NEW KING JAMES VERSION HOLY BIBLE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Prestented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement
For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
LUCIA KURNIADI Student Number: 044214151
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
i
THE SPELLING OF EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
AS SEEN IN
THE KING JAMES VERSION 1611 HOLY BIBLE
COMPARED TO
NEW KING JAMES VERSION HOLY BIBLE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Prestented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
LUCIA KURNIADI
Student Number: 044214151
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
iv
“Those who don’t give up will win in the end”
Surely goodnes and mercie shall followe me
all the daies of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for euer
(KJV 1611, Psalm 23: 6)
YÉÜ
Ytà{xÜ? ]xáâá V{Ü|áà tÇw [ÉÄÄç fÑ|Ü|à
`Éà{xÜ `tÜç
`ç Wtwwç UxÇÇç ^âÜÇ|tw| 9 Åç `ÉÅ fÜ| fâátÇà|
`ç UxÄÉäxw f|áàxÜ TÄÉçá|t ^âÜÇ|tw|
`ç UxÄÉäxw UÜÉà{xÜ fxutáà|tÇ U|ÄÄç ^âÜÇ|tw|
v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan dii bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Lucia Kurniadi
Nomor Mahasiswa : 044214151
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
The Spelling of Early Modern English as Seen in the King James Version 1611 Holy Bible Compared to New King James Version Holy Bible
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 24 Maret 2009
Yang menyatakan
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Jesus Christ for His kindness, so that I finally completed the thesis
writing.
There are a lot of people who have guided, supported and helped me in
completing this thesis writing. Therefore, I would like to thank:
1. Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A as the advisor for guiding and giving a lot of
advises so that I finally complete this research.
2. J. Harris Hermansyah S., S.S., M.Hum as the reader for giving suggestions
and advises.
3. All lecturers of English Letters study Programme of Sanata Dharma
University, and Mbak Ninik.
4. My parents Benny Kurniadi and Sri Susanti, my beloved sister Aloysia
Kurniadi, my beloved brother Sebastian Billy Kurniadi, uncles and aunties,
and all of my cousins.
5. My friends Kiki, Dinda, Vonny, Theo, Hartati, Steven, Frans, Shendy.
6. My best friends Karisma Kurniawan, Yohanes Krisostomos, Ardi Nugroho,
Reena Rai, Wahyu Puspita Sari, Scholastika Ardianita, Hilda Dina Santoja,
Nur Indah, Vina Christiana, Prawira Atmaja.
I realize that this thesis has not been perfect yet. Therefore, the criticisms and
suggestions from whoever read this thesis are welcome. May God bless all of those
who have helped me throughout my study.
vii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii
ABSTRACT ... ix
ABSTRAK ... x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Problem Formulation ... 2
C. Objectives of the Study ... 3
D. Benefit of the Study ... 3
E. Definition of Terms ... 3
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 5
A. Review of Related Theories ... 5
1. English Modern English Problem ... 5
2. Spelling of Early Modern English ... 7
3. The English Alphabets ... 10
4. Classical Latin Spelling ... 11
5. History of the Holy Bible in English ... 12
6. The Sound System of English ... 14
B. Theoretical Framework ... 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 18
viii
E. The Doubled Letter ... 43
F. Grammar Shift ... 46
G. The Compound Differences ... 47
H. Negative Morpheme Shift ... 49
I. The Singled Letter... 49
J. Word Adaptation... 52
K. Letter Shift ... 52
L. Misspelling... 76
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 77
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 79
APPENDICCES... 80
ix
ABSTRACT
LUCIA KURNIADI. The Spelling of Early Modern English as Seen in the King
James Version 1611 Holy Bible Compared to New King James Version Holy
Bible. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2009.
Before the Renaissance, England used French as its national language and English became the language of low-class people. However, after the Renaissance era, English became popular because the nobles tried using it to communicate with their people. Different from the Old English and Middle English, the early version of Modern English looks much simpler for us. The inflection system is reduced, as well as the gender. However, there is no particular rule about how to spell the words. Every author had his own spelling. Therefore, we can know who the author of a book is just from the spelling.
The purposes of this study are first to identify the spelling of the King James Version 1611 Holy Bible and second to understand the extent of its difference from Modern English. Therefore, there are one problem that is discussed namely how the spelling of Early Modern English is different from Modern English.
In this study I conducted a desk research which means that this study is done based on the theories from many sources and also the data from the King James Version 1611 Holy Bible especially the Gospel of Luke. Then, I compared it with the
New King James Version Holy Bible to know the differences
Based on the research result, there are many differences between the King James Version 1611 and the New King James Version. The differences are the letter addition 2.4%, the apostrophe ‘s addition 1%, the change of consonant orders 0.02%, letter deletion 40.8%, doubled letters 2.7%, grammar shifts 0.06%, compound differences 1.7%, negative morpheme shifts 0.04%, singled letters 8.6%, word adaptation 0.06%, the letter shifts 42.48%, and misspellings 0.1%.
x
ABSTRAK
LUCIA KURNIADI. The Spelling of Early Modern English as Seen in the
King James Version 1611 Holy Bible Compared to New King James Version Holy
Bible. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2009.
Sebelum Renaisans, Inggris menggunakan bahasa Prancis sebagai bahasa nasionalnya dan bahasa Inggris menjadi bahasa untuk rakyat jelata. Akan tetapi setelah zaman Renaisans bahasa Inggris menjadi kembali terkenal karena para bangsawan menggunakannya untuk berkomunikasi dengan rakyat mereka. Berbeda dengan Inggris Kuno dan Inggris Pertengahan, versi awal Inggris Modern tampak sangatlah sederhana bagi kita. Sistem infleksi dan gender dikurangi. Bagaimanapun juga, tidak ada rumus umum untuk cara penulisan suatu kata. Setiap penulis mempunyai cara penulisannya sendiri. Oleh karena itu, kita dapat mengetahui penulis suatu buku dari cara penulisannya
Tujuan penelitian ini yang pertama adalah untuk mengidentifikasi cara penulisan King James Version 1611 Holy Bible dan yang kedua adalah untuk mengetahui sampai sejauh mana perbedaannya dengan Inggris Modern. Oleh karena itu, ada satu masalah yang didiskusikan yaitu bagaimana cara penulisan Inggris Modern Awal berbeda dengan Inggris Modern.
Dalam studi ini saya menggunakan metode penelitian kepustakaan yang berarti bahwa penelitian ini dilakukan berdasarkan teori-teori dari berbagai sumber dan data diperoleh dari King James Version 1611 Holy Bible terutama Injil Lukas. Kemudian saya membandingkannya dengan New King James Version Holy Bible
untuk mengetahui perbedaannya.
1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Cable and Baugh (1978: 113-116) said that before the renaissance, England
used French as its national language and English became the language of low-class
people. However, after the renaissance era, English became popular again because the
nobles tried using it to communicate with their people. Different from the Old
English and Middle English, the early version of Modern English is much simpler.
The inflection system is reduced, as well as the gender. However, there is no
particular rule about how to spell the words. Every author had his own spelling.
Therefore, we can know who the author of a book is just from the spelling.
Basically, English used to be written as it sounded. However, people spoke
different varieties of English. A good example of an early Modern English text is
King James Holy Bible. It was translated from Latin by 54 experts in 1607 and
published in 1611. However, now, King James Holy Bible has been revised into
Modern English standard spelling but it still uses some archaic words such as thy, and
thou. Actually, early Modern English words are quite the same as today Modern
English. However, as I said before, because there was no standardization of spelling,
authors had their own spelling.
The reason why I have chosen this topic as my topic is that if I would like to
find texts of early Modern English is much easier than to find the Old English and
the Middle English ones. Different from Old English which is more like German,
early Modern English, of course, is more like today Modern English but it is still
different. The third reason is that King James Holy Bible is a very good sample text
of early Modern English and a very famous book that has many versions. Therefore,
if I wish to know about the history of English language, I should choose the Holy
Bible.
The next point is that I agree that there is no standardization of
spelling in the early Modern English. However, it does not mean that every author
has exactly different spelling.
I limit my study just in the spelling of the Early Modern English. In addition, I
also only take King James Bible which was translated at 1611 as my focus of the
study. Moreover, I chose the Gospel of Luke in random.
B. Problem Formulation
To guide the progress of this study, one research problems have been
formulated as follows:
C. Objectives of the Study
There are two objectives of this study. The first one is to identify the spelling
of the original version of King James Version Holy Bible. The second one is to
understand the extent of its difference from Modern English.
D. Benefit of the Study
There are two benefits of this study. The first benefit of this study is that the
reader knows more about the Early Modern English spelling. The second one is that
the reader can learn more about the history of English language.
E. Definition of Term
These following are the definitions of the technical terms that are used in this
study.
1. According to Cable and Baugh (1978: 199), Early Modern English is the English
language used around 1500-1600. It was also known as the Renaissance. It was
used in the end of Middle English to the beginning of Modern English.
2. According to Cable and Baugh (1978: 2-3), Modern English is the variety of
English language that we use today. It is used from the end of 15th century to now.
It is a living language that constantly changing.
3. According to Fromkin and Rodman (2003: 562-563), a spelling system is the
representation of the spoken language. The spelling of most English words today
4. In Menyingkap Alkitab (2005: 8), the King James Bible is an English holy bible
published to replace the Geneva Bible. It was also known as the Authorized
Version. The New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus (Received
Text) edition of the Greek texts while the Old Testament was translated from the
Masoretic Hebrew text and the Apocrypha was translated from the Greek
Septuagint. It was translated by 54 experts in 1607 and published in 1611. It was
named as the King James Bible because King James I was the main supporter of
this holy bible. In 1982, it was revised and known as the New King James
5
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Theories
1. Early Modern English problem
Baugh and Cable (1978: 201-216) said that different from Middle English
period that had revolutionary changes in grammar but not so great changes in
vocabulary, the early Modern English was a period when English just had slight
changes in grammar but the changes in vocabulary was very extensive. In that
time, the same as the other language in the European countries, English also faced
three problems. The first one is recognition in the field where Latin had been
supreme for centuries. The second one is the establishment of a more uniform
spelling. The last one is the enrichment of the vocabulary so it can fulfill the
demands for wider use.
First, recognition was a very hard problem at that time. Although English had
become the language of popular literature, Latin was still used in all fields of
knowledge. However, finally the demands were met after some scholar said that
they would rather use English than Latin. Translations literally poured from the
press in the course of sixteenth century. Many ancient works in Latin and Greek
Second, spelling in the sixteenth century was a real important discussion. The
problem is there is no accepted spelling for everyone. In short, it was neither
phonetic nor fixed. Although some people saw it as a chaotic, actually the
spelling of English was not as bad as that. There were limit to its variety and
inconsistency. Every author had his own consistent spelling. Some authors tried
to publish their books of spelling but it was not popular. However, finally Richard
Mulcaster and Dr. Johnson could make books of spelling which could be accepted
in common society.
The last, since the scholar monopoly Latin language throughout the Middle
Ages, the vernacular was untouched. In the Early Modern English time, when the
monopoly was broken, the deficiencies of English was seen at the same time.
English had not enough vocabulary to replace the classical language in expressing
thought from many fields. Therefore, translators of foreign books such as Latin,
French, and Italian books, borrowed some words and adapted them into English.
Crystal (2003: 56-57) said in his book the Cambridge Encyclopedia of The
English Language that there is no consensus about when the Early Modern
English period begins. Some people choose for the early date, 1400-1450, just
after Chaucer and the beginning of pronunciation shift. The others choose for a
late date, around 1500, after the printing revolution. In this period, the spelling
was unstable. It is not until nearly a century later that there is a uniformity in the
2. Spelling of Early Modern English
Fromkin and Rodman (2003: 562-563) said that writing does not represent the
spoken language perfectly, though it supposes to do that. Therefore, spelling
reform, in fact, is necessary. The irregularities between letters and phonemes is
one of unsolved problem until today. Different spelling for the same sounds,
silent letters, and missing letters also are the reasons that English needs a new
orthographic system, as seen in the table below:
Table 1: The irregularities of the English orthographic system
Same sound,
The spelling of most English words today is based on the spoken English in
the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries because when the printing press was
introduced in the fifteenth century, the scholars realized that there was a need for
those times saw that to spell the same word consistently was unnecessary. For
example in Shakespeare’s plays, he spelled the first person singular pronoun as I, ay,
and aye. However, the scholars changed the spelling of English words based on their
etymologies. Therefore, where Latin had a b, they added a b even if it was
pronounced such as debt.
Crystal (2003: 66-68) also mentioned that even a generation after Caxton, the
English system remained in a highly inconsistent state although there were clear signs
of standardization. This can be seen even within the work of an individual printer or
author. Caxton, for example, in a single passage has both booke and boke (book), and
axyd and axed (asked). The printers were blamed because many of them were
foreigners and they were uncertain of orthographic traditions in English.
Later, Mulcaster published his Elementarie at the end of 16th century. It
provided a table listing of recommended spelling for nearly 9000 words. Vowels
especially came to be spelled in a more predictable way. There was increased use of
double-vowel (as in soon) or a silent –e (as in name) to mark length; and a doubled
consonant within a word became a more predictable sign of a preceding short vowel
(sitting) – though there continued to be some uncertainty over what should happen at
the end of the word (bed, and glad, but well, and glasse). In the 1630s, the use of u
and v was standardized. V was representing a consonant while u was representing a
vowel. These symbols were at first interchangeable, and then positionally
distinguished (with v used initially and u medially in a word). A similar
In 16th century, people began to use a capital letter at the beginning of every
sentence, proper name, and important common noun. By the early 17th century, the
practice had extended to titles (Sir), forms of address (Mistris) and personified nouns
(Nature). Emphasized words and phrases would also attract a capital.
According to Dent (2003: xxxiii-xxxv) In Early Modern English era, the most
common punctuation were the virgule (/), the period (.), and the colon (:). In Caxton,
the virgule had the function of modern comma, period, or semi colon; it fell out of
use in the 16th century, and was largely replace by the comma.
In the Early Modern English, there was no orthographic distinction between
simple plural and either singular possessive or plural possessive. Therefore, the words
sisters, sisters’, sister’s were spelled the same, sisters.
In the Early Modern English, sometimes two different words were spelled the
same such as tide which can mean either tide or tied. However, some words also
interchangeable such as travail which is now spelled as travel and travel that is
spelled travail now.
3. The English Alphabet
The following is the description of the development of the English
alphabet according to Crystal (2003: 258-264). The letter-shapes of the modern
alphabet in most cases are part of an alphabetic tradition which is over 3000 years
old. Old English was first written in the runic alphabet, but the arrival of Christian
letters, those are the character a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, x, y,
and z. They were applied to the Old English sound system in a systematic way.
After the Norman Conquest, there was a new letter, w. To this alphabet of 24
letters were added, from the Modern English era, v and j, respectively
distinguished from u and i, with which they had previously interchangeable. The
result is the 26-letter alphabet known today.
The letter i was a consonant in the Semitic alphabet, represented a vowel
in Greek, and came into Latin with both vowel and consonant values.
The history of the letter j in English dates only from the medieval period.
Originally a graphic variant of i, it gradually came to replace i whenever that
letter represented a consonant, as in major and jewel.
The ancestor of the letter u is to be found in the Semitic alphabet,
eventually emerging in Latin as a v used for both consonant and vowel. In Middle
English, both v and u appear variously as consonant and vowel, in some scribal
practice v being found initially and u medially. This eventually led to v being
reserved for a consonant and u for the vowel, though it was not until the late 17th
century that this distinction became standard.
The letter y is a Greek adaptation of a Semitic symbol, representing a high
front rounded vowel. In Roman times, it was borrowed to help transcribe Greek
4. Classical Latin Spelling
According to Fromkin and Rodman (2003: 563), the spelling reformers
saw the need for consistent spelling that correctly reflected the pronunciation of
words. However, many scholars, authors, and translators become overzealous.
Because of their reverence for Classical Greek and Latin, they changed the
spelling of English words to conform their etymologies. Therefore, in Early
Modern English many words borrowed from Latin were spelled according to their
Latin spelling. For example is the silent b in the word debt. The word debt comes
from the Latin word debita. Therefore, Early Modern English people spelled it as
debt although the b is silent.
However, classical Latin is different from today Latin. In some old text
that is found in Israel, the Romans considered v and u as one letter as Evans wrote
in his book Fabricating Jesus. For note, the letters inside the square brackets are
the letters that is restored by the archeologist.
Table 2: The examples of Classical Latin
Classical Latin Modern Latin Translation [NAVTI]S TIBERIVM Nautis Tiberium Tiberium’s
shipmen [PON]TIVS PILATVS Pontius Pilatus Pontius Pilate [PRAEF]ECTVS
IVDA[EA]E
Praefectus Iudaeae
Judea Prefect
5. History of the Holy Bible in English
In Menyingkap Alkitab (2005: 6-8), it is said that because of the Pope’s will,
Jerome, a scientist, translated the Old Testament (in Hebrew) into Latin in
383-405 A.D. The translation was called Vulgate (means common or usual). Vulgate
became the standard text for more than 1000 years in the Roman Catholic Church.
When it came to England, Vulgate was translated into Old English, that was
called as Bede’s Bible, although it was not the standard text in the Church since
the Church forbade people to translate the Holy Bible into local languages to
avoid misinterpretation.
Then, in 1384 Wycliffe’s Bible was published followed by Tyndale’s New
Testament in 1525. The first English standard bible is the Great Bible. Like its
name, the Bible was in the very big size. Therefore, the Geneva Bible was
published in 1560 for the common people in Britain. In 1568, eight bishops
revised the Great Bible. This revision was called as the Bishop’s Bible. Although
it is not very popular, this Bible was accepted by the people as the substitute of
the Great Bible because of the authority of the Church and the government.
The next version is The King James Bible or Authorized Version. This bible
was used to replace the Geneva Bible. The translation was started in 1607 by 54
experts that were divided into six ‘companies’, each working on a separate section
of the Bible. The preliminary version took four years, and the final revision a
further nine months, and finally in 1611, this Bible was published as Authorized
because King James I become the main supporter. This Bible immediately
became the Great Britain Holy Bible.
It has been estimated that about 80% of the text of the Authorized Version
shows the influence of Tyndale’s New Testament which was published in 1525,
revised in 1534, and known as the first English vernacular text to be printed. For
example the two passages of Matthew 5:1-10 below is almost identical. However,
there was a development of spelling there.
Table 3: The Comparison between Tyndale’s New Testament and Authorized Version in spelling.
Tyndale Authorized Version
1 When he sawe the people, he went vp into a mountayne, and when he was set, his disciples came to hym,
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went vp into a mountaine: and when he was set, his disciples came vnto him 2 and he opened hys mouthe, and
taught them sayinge:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the povre in sprete: for theirs is the kyngdome of heven.
3 Blessed are the poore in spirit: for theirs is the kingdome of heauen. 4 Blessed are they that morne: for
they shalbe conforted
4 Blessed are they that mourne: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meke: for they shall inheret the erth.
5 Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which honger and thurst for rightewesnes: for they shalbe filled.
6 Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the mercifull: for they shall obteyne mercy.
7 Blessed are the mercifull: for they shall obtaine mercie.
8 Blessed are the pure in herte: for they shall se God.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shalbe called the children of God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall bee called the children of God.
persecucion for rightwesnes sake: for theirs ys the kyngdome of heuen.
persecuted for righteousnesse sake: for theirs is the kingdome of heauen. (Crystal, p. 59)
In the Modern English, there are New English Bible which was published
in 1970, Good News Bible that was published in 1976, and New International
Version which was published in 1979. In addition, in 1982, the King James
Version was revised and published as New King James Version.
6. The sound system of English
According to Crystal (2003: 236-243) when the alphabet of English was first
devised, its letters were based on the nature of the sounds in the Old English.
However, there are differences between the written language and the spoken
language. In the English alphabet, there are five vowels (A, E, I, O, U). In fact,
there are about 20 vowels in most accents of English. In the table below are the
vowels that are introduced by the British phonetician A. C. Gimson .
The, butter, sofa, about ə Ape, waist, they, say eɪ Time, cry, die, high aɪ Boy, toy, noise, voice ɔɪ So, road, toe, know əʊ Out, house, how, found aʊ, ɑʊ Deer, here, fierce, near ɪə Care, air, bare, bear eə Poor, sure, tour, lure ʊə (Crystal, p. 237)
If we look at the table above, there are twelve pure vowel. It is evident that five of
them are relatively long and the other seven are relatively short. The contrast
between long and short vowel is not just one of length (quantity) but also the
different place of articulation (quality). This is why Gimson, in his transcription
gives different symbols to these pairs of vowel (/i:/ vs /ɪ/,etc.). Length-wise, the
diphthongs are like long vowels, but the first part of the diphthong in English is
much longer and louder than the second.
On the other hand, the different between consonants in the English alphabets
and sound system is less significant. There are 21 consonant letters in the written
alphabet and there are 24 consonant sounds in most English accents. However,
because of the erratic history of English spelling, in several cases, one consonant
sound is spelled by more than one letter or one consonant letter symbolizes more
than one sound. In the table below are the consonants introduced by A. C.
Gimson
Table 5: The list of consonants in the English sound system introduced by
The writing system is the representation of the spoken language. To reduce
the spoken language into the written one, spelling is needed. The spoken language
develops more rapidly than the written one because writing is permanent while
English in order to know more about the history of English language and its problems
to answer my first question, what the spelling of Early Modern English is like as seen
in the King James Version 1611.
The writing system and the alphabet have a close relationship with each other.
To learn the spelling of Early Modern English, of course, I must also learn what kind
of alphabet which that era had. In addition, it also helps me to answer my first and
second question, how it is different from Modern English.
Before the renaissance era, the official language for education and printed
books were Latin. Many people were influenced by Latin especially scholars, authors
and translators. Therefore, whenever they had to decide the spelling themselves, they
used some of Latin spellings. In this respect, learning Classical Latin is useful to
answer my first question.
Every result has a cause. So does the differences between the spelling of the
Authorized Version and the New King James Bible. In order to understand it, we must
look back to the history of holy bible. Therefore, learning the history of the
Authorized Version is necessary. It is also useful to answer my first question since the
data come from the Holy Bible.
The writing system and the sound system is related each other. Therefore, I
18
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
My object of the study is the spelling of Early Modern English. According to
Cable and Baugh (1978: 199) the Early Modern English is the period of the English
language between the end of Middle English (the second half of 15th century) to the
beginning of Modern English. However, I just take the spelling because at that time
the spelling had not standardized yet. I would like to know what the spelling of Early
Modern English period like and how it is different from Modern English spelling.
I obtained the data from King James Version Holy Bible. King James Version
Holy Bible was translated in 1611 by 54 experts that worked in the 6 different groups.
Therefore, King James Version Holy Bible was included in the Early Modern English
period. In 1982, it was revised and published as the New King James Version and is
still used until now. It is a very famous Holy Bible which has become the source of
translation of the other Holy Bible in many languages. I retrieved King James Version
Holy Bible from <www.e-sword.net> that was published by Rick Meyer in January
2000.
B. Method of the Study
My research is a desk research. I took my primary data from King James
the differences of the spelling of King James Version 1611 by comparing it with the
New King James Version.
C. Research Procedure
1. Gathering the data
I took the primary data, King James Version 1611 and also some other Holy
Bibles such as Latin Vulgate Bible, and New King James Version. I needed those
Bibles to help my analysis.
Firstly, I read the King James Version 1611, and then if I found a word in the
Bible which had different spelling from Modern English standard spelling, I
looked for that word in the other Bibles that I had mention before.
2. Gathering the theories
The first step to gather the theories was thinking what theories that I needed.
After that, I went to the library or searched in the internet the theories that I had
thought about. After I got the theories, I filtered them. I took the fit ones with my
analysis and kept the others in order to make me easier if one of the unfit theories
actually was a theory that I needed in my analysis.
After that, I put them in a list to help my analysis later.
3. Analysis
In the first step of my analysis, I checked my list of differences that I made
when I was gathering the data. After that, based on the theory of Early Modern
Classical Latin Spelling, the History of the Holy Bible in English, the Sound
System of English, I made my analysis to describe the differences between the
Early Modern English and the Modern English to answer my first problem how
the spelling of the Early Modern English is different from the spelling of Modern
English. The last step was identifying the pattern of the spelling of the Early
Modern English to answer my second problem what the spelling of Early Modern
English is like as seen in King James Version 1611 Holy Bible.
4. Conclusion
After I had done with the analysis, I made the conclusion of my analysis.
5. Writing the thesis
After all of those steps above had been done, I started to write my thesis in
21
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
According Menyingkap Alkitab (2005: 8), the Authorized Version Holy Bible
or well known as the King James Version was translated in 1607 by 54 experts who
were grouped into six sections. Each section translated some bibles. It was published
in 1611 to replace the Geneva Bible. The King James Version was translated from
Septuagint. However, it was influenced by Tyndale’s New Testament. The King
James Version is a great text of the Early Modern English. Due to the time of the
translation, of course, there are differences between the English of the King James
Version and today’s English because the spelling at that time was unstable. Fromkin
and Rodman said that every author had his own spelling. Not only that, but
sometimes an author wrote a word differently such as Shakespeare who wrote the
first singular pronoun as I, ay, and aye (2003: 563). There are so many differences in
spelling that the Church had to revise it in order to be able to be read by people
nowadays. This revision is called as the New King James Version. What I analyzed
here were the differences of the Early Modern English spelling from the Modern
English one based on the King James Version especially the Gospel of Luke. I have
two problems. They are how the spelling of Early Modern English is different from
Modern English and what the spelling of Early Modern English is like as seen in
After I collected the data, I found that there are many differences between the
King James Version 1611 and the New King James Version. The differences are the
letter addition 2.4%, the apostrophe ‘s addition 1%, the change of consonant orders
0.02%, letter deletion 40.8%, doubled letters 2.7%, grammar shifts 0.06%, compound
differences 1.7%, negative morpheme shifts 0.04%, singled letters 8.6%, word
adaptation 0.06%, the letter shifts 42.48%, and misspellings 0.1%.
To explain the differences between the Early Modern English and Modern
English, I used the italic letter. For example a to explain the letter a.
A. The Letter Addition
The letter addition means a letter which did not exist in the King James
Version 1611 but existed in the New King James Version. There are many kinds
of letter addition that build the differences list of the King James Version 1611
and the New King James Version although the total of the letter addition is just
2.5%. They are the addition of the character a, b, c, d, e, g, h, i, m, p, t, u. The
most common of the letter addition is the addition of the e. Now, I will discuss it
from the a.
1. The addition of a
The addition of a usually used in the Latin name of people such as in table 1:
Table 1: The addition of a before e in the Latin names of people
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. Alpheus Alphaeus
2. Cesar Caesar
In the table above, a is added before e although the pronunciation is the same.
However, the addition of a not only in the Latin names of people but also the Latin
names of places such as Iudea in the King James Version 1611 which is spelled as
Judaea in the New King James Version. The same as the one for people, a is added
before e.
The character a is also added after o in some Latin based verbs such as in the
table 2:
Table 2: The addition of a after o in Latin based verbs
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. approceth approacheth
2. fometh foameth
3. reproch reproach
The addition of a after e is also used in some foreign origin verbs including
Latin as such as in the table 3:
Table 3: The addition of the character a after the character e in foreign origin verbs including Latin
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. clensed cleansed
2. vnleuened unleavened
In the table 3, both of them undergo the addition of a after e. However, not only the
verbs but also the noun such as years in the New King James Version was spelled as
yeres in the King James Version 1611.
The last kind of the addition of a is the addition in the initial position. Look at
Table 4: The addition of the character a in the initial position
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. Rose arose
2. Ware aware
The characteristic of this kind of addition of a is that actually without a is added the
verbs already have meaning and add a change its meaning from doing something
without the outsider influence into doing something because of the outsider influence
for example the sentence you rose from a chair means you got up from a chair by
yourself while the sentence the problem arose means there was something that make
the problem .
2. The addition of b
The b which is added here is the silent b. According to Fromkin and Rodman
(2003:563), the reason why the silent b is added in the spelling is because the
scholars made the standard spelling based on the etymology. Before that, the spelling
of those words with the silent b based on their pronunciation. Look at the table below:
Table 5: The addition of the silent b
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. climed climbed
2. crummes crumbs
3. detters debtors
In the table above, the King James Version 1611 did not use the silent b because there
is no b in the pronunciation of those words while the New King James Version uses b
3. The addition of c
The same as point number 2, the c which is added here is the silent c. It is
usually added before k such as in the table below:
Table 6: The addition of c
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. striken stricken
2. stroke struck
In the table above, striken is spelled as stricken in the New King James Version and
stroke is spelled as struck in the New King James Version. How o is replaced by u
will be explained in the letter shifts o to u.
4. The addition of d
There was just one word that underwent the addition of d in the Gospel of
Luke. That is kinred. In the New King James Version, it is spelled as kindred.
5. The addition of e
There are many kinds of addition of e. However, the most common one is the
addition before r. For example in the table 7:
Table 7: The addition of e before r
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. entreth entereth
2. cumbred cumbered
3. ministred ministered
In the table 7 above, in King James version 1611, before r there is not any e, but then
in the New King James Version, e is added there. The reason is that the translators of
pronounced as [ə]. Therefore, they omitted the e. However, after the spelling is
standardized, people choose to spell the weak e to conform the infinitive of those
words. Because of that, in the New King James Version enter + eth is spelled as
entereth instead of entreth.
With the same reason as the one before r, the addition of e before n occurred.
Therefore, in the New King James Version straiten + -ed is spelled as straitened
instead of straitned as in King James Version 1611.
The third form of the addition of e is the one after n. A little bit different with
the previous forms, the reason why in the King James Version 1611 it has been
omitted is because there is no need to keep the e since it does not change the
pronunciation. However, in the Modern English, to conform it with the stem, the
word line + -age is spelled as lineage although line in the lineage is pronounced
differently from the word line.
The last form of the addition of e is the one after w in the word ought in the
King James Version 1611 that become owed in the New King James Version. Those
two words seems very different but since in the Early Modern English people did not
standardize the spelling of a word, it was normal that the spelling was
pronunciation-based. However, when English was standardized, the ou became ow since there was a
need of a consonant in a more than one letter word, gh was deleted since it was silent,
e was added since there is no word that consisted 2 letters and ended in w, and t was
6. The addition of h
The letter h is usually added after t in the ordinal number. Look at table 8 :
Table 8: The addition of h in the ordinal number
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. eight eighth
2. sixt Sixth
Although in the first example it is written as eight, the cardinal number, actually from
the grammar it is an ordinal number. The eight here actually has the same form with
second example sixt. However, because eight is ended with t, the ordinal and the
cardinal form are the same. The original verse is like this:
And it came to passe that on the eight day they came to circumcise the childe, and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. (King James Version 1611, Luke 1:59)
In the word day there is not in the plural form because eight is an ordinal number
instead of cardinal number. If it is a cardinal number, it will be the eight days instead
of the eight day.
7. The addition of i
There was just one word that underwent the addition of i in the Gospel of
Luke. That is surfetting. In the New King James Version, it is spelled as surfeiting.
8. The addition of m
In the Gospel of Luke there was just one word which underwent the addition
of m. It was fro. In the New King James Version, it is spelled as from. Actually fro
the phrase like to and fro which has the meaning to and from as stated in the Noah
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.
Fro, adv. [In some languages it is a prefix, having the force of a negative.]
From; away; back or backward; as in the phrase, to and fro, that is, to and from, forward or toward and backward, hither and thither.
9. The addition of p
There was just a word in the Gospel of Luke that underwent the addition of p.
That was receit. Now, in the New King James Version, it is spelled as receipt. The p
there is the silent p. The reason why the scholars gave the addition of p in receit was
because the Latin word of receit is receptus. Therefore, although the p there is the
silent one, it is added to conform the etymology because the scholars who
standardized the English language tended to conform the etymology rather than the
pronunciation.
10.The addition of t
There were two version of how to spell midst in the King James Version 1611.
Those were middes and mids. However, the one which was more popular was mids.
However, t is added after s for both of them.
11. The addition of u
Usually, u is added after a vowel. Look at the table 10:
Table 10: The addition of u after a vowel
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. lanch launch
In the first example above, u is added after a and in the second example u is added
after o. However, there is an exception. For the word ghest-chamber, the addition of u
is after h instead of the vowel. In the New King James Version, it is spelled as
guestchamber.
B. The apostrophe ‘s addition
According to Dent (2003: xxxiii-xxxv), in Early Modern English there were
no orthographic distinction between simple plural, singular possessive or plural
possessive. It is because there had not been any apostrophe ‘s addition yet. Therefore,
sisters, sister’s, and sisters’ were spelled the same, sisters. Look at the table below:
Table 11: The apostrophe ‘s addition
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version 1. centurions centurion’s
2. Dauids David’s
In table 11, the genitive s is spelled without the apostrophe. It is because in the Early
Modern English apostrophe was not commonly used.
C. Change of Consonant Orders
Some of Early Modern English words had different letter order from the
Modern English one. In the Gospel of Luke, I found one of them that is cattle which
was spelled as cattell in King James Version 1611. It is because the translators of
D. Letter Deletion
Letter deletion means a letter which existed in the King James Version 1611
but did not exist anymore in the New King James Version. The letter deletion has the
second greatest portion of the difference of spelling between the King James Version
1611 and the New King James Version. That is 40.8%. It also has the most common
difference of spelling, that is the deletion of e. There are many kinds of the letter
deletion. Those are the deletion of a, c, e, h, i, o, s, st, u.
1. The deletion of a
The deletion of a which I found in the Gospel of Luke is the deletion of a after
the vowels. The most common vowel is e. Look at table 12:
Table 12: The deletion of a after e
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. prease press
2. shepheards shepherds
In the first example, a is deleted because the scholars conformed press with its
etymology pressus while the second example, there is no hint why they dropped a.
The second kind of the deletion of a is the deletion of a after o. It is a unique
case since the King James Version 1611 spelled cloake which is almost the same with
Modern English spelling while the New King James Version spelled it cloke which
2. The deletion of c
There was just one word which underwent the deletion of c. That is bancke
which in the New King James Version is spelled as bank. The c there was deleted
because it was silent c. Therefore, there is no need to keep it.
3. The deletion of e
The deletion of e is the most common cause of difference of spelling between
the King James Version 1611 and the New King James Version. It has 39.6%.
Traditionally, e comes from the Semitic alphabet. Unlike u and i which have 2
variants, e does not have such variant. In constructing the words, e often has no
function and just being the silent e. According to Cable and Baugh (1978: 212),
Mulcaster in his book Elementarie used e for words ending in ss. Otherwise, a final e
is used to indicate a preceding long vowel, and at the end of words ending in the
sound v or z.
The same as Mulcaster’s Elementarie, the translators of King James Version
1611 used for words ending in ss. Look at the table below:
Table 13: The deletion of e after -ss
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. blesse bless
2. passe pass
In the table 13, the word bless is spelled as blesse in the King James Version 1611
ending in other consonant. For example the words ending in the sound [m] with the
spelling mb. Look at the table 14:
Table 14: The deletion of e after -mb
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. hony combe honeycomb
2. wombe womb
In the table 14, the word honeycomb, which is pronounced as [’hʌnikəʊm] was
spelled as hony combe in the King James Version 1611 and in the second example,
the word womb, which is pronounced as [wu:m] was spelled as wombe in the King
James Version 1611.
The other silent e is in the end of the words ending with nd. Look at table 15:
Table 15: The deletion of e after -nd
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. hande hand
2. kinde kind
In the examples above, hand and kind were spelled as hande and kinde in the King
James Version 1611. The other example is the word mind which is spelled as minde
in King James Version 1611 (Luk 1:29).
The silent e also occurs in the words ending with f as seen in table 16:
Table 16: The deletion of e after -f
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. deafe deaf
The underlined words, deaf and himself were spelled as deafe and himselfe. The same
as mbe which is pronounced as [m] or nde which is pronounced as [nd], fe is always
pronounced as [f].
There is still the other consonants which is followed by the silent e. They are
k, l, m, n, p, r, and t. Look at the examples below:
Table 17: The deletion of e after k, l, m, n, p, r, t
No. King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. drinke drink
2. soule soul
3. kingdome kingdom
4. sonne son
5. keepe keep
6. feare fear
7. hoste host
In the Early Modern English era, people tended to use the silent e in the final
position after the letter k, as in my first example in table 17. The word drink was
spelled as drinke in the King James Version 1611. In the King James Version 1611,
not only the word drink which was spelled with the silent e, but also the word back
which was spelled as backe and speak which was spelled as speake. However,
nowadays many of the silent e were eliminated, just a few remain the same. Now, in
Modern English, people use the silent e to indicate the preceding diphtongs. For
example the word make, and bake or spoke and yoke.
As in my second example in the table 17, the silent e was also used in the final
The words which contained double l (ll) were not followed by the silent e. See the
following table:
Table 18: The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the spelling of the words ended by -ll
King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. And the childe grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts, till the day of his shewing vnto Israel. (Luk 1:80)
1. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel. (Luk 1:80)
2. Then said hee also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsemen, nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee againe, and a recompence be made thee. (Luk 14:12)
2. Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. (Luk 14:12)
In table 18, both of till and call have the same spelling in the King James Version
1611 and the New King James Version. It is because both of them are ended by
double l. The other examples are will and shall which have the same spelling both in
the King James Version 1611 and the New King James Version.
Next, in table 17, the silent e was also used after the word ending with m. The
word kingdom was spelled as kingdome in the King James Version 1611. In the
Modern English era, the same as the silent e after k, the silent e after m was also
deleted. Just a few remain the same. Usually the silent e which remains the same was
in the words which will change if their silent e were taken. For example, the word
came [keɪm], if we take the silent e, it probably will pronounce as [kæm]. Therefore,
The occurrence of the silent e after n is almost the same as the occurrence of
the silent e after the other letters. As in the table 17, the word son was spelled as
sonne in the King James Version 1611. Its occurrence is random. However, usually it
does not occur after the letter en, an, ion, in function words, and some proper name
such as a person name. However, proper name like Jordan was spelled as Iordane,
and Samaritan was spelled as Samaritane. Look at the table below:
Table 19: The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the spelling of the words ended in n
King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. And they had no childe, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well striken in yeeres. (Luk 1:7)
1. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. (Luk 1:7)
2. And when they found not his bodie, they came, saying, that they had also seene a vision of Angels, which saide that he was aliue. (Luk 24:23)
2. And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. (Luk 24:23)
3. And Iesus answering, said vnto them, They that are whole need not a physician: but they that are sicke. (Luk 5:31)
3. And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. (Luk 5:31)
4. And it came to passe that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Marie, the babe leaped in her wombe, and Elizabeth was filled with the holy Ghost. (Luk 1:41)
4. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: (Luk 1:41)
5. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elizeus the Prophet: and none of them was cleansed, sauing Naaman the Syrian. (Luk 4:27)
5. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. (Luk 4:27)
In my first example in table 19, barren and striken which are ended with en were
without the silent e in the King James Version 1611. In my third example, the word
physician as well as man and woman are spelled the same both in the King James
Version 1611 and the New King James Version. In the fourth example, the function
word in was spelled without the silent e because they usually did not add the silent e
for the function words. The proper name such as Naaman (person’s name) and Syrian
(nationality) were also spelled without the silent e in the King James Version 1611
although there are exceptions such as Iordane (Jordan) and Samaritane (Samaritan).
The next consonant followed by the silent e is p. Usually the silent e follows p
if there is a long vowel like the diphthongs and the sound [i:], such as my example in
table 17, the word keep was spelled as keepe in the King James Version 1611. While
the short sounds usually are not followed by the silent e except help and sup which
were spelled as helpe and suppe in the King James Version 1611. Look at table 20:
Table 20: The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the spelling of the word ending with p
No. Phonetic Transcription King James Version
1611
New King James
Version
1. /həʊp/ hope hope
2. /wi:p/ weepe weep
3. /ʃɪp/ ship ship
4. /kʌp/ cup cup
5. /help/ helpe help
6. /sʌp/ suppe sup
In the table above, my first example proves that p preceded by the diphthong is
it distinguishes between hop [hɒp] and hope [həʊp]. In the second example there is
weepe (weep) which is pronounced as [wi:p]. Both of the first and the second
examples are the long or tense sound. Therefore, they were followed by the silent e in
the King James Version 1611. In the other hand, the third and the fourth examples are
pronounced with the short or lax vowel. They are ship [ʃɪp] and cup [kʌp]. Both of
them were not followed by the silent e in the King James Version 1611. However, in
my fifth and sixth examples the short vowel were followed by the silent e. The reason
is unclear why the short vowel such as help [help] and sup [sʌp] followed by the
silent e in the King James Version 1611.
The next consonant which was usually followed by the silent e is r. As in the
table 17 example number 6, fear was spelled as feare in the King James Version
1611. The occurrence of r followed by e is determined by the vowel preceding r. The
r followed by the silent e usually is preceded by [ɪə], [eə], [ɔ:] except the word for
since a function word was not followed by the silent e, [ə] which is spelled as u, and
[ɑ:]. Look at the table below:
Table 21: The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the spelling of the words ending with r
No Phonetic Transcription King James Version
1611
New King James
Version
1. /dɪə(r)/ deare dear
2. /beə(r)/ bare bare
3. /fɔ:(r)/ foure four
4. /’stætʃə(r)/ stature stature
In the table above, the word dear [dɪə(r)] was spelled as deare in the King James
Version 1611. Usually [ɪə] was spelled as ea in the Early Modern English although
some words had different spelling like the word year which was spelled as yeere in
the Early Modern English. In the second example, the word bare remains the same in
the Modern English era. The silent e here is for distinguishing bare [beə(r)] from bar
[bɑ:(r)]. The third example talks about the sound [ɔ:]. Except the word four which
was spelled as foure in the King James Version 1611, the others have the same
spelling for both Early Modern English and Modern English such as bore and more.
The next is the word stature. It has the same spelling for both the King James Version
1611 and the New King James Version. However, not all r preceded by [ə] followed
by the silent e. The one which followed by the silent e is the [ə] which is spelled as u.
If other than that, it will not be followed by the silent e such as in the table 22:
Table 22: The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the spelling of the words ending in r which is preceded by the sound /ə/
King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. And Iesus increased in wisedom and stature, and in fauour with God and man. (Luk 2:52)
1. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. (Luk 2:52)
2. And this rumour of him went foorth throughout all Iudea, and throughout all the region round about. (Luk 7:17)
2. And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about. (Luk 7:17)
From the table 22, we can see that in the King James Version 1611, favour [’feɪvə(r)]
and rumour [’rumə(r)] were spelled without the silent e although they had sound [ə]
The last example in the table 21 is far [fɑ:(r)] which was spelled as farre in
the King James Version 1611. The characteristic of this type is the r which was
doubled. The other word which used this type is afar which was spelled as afarre in
the King James Version 1611.
The last consonant that we talked about in table 17 was t. The words ending
with t usually will be followed by the silent e if their vowels are long vowels
including diphthongs. As in the table 21 host was spelled as hoste in the King James
Version 1611 because it is pronounced as [həʊst]. On the other hand, if the vowels are
short vowels they usually will not be followed by the silent e just as this table 23:
Table 23:The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the words ending with t which have the short vowels
No. Phonetic Transcription King James Version
1611
New King James
Version
1. /pʊt/ put put
2. /set/ set set
As in the table above, put [pʊt] and set [set] are not followed by the silent e. It is
because they have short vowels. However, although usually it is distinguished by the
length of the vowel, there are exceptions. The words which have affricative sounds
before t are not followed by the silent e except host and haste which were spelled as
hoste and haste in the King James Version 1611 because they have diphthong vowels.
s) were not followed by the silent e in the King James Version 1611. Look at the table
below:
Table 24: The comparison of The King James Version 1611 and The New King James Version in the words ended in t which contain the affricative sounds
King James Version 1611 New King James Version
1. And he stood ouer her, and rebuked the feuer, & it left her. And immediatly she arose, & ministred vnto them. (Luk 4:39)
1. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. (Luk 4:39)
2. There was in the dayes of Herode the king of Iudea, a certaine Priest, named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. (Luk 1:5)
2. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. (Luk 1:5)
In the table above, the second example, priest is not followed by the silent e although
it has long vowel [i:]. However, the first example is ambiguous. It is unclear that it
was not followed by the silent e because of its affricative sounds or its short vowel or
even both of them. Unfortunately, in the King James Version 1611 there were just
two words contain f which were ended with t. They are lift and left. Both of them
have the short vowels. Therefore, I lacked of proofs to prove my analysis.
The deletion of e does not always occurred in the final position. In the Early
Modern English, sometimes it could be in the middle position. There is a possibility
that the pronunciation of the words contain the silent e in the middle position in Early
