ENG4820 | History of the English Language

Dr. Getty | Spring 2009

Week 8: Getting to know Middle English from the Inside Out

FROM LAST WEEK:

The mass importation of loan words coincides with historical reports of English--French
bilingualism among the upper and middle classes, starting around 1150 and hit its peak around
1250 (Millward p. 177).

When Norman French words came into English, they came with the stress patterns characteristic
charact of
most of the Romance languages.

Where English tends to put stress towards the beginning of words, Romance languages tend to put
stress near the ends. Consider these words, which still have exact counterparts (called ‘cognates’) in
present-day French:

English French
nature nature
dominant dominant
certain certain
treasure trésor
odor odeur
spirit espirit
ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 1 of 13
The Norman invasion also brought continental literary culture to England, partially but not
completely displacing the native Germanic tradition of alliterative stress-based poetry.

The chief import was end-rhyming, syllable-timed poetry, familiar to us as iambic pentameter:

5 pairs of syllables, first weak (W), then strong (S). Like in these two lines from Romeo:

(W S) ( W S) ( W S) (W S) (W S)

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

(W S)(W S) ( W S)(W S)(W S)

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun…

This form of poetry is well suited to the stress-final Romance languages within which it evolved, but
it’s always somewhat at odds with the native English stress pattern…

So when Chaucer and Gower compose iambic pentameter, they fit in words like nature and tresor
(our treasure) in two ways: nativized, stress initial vs. original, stress-final

(1) Canterbury Tales: The Knights Tale

ws w s w s w sws

Nature hath now no dominacioun. (The French affix –cion/-cioun started out with two syllables…)

w s w s w sw s w s

And certeinly, ther nature wol nat wirche (wol = ‘will’ nat = ‘not’ wirche = ‘work’)

When we look at how Chaucer and Gower handled these words, we find the following…

Nativized SW Romance WS

nature nature

Chaucer 50% 50%

Gower 36% 64%

tresor tresor

Chaucer 78% 22%

Gower 71% 29%

Figures from the Middle English Compendium (http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/m/mec/)

So Chaucer likes English-style nature just as much as Romance-style nature, while Gower clearly
prefers the Romance form.

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 2 of 13

Tresor is much further along the path of nativization for both writers, since both prefer to align it
strong-weak tresor instead of weak-strong tresor.

Norman French words are also folded into native English morphology and vice-versa.

• French verbs show up with regular English tense and agreement affixes: praise ~ praiseϸ ~
praised, serve ~ serveþ ~ served

• French nouns show up with English affixes like -ful, -less, -some, -dom,
-ing: powerful, odorless, quarrelsome, preaching

• Less frequently, English nouns show up with borrowed French affixes like
-age, -able, -ment: mileage, likable, endearment

MORE BACKGROUND
As a rule, language change is in an impersonal, agentless, distributed process played out over time
scales generally larger than a single human lifespan. Only rarely is language change shaped by the
conscious acts of individuals or groups.

Two opposing influences are generally at play. Economic and political elites tend to favor continuity
and conservation. Away from political power centers, non-prestige dialects tend to be more
innovative. When political power structures are disrupted, marginal groups and innovative non-
prestige dialects gain more influence, and the pace of language change increases.

The Middle English period started with the shattering of England’s political class at the hands of the
French-speaking Normans. For two hundred years, the English language was the language of the
disempowered. When it regained its status as the elite language, it had already changed radically.

More changes were on the way in the fourteenth century: The Black Death, which wiped out a
quarter of Europe’s population within less than ten years, leading to a labor shortage and greater
empowerment of the thoroughly English-speaking, English-identified middle classes.
The ‘Little Ice Age,’ a period of shorter summers and harsher winters, started in the early 14th
century and affected all of Europe until well into the 17th century, bringing about large scale famine
and depopulation, reinforcing the shift in economic power away from the landed nobility.

As English culture in the Middle Ages becomes more literate, especially after the introduction of
printing press technology in the mid-15th century, the interplay between dialects becomes more
complex.

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 3 of 13

ON TO TODAY
We’re going to explore some Middle English texts in the original. We’re going to wrestle with their
tensions and ambiguities and what their authors tell us about their feelings regarding the state of
their language.

When you read these texts, your modern-day spelling instinct will kick in. That is, you’ll construe
these authors’ spelling habits as statements or meaningful choices of some kind. They were not.
These texts were written at least a hundred years before the movement to standardize spelling and
usage even got off the ground. Before that, everything was fluid.

All the vowels you see are pre-Great Vowel Shift.

Letter Sound

i/y High front unrounded, like in today’s tee.

e Mid front unrounded, like in today’s tray

a Low central, like in today’s father

Some relic letters:

ʒ [j] before or after a vowel; becomes the letter <y> or in present-day English
[x] everywhere else; becomes the sequence <gh> in present-day English

v~u A leftover from Latin scribal practice, which had no letter for a voiced labiodental
fricative. So <u> is pronounced as [v] between vowels or word-initially before a
vowel, as [u] everywhere else.

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 4 of 13

From John Trevisa’s translation of Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon (1327)
(http://www.hf.ntnu.no/engelsk/staff/johannesson/!oe/texts/imed/05imed/05_2w.htm)

Also Englysch men, þ ey hy hadde fram þ e bygynnyng þ re maner speche,

Sou þ eron, Nor þ eron, and Myddel speche in þ e myddel of þ e lond, as hy
come of þ re maner people of Germania; no þ eles, by commyxstion and
mellyng, furst wi þ Danes and afterward wi þ Normans, in menye þ e
contray longage ys apeyred, and som vse þ strange wlaffyng, chyteryng,
harryng, and garryng grisbittyng.
þ is apeyryng of þ e bur þ tonge ys bycause of twey þ inges. On ys for
chyldern in scole, a ʒ enes þ e vsage and manere of al o þ er nacions, bu þ
compelled for to leue here oune longage, and for to construe here lessons
and here þ inges a Freynsch, and habbe þ su þþ e þ e Normans come furst
into Engelond.
Also gentil men children bu þ ytau ʒ t for to speke Freynsch fram tyme þ at
a bu þ yrokked in here cradel … and oplondysch men wol lykne hamsylf to
gentil men, and fonde þ wi þ gret bysynes for to speke Freynsch, for to be
more ytold of.
hy, ham = ’they,’ ‘them’ The forms we use today are Scandinavian loans that made their
way into northern English varieties and displaced the southern forms over the
course of about 200 years
ys apeyred In what we call the ‘perfect tense’ of verbs, intransitive verbs (verbs whose action
requires a subject but permits no object in the strictest sense – appear, arrive,
come, go, etc) appear with a form of be as their ‘auxiliary verb.’ In today’s English,
the only auxiliary verb is have, but the pattern you see here survived into the
early modern period and is preserved in Christmas carols like Joy to the World,
the Lord is Come.
on = ‘one’
some useþ The /-eþ/ ending with what is clearly a plural subject marks this as a southern
text, versus Northern /–es/ or Midlands /-en/
gentil men chidren The /-s/ ending we would expect on a plural noun like /-s/ didn’t develop until
later in the Middle English and early modern period. The same pattern in today’s
dialects, especially African-American dialects (my sister house, a friend phone
number) is an independent development.
ytauʒt, yrokked These are tauʒt and rokked with the same prefix we saw in the Old English
Cædmon’s Hymn. The original [gi] became [ji], which then merged into simple [i].
We still have this affix, though no one recognizes it as such without training,
spelled with the letter <e> in the words enough, elope.
oplondysch ‘up-land-ish,’ from up the river, i.e. more northern locations

What is this author telling us?

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 5 of 13

Commentary added by John Trevisa to a later edition in 1385

For Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere, chayngede þ e lore in

gramerscole and construccion of Freynsch into Englysch; and Richard
Pencrych lurnede þ at manere techyng of hym, and o þ er men of Pencrych,
so þ at now, þ e ʒ er of oure Lord a þ ousond þ re hondred foure score and
fyue, of þ e secunde kyng Richard after þ e Conquest nyne, in al þ e
gramerscoles of Engelond childern leue þ Frensch, and construe þ and
lurne þ an Englysch, and habbe þ þ erby avauntage in on syde, and
desavauntage yn ano þ er. Here avauntage ys þ at a lurne þ here gramer yn
lasse tyme þ an childern wer ywoned to do. Disavauntage ys þ at now
childern of gramerscole conne þ no more Frensch þ an can hire lift heele,
and þ at ys harm for ham and* a scholle passe þ e se and trauayle in
strange londes ...
Also gentil men habbe þ now moche yleft for to teche here childern
Frensch. Hyt seme þ a gret wondur hou Englysch, þ at ys þ e bur þ -tonge of
Englysch men, and here oune longage and tonge, ys so dyuers of soon in
þ is ylond; and þ e longage of Normandy ys comlyng of ano þ er lond, and
ha þ on maner soon among al men þ at speke þ hyt ary ʒ t in Engelond.
No þ eles þ er ys as meny dyuers maner Frensch yn þ e rem of Fraunce as ys
dyuers manere Englysch in þ e rem of Engelond.
a = ‘they’

hym/ham = ‘them

here/hire = their

on = ‘one’

Hyt = ‘It’

conneþ = ‘know,’ left over in archaic modern English ken

and* Read this and as ‘if’

rem = ‘realm’

What is this author telling us?

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 6 of 13

William of Nassyngton, Speculum Vitae (c. 1325)

In English tonge I schal ʒ ow telle

ʒ if ʒ e wyth me so longe wil dwelle ʒ if = ‘if’
No Latyn wil I speke no waste no = ‘nor’
But English, þ at men vse mast mast = ‘most’
þ at can eche man vnderstande

þ at is born in Ingelande;

For þ at langage is most chewyd (3) chewyd = ‘shown’

Os wel among lered os lewyd
Latyn, as I trowe, can nane
But þ o þ at haueth it in scole tane.
And somme can Frenshe and no Latyn
þ at ysed han cowrt and dwellen þ erein,
And somme can of Latyn a party
(3) os = ‘as’ lered = ‘learned’ lewyd = ‘unschooled,’ our lewd
trowe = ‘believe’ nane = ‘none’
þ o = ‘those’ tane = ‘taken’
han = ‘have’ The word order here is artificial.
(3) party = probably ‘portion’

þ at can of Frenche but febly (3)

And somme understonde wel Englysh, (3)

þ at can noþ er Latyn nor Frankys

Boþ e lered and lewed, olde and ʒ onge,

Alle vnderstonden english tonge

Some of the more interesting things going on here:

This poem is a relatively loose iambic tetrameter: four pairs of weak-strong syllables, sometimes
only three (marked with ‘3’ above): dee-DUM dee-DUM dee-DUM dee-DUM. But consider this line:

But English, þat men vse mast

To get a well-formed poetic line out of this, you have to prounounce the <e> in vse. Everywhere else,
William’s lines scan best with silent <e>

What is this author telling us?

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 7 of 13

The “Egg’ Story from William Caxton’s prologue to a the Booke of Eneydos, ca. 1490

For we Englysshe men ben borne vnder the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is
neuer stedfaste but euer wauerynge, wexynge one season, and waneth and
dyscreaseth another season. And that comyn Englysshe that is spoken in one shyre
varyeth from a nother. In so moche that in my dayes happened that certayn
marchauntes were in a shippe in Tamyse, for to haue sayled ouer the see into
Zelande, and for lacke of wynde thei taryed atte Forlond, and wente to lande for to
refreshe them; And one of theym named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam into an hows and
axed for mete; and specyally he axyd after eggys; And the goode wyf answerde, that
she coude not speke no Frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude
speke no Frenshe, but wolde haue hadde egges, and she vnderstode hym not. And
thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde haue eyren; then the good wyf sayd that
she vnderstod hym wel. Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or
eyren?

axed/axyd This is the original form of the verb, [æks], Old English æcsian. The more
common form today, ask, is a more recent innovation. The original form is
now stereotypically associated with African-American varieties of English.
For to have sayled This used to be a common pattern, something like I’m dieting for to lose
weight. It died out in the early modern period, but it’s a pattern that non-
native speakers and children acquiring English tend to generate.
wyf This is a generic term meaning ‘adult female person.’ Our term wife is a
semantic narrowing of the original, which was replaced by a compound wif-
man, with man meaning just ‘adult person.’ Over the centuries, it contracted
to woman.

What is this author telling us?

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 8 of 13

How Language Change Works

Take the example of the simple past and past participle forms of irregular verbs. Over time,

Older, conservative Innovative form

form
Stage 1: Form A help ~ halp ~ holpen
Stage 2: Form B first appears help ~ halp ~ holpen help ~ helped ~ holpen
Stage 3a: Form B extends to the rest of its
paradigm
Stage 3b: Form A and Form B ‘compete,’
possibly for centuries, possibly without a
help ~ halp/helped ~ holpen/helped
‘winner.’ Forms can be (a) in free variation
with one another or (b) become linked with a
certain region, town, socioeconomic class,
ethnic group, a particular style of speech, etc.
Stage 4 (Sometimes!): Form B takes over help ~ helped ~ helped

Each word has its own history. Compare the development of step (stop), ache (oche), help (halp), and
grow (grew, now with growed in some dialects):

1200 | 1300 | 1400 | 1500 | 1600 | 1700 | 1800 | 1900 | 2000

step <------>

ache <------------>

help <---------------->

grow <-------------?

(Source)
A team of scientists (Erez Lieberman, Jean-Baptiste Michel, and
colleagues in Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics) have
claimed that English verbs are regularizing over time in a mathematically precise way: inversely
proportional to the square root of their usage frequency. In other words, a verb used one hundred times
less frequently than some other verb will become regular ten times as fast.

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 9 of 13

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
Millward p. 190: In the latter part of the 15th century, the London standard had been accepted, at
least in writing, in most parts of the country ... With the introduction of printing in 1476 a new
influence of great importance in the dissemination of London English came into play. From the
beginning London has been the center of book publishing in England. Caxton, the first English
printer, used the current speech of London in his numerous translations, and the books that issued
from his press and from the presses of his sucessors gave a currency to London English that assured
more than anything else its rapid adoption.

Source: David Crystal, Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 41

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 10 of 13

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 11 of 13
ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 12 of 13
Prompt for Assignment #2
Due by e-mail attachment to eng4820@gmail.com from your UMSL e-mail account by midnight
Saturday, April 4th.

Picture yourself in any one of the following situations:

1) You’re teaching a sophomore-level high school class and you’ve been given 30 minutes out of
a class period to devote to any topic near to your heart.
2) You’re on a cruise to Alaska (that’s where the brainy people go, I’ve heard), and the captain
invites you to dine at his table on one condition: You must give a fifteen-minute lecture,
complete with slides, on a topic in your area of expertise. (This actually happened to
someone I knew once). Your audience: cruise ship personnel, some retired investment
bankers, and Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein, who are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
3) You’re leading part of a practical training seminar for middle school English teachers, and
you’ve been given the opportunity to lead an entire 30-minute segment on the topic of your
choice.

Naturally, the topic you go for, the one nearest to your heart, is Middle English, specifically the part
of the history of Middle English (roughly 1100 to roughly 1500) that most lights your own spark.

Devise and document a lesson plan, lecture, or training segment based on your choice from
(1) through (3) above.

You can do this in a number of different ways.

• A detailed outline, something I could read and come away with a fairly complete idea of how
you’d spend your 15 or 30 minutes.
• A set of PowerPoint slides with the notes that you would use to support a live delivery
• A screencast with voiceover, like what I did during the week of March 9th. I can help you
install free trial versions of the software you’ll need.
• An audio recording meant to be listened to without notes. Difficult but not impossible.
• A ‘transcript,’ i.e. a document containing what you would say along with diagrams, examples,
etc., maybe even some dialogue with your participants

Some initial guidelines:

Enjoy your creative license, but don’t let it run away with the show. All three audiences have limited
attention spans, and they will be relying on you totally to be a succinct and responsible guide. Let
your characters crack a joke or two if you wish, but keep them real.

Don’t just shovel facts at them, educate them. Make the topic come alive, and help them see a piece
of the big picture. Bring them stuff that will be relevant to their lives after you’re done with them.

Beyond these points, the same criteria apply as with Assignment #1: Clarity. Persuasiveness.
Accessibility. Accuracy. Flair.

ENG4820 | Week 8 Lecture Notes Spring 2009 Page 13 of 13