Word formation in middle english

creator, saviour, saint, trinity, virgin; charity, damnation, devotion, faith, mercy, mystery, obedience, piety, pity, reverence, temptation, virtue; devout, divine, solemn; adore, anoint, chant, confess, convert, ordain, pray, preach, repent, sacrifice

3.Law: bar, crime, justice, judgement, plea, suit; attorney, defendant, judge, jury, plaintiff, felon; complaint, petition, evidence, proof, bail, verdict, sentence, award, fine, punishment; prison, jail; adultery, arson, fraud, libel, perjury, slander; executor, heir, legacy, property, tenant; accuse, acquit, arrest, blame, condem, plead, pardon, sue, seize; innocent, just

4.Fashion, meals, social life: boots, dress, cloak, coat, collar, fashion, garment, gown, robe, veil, button, embroidery, garter, lace; adorn, embellish; beaver, ermine, fur, sable, satin; blue, brown, saffron, scarlet, vermilion, tawny; jewel, ornament, ivory; crystal, diamond, emerald, ruby, pearl; appetite, dinner, feast, supper, taste; mackerel, oyster, perch, salmon, sole; beef, pork, mutton, poultry, veal, venison; bacon, loin, sausage; biscuit, cream, gravy, sugar, toast, lettuce, salad; almonds, cherry, date, fig, grape, lemon, orange, peach; clove, herb, mustard, nutmeg, spice, thyme, vinegar; blanch, boil, fry, grate, roast, stew

All in all, around 10,000 French words were introduced into English during the Middle English period, of which about 75 per cent are still in current use.

4.3.2.3Latin

Latin, as the language of the church, scholarship, and partly of law, normally acted only as a written source. Typical loans from these areas are: diocese, psalm, requiem, redemptor, allegory, cause, contradiction, desk, scribe; explicit, formal, major, minor; client, conviction, executor, memorandum, prosecute, proviso, testify, legitimate. Others belonging to more general domains are: adjacent, conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract, frustrate, genius, history, immune, include, incredible, individual, inferior, infinite, intellect, interrupt, lunatic, magnify, mechanical, moderate, necessary, nervous, notary, picture, polite, popular, prevent, project, promote, quiet, rational, reject, script(ure), secular, solar, spacious, subordinate, subscribe, substitute, summary, suppress, tributary, ulcer.

Middle English is the starting point of a development which resulted in a restructuring of the English word-formation system by borrowing from French and Latin, and which was intensified in early Modern English. This led to a system with two derivational strata, a native and a foreign one, which, however, partially overlap. The former is word-based and base-invariant, whereas the latter

1. MIDDLE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

2. aims:

to
discuss the types and sources of ME lexical
changes;
to explore the Latin influence up to the end
of the Middle English period;
to
present
evidence
for
extensive
Scandinavian influence during Middle English;
to discuss the influence of French loans after
1066;
to examine new types of word formation.

3. Lecture 7. Point for Discussion

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The Origins of ME Lexicon
Types and Sources of Changes
Scandinavian
Influence
on
the
Vocabulary
French Influence on the Vocabulary in
Middle English
Borrowings from Latin in the Middle
English period
New Word Formation

4. RECOMMENDED LITERATURE:

David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
the English Language— Holyheard. — 1994.—P.
46-49.
Simon
Horobin and Jeremy Smith. An
Introduction to Middle English. Edinburgh
University Press.—2002.—P. 69-88.
Valery V. Mykhailenko. Paradigmatics in the
Evolution of English.— Chernivtsi.—1999.—P. 116118; 122-123; 127-130.
T.A.
Rastorguyeva. A History orang/isb.—
Moscow.— 1983.— P. 296-306.
L.Verba. History of the English Language.— Nova
KNYHA.— 2004.— P. 144-151.
Elly van Gelderen. A History of the English
Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia.—2006. P. 95106; 132-133.

5. Introduction

According
to the estimates made by modern
philologists, in the course of the thousand
years — from OE to modern times — the
English vocabulary has multiplied tenfold.
Perhaps, if it were possible to count all the
meanings expressed by lexical items in
different historical periods, the figure would
be much higher.
Borrowings played a much greater role in
Middle English than in Old English. They
came from two sources: Scandinavian and
French.

6. 1. The Origins of ME Lexicon

7. Inheritance and borrowing

The core lexicon of ME – that is, the set of words
which have the most widespread currency –
derives from OE and the bulk of the OE lexicon
was, in turn, inherited from Proto-Germanic.
This last component included words which have
no cognate in the other Indo-European
languages, and which presumably either entered
Germanic through early contact with non-IndoEuropean languages now extinct, or are forms
whose cognates have simply not survived in
those languages, for example
wīf WOMAN, drincan DRINK
(cf. Present-Day French la femme WOMAN, boire
DRINK).

8.

Reasons of hospitality of loan-words are as
follows:
1) a large-scale contact between Englishspeakers and users of other languages,
notably varieties of Norse and French;
2) the ‘Latin renaissance’ of the 12th c.
meant widespread use of Latin for
documentary purposes, and thus the
potential for greater ‘leakage from Latin
into ME;
3) Since ME was a much less inflected
language than OE, it was easier to adopt
words from foreign languages.

9. 2. Types and Sources of Changes

10. the changes in the vocabulary

Losses of words or
their meanings
Replacements
Additions

11. Losses of words or their meanings

Some regulations and institutions of OE kingdoms
were cancelled or forgotten in the ME period.
e.g. OE witenaʒemot ‘assembly of the elders’
ceased to exist under the Norman rule
Some rituals of the religion were abandoned
after the introduction of Christianity.
e.g. OE tiber, blōt which meant ‘sacrifice’
In OE there were many groups of synonyms whose
differentiation became irrelevant in ME;
therefore some of the synonyms fell out of use.
e.g. OE here, fierd, werod indicated an armed
force, an army. They were all replaced by the ME
borrowings from French army, troop

12. Losses of words or their meanings

The
specific OE poetic vocabulary, went out
of use together with the genre of OE poetry.
Losses could also affect the plane of content.
Though the words survived, some of its
meanings became obsolete.
e.g. OE ʒift had the meaning ‘price of a wife’
connected with one of the early meanings of
the verb ʒyfan (NE give) ‘give in marriage’
From
80 to 85% of the OE words went out of
use in the succeeding periods. Most of them
were replaced by other words of the same or
similar meanings.

13. Replacements

could also occur in the sphere
of content: the word was retained but its
meaning was changed or was replaced by a
new meaning
e.g. OE cniht ‘boy, servant’ changed its
meaning to ME and NE knight
Sometimes the meanings of the word changed
when its referent (the thing it denoted)
underwent some kind of changes
e.g. ME carre ‘wheeled vehicle’ now indicates
a motor car or part of a train (sleeping car), NE
car, Early ME carriage

14. Additions

Most replacements belonged to
the “split”-type: one item was
replaced by two or more, or one
meaning
differentiated
into
several meanings.
These changes should be classified
as additions to the vocabulary.

15. Additions

They have several forms:
pure innovations, which were created to name new
things
e.g. ME citee ‘town with a cathedral’, duke, duchesse,
prynce — new ranks and titles;
NE bourgeois, potato, nylon
differentiation of synonyms
e.g. OE neah, near, neara
> ME neer, its ME synonyms were cloos and adjacent,
NE near, close, adjacent, neighbouring
polysemy and homonymy
e.g. OE craeft meant ‘science’, ‘skill’, ‘strength’;
> in ME and NE craft lost the meaning ‘science’ but
acquired new meanings ‘group of skilled workers, guild’

16. The sources of new words

are usually
divided into internal (productive) and
external.
The language of later periods absorbed
foreign words by the hundred and even made
use of foreign word components in word
formation.

17. The ratio between Germanic words and foreign word is: 30 % : 70 %

Germanic
words
Foreign Words

18. The importance of the surviving native words

The surviving native words belong to the most
frequent layer of words, and native components
are widely used in word-building, in word phrases
and phraseological units.
When the loan-words were assimilated by the
language they could yield other words through
word-formation or develop new meanings on British
soil.
e.g. the foreign root pass (from French passer) is
used in numerous composite verbs like pass away,
pass by, pass for, pass through, etc.; in
phraseological units like pass by the name of, pass a
remark, pass the ball; in derived and compound
words, e.g. passer-by, passing, pass-book.
All these words and phrases originated in the English
language and cannot be treated as borrowings,
though they contain the foreign component pass.

19. BORROWINGS IN THE ME PERIOD

Scandinavian
French
Latin

20. 3. Scandinavian Influence on the Vocabulary

21.

Scandinavian loans cause a meaning shift in
the original:
e.g., gift originally meant ‘payment for a wife’
but the ON had shifted and caused the change;
dream means ‘joy’ in OE, but becomes ‘vision in
sleep’ in ME;
Other shifts:
N die-E starve;
N skill-E craft;
N skin-E hide;
N ill-E sick.

22.

Norse
has supplied English with
the third person pronoun,
THEY/ THEM / THEIR.
The Present-Day English pronoun
SHE seems to derive from a blend
of OE hēo with a Norse-type
pronunciation
*hjō,
which
subsequently developed into ME
scho
(Northern)
and
sche
(Southern).

23.

24. 4. French Influence on the Vocabulary in Middle English

25. The French borrowings of the ME period

26. the words relating to the government and administration

27. Military, food, drink, fashion

28. Leisure, the arts, science, house

29. miscellaneous

30. different kinds of changes in the vocabulary

Firstly, there were many innovations, i.e. names of
new objects and concepts, which enlarged the
vocabulary by adding new items.
Secondly, there were numerous replacements of
native words by French equivalents, which resulted
in a shift in the ratio of Germanic and Romance roots
in the language.
The influx of French words is one of the main
historical reasons for the abundance of synonyms in
Mod E. The difference often lies in their stylistic
connotations: French loan-words preserve a more
bookish, literary character
French commence — native begin, conceal — hide,
prevent — hinder, search — look for, odour — smell,
desire — wish.
The vocabulary was also enriched by the adoption of
French affixes.

31.

32. 5. Borrowings from Latin in the Middle English period

33. Borrowings from Latin

The
Latin language continued to
be used in England all through
the OE and ME.
The main spheres of the Latin
language were the Church, the
law
courts
and
academic
activities.

34.

35. 6. New Word Formation

36. New Word Formation

New compounds in -er were especially frequent in
the 14th c.:
e.g. bricklayer, housekeeper, moneymaker, soothsayer.
Compounds of the type he-lamb date from c.1300.
Adjectives examples include:
e.g. luke-warm, moth-eaten, new-born, red-hot.
Phrasal verbs: go out, (alongside outgo), fall bybefallen.
Affixation: Only a few prefixes of OE continued into
ME. But new affixes appeared instead. The suffix able from such French borrowings as admirable,
tolerable, came to be used with native Germanic
roots as well: eatable, readable, bearable. Similarly,
the Romance prefixes re-, en- in the words rewrite,
endear.
Conversely, the native affixes were used with foreign
roots: beautiful, charming, unfaithful.

37. New Word Formation

The
development of conversion as a new type
of derivation. Owing to the levelling of endings
and the loss of -n in unstressed syllables
e.g. OE ende and endian > ME ende [‘endə]. OE
lufu and lufian > ME love [‘luvə].
Such cases of homonymy served as models for
the creation of new nouns from verbs (smile v.—
smile n.) and vice versa (chance n. chance v.).
Words which came into the language through
prefixation can be seen in dis- items found in
Chaucer:
e.g., disceyven — deceive; discorden — disagree;
discuren — discover; disgysen —disguise.

38. SEMANTIC CHANGES IN THE LEXIS

39. Conclusion

Scandinavian,
French, and Latin have a
unique relationship with English, noticeable
in all the kinds of borrowings.
French
has an enormous influence on
different
spheres
of
Middle
English
vocabulary, which makes Middle English look
very different from Old English.
Scandinavian
influences
the
grammar,
especially personal pronouns.
Latin went on influencing the religious and
educational life of Middle English.

Middle English
Englisch, English, Inglis
A page from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Region	England (except for west Cornwall), some localities in the eastern fringe of Wales, south east Scotland and Scottish burghs, to some extent Ireland
Era	developed into Early Modern English, Scots, and Yola and Fingallian in Ireland by the 16th century
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Middle English
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Old English
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	enm
ISO 639-3	enm
ISO 639-6	meng
Glottolog	midd1317
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Middle English (abbreviated to ME^[1]) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the Oxford English Dictionary specifies the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500.^[2] This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages.

Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English language became fragmented, localized, and was, for the most part, being improvised.^[2] By the end of the period (about 1470) and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439, a standard based on the London dialects (Chancery Standard) had become established. This largely formed the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by Early Modern English, which lasted until about 1650. Scots developed concurrently from a variant of the Northumbrian dialect (prevalent in northern England and spoken in southeast Scotland).

During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became simplified or disappeared altogether. Noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified by the reduction (and eventual elimination) of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw considerable adoption of Norman vocabulary, especially in the areas of politics, law, the arts, and religion, as well as poetic and emotive diction. Conventional English vocabulary remained primarily Germanic in its sources, with Old Norse influences becoming more apparent. Significant changes in pronunciation took place, particularly involving long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift.

Little survives of early Middle English literature, due in part to Norman domination and the prestige that came with writing in French rather than English. During the 14th century, a new style of literature emerged with the works of writers including John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales remains the most studied and read work of the period.^[4]

History[edit]

Transition from Old English[edit]

The transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English occurred at some point during the 12th century.

The influence of Old Norse aided the development of English from a synthetic language with relatively free word order, to a more analytic or isolating language with a more strict word order.^[2][5] Both Old English and Old Norse (as well as the descendants of the latter, Faroese and Icelandic) were synthetic languages with complicated inflections. The eagerness of Vikings in the Danelaw to communicate with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours resulted in the erosion of inflection in both languages.^[5][6] Old Norse may have had a more profound impact on Middle and Modern English development than any other language.^[7][8][9] Simeon Potter says: «No less far-reaching was the influence of Scandinavian upon the inflexional endings of English in hastening that wearing away and leveling of grammatical forms which gradually spread from north to south.»^[10]

Viking influence on Old English is most apparent in the more indispensable elements of the language. Pronouns, modals, comparatives, pronominal adverbs (like «hence» and «together»), conjunctions and prepositions show the most marked Danish influence. The best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in extensive word borrowings, yet no texts exist in either Scandinavia or in Northern England from this period to give certain evidence of an influence on syntax. However, at least one scholarly study of this influence shows that Old English may have been replaced entirely by Norse, by virtue of the change from the Old English syntax to Norse syntax.^[11] The effect of Old Norse on Old English was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character.^[5][6] Like close cousins, Old Norse and Old English resembled each other, and with some words in common, they roughly understood each other;^[6] in time the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged.^[8][12] It is most «important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages that only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to much confusion, tending gradually to become obscured and finally lost.» This blending of peoples and languages resulted in «simplifying English grammar.»^[5]

While the influence of Scandinavian languages was strongest in the dialects of the Danelaw region and Scotland, words in the spoken language emerge in the 10th and 11th centuries near the transition from the Old to Middle English. Influence on the written language only appeared at the beginning of the 13th century, likely because of a scarcity of literary texts from an earlier date.^[5]

The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 saw the replacement of the top levels of the English-speaking political and ecclesiastical hierarchies by Norman rulers who spoke a dialect of Old French known as Old Norman, which developed in England into Anglo-Norman. The use of Norman as the preferred language of literature and polite discourse fundamentally altered the role of Old English in education and administration, even though many Normans of this period were illiterate and depended on the clergy for written communication and record-keeping. A significant number of words of Norman origin began to appear in the English language alongside native English words of similar meaning, giving rise to such Modern English synonyms as pig/pork, chicken/poultry, calf/veal, cow/beef, sheep/mutton, wood/forest, house/mansion, worthy/valuable, bold/courageous, freedom/liberty, sight/vision, and eat/dine.

The role of Anglo-Norman as the language of government and law can be seen in the abundance of Modern English words for the mechanisms of government that are derived from Anglo-Norman: court, judge, jury, appeal, parliament. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the chivalric cultures that arose in the 12th century; an era of feudalism, seigneurialism and crusading.

Words were often taken from Latin, usually through French transmission. This gave rise to various synonyms including kingly (inherited from Old English), royal (from French, which inherited it from Vulgar Latin), and regal (from French, which borrowed it from classical Latin). Later French appropriations were derived from standard, rather than Norman, French. Examples of resultant cognate pairs include the words warden (from Norman), and guardian (from later French; both share a common Germanic ancestor).

The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not result in immediate changes to the language. The general population would have spoken the same dialects as they had before the Conquest. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, only dialects that derived from the dialects of the same regions in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Early Middle English[edit]

Early Middle English (1150–1300)^[13] has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary (with many Norse borrowings in the northern parts of the country), but a greatly simplified inflectional system. The grammatical relations that were expressed in Old English by the dative and instrumental cases are replaced in Early Middle English with prepositional constructions. The Old English genitive —es survives in the -‘s of the modern English possessive, but most of the other case endings disappeared in the Early Middle English period, including most of the roughly one dozen forms of the definite article («the»). The dual personal pronouns (denoting exactly two) also disappeared from English during this period.

Gradually, the wealthy and the government Anglicised again, although Norman (and subsequently French) remained the dominant language of literature and law until the 14th century, even after the loss of the majority of the continental possessions of the English monarchy. The loss of case endings was part of a general trend from inflections to fixed word order that also occurred in other Germanic languages (though more slowly and to a lesser extent), and therefore it cannot be attributed simply to the influence of French-speaking sections of the population: English did, after all, remain the vernacular. It is also argued^[14] that Norse immigrants to England had a great impact on the loss of inflectional endings in Middle English. One argument is that, although Norse- and English-speakers were somewhat comprehensible to each other due to similar morphology, the Norse-speakers’ inability to reproduce the ending sounds of English words influenced Middle English’s loss of inflectional endings.

Important texts for the reconstruction of the evolution of Middle English out of Old English are the Peterborough Chronicle, which continued to be compiled up to 1154; the Ormulum, a biblical commentary probably composed in Lincolnshire in the second half of the 12th century, incorporating a unique phonetic spelling system; and the Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group, religious texts written for anchoresses, apparently in the West Midlands in the early 13th century.^[15] The language found in the last two works is sometimes called the AB language.

More literary sources of the 12th and 13th centuries include Layamon’s Brut and The Owl and the Nightingale.

Some scholars^[16] have defined «Early Middle English» as encompassing English texts up to 1350. This longer time frame would extend the corpus to include many Middle English Romances (especially those of the Auchinleck manuscript c. 1330).

14th century[edit]

From around the early 14th century, there was significant migration into London, particularly from the counties of the East Midlands, and a new prestige London dialect began to develop, based chiefly on the speech of the East Midlands, but also influenced by that of other regions.^[17] The writing of this period, however, continues to reflect a variety of regional forms of English. The Ayenbite of Inwyt, a translation of a French confessional prose work, completed in 1340, is written in a Kentish dialect. The best known writer of Middle English, Geoffrey Chaucer, wrote in the second half of the 14th century in the emerging London dialect, although he also portrays some of his characters as speaking in northern dialects, as in the «Reeve’s Tale».

In the English-speaking areas of lowland Scotland, an independent standard was developing, based on the Northumbrian dialect. This would develop into what came to be known as the Scots language.

A large number of terms for abstract concepts were adopted directly from scholastic philosophical Latin (rather than via French). Examples are «absolute», «act», «demonstration», «probable».^[18]

Late Middle English[edit]

The Chancery Standard of written English emerged c. 1430 in official documents that, since the Norman Conquest, had normally been written in French.^[17] Like Chaucer’s work, this new standard was based on the East-Midlands-influenced speech of London. Clerks using this standard were usually familiar with French and Latin, influencing the forms they chose. The Chancery Standard, which was adopted slowly, was used in England by bureaucrats for most official purposes, excluding those of the Church and legalities, which used Latin and Law French (and some Latin), respectively.

The Chancery Standard’s influence on later forms of written English is disputed, but it did undoubtedly provide the core around which Early Modern English formed.^{[citation needed]} Early Modern English emerged with the help of William Caxton’s printing press, developed during the 1470s. The press stabilized English through a push towards standardization, led by Chancery Standard enthusiast and writer Richard Pynson.^[19] Early Modern English began in the 1540s after the printing and wide distribution of the English Bible and Prayer Book, which made the new standard of English publicly recognizable, and lasted until about 1650.

Phonology[edit]

The main changes between the Old English sound system and that of Middle English include:

• Emergence of the voiced fricatives /v/, /ð/, /z/ as separate phonemes, rather than mere allophones of the corresponding voiceless fricatives.
• Reduction of the Old English diphthongs to monophthongs, and the emergence of new diphthongs due to vowel breaking in certain positions, change of Old English post-vocalic /j/, /w/ (sometimes resulting from the [ɣ] allophone of /ɡ/) to offglides, and borrowing from French.
• Merging of Old English /æ/ and /ɑ/ into a single vowel /a/.
• Raising of the long vowel /æː/ to /ɛː/.
• Rounding of /ɑː/ to /ɔː/ in the southern dialects.
• Unrounding of the front rounded vowels in most dialects.
• Lengthening of vowels in open syllables (and in certain other positions). The resultant long vowels (and other pre-existing long vowels) subsequently underwent changes of quality in the Great Vowel Shift, which began during the later Middle English period.
• Loss of gemination (double consonants came to be pronounced as single ones).
• Loss of weak final vowels (schwa, written ⟨e⟩). By Chaucer’s time this vowel was silent in normal speech, although it was normally pronounced in verse as the meter required (much as occurs in modern French). Also, non-final unstressed ⟨e⟩ was dropped when adjacent to only a single consonant on either side if there was another short ⟨e⟩ in an adjoining syllable. Thus, every began to be pronounced as evry, and palmeres as palmers.

The combination of the last three processes listed above led to the spelling conventions associated with silent ⟨e⟩ and doubled consonants (see under Orthography, below).

Morphology[edit]

Nouns[edit]

Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from the more complex system of inflection in Old English:

Middle English nouns

Nouns	Strong nouns	Weak nouns
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-(e)	—es	—e	—en
Accusative	—en
Genitive	—es[20]	—e(ne)[21]
Dative	—e	—e(s)

Nouns of the weak declension are primarily inherited from Old English n-stem nouns, but also from ō-stem, wō-stem and u-stem nouns,^{[citation needed]} which did not inflect in the same way as n-stem nouns in Old English, but joined the weak declension in Middle English. Nouns of the strong declension are inherited from the other Old English noun stem classes.

Some nouns of the strong type have an -e in the nominative/accusative singular, like the weak declension, but otherwise strong endings. Often these are the same nouns that had an -e in the nominative/accusative singular of Old English (they, in turn, were inherited from Proto-Germanic ja-stem and i-stem nouns).

The distinct dative case was lost in early Middle English. The genitive survived, however, but by the end of the Middle English period, only the strong -‘s ending (variously spelt) was in use.^[22] Some formerly feminine nouns, as well as some weak nouns, continued to make their genitive forms with -e or no ending (e.g. fole hoves, horses’ hooves), and nouns of relationship ending in -er frequently have no genitive ending (e.g. fader bone, «father’s bane»).^[23]

The strong -(e)s plural form has survived into Modern English. The weak -(e)n form is now rare and used only in oxen and, as part of a double plural, in children and brethren. Some dialects still have forms such as eyen (for eyes), shoon (for shoes), hosen (for hose(s)), kine (for cows), and been (for bees).

Grammatical gender survived to a limited extent in early Middle English,^[23] before being replaced by natural gender in the course of the Middle English period. Grammatical gender was indicated by agreement of articles and pronouns, i.e. þo ule («the-feminine owl») or using the pronoun he to refer to masculine nouns such as helm («helmet»), or phrases such as scaft stærcne (strong shaft) with the masculine accusative adjective ending -ne.^[24]

Adjectives[edit]

Single syllable adjectives add -e when modifying a noun in the plural and when used after the definite article (þe), after a demonstrative (þis, þat), after a possessive pronoun (e.g. hir, our), or with a name or in a form of address. This derives from the Old English «weak» declension of adjectives.^[25] This inflexion continued to be used in writing even after final -e had ceased to be pronounced.^[26] In earlier texts, multi-syllable adjectives also receive a final -e in these situations, but this occurs less regularly in later Middle English texts. Otherwise adjectives have no ending, and adjectives already ending in -e etymologically receive no ending as well.^[26]

Earlier texts sometimes inflect adjectives for case as well. Layamon’s Brut inflects adjectives for the masculine accusative, genitive, and dative, the feminine dative, and the plural genitive.^[27] The Owl and the Nightingale adds a final -e to all adjectives not in the nominative, here only inflecting adjectives in the weak declension (as described above).^[28]

Comparatives and superlatives are usually formed by adding -er and -est. Adjectives with long vowels sometimes shorten these vowels in the comparative and superlative, e.g. greet (great) gretter (greater).^[28] Adjectives ending in -ly or -lich form comparatives either with -lier, -liest or -loker, -lokest.^[28] A few adjectives also display Germanic umlaut in their comparatives and superlatives, such as long, lenger.^[28] Other irregular forms are mostly the same as in modern English.^[28]

Pronouns[edit]

Middle English personal pronouns were mostly developed from those of Old English, with the exception of the third-person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped). Also, the nominative form of the feminine third-person singular was replaced by a form of the demonstrative that developed into sche (modern she), but the alternative heyr remained in some areas for a long time.

As with nouns, there was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English dual forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms. Third-person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: the masculine hine was replaced by him south of the Thames by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative him was ousted by it in most dialects by the 15th.^[29]

The following table shows some of the various Middle English pronouns. Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources because of differences in spellings and pronunciations at different times and in different dialects.^[30]

Middle English personal pronouns

Personal pronouns	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	ic, ich, I	we	þeou, þ(o)u, tu	ye	he	hit	s(c)he(o)	he(o)/ þei
Accusative	mi	(o)us	þe	eow, eou, yow, gu, you	hine	heo, his, hi(r)e	his/ þem
Dative	him	him	heo(m), þo/ þem
Possessive	min(en)	(o)ure, ures, ure(n)	þi, ti	eower, yower, gur, eour	his, hes	his	heo(re), hio, hire	he(o)re/ þeir
Genitive	min, mire, minre	oures	þin, þyn	youres	his
Reflexive	min one, mi selven	us self, ous-silve	þeself, þi selven	you-self/ you-selve	him-selven	hit-sulve	heo-seolf	þam-selve/ þem-selve

Verbs[edit]

As a general rule, the indicative first person singular of verbs in the present tense ends in -e (ich here, ‘I hear’), the second person in -(e)st (þou spekest, ‘thou speakest’), and the third person in -eþ (he comeþ, ‘he cometh/he comes’). (þ (the letter ‘thorn’) is pronounced like the unvoiced th in «think», but, under certain circumstances, it may be like the voiced th in «that»). The following table illustrates a typical conjugation pattern:^[31][32]

Middle English verb inflection

Verbs inflection	Infinitive	Present	Past
Participle	Singular	Plural	Participle	Singular	Plural
1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Regular verbs
Strong	-en	-ende, -ynge	-e	-est	-eþ (-es)	-en (-es, -eþ)	i- -en	—	-e (-est)	—	-en
Weak	-ed	-ede	-edest	-ede	-eden
Irregular verbs
Been «be»	been	beende, beynge	am	art	is	aren	ibeen	was	wast	was	weren
be	bist	biþ	beth, been	were
Cunnen «can»	cunnen	cunnende, cunnynge	can	canst	can	cunnen	cunned, coud	coude, couthe	coudest, couthest	coude, couthe	couden, couthen
Don «do»	don	doende, doynge	do	dost	doþ	doþ, don	idon	didde	didst	didde	didden
Douen «be good for»	douen	douende, douynge	deigh	deight	deigh	douen	idought	dought	doughtest	dought	doughten
Durren «dare»	durren	durrende, durrynge	dar	darst	dar	durren	durst, dirst	durst	durstest	durst	dursten
Gon «go»	gon	goende, goynge	go	gost	goþ	goþ, gon	igon(gen)	wend, yede, yode	wendest, yedest, yodest	wende, yede, yode	wenden, yeden, yoden
Haven «have»	haven	havende, havynge	have	hast	haþ	haven	ihad	hadde	haddest	hadde	hadden
Moten «must»	—	—	mot	must	mot	moten	—	muste	mustest	muste	musten
Mowen «may»	mowen	mowende, mowynge	may	myghst	may	mowen	imought	mighte	mightest	mighte	mighten
Owen «owe, ought»	owen	owende, owynge	owe	owest	owe	owen	iowen	owed	ought	owed	ought
Schulen «should»	—	—	schal	schalt	schal	schulen	—	scholde	scholdest	scholde	scholde
Þurven «need»	—	—	þarf	þarst	þarf	þurven	—	þurft	þurst	þurft	þurften
Willen «want»	willen	willende, willynge	will	wilt	will	wollen	—	wolde	woldest	wolde	wolden
Witen «know»	witen	witende, witynge	woot	woost	woot	witen	iwiten	wiste	wistest	wiste	wisten

Plural forms vary strongly by dialect, with Southern dialects preserving the Old English -eþ, Midland dialects showing -en from about 1200 and Northern forms using -es in the third person singular as well as the plural.^[33]

The past tense of weak verbs is formed by adding an -ed(e), -d(e) or -t(e) ending. The past-tense forms, without their personal endings, also serve as past participles with past-participle prefixes derived from Old English: i-, y- and sometimes bi-.

Strong verbs, by contrast, form their past tense by changing their stem vowel (binden becomes bound, a process called apophony), as in Modern English.

Orthography[edit]

With the discontinuation of the Late West Saxon standard used for the writing of Old English in the period prior to the Norman Conquest, Middle English came to be written in a wide variety of scribal forms, reflecting different regional dialects and orthographic conventions. Later in the Middle English period, however, and particularly with the development of the Chancery Standard in the 15th century, orthography became relatively standardised in a form based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Spelling at the time was mostly quite regular (there was a fairly consistent correspondence between letters and sounds). The irregularity of present-day English orthography is largely due to pronunciation changes that have taken place over the Early Modern English and Modern English eras.

Middle English generally did not have silent letters. For example, knight was pronounced [ˈkniçt] (with both the ⟨k⟩ and the ⟨gh⟩ pronounced, the latter sounding as the ⟨ch⟩ in German Knecht). The major exception was the silent ⟨e⟩ – originally pronounced, but lost in normal speech by Chaucer’s time. This letter, however, came to indicate a lengthened – and later also modified – pronunciation of a preceding vowel. For example, in name, originally pronounced as two syllables, the /a/ in the first syllable (originally an open syllable) lengthened, the final weak vowel was later dropped, and the remaining long vowel was modified in the Great Vowel Shift (for these sound changes, see under Phonology, above). The final ⟨e⟩, now silent, thus became the indicator of the longer and changed pronunciation of ⟨a⟩. In fact vowels could have this lengthened and modified pronunciation in various positions, particularly before a single consonant letter and another vowel, or before certain pairs of consonants.

A related convention involved the doubling of consonant letters to show that the preceding vowel was not to be lengthened. In some cases the double consonant represented a sound that was (or had previously been) geminated, i.e. had genuinely been «doubled» (and would thus have regularly blocked the lengthening of the preceding vowel). In other cases, by analogy, the consonant was written double merely to indicate the lack of lengthening.

Alphabet[edit]

The basic Old English Latin alphabet had consisted of 20 standard letters plus four additional letters: ash ⟨æ⟩, eth ⟨ð⟩, thorn ⟨þ⟩ and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩. There was not yet a distinct j, v or w, and Old English scribes did not generally use k, q or z.

Ash was no longer required in Middle English, as the Old English vowel /æ/ that it represented had merged into /a/. The symbol nonetheless came to be used as a ligature for the digraph ⟨ae⟩ in many words of Greek or Latin origin, as did ⟨œ⟩ for ⟨oe⟩.

Eth and thorn both represented /θ/ or its allophone /ð/ in Old English. Eth fell out of use during the 13th century and was replaced by thorn. Thorn mostly fell out of use during the 14th century, and was replaced by ⟨th⟩. Anachronistic usage of the scribal abbreviation (þe, i.e. «the») has led to the modern mispronunciation of thorn as ⟨y⟩ in this context; see ye olde.^[34]

Wynn, which represented the phoneme /w/, was replaced by ⟨w⟩ during the 13th century. Due to its similarity to the letter ⟨p⟩, it is mostly represented by ⟨w⟩ in modern editions of Old and Middle English texts even when the manuscript has wynn.

Under Norman influence, the continental Carolingian minuscule replaced the insular script that had been used for Old English. However, because of the significant difference in appearance between the old insular g and the Carolingian g (modern g), the former continued in use as a separate letter, known as yogh, written ⟨ȝ⟩. This was adopted for use to represent a variety of sounds: [ɣ], [j], [dʒ], [x], [ç], while the Carolingian g was normally used for [g]. Instances of yogh were eventually replaced by ⟨j⟩ or ⟨y⟩, and by ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and laugh. In Middle Scots yogh became indistinguishable from cursive z, and printers tended to use ⟨z⟩ when yogh was not available in their fonts; this led to new spellings (often giving rise to new pronunciations), as in McKenzie, where the ⟨z⟩ replaced a yogh which had the pronunciation /j/.

Under continental influence, the letters ⟨k⟩, ⟨q⟩ and ⟨z⟩, which had not normally been used by Old English scribes, came to be commonly used in the writing of Middle English. Also the newer Latin letter ⟨w⟩ was introduced (replacing wynn). The distinct letter forms ⟨v⟩ and ⟨u⟩ came into use, but were still used interchangeably; the same applies to ⟨j⟩ and ⟨i⟩.^[35] (For example, spellings such as wijf and paradijs for wife and paradise can be found in Middle English.)

The consonantal ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ was sometimes used to transliterate the Hebrew letter yodh, representing the palatal approximant sound /j/ (and transliterated in Greek by iota and in Latin by ⟨i⟩); words like Jerusalem, Joseph, etc. would have originally followed the Latin pronunciation beginning with /j/, that is, the sound of ⟨y⟩ in yes. In some words, however, notably from Old French, ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ was used for the affricate consonant /dʒ/, as in joie (modern «joy»), used in Wycliffe’s Bible.^[36][37] This was similar to the geminate sound [ddʒ], which had been represented as ⟨cg⟩ in Old English. By the time of Modern English, the sound came to be written as ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ at the start of words (like joy), and usually as ⟨dg⟩ elsewhere (as in bridge). It could also be written, mainly in French loanwords, as ⟨g⟩, with the adoption of the soft G convention (age, page, etc.)

Other symbols[edit]

Many scribal abbreviations were also used. It was common for the Lollards to abbreviate the name of Jesus (as in Latin manuscripts) to ihc. The letters ⟨n⟩ and ⟨m⟩ were often omitted and indicated by a macron above an adjacent letter, so for example in could be written as ī. A thorn with a superscript ⟨t⟩ or ⟨e⟩ could be used for that and the; the thorn here resembled a ⟨Y⟩, giving rise to the ye of «Ye Olde». Various forms of the ampersand replaced the word and.

Numbers were still always written using Roman numerals, except for some rare occurrences of Arabic numerals during the 15th century.

Letter-to-sound correspondences[edit]

Although Middle English spelling was never fully standardised, the following table shows the pronunciations most usually represented by particular letters and digraphs towards the end of the Middle English period, using the notation given in the article on Middle English phonology.^[38] As explained above, single vowel letters had alternative pronunciations depending on whether they were in a position where their sounds had been subject to lengthening. Long vowel pronunciations were in flux due to the beginnings of the Great Vowel Shift.

Symbol	Description and notes
a	/a/, or in lengthened positions /aː/, becoming [æː] by about 1500. Sometimes /au/ before ⟨l⟩ or nasals (see Late Middle English diphthongs).
ai, ay	/ai/ (alternatively denoted by /ɛi/; see vein–vain merger).
au, aw	/au/
b	/b/, but in later Middle English became silent in words ending -mb (while some words that never had a /b/ sound came to be spelt -mb by analogy; see reduction of /mb/).
c	/k/, but /s/ (earlier /ts/) before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩ (see C and hard and soft C for details).
ch	/tʃ/
ck	/k/, replaced earlier ⟨kk⟩ as the doubled form of ⟨k⟩ (for the phenomenon of doubling, see above).
d	/d/
e	/e/, or in lengthened positions /eː/ or sometimes /ɛː/ (see ee). For silent ⟨e⟩, see above.
ea	Rare, for /ɛː/ (see ee).
ee	/eː/, becoming [iː] by about 1500; or /ɛː/, becoming [eː] by about 1500. In Early Modern English the latter vowel came to be commonly written ⟨ea⟩. The two vowels later merged.
ei, ey	Sometimes the same as ⟨ai⟩; sometimes /ɛː/ or /eː/ (see also fleece merger).
ew	Either /ɛu/ or /iu/ (see Late Middle English diphthongs; these later merged).
f	/f/
g	/ɡ/, or /dʒ/ before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩ (see ⟨g⟩ for details). The ⟨g⟩ in initial gn- was still pronounced.
gh	[ç] or [x], post-vowel allophones of /h/ (this was formerly one of the uses of yogh). The ⟨gh⟩ is often retained in Chancery spellings even though the sound was starting to be lost.
h	/h/ (except for the allophones for which ⟨gh⟩ was used). Also used in several digraphs (⟨ch⟩, ⟨th⟩, etc.). In some French loanwords, such as horrible, the ⟨h⟩ was silent.
i, j	As a vowel, /i/, or in lengthened positions /iː/, which had started to be diphthongised by about 1500. As a consonant, /dʒ/ ( (corresponding to modern ⟨j⟩); see above).
ie	Used sometimes for /ɛː/ (see ee).
k	/k/, used particularly in positions where ⟨c⟩ would be softened. Also used in ⟨kn⟩ at the start of words; here both consonants were still pronounced.
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/, including its allophone [ŋ] (before /k/, /g/).
o	/o/, or in lengthened positions /ɔː/ or sometimes /oː/ (see oo). Sometimes /u/, as in sone (modern son); the ⟨o⟩ spelling was often used rather than ⟨u⟩ when adjacent to i, m, n, v, w for legibility, i.e. to avoid a succession of vertical strokes.[39]
oa	Rare, for /ɔː/ (became commonly used in Early Modern English).
oi, oy	/ɔi/ or /ui/ (see Late Middle English diphthongs; these later merged).
oo	/oː/, becoming [uː] by about 1500; or /ɔː/.
ou, ow	Either /uː/, which had started to be diphthongised by about 1500, or /ɔu/.
p	/p/
qu	/kw/
r	/r/
s	/s/, sometimes /z/ (formerly [z] was an allophone of /s/). Also appeared as ſ (long s).
sch, sh	/ʃ/
t	/t/
th	/θ/ or /ð/ (which had previously been allophones of a single phoneme), replacing earlier eth and thorn, although thorn was still sometimes used.
u, v	Used interchangeably. As a consonant, /v/. As a vowel, /u/, or /iu/ in «lengthened» positions (although it had generally not gone through the same lengthening process as other vowels – see history of /iu/).
w	/w/ (replaced Old English wynn).
wh	/hw/ (see English ⟨wh⟩).
x	/ks/
y	As a consonant, /j/ (earlier this was one of the uses of yogh). Sometimes also /g/. As a vowel, the same as ⟨i⟩, where ⟨y⟩ is often preferred beside letters with downstrokes.
z	/z/ (in Scotland sometimes used as a substitute for yogh; see above).

Sample texts[edit]

Most of the following Modern English translations are poetic sense-for-sense translations, not word-for-word translations.

Ormulum, 12th century[edit]

This passage explains the background to the Nativity (3494–501):^[40]

Forrþrihht anan se time commþatt ure Drihhtin wolldeben borenn i þiss middellærdforr all mannkinne nedehe chæs himm sone kinnessmennall swillke summ he wolldeand whær he wollde borenn benhe chæs all att hiss wille.

Forthwith when the time camethat our Lord wantedbe born in this earthfor all mankind sake,He chose kinsmen for Himself,all just as he wanted,and where He would be bornHe chose exactly as He wished.

Epitaph of John the smyth, died 1371[edit]

An epitaph from a monumental brass in an Oxfordshire parish church:^[41][42]

Original text	Word-for-word translation into Modern English	Translation by Patricia Utechin[42]
man com & se how schal alle dede li: wen þow comes bad & barenoth hab ven ve awaẏ fare: All ẏs wermēs þt ve for care:—bot þt ve do for godẏs luf ve haue nothyng yare:hundyr þis graue lẏs John þe smẏth god yif his soule heuen grit	Man, come and see how shall all dead lie: when thou comes bad and barenaught have we away fare: all is worms that we for care:—but that we do for God’s love, we have nothing ready:under this grave lies John the smith, God give his soul heaven great	Man, come and see how all dead men shall lie: when that comes bad and bare,we have nothing when we away fare: all that we care for is worms:—except for that which we do for God’s sake, we have nothing ready:under this grave lies John the smith, God give his soul heavenly peace

Wycliffe’s Bible, 1384[edit]

From the Wycliffe’s Bible, (1384):

Luke 8:1-3

First version	Second version	Translation
1And it was don aftirward, and Jhesu made iorney by citees and castelis, prechinge and euangelysinge þe rewme of God, 2and twelue wiþ him; and summe wymmen þat weren heelid of wickide spiritis and syknessis, Marie, þat is clepid Mawdeleyn, of whom seuene deuelis wenten 3 out, and Jone, þe wyf of Chuse, procuratour of Eroude, and Susanne, and manye oþere, whiche mynystriden to him of her riches.	1And it was don aftirward, and Jhesus made iourney bi citees and castels, prechynge and euangelisynge þe rewme of 2God, and twelue wiþ hym; and sum wymmen þat weren heelid of wickid spiritis and sijknessis, Marie, þat is clepid Maudeleyn, of whom seuene deuelis 3wenten out, and Joone, þe wijf of Chuse, þe procuratoure of Eroude, and Susanne, and many oþir, þat mynystriden to hym of her ritchesse.	1And it happened afterwards, that Jesus made a journey through cities and settlements, preaching and evangelising the realm of 2God: and with him The Twelve; and some women that were healed of wicked spirits and sicknesses; Mary who is called Magdalen, from whom 3seven devils went out; and Joanna the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod; and Susanna, and many others, who administered to Him out of their own means.

Chaucer, 1390s[edit]

The following is the very beginning of the General Prologue from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The text was written in a dialect associated with London and spellings associated with the then-emergent Chancery Standard.

First 18 lines of the General Prologue

Original in Middle English	Word-for-word translation into Modern English[43]	Translation into Modern U.K. English prose[44]
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote	When [that] April with his showers sweet	When April with its sweet showers
The droȝte of March hath perced to the roote	The drought of March has pierced to the root	has drenched March’s drought to the roots,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,	And bathed every vein in such liquor,	filling every capillary with nourishing sap
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;	From which goodness is engendered the flower;	prompting the flowers to grow,
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth	When Zephyrus even with his sweet breath	and when Zephyrus with his sweet breath
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth	Inspired has in every holt and heath	has coaxed in every wood and dale, to sprout
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne	The tender crops; and the young sun	the tender plants, as the springtime sun
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,	Has in the Ram his half-course run,	passes halfway through the sign of Aries,
And smale foweles maken melodye,	And small birds make melodies,	and small birds that chirp melodies,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye	That sleep all night with open eyes	sleep all night with half-open eyes
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);	(So Nature prompts them in their boldness);	their spirits thus aroused by Nature;
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages	Then folk long to go on pilgrimages.	it is at these times that people desire to go on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes	And pilgrims (palmers) [for] to seek new strands	and pilgrims (palmers) seek new shores
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;	To far-off shrines (hallows), respected in sundry lands;	and distant shrines venerated in other places.
And specially from every shires ende	And specially from every shire’s end	Particularly from every county
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,	Of England, to Canterbury they wend,	of England, they go to Canterbury,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke	The holy blissful martyr [for] to seek,	in order to visit the holy blessed martyr,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.	That has helped them, when [that] they were sick.	who has helped them when they were unwell.

Gower, 1390[edit]

The following is the beginning of the Prologue from Confessio Amantis by John Gower.

Original in Middle English	Near word-for-word translation into Modern English:	Translation into Modern English: (by Richard Brodie)[45]
Of hem that written ous tofore The bokes duelle, and we therfore Ben tawht of that was write tho: Forthi good is that we also In oure tyme among ous hiere Do wryte of newe som matiere, Essampled of these olde wyse So that it myhte in such a wyse, Whan we ben dede and elleswhere, Beleve to the worldes eere In tyme comende after this. Bot for men sein, and soth it is, That who that al of wisdom writ It dulleth ofte a mannes wit To him that schal it aldai rede, For thilke cause, if that ye rede, I wolde go the middel weie And wryte a bok betwen the tweie, Somwhat of lust, somewhat of lore, That of the lasse or of the more Som man mai lyke of that I wryte:	Of them that wrote us before The books dwell, and we therefore Been taught of that was written then: For it is good that we also In our time among us here Do write some new matter, Exemplified by these old ways So that it might in such a way, When we be dead and elsewhere, Be left to the world’s ear In time coming after this. But for men say, and so it is, That who that all of wisdom writes It dulls often a man’s wit To him that shall it every day read, For that like cause, if that you read, I would go the middle way And write a book between the two, Somewhat of lust, somewhat of lore, That of the less or of the more Some man may like of that I write:	Of those who wrote before our lives Their precious legacy survives; From what was written then, we learn, And so it’s well that we in turn, In our allotted time on earth Do write anew some things of worth, Like those we from these sages cite, So that such in like manner might, When we have left this mortal sphere, Remain for all the world to hear In ages following our own. But it is so that men are prone To say that when one only reads Of wisdom all day long, one breeds A paucity of wit, and so If you agree I’ll choose to go Along a kind of middle ground Sometimes I’ll write of things profound, And sometimes for amusement’s sake A lighter path of pleasure take So all can something pleasing find.

Translation in Modern English: (by J. Dow)

Of those who wrote before we were born, books survive,

So we are taught what was written by them when they were alive.
So it’s good that we, in our times here on earth, write of new matters –
Following the example of our forefathers –
So that, in such a way, we may leave our knowledge to the world after we are dead and gone.
But it’s said, and it is true, that if one only reads of wisdom all day long
It often dulls one’s brains. So, if it’s alright with you,
I’ll take the middle route and write a book between the two –
Somewhat of amusement, and somewhat of fact.

In that way, somebody might, more or less, like that.

See also[edit]

• Medulla Grammatice (collection of glossaries)
• Middle English creole hypothesis
• Middle English Dictionary
• Middle English literature
• A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English

References[edit]

• Brunner, Karl (1962) Abriss der mittelenglischen Grammatik; 5. Auflage. Tübingen: M. Niemeyer (1st ed. Halle (Saale): M. Niemeyer, 1938)
• Brunner, Karl (1963) An Outline of Middle English Grammar; translated by Grahame Johnston. Oxford: Blackwell
• Burrow, J. A.; Turville-Petre, Thorlac (2005). A Book of Middle English (3 ed.). Blackwell.
• Mustanoja, Tauno (1960) «A Middle English Syntax. 1. Parts of Speech». Helsinki : Société néophilologique.

External links[edit]

• A. L. Mayhew and Walter William Skeat. A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580
• Middle English Glossary (archived 22 February 2012)
• Oliver Farrar Emerson, ed. (1915). A Middle English Reader. Internet Archive. Macmillan. With grammatical introduction, notes, and glossary.
• Middle English encyclopedia on Miraheze

Formation of New Words

• Middle English Period

Formation of New Words: Compounding

• Mostly nouns and adjectives
• Nouns:
• Noun + noun cheesecake, toadstool, bagpipe, nightmare
• Adjective + noun sweetheart, wildfire, quicksand
• Adverb + noun insight, afternoon, upland
• Noun + verb (new to ME) sunshine, nosebleed
• Verb + noun (also new) hangman, pastime, whirlwind
• Verb + adverb (new) runabout, lean-to
• Adverb + verb (new) outcome, outcast, upset
• French and Latin compounds (noun + adj) knight-errant, heir-apparent, sum total

Compounds (cont’d)

• Adjectives
• Noun + adjective threadbare, bloodred, headstrong
• Adjective + noun (rare) everyday
• Verbs
• Adverb + verb outline, uphold, overturn, underwrite
• Noun + verb (new) manhandle
• ‘Invisible’ Compounds
• Cockney (cock + egg), gossamer (goose + summer)
• Compounds treated as single words
• Dismal (Lat. Dies mali ‘evil days’)
• Porcupine (Fr. Porc espin ‘spiny pig’)

Affixing

• Lost OE affixes
• Ed- (again) replaced by re-
• With- (against) replaced by counter-
• El- (foreign), ymb- (around), to- (motion toward), -end (agent nouns)
• • survival in preexisting words: withstand, forsake, motherhood

New Affixes From French

• Prefixes
• Counter-, de-, in- (‘not’), inter-, mal-, re-
• Suffixes
• -able, -age, -al, -ery, -ess, -ify, -ist, -ity,
• -ment still used, but not likely for native roots (discernment, containment, but not understandment, knowment)

Minor Sources of New Words

• Clipping (removing syllables)
• Fray/affray, squire/esquire, stress/distress, peal/appeal, mend/amend
• Back Formation (coining a word by mistakenly assuming that an existing word is derived from it)
• Latin aspis (sing.) > asp
• ON foggy >fog
• OE dawning > dawn

Minor Sources (cont’d)

• Blends (Portmanteau Words)
• • deliberate in MnE (smog)
• • unconscious in ME:
• Scroll (escrow + roll)
• Scrawl (sprout + crawl)
• Quaver (quake + waver)
• From Names
• Jay (Lat. Gaius)
• Jacket (Fr. Jacques)
• Magnet (Magnesia)
• Scallion (Ascalo)
• Damson (Damascus)

Middle English

• Dialects
• Caxton & Printing
• Emergence of a Standard

Middle English Dialects

Studying Middle English Dialects

• Linguistic Atlas of Late Middle English (1350-1450)
• • late time period means lots of texts
• • according to the atlas, almost any Middle English written before 1430 considered “dialectal” by definition
• Some regions have more written documents than others
• Northern/North Midland English: very few sources before 1350
• Southern England: lots of material from 14th century on

Dot Maps

• Dot maps show where in an area (county, region, etc.) a certain spelling/pronunciation is used
• Each dot map displays the distribution of the set of forms specified in the map’s caption
• Places where each form has been found represented by black dots
• 3 dot sizes: large, medium, small (reflecting how dominant the particular form is in the given place)
• Lots of statistical variation

ME Dialects: The Basics (heavily generalized!)

• Northern
• Much Norse settlement, reconquest by English in early 10th century — all-Norse settlements learned English quickly, badly
• Rapid development, decay of inflections
• Þey, þem, þeir (with y for þ, and spelling variants)
• Bot fals anticristes he sall yaim call
• (cf. Southern hy, hem, her)
• Verbs in -es, not —eþ (sing.), -en (plur.)
• He loves, þey loven
• Present participle in -ande, -ende
• (goande, not going)
• Brut (historical poem)

ME Dialects: The Basics (cont’d)

• East and West Midlands
• -en in plural verbs
• They loven
• Þey, hem, here in 3rd pers. plural
• He shal hem calle
• Þei lyuen in falce trouþe
• West Midland
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Piers Plowman
• East Midland
• Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower

ME Dialects: The Basics (cont’d)

• Southern
• Persistence of ʒ
• He schal saye thanne ryʒt to cristene man
• Heo/ho for she
• Hy, hem, here in 3rd person plur.
• Voicing of fricatives
• For > vor
• Seggen pronounced /zɛǰən/
• -eþ in most verbs (sg./plur.)
• The Owl and the Nightingale (allegorical poem)
• Ancrene Riwle (rule for anchoresses)

ME Dialects: The Basics (cont’d)

• Kentish (Southeastern)
• Similar to Southern, with some vowel differences
• Hy,hem, here in 3rd person plur.
• Voiced fricatives (vor)
• No major literary texts

Rise of London Standard (14th-15th centuries)

• written standard, spoken variation, but not complete variation (like today)
• But in the real world, variation in both written and spoken language
• East Midland dialect gradually merged with London

Reasons for Rise of London Standard

• (i) Midland dialects: middle position between North and South
• Southern dialect very conservative (slow to change), Northern very radical (quick to change) – Midlands in between — workable compromise
• (ii)East Midlands: largest, most populous area – fertile, prosperous agricultural area — larger, wealthier population — politically important throughout the Middle Ages and afterwards
• (iii)Influence of Oxford and Cambridge (14th century): role of monasteries decreasing, two universities rapidly developing – Cambridge, at least, would support East Midlands dialect

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

• role of Chaucer — popular in his day, popular throughout 15th century
• • but, slightly more conservative/ Southern than London dialect

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

• (v) role of London as capital city
• • political and commercial center of England
• • seat of royal court, law courts, social and intellectual activity
• • true in other languages: Parisian French, Castilian Spanish (Madrid)
• • much movement of people into and out of the city: government officials go out on business, others go to London on business
• • local speeches mixed together to form a new combination – visitors take away the influence of London speech — standard spreads
• • began as a Southern dialect, ended up more or less East Midlands

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

• (vi) Chancery (government writing office)
• • by c. 1450, had developed a consistent variety of London English
• • language of official use, influenced other writing

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

• (vii) Caxton & Printing
• • first printer in English
• • “I was born & lerned myn Englissh in Kente in the Weeld, where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude Englissh as is in ony place of Englond.”

Caxton/Printing (cont’d)

• Merchant/diplomat
• learned printing on the Continent
• introduced the press into England c. 1476, near Westminster Abbey
• printed Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, Malory, translated bestsellers from France and Burgundy

Caxton’s Spellings

• not easy for a writer and printer in 15th century to choose a version of English that would be acceptable to all readers
• Caxton describes difficulties when he printed English for the first time — he found he had used ‘strange terms’
• (see printed handout)
• for commercial reasons, he used the spelling of the London/East Midlands dialect

Caxton and Standardization

• For commercial reasons, Caxton and other printers settled for London English — privileging a dialect
• Used some foreign typesetters — confused by English spelling (silent -e or not? Often line length) — see handout
• Dutch influence: ghost, ghesse (guess)
• Caxton modernized orthography: eliminated ʒ, þ, ð
• Eventually, printing helped to fix the language on the page — sometimes forced a consensus, accounting for some oddities of English spelling:
• right, riht, rite, richt

Effects of Print

• printing made books available at a relatively low price — increased demand for books and literacy, especially among middle and lower classes
• In general, the middle classes didn’t have a classical education — wanted books in English rather than Latin or French
• To make Greek and Latin classics available to people who only knew English, they were translated into English
• translations led to the introduction of thousands of loanwords from Latin and Greek into English

Effects of Translation

• 15th c. — lots of translations, “half-chewed Latin”
• Hale sterne superne! Hale, in eterne stars on high
• In God’s sight to schyne!
• Lucerne in derne, for to discerne lamp
• Be glory and grace devyne;
• Hodiern, modern, sempitern. Present,current,eternal
• William Dunbar (ca. 1460- 1520), Hymn to the Blessed Virgin

Rise of London Standard

• Printed books made London English current and durable
• By 16th c. (EMnE), London English was prescribed:
• Ye shall therefore take the usuall speach of the Court, and that of London and the shires lying about London with lx. myles, and not much above.
• Anon. (attributed to Puttenham) The Arte of English Poesie (1589)
• Complete uniformity never attained, even in vocabulary (let alone accent) — dialects even today

Summary

• Formation of new words: Compounding, Affixing
• Minor Sources of new words
• Middle English Dialect
• Rise of London Standard
• Caxton/Printing
• Effects of prints
• Effects of Translation

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