian Leader.

"The assigned texts for the mathematics professor were next specified in the 1549 statutes and it not change in the subsequent recodifications... The inventories indicate that many other quadrivial texts were popular as well... other frequently mentioned works include Robert Records vernacular `Arithmatike'...''[Leader p.312]

By 1520 "With these changes came an increased use of vernacular texts outside of the schools, and more use of English in the lectures themselves. English (and French) had been used in introductory Latin grammars in the Middle Ages, but the only use allowed by statute was in public sermons. Medieval scholars owned vernacular treatises, and wrote them sometimes. The Austin Friar Osborn Bokenham, D.Th. and visitor to Italy and Spain, produced many works, including English versions of Legenda aurea, and Claudian's De consolatione Stilichonis (written at Clare in 1448) as well as vernacular hagiography and a Latin treatise in astrology... Another Cambridge man, John Palsgrave of Corpus Poris, and Louvan, wrote in 1530 Les clarcissement de la langue francoyse, a pioneering achievement in the study of vernacular language.''[Leader p.306]

"By the middle of the sixteenth century,the young scholars seem to have come up with less preparation in Latin than their medieval predecessors. English was being increasingly used in lectures, as at Jesus College. William Cecil's injunctions of 1562 addressed the problem directly; the humanist professor was to `...explain and interpret the required texts in English so that he can be understood.' ''[Leader p.306]

Gresham College was founded for the use of the business class in 1579 with the stipulation that lectures would be given in English as well as in Latin. The students of this school were expected to know both languages, as well as travel to study in Italy and France, so that both of these vernaculars were learned.[Durant, 1961 p.54] The college was in London, but drew most of its faculty from the universities Oxford and Cambridge.[Mallet p.149]

The first work of philosophy in original English was 1605, by Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning. He was well aware that the curriculum of the humanities was outmoded because it was based on Latin. He also could see the future was in science, technology and the vernacular.[Bowen v3 p.72] During the 1690s the well known English philosopher John Locke published several works, in English, that espoused his views of education. An important part of this was his belief that English be taught and used. He was not against Latin and Greek, that was not yet acceptable, but he did see English as being the primary vehicle of learning.[Boyd p.276]

A turning point in the sciences came in 1654 for Oxford, when Robert Boyle was hired for chemistry. Aristotle had lost his control over science and Boyle brought Peter Stahl on board to be the first practical chemistry teacher.[Mansbridge p.230] This was a recognition of the importance of the new sciences that had been developing outside the universities, and outside the Classical view of science. Unfortunately is was not until 1803 that Oxford created a professorship of chemistry, almost one hundred and fifty years later.

One independent English scientist, Robert Hooke, published a book with a Latin title, Micrographia, but written in English in 1665. The book was remarkable work of microscopic studies. Also at Cambridge, Professor Robert Bentley published his work of Greek studies Phalaris in 1699 in English, but produced the notes to it in Latin.[Trevelyan p.234]

Joseph Priestly(1733-1804), nonconformist academic, who understood the need for vernacular English wrote Rudiments of English Grammar for schools. He was a proponent of the classics teaching Latin and Greek as well as science.[Barnard p.30] Wrote works in English The History and Present State of Electricity, 1767 and Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air, 1774. <>Of course, Sir Isaac Newton must be mentioned as a figure in the transition in the scientific use of Latin and English. The Principia was written in Latin, his Optics was in English. The Principia was published in English in 1729 by Andrew Motte, two years after Newton had died. As always, Newton was a central figure, even in the transition of language use.

The literary development a language is important for several reasons. One is that people have begun writing in their own vernacular giving written life and identity to a language. The second is the ability of a language to cope with scholarly demands. Are there words and grammar to express the ideas that scholars have? Are the mechanisms in place to develop and absorb new ideas which will come in the future? The adoption a vernacular is one way of giving a school its identity that differentiates it from the others. The value of Latin's use throughout Europe was that of a common language for scholars, in addition to making the classics accessible. This made it easy for the scholar to travel from school to school, serving as a simple method to determine an applicant's qualifications for entrance to a school. One should also acknowledge that the use of Latin in education served to keep learning from the common people, as well as keep the church at a higher level in relation to the common people.

The publishing industry was important for many reasons. Naturally the books that were published are significant in and of themselves. They mark the first time a particular idea is communicated and captured for posterity. They also show us what the historical figures were thinking as their ideas developed. Taken over time, books publishing shows how ideas developed beyond the individual. The number of books published on a topic may grow and shrink over time suggesting the acceptance or the rejection of an idea. A major event for English publishing was of course is in 1473 when William Caxton printed the first book in English. Three years later he printed the first book in England.[Crystal p.56]

Reviewing a list of 155 books that are recommended reading for moral philosophy and metaphysics for the year 1730 at Cambridge, one hundred of these title are in English.[Wordsworth p.129] Looking at the books published by Cambridge University Press starting in 1701 and proceeding annually until 1800, there is only one in ten published in English in 1701, but only one in ten published in Latin in 1800. The change is gradual and steady over the century.[Wordsworth p.396] Throughout Europe between 1445 and 1500 more than 10,000 printing offices printed 35,000 books with approximately 10,000,000 copies, mostly in Latin. By 1640, 20,000 more titles were printed in English in England alone.[Baugh p.240]

Geoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400) had produced the Canterbury Tales which is the first collection of short stories in English and William Langland(1330-1400) wrote The Vision of Piers the Plowman.[Baugh p.186] These works are the most important pieces of writing from the fourteenth century, as well as the few that can be attributed to an author. The period had many works of less consequence that were anonymous.

At the inception of the Early Modern period of English several English books appeared that should be noted. In 1522 Cuthbert Tunstall published the first book on arithmetic in England and in 1557 Robert Recorde published The Whetstone of witte, the first English algebra treatise. The first English agriculture book was printed in 1523, Book of Husbandry by Anthony Fitzherbert. The Governor in 1531 by Thomas Elyot was the first book on education in English. And in 1598 Francis Meres published Palladis Tamia with quotes of 125 English writers. The renowned Francis Bacon published his Advancement of Learning in 1605, a milestone in English publishing. John Stow's Summarie of englyshe chronicles in 1618 showed the new appreciation of English. Lastly, Shakespeare's influence began when in 1600 when Hamlet was performed for the first time and his plays were first published in 1623. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced much more than these examples, but they highlight the substantive changes that were underway. The impact was not a simple improvement of the use of a language, but fundamental shift in the basic structure of the language, earning the designation of a revolution.

Dictionaries are really a product of the early modern periods of the European languages. The European language academies were a product of the late middle period of each language, although England's attempts failed in spite of several efforts.

Dictionaries and academies were not enough by themselves to make changes, but rather these were steps in the transition, and a result of the earlier advances of language. By lifting the vernaculars up to the status of languages, they provided momentum for the ongoing transition. It should also be noted that dictionaries were mainly produced after the invention and popularization of the printing press, another force in the movement to push Latin out of education.

During this time, we find that there were debates on all fronts concerning how the European vernaculars should be formalized. There were books on grammars as well as dictionaries. The struggle over control of the purity of each vernacular was intense. The subtle issues involved separation from Latin and other developing vernaculars, especially if that particular vernacular had at one time dominated your country. The political struggle was just as important as the linguistic struggle. In England the history is marked by the dictionary of Samuel Johnson in 1755.[Baugh p.327] A long list of attempts at grammar formalization starting 1604, with many published in the 1700's, before and after the dictionary, but the only dictionaries that were available before the seventeenth century were Latin-English dictionaries.[Barber p.106]

The development of English dictionaries begins in 1532 with the first English-Latin dictionary Thesaurus linguae Latinae by Robert Estienne (Stephanus). Fifty years later in 1582 Richard Mulcaster produced his Elementaire, the finest treatise on 16th cent English spelling. John Florio published A world of wordes, an English-Italian dictionary in 1598. The beginning of English lexicography is found in 1604 when Robert Cawdrey compiled The Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words. The Dictionarium saxico-latino-anglicum was published by William Somner in 1659, followed in 1660 by James Howell's Lexicon Tetraglotten, English-French-Italian-Spanish dictionary. All of these demonstrate an increasing awareness of the importance English and other vernacular languages. English now even had a history which could be studied.

While these dictionaries were milestones in history, even more significant were Nathaniel Bailey's An universal etymological english dictionary of the english language in 1721, Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 finally, in 1765 William Ward's Grammar of the English Language. From simple English-Latin dictionaries in the 1500s came the great dictionaries and grammars in the 1700s. Without a doubt, the language suppressed by the French for 300 years and overshadowed by the scholarly, well developed Latin for even longer, had become a entity unto itself. Later it would dominate much of the world.

The codification of English came about during the Early Middle period along side the Scientific Revolution. As England, and others, were adjusting to the ideas of Galileo and Newton, they were adjusting to a language that had undergone a revolution of equal proportions. New ways of seeing the universe and new methods of mathematics (calculus and symbolic algebra) developed together with new ways of speaking and writing.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language asserts that scientific vocabulary did not significantly contribute to new vocabulary until well after the Scientific Revolution, because the language was growing in all areas. Once the language and the sciences had turned the corner, steady progressive growth took over until scientific vocabulary become the majority. The majority of vocabulary is not known by the majority of the speakers, however.[Crystal p.372]

The vocabulary increase of Early Modern English was more than the addition of new words, many words were modifications of existing words. Affixes were the most common means to change a word, for example the prefix un- added a large number of new words. Shakespeare is credited with the use of 164 new words by this prefix alone.[Barber p.256] This mechanism for creating new words is joined by numerous others prefixes and suffixes. The use of -ly to transform one part of speech (nouns, adjectives, etc) into an adverb still is a very popular method to expand expression. The flexibility for modification of words in this fashion is an example of the adaptability and maturing of the language in contrast to early stages in its history.

Looking at the other innovations used to create new words we find compounding and the use of a word without change as another part of speech. The creation of new words during the early modern period more than doubled the vocabulary of the language.[ Barber p.257] This is an extraordinary growth for any language at any time. In spite of the continued increase in vocabulary since this period, the number of words borrowed from other languages has declined compared to the number of words created from English itself. There was one great burst of vocabulary during the Early Modern period which settled into a steady state of growth, just like the Scientific Revolution.

The connection between the mind and language in the individual is well known, as the same individual's ability in mathematical symbol manipulation. High school students who wish to attend college take national, standardized tests in these two areas, as do college students who wish to attend graduate school. The validity and reliability of these "aptitude'' tests may be questioned for a number of reasons, but in general they provide a good indicator of future success. Those who do well on the tests generally do well in the next level of education, those that do poorly generally do not. The tests attempt to measure the level of development of language and mathematical skills because this also measures how well one can apply thinking to intellectual work.

I suggest that England passed through a period in which general thinking skills improved, not for everyone of course, but for enough to produce the Scientific Revolution. The first evidence is the dramatic increase in the complexity and usefulness of the English, followed by the increase in mathematical and scientific capability.

I have presented the story of how English matured, as well as the significance of the improvement. The Scientific Revolution is already known along with its significance. Together these two intellectual revolutions have shaped the modern world into what we see. The question has been asked as to why the Scientific Revolution did not happen in China or somewhere else. The answer could be found by considering the Scientific Revolution not as an isolated incident, but rather a product of a more profound revolution in intellectual capability. The language revolution was a product of the same more fundamental revolution. Both language and science made great advances in England at about the same time, each giving the appearance of individual revolutions, but perhaps they were aspects of the same true revolution.

The historical events for both are easily defensible, but causes and relationships are not. It should be elementary to see that both language and mathematics ability are fairly deep level characteristics of the human brain (or mind) and that improvements in ability at deep levels will have positive improvements in the world outside of our minds. It is also reasonably easy to accept that over the course of human history, different civilizations have reached different levels of achievement. Few early civilizations reached the level of Rome as an empire. The ancient Greek civilization reached high levels in government, architecture and philosophy. Other examples can be found of civilizations that specialized in some activity that was better than most others. Why did any of these cultures do so well in a particular area?

Whatever the answer is, I believe that England during the two centuries under discussion participated in this unknown answer, with the evidence shown mainly in language and science, the two most striking features of English intellectual life from the mid-XVIth to the mid-XVIIth century.

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