Middle enlgish

Middle English
(1066 – 1475)

Before 1066
Scandinavian invasions
English was significantly
changed and simplified

Before 1066
the English kings were in exile; Edward the Confessor + William, Duke of Normandy;
In 1042 English kings regain the rule in England;
After Edward’s death Williams wants the throne, crosses the English Channel (October 14, the battle of Hastings).

The Norman Conquest
William becomes the King of England;
suppresses any signs of disobedience;
thousands of French-speakers come to England;
knowledge of French is the sign of higher standing and social prestige;
three languages: Latin, French and English.

The Norman Conquest
English is mostly spoken rather than written;
Rich literary tradition developed in OE is almost lost;
The first step to the come-back of the English language: 1258, King Henry III and his Proclamation

Various changes
spelling (set up the basis for the present-day English spelling);
a great number of borrowings;
grammar was simplified and virtually unaffected by the Conquest.

INTERESTING
English surnames appeared in ME:
OE – Œthelred, son of Alfred
the suffix -son: Johnson, Thompson;
Later – place names, occupation and even nationality.

Middle English Written Records
later entries made in Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the Peterborough Chronicle;
Ormulum, paraphrases of Gospels by the monk Orm;
a romance (a story about the adventures of knights) Brut by Layamon (part of which is about Arthur and his knights);
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, etc.

Changes in Orthography
French graphic habits were introduced;
specifically English sounds (marked by Runic letters) were replaced by digraphs.

Spelling Changes
OE cʒ [g’], then [dʒ] like in brycʒ was replaced with g, dg [dʒ] (native words) and j (borrowings): bridge
OE ligature æ [æ] in Œlfred fell into disuse: Alfred
OE Þ, ð [ð, Ɵ] in ðæt was replaced with th: that

Spelling changes
OE u [u:] hūs, ūt, lūfu, mūnuc could be replaced with ou, ow, o: ME hous [hu:s], how, cow [hu:]; [ku:]; love [luve]; monk [muŋk];
OE hw hwæt was reflected as ME what [hwat]

Spelling changes
OE o [o:] bōk was replaced with ME oo book [bo:k];
OE ē [e:] fēld, fēt was reflected in ME as either ie, ee, or e [e:]: field, feet

Spelling changes
OE c, sc [k’, sk’ , then tʃ, ʃ] scip, cild
were replaced with ch, sh (ssh, sch): ship, child;
OE c [k] cnāwan was substituted with k before consonants: knowen;
OE h [x, x’], [h] was reflected as h (he [he:]) or gh (knight [knix’t]) ME.

Middle English Vocalism:
unstressed vowel
leveling of sounds
(final and medial position) shwa, [ə] marked as e
OE cara cam care carum
ME care (the paradigm is simplified)

Middle English Vocalism:
stressed vowel
readjustment of quantity: vowel + two consonants – the vowel remains short or is shortened; exception – clusters mb, ld, nd
OE wild [wild] > ME wild [wi:ld];
OE bewildran [i] > ME bewildren [be’wildren]
OE fīfti [fi:fti] > ME fifty [fifti].
lengthening of short vowels in open syllables
OE mete > ME mete [mƐ:te],
OE nosu > ME nose [nƆ:ze].

Middle English Vocalism:
stressed vowel
monophthongization of diphthongs:
(not new to the English language)
long [eo:] > [e:] OE deop > deep [de:p]
cases of returning to previous quality:
Early OE arm > Late Old English earm (OE Breaking)> ME arm
Goth þata > OE ðæt (splitting) > ME that

Middle English Vocalism:
stressed vowel
changes in individual sounds: [a:] – [Ɔ:]
OE stān [sta:n] – ME stone [stƆ:nǝ]
OE hām – ME home

The case of y, y: reflection
[y], [y:] gave [i, i:] in the north and east;
[u, u:] in the west;
[e, e:] in the south west.
OE fyllan – ME fillen (to fill)
OE dyde – ME dide (did)
OE brycʒ – ME bridge
OE bysi – ModE busy, business

Middle English Consonantism
OE [k‘] – ME [tʃ ] marked by ch;
OE [sk‘] – ME [ʃ] marked by sh;
h at the beginning of the word was lost in clusters hr, hl, hn, hw:
OE hrinʒ – ME ring, OE hrōf – ME roof

Middle English Consonantism
n at the end of the verbs:
preserved in the forms of the participle, and tended to be lost in the infinitive
OE writan > ME written (Part 2) and ME write (infinitive)
Lost in the numeral ān (one) that became in indefinite article (a)

MORPHOLOGY
profound alteration: the grammatical type starts changing (synthetic to analytic);
the changes in morphology are closely related to changes in the sound system (inflection were reduced, paradigms simplified).

Middle English Noun
The category of number
preserved (semantically) and changed formally:
-es used most often (even for borrowings: two felawes; the chambres and the stables; fresshe floures);
-en (some n-stems retain their old uninflected plurals (oxen);
former root stems retain their: man - menn, foot -feet, etc.);
nouns naming some domestic animals (such as sheep, swyn, hors) – uninflected plurals;
the plural of child developed in a unique way (suffix of the former -s- stems (it was -r- through rhotacism) and additionally got the -en suffix – children, also brothren).

Middle English Noun
The category of gender was lost;
еhe category of case: from 4 to 2 (the Nominative and the Genitive);
Nom., Dat., Acc. fall together, while Gen. is separate from the other forms;
in the 14th c. the ending –es for singular and plural in Genitive;
in ME Gen. is used mostly attributively, to modify a noun (but of-constructions are also becoming quite popular; the animate/inanimate differentiation appears in the 13th – 14th c.).

Middle English Adjective
simplification started in OE;
towards the end of the ME – only some relics of the old system of declension (no strong vs. weak declension);
degrees of comparison: the analytical way with “more, most” (French influence).

Middle English Pronoun
morphology of pronouns was simplified;
some lexical replacements should be mentioned:
OE hēo (3rd p., sin., fem. ‘she’) was replaced by a group of variants he, ho, sce, sho, she, out of which the last finally prevailed;
OE hīe (3rd p., pl. ‘they’) was replace by the Scand. loan-word they [Ɵei], its forms them and their (from Scand. too).

Middle English Pronoun
New classes: possessive, reflexive, relative;
personal pronouns: 4 to 2 case;
the Gen. case of personal pronouns possessive pronouns;
two variants of them in ME: myne/my;
myne/my were used in free variation (n before a vowel);
demonstrative pronouns (lost their case and gender distinction; preserved pl./sg. forms: this – thes(e), thise / that – thos(e), tho.

Middle English Verb
simplification of the morphological paradigm;
increase in the number of verbal categories.

Middle English Verb
gradual verbalization of non-finite forms;
Strong verbs: 300 in OE 200 in ME:
E.g.: to help, to climb, to walk turned from strong into weak verbs, which then turned into regular verbs.
As to the preterite-present: modal meanings are preserved, paradigms are changed (defective verbs);
suppletives (anomalous verbs) have always been the same: to be, to go.

The development of the analytical forms
word groups, phrases, syntactical constructions, the first component of which gradually weakened or even lost its lexical meaning and turned into a grammatical marker (grammaticalization);
most productive in verbs.

The development of the analytical forms
The category of time correlation
the verb to have in its main meaning + an object +an attribute, which referred to the object (to have something done).
The Continuous forms:
a compound nominal predicate with the verb to be as a link-verb and Participle I as a predicative.
it didn’t express a process until later in the 16th c.

The development of the analytical forms
The passive voice:
a compound nominal predicate with the verb to be + Participle II as a predicative.
The future tense:
a combination of a preterite-present verb (later modal) sculan or anomalous verb willan (later modal) with the infinitive.

The Article
In OE demonstrative pronouns sē, sēo, þæt were used as noun-determiners with a weakened meaning;
by the 14th c. – a separate word-form;
Later – an indefinite article appeared (from the numeral and the indefinite pronoun ān)

Syntax
Word order – more strict; every place in a sentence came to be associated with a certain syntactic function;
SVO (SPO) order;
the use of the subject became obligatory;
the use of prepositions more extensive;
the growth of auxiliaries;
further development of complex and compound sentences.

Middle English Vocabulary
Almost 80 % of OE words went out of use in succeeding periods: losses; replacements; additions (e.g. OE werʒeld ‘money paid to the family if one of the relatives was murdered; OE weorðan – ME become; ME duke);
the great role of external sources in the extension of vocabulary.

Middle English Vocabulary
Scandinavian Influence: recorded in the 13th c.;
especially numerous – place-names;
more in the Northern dialects;
Everyday life; early – military and legal matters;
Bag, band, cake, egg, score, scrap, seat, skim, skirt, sky, ill, happy, loose, low, happen, scatter, rid, want.

Middle English Vocabulary
The French Influence: a large number of French borrowings in ME;
Several semantic spheres: governments and administration (council, power); military terms ( aid, army); law (accuse, case, cause, prove); church and religion (divine, honour, rule, sacrifice) and others;
Not only words but also affixes could be borrowed.

Middle English Vocabulary
Borrowing from Classical Languages: not very numerous compared to French borrowings.

Dialects in Middle English
great variety; difficult to decide on the number;
in a rough way: four principal dialects (group of dialects): Northern, East Midland, West Midland, and Southern;
the dialects differed in pronunciation, vocabulary, inflections;
The London Dialect (predominantly South-Western, later – East Midland influence).