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Middle English period (1150-1500)
Essay :
Middle English period marks the transition in the language between the old English (450 –
1150) period and Modern English (1500 - present).
Various changes that happened during the Middle English period.
French Words: Middle English vocabulary became a heterogeneous one due to the loan
words from Scandinavian and French languages (Norman Conquest). The French words that
entered the language were those relating to the customs, ideas and ways of life characteristic
of Normans.
Latin Words: A good number of Latin words-mostly technical. Legal and ecclesiastic terms-
were introduced into language during this period. E.g.: pauper, ********************alent, legitimate, index,
scribe, simile, memento etc.
Words of Native origin – Many words of native origin gradually disappeared. Scandinavian or
French ********************alents were used to replace them.
Change in grammatical structure:
The Middle English period is called as the period of "levelled inflexions". The old English
inflexional endings gradually decayed during this period.
E.g.:
Old English Middle English
1- Varied endings for
the nominative and
accusative plurals
(-as-a, an ,e ,u) reduced to 'as'
2- Genitive endings
[es, a, -an, -e] reduced to -es
3- A tendencies to form
- Plurals ending in –en.
E.g.: shoon terwen
(shoes) (trees)
4- later (14th century) –es
plurals were generally
accepted
.
5- 'e' was a common
inflexional ending.
E.g.: love (disyllabic
in middle English)
6-A single form of the
definite article and the
adjective came to be used
in all cases, genders and
numbers.
7- Grammatical gender 7- Natural gender
Eg: wif ( neuter gender) Wife –feminine gender
French usages: 'French usages were introduced into English. E.g.: the
preposition 'of'.
So, the normal usage to express genitive case [ Davides sunu] was
expressed using 'of' (the son of David)
Monosyllabic adjectives continued to form the comparative and superlative
through inflexional endings. E.g.: long – longer - longest.
Polysyllabic words mostly of French origin resorted to the analytical form.
E.g.: beautiful – more beautiful – most beautiful.
Change in pronominal system:
The levelling of inflexional ending caused much confusion. The confusion
was resolved to an extend by substituting Scandinavian pronouns for native
ones. The Scandinavian pronouns are represented in modern she, they, them,
their. The Old English pronoun for the first person singular (ic) changed into
the modern form 'I' by the beginning of the 13th century.
Change in pronunciation and spelling:
Middle English was different from old English in pronunciation and spelling.
• During the old English period the spelling was more or less phonetic.
E.g. Father – (a)
Sat – æ
thing –……….
then – …….
During the middle English period the letter ……………. went out of use and /p/ was
retained initially and in some positions the 'th' spelling was substituted.
• The front consonant in the old English word cirice came to be indicated by the 'ch' spelling and thus the modern spelling of church was established.
• The long 'u' was indicated in spelling by 'ou' and thus Old English 'hus' came to be written as 'hous' though there was no change in pronunciation at the time.
• 'u' was written as 'o' in the neighborhood of m, v, n and w ( come, love, son and foel).
But it was pronounced as (u) in Middle English.
• Old English 'a' (stan) was changed into the rounded vowel (o) as in stone.
• The close long 'o' of Old English was pronounced as 'oa' (boat) in M.E.
• Close long (e:) was pronounced like the 'a' in state.
• The open long (e) had the pronunciation of 'a' in hare.
• The Old English 'f' which had become voiced between vowels came to be written as v. (E.g. love, over, devil)
• Long vowels in M.E spelling were indicated by the doubling of the short vowel. Thus root was the spelling for rot.
• The find e, es, ed and e were sounded in M.E. later they became silent in modern English.
• The sound expressed by 'sc' in Old English was indicated by 'sch' or 'sh in Middle English.
(O.E) sceal – (Mod.Eng) shall.
• O.E 'cw' was substituted by 'qu'
(O.E) cwene – (Mod.Eng) queen.
• In short there's a great difference in pronunciation between the earlier and later forms of the language.
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Short note :
Dialectical diversity of Middle English:
In the absence of any recognized literary standard before the close of the Old English period, writers used to write in the dialect of that part of the country to which they belonged. There was an intensification of dialectical diversity in the Middle English period and the language of one country is found to be different from that of another. Often remarkable variations are found in the dialect of the same country. Therefore, it becomes very difficult to demarcate the area where a particular dialect was spoken or used in writing. Roughly, four dialects of Middle English can be distinguished.
1- The Northern dialect was used in the region extending as far south as the Humber river.
2- East Midland Dialect The area between the Humber and the Thames
3- West Midland Dialect rivers was dominated by these dialects.
4- Southern Dialect – Iit had its domain in the district lying south of river Thames. It was also used in Gloucestershire and some parts of the countries of Worchester and Herford. It thus covered the West Saxon and Kentish districts of old English.