Early Modern English

Early Modern English (EModE^[1] or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language in the 16th and the 17th centuries, from the Tudor period to the Restoration when written and spoken English begins to be familiar to English-speakers today, who use Modern English.^[2]

Early Modern English
Shakespeare's English, King James English
English
William Shakespeare's Sonnet 132 in the 1609 Quarto
Region	England, Wales, Scottish Lowlands, Ireland and English overseas possessions
Era	developed into Modern English in the late 17th century
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Early Modern English
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Old English Middle English
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	emen
Glottolog	None
IETF	en-emodeng
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The King James Bible was translated to and William Shakespeare wrote his plays in Early Modern English. What sets Early Modern English apart from Middle English is the Great Vowel Shift, when all long vowel sounds changed to their current sounds.

Before and after the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland.