MIDDLE ENGLISH.

LINGUISTIC SYSTEM
AND LITERATURE
1. Changes in the English Grammar

2. Pronouncing Middle English

3. Changes in the Vocabulary

4. The Emergence of the Standard English

Decay of the Inflectional System

1. Partly to phonetic 2. Partly to the operation

changes of analogy
 1. The change of final -m > -n mūðum > mūðun

2. This -n was then dropped *mūðu

3. The vowels a, o, u, e in Indeterminate vowel

inflectional endings <e>

4. The grammatical distinctions

were no longer conveyed
 The Noun

mūð, mūðes, mūðe, mūð (singular) mūðas, mūða, mūðum, mūðas (plural)

mūð, mūðes, mūðe

 The expression of plural in nouns

The –s or –es from the

The –n (as in oxen) from
strong masculine
the weak.
declension.

The –s plural in the rest of The –n plural enjoyed great

England favour in the south
(until 13th c.)
 The Adjective

1250

In the weak declension (blinda>blinde and blindan>blinde)

In the strong declension (sing. glad; plural glade).

 The Pronoun

sē, sēo, þæt THE THAT

þēs, þēos, þis THIS THESE THOSE

 The personal pronoun

dative and accusative him, her, (t)hem

accusative (h)it

she hēo sēo

 þei

hi (he), here, hem þeir

þem
 The Verb

swear

wear – wore – worn

bear
New verbs were regularly conjugated as weak

The loss of native words further depleted the ranks

of the strong verbs
 OLD ENGLISH

ræddan (to advise) sceððan (to injure)

bow brew burn climb flee flow help mourn row step walk weep
Syntax
Peterborough Chronicle (1070 – 1154)

SV S…V VS
 Pronouncing Middle English
Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift, to a large extent shaped the

modern English vowel system
 Great Vowel Shift

Middle English became Early Modern English Became Modern English

[a:] [na:mə] ‘name’ [ɛ:] [nɛ:m] [eI] [neIm]

[ɛ:] [mɛ:t] ‘meat’ [e:] [me:t] [i:] [mi:t]

[e:] [me:t] ‘meet’ [i:] [mi:t] [i:] [mi:t]

[i:] [ri:d] ‘ride’ [əI] [rəId] [ai] [raid]

[Ɔ:] [bɔ:t] ‘boat’ [o:] [bo:t] [ou/əu] [bout/bəut]

[o:] [bo:t] ‘boot’ [u:] [bu:t] [u:] [bu:t]

 French Influence on the Vocabulary

The influx of French words was brought about by the victory of the
Conqueror and by the political and social consequences of that
victory.

It was not sudden

or immediately
apparent.
The borrowings of the first stage differ from those of the second in:

-Being much less numerous -900

-Showing peculiarities of Anglo- -Lower classes
Norman phonology would become
familiar (servant,
-The circumstances that brought
feast, juggler,
about their introduction
baron)
-Literary channels
(story, rime, lay)

- Associated with the

church
religion sermon lesson

confession prelate cloister

To supply deficiencies in the English
vocabulary

In their own imperfect command of

that vocabulary

Yielding to natural impulse to use a

word long familiar to them and to
those they addressed
 In changing from French to English

Governmental

Social life
Administrative
Art
Ecclesiastical
Learning
Legal
Military

Medicine

Fashion

Food
 Assimilation of French words and loss of native
words

1. Assimilation

derivatives

gentle (1225) gentlewoman (1230)

gentleman (1275) gentleness (1275) gently (1330)

peacefully commonly feebly fiercely

faintly

- overpraising

- ungracious
French root with
- poorness
Hybrid forms English prefix or
suffix
- chashed

- spusbruche
 2. Loss of Native Words

DUPLICATION

1. Of the two words one 2. Where both survived they

was eventually lost were differentiated in meaning
1. Of the two words one was eventually lost

1 ēam uncle eme

2 anda envy

andig andian
(adj.) (vb.)

3 æÞele noble

æÞeling nobleman

4 leod people
2. Differentiation in meaning

dema dēman dōm deem

judge to judge judgment

hearty cordial
15th c

odour
smell stench
scent

aroma
nay for soþe beau sir sayd þat oþer half
als
and syþen karp with my kny t þat I
ka t have
for I wene wel iwysse sir Wowen e
are
þat alle þe worlde worchipez quere-so
e ride
your honour your hendelayk is hendely
praysed

English Poetry. Disc 1. (600 – 1603) Chadwyck-Healey Ltd.

1995
 Dialectal Diversity

Northern, East Midland, West Midland, and Southern.

Northern dialect East Midland and West Southern dialect

extends as far south Midland together cover the area occupies the district
as the Humber between the Humber and the south of the
Thames Thames
 In the North
In Old In Middle In the it was altered
English English this Midland to –es, an
this form ending was district it was ending that
always preserved as replaced by – makes its
ended in –eth in the en. appearance in
–th Southern Old English
dialect times.

loveth loven loves

 present participle

North lovande

Midlands lovende

South lovinde
The characteristic forms of the pronoun they

In the south were hi, here, (hire,

hure), hem

In the north forms with th-, they,

their, them
OE ā > ǭ south of the Humber, was retained in the
north

Southern stone and home, beside stane and

hame in Scotland today.

Initial f and s were often voiced in the south to v

and z.

In Southern Middle English we find

vor, vrom, vox,
vorzoÞe instead of for, from, fox, forsoÞe
The Rise of Standard English
Causes:

1. A middle position between the extreme

divergences of the north and south.

2. The East Midland district was the largest and

most populous of the major dialect areas.

3. The presence of the universities, Oxford and

Cambridge.