Oh, contractions. How wonderful they are to use in both everyday speech and in writing. The few milliseconds they save you whilst writing informally adds up (or at least we like to think they do), and using contractions in speech is much easier and faster than saying the full two words. While some may abuse contractions (such as the word “ain’t”) or get a bit confused by them (I’m looking at you, misusers of “your” and “you’re”), they are an essential part of modern communication in our world today. Unfortunately, contractions aren’t readily accepted in scholarly works. They are almost looked down upon as childish and immature. However, that is far from the truth. While most look at contractions as a fairly modern invention, they’ve been here since before all of us, our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, and many generations before that were born. Contrary to popular belief, contractions weren’t invented in the 20th or 19th centuries. In fact, to find the origin of contractions, we must travel back centuries and leave our beloved Modern English behind. No, we’re not even going to visit the wonderful intricacies of Middle English; Old English is our destination.
Ah, the strange and unfamiliar language of Old English. While it still holds the name “English,” Old English would be as unfamiliar to use Modern English speakers as Latin would be to the Mayans of the Yucatan Peninsula. Derived from the old Ingvaeonic languages of West Germany, Old English first came to be in the 7th century. It was created by the Anglo-Saxon people that had invaded Great Britain a few decades prior. The Anglo-Saxons were a Nordic people, so of course their language reflected that. 
Instead of using the Latin letters we’re familiar with today, Old English used the runic alphabet. This runic alphabet is totally unfamiliar to us today, further distinguishing Old English from Modern English. The word order of Old English, however, was essentially simliar to Modern English in that they both use Subject-Verb-Object. The words Old English used are totally different from Modern English. For instance, water in Old English is lagustream (I’m writing the transliteration in Latin characters because I couldn’t be bothered finding out how to actually write in runic, so you’ll have to forgive me), sky is rodor, and warrior is beadurinc or beorn or cempa or another 19 different words. And yet, even in Old English, we find contractions. Nis is the contraction of ne is (meaning “is not”) and naefde from ne haefde (meaning “did not have”). Naes was from ne waes (meaning “was not”) and nolde came from the contraction of both ne and wolde (meaning “would not”). Old English was full of contractions, and these contractions have remained in place (of course, not with the same words) in our Modern English today. Nis is simply “isn’t”, naes is “wasn’t”, and nolde is “wouldn’t”. Contractions were there from the beginning, so why are they looked down upon today?
Middle English, the next step up on the English language’s great journey to Modern English, has a bunch of contractions as well. Middle English was formed once the Normas invaded England in 1066. It combined many words from Old English with French, and brought us closer to something we would recognise as English today. Middle English was most popularised by the famous poet Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. Middle English also marked English’s transition to the Latin alphabet rather than runic. And there were contractions a plenty. Thilke is a contraction of the ilke (meaning “the same”), sit (see, real English words!) is a contraction of sitteth, noot is a contraction of ne woot (meaning “knows not), and nere is a contraction ne were (meaning “were not”). As you can see, the foundations of Modern English are starting to form, and some words today, like sit, which we think of as an actual word, started off as contractions!
The end of the Middle English Era came at around the 16th century, making way for Early Modern English. The works of Shakespeare and the likes set the standard, and the language we know today as English was born. And yes, you guessed it, the language was full of contractions back then, too. Contractions can be found all over Shakespeare’s plays. They were an integral part of the language, and were readily accepted in both works of entertainment and more scholarly works. In fact, Early Modern English holds many more contractions than are used today, such as shan’t, ‘twere, ‘twon’t, ‘tis, ha’n’t, and many more. It wasn’t until the early 18th century that anybody questioned the use of contractions. Unfortunately for the poor words, by the end of the century they were considered to be an abomination in formal writing. Although even scholars used them in daily conversation, for some reason or another they deemed them unacceptable in scholarly writing. This attitude has continued to this day, as most people look down upon contractions. While they are used quite frequently in conversation, fiction, and informal writing, using them in formal writing is akin to taking crayon and scribbling all over your paper. And so the sad little contractions we all so love are still persecuted by the educated elite for no real reason, forcing them to be used by only the “un-educated” populace. Contractions will once again rise to the heights they once held, but when that time will come I least of all can predict.
