MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD

Introduction

In this chapter were are going to demonstrate how English changed from the old English to the middle
English and what happened. We'll start by looking in a bit more detail at the Middle English period. We'll
then look at some grammar before moving on to Middle English literature. We'll also look at some
Middle English examples and the important characteristics of the period.

General

Why I hear you ask, do we call it 'Middle English'? Well, that's because it's in the middle of Old
English and Modern English. That makes sense, but it's also been named a little bit unfairly, don't you
think? It's as though its defining characteristic is the fact that it's in the middle of two more well-known
siblings. It may be the literary middle child, but Middle English still has much to offer! Think Geoffrey
Chaucer (c. the 1340s-1400), the legend of King Arthur, and the epic tale of Sir Gawain. Middle English
even has the first-ever English autobiography! Are you convinced yet?

The brief history of English language

Its history began with the migration of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons from Germany and Denmark
to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought many French words into
English. Greek and Latin words began to enter it in the 15th century, and

Modern English is usually dated from 1500.

Définition of Middle English language

The English language is a member of an extensive group of languages called the Indo-European
language family. This language family can divide into several branches and subbranches. English belongs
to the West Germanic branch. The other West Germanic languages are German, Dutch, Afrikaans,
Frisian, and Yiddish.

Middle English period Events

its quite a list including the conquest of Wales, the invasion of Ireland, the French and Scottish Wars,
Wars of the Roses, the Battles of Crecy, Sluys, Poitiers, Agincourt, Towton, Flodden, the Crusades,
Magna Carta, Peasants Revolt, Black Death, William Caxton, Geoffrey Chaucer , the printing press and ...

The most important event that happened in the Anglo Norman period
 On 14th October, 1066 CE, William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings and became the
first Norman King of England. The Norman conquest brought significant changes to English literature and
language: England became a trilingual country during the Anglo Norman period.

England was called a trilingual country because of a consequence of the Norman Conquest of England
in 1066 and the four (or more) ensuing centuries during which three languages — English, French and
Latin — co-existed and interacted in the conduct of public .

The history of the English language divides into three periods:

Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) - 5th century AD- 1066

Middle English - 1066 - 1453

Modern English - 1453 - Present Day

Middle English was influenced by Anglo-Norman French,

borrowed many French words. Spelling was not very standardized, so the same word could be spelt
in multiple ways. Also, the grammatically gendered words you could find in Old English were dropped.

The father of Middle English period

The father of Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer (/ˈtʃɔːsər/; c.

1340s – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant

best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father ofEnglish literature", or,
alternatively, the "father of English poetry". the main characteristics of Middle English The inclusion of a
large number of French and Latin words into the vocabulary of Middle English is the main characteristic.
The reduction in the number of diphthongs is another.

Why is Geoffrey Chaucer considered as a father of middle English?

Chaucer is recognized as the Father of English literature for his use of the vernacular English in a
time when the language of educated people was either French or Latin.

Middle English Period Summary

What do we mean when we refer to the 'Middle English period'? Let's start with a basic definition and
summary.

Middle English refers to a version of the English language spoken from approximately 1066 until 1500.

The Middle English period began in 1066, following the Norman conquest of England.

Definition of Norman
The Normans were a group of Vikings (Norsemen) descended from modern-day Denmark, Norway and
Iceland who settled in northern France during the late 9th century. In 1066 they conquered England
during the infamous battle of Hastings.

Prior to this, England was controlled by the Anglo-Saxons, who themselves had invaded the island
following the collapse of Roman Britain in the 5th Century AD.

Place or origin of Norman

The Normans are the descendants of Viking explorers who settled in Normandy, France. In the 9th
and 10th centuries, the Vikings made their way from Norway to settle in what is now known as
Normandy, which is on the coast of France.

Definition of Anglo Saxons

The Anglo-Saxons were a Germanic cultural group comprised of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The
group initially inhabited Scandinavia and northern Germany.

During their nearly 600-year reign in England, The Anglo-Saxons spoke the first recorded version of the
English language, known as 'Old English'. This version was more closely related to the West Germanic
language family than it was to the version of English we know today. In fact, to a modern English
speaker, Old English would sound completely foreign!

Prior to the invasion, the Normans spoke a regional dialect of Old French, known as 'Norman
French'. Immediately after conquering England, the Normans began to adopt loan words from the
Anglo-Saxons, leading to a new variant of the French language called 'Anglo-Norman'.

Mixture of Old English and Norman dialect

While the invasion began the process of mixing Old English and the Norman dialect, the Anglo-Norman
language was still primarily based on French. It would be hundreds of years before the use of English
was once again popularised.

Anglo-Norman became associated with the upper class and was the language of nobility, courts, law and
administration. Despite this, most of the lower-class population of England continued to speak Old
English.

During the 8th and 9th centuries, many scholars began writing works of literature in Old English.
This was a turning point for the English mother tongue, which had only been a spoken language for
hundreds of years prior. During that time, all documents in England were written exclusively in Latin.

After the Norman invasion, Latin saw a resurgence within religious texts, and English once again
fell out of use within written work. Although the majority of the lower-class population still spoke the
language, English had become the least important written language within its own country.
It took many years for English to once again re-emerge as the country's dominant language. One of the
primary reasons for this was the Normans' gradual loss of touch with French culture. This occurred in
part due to King John (1166-1216), who lost control of Normandy - the region of France under Norman
control - to the King of France Philip II (1165-1223).

Impact of french in the English language

The impact of French on the English language is enormous and still visible today. By the end of the
Middle Ages, it is estimated that 30 percent of words in the English language were derived from French

Middle English Period's Grammar and Characteristics

The primary change from Old English to Middle English was the simplification of grammar. In Old
English, word order was left up to the discretion of the author. Therefore, writers needed to use other
grammatical functions to convey meaning within their work. Most prevalent within Old English was a
startling number of inflections.

Inflections are a change in a word (normally the ending) as a way to convey a meaning.

Verbs

There are, of course, some irregular verbs; but most verbs in the present tense add an ending to
the stem (bind in the following examples): –e in the first person singular (I binde), –est in the second
person singular (thou bindest), –eth in the third person singular (she bindeth), and –en in all plural forms
(we/ye/they binden). Modern English uses an identical form for the singular and plural versions of the
second person, but they were differentiated in Middle English: singular thou/thy and plural ye/you/your.
Middle English has more inflections than Modern English, but the system is

simple enough:

Middle English Modern English

Singular

1 I telle I tell

2 Thou tellest You tell

3 He/She/It telleth He/She/It tells

Plural

1 We tellen We tell

2 Ye tellen You tell

3 They tellen They tell

The ending –eth can also indicate the singular imperative: Refuseth nat (Do not refuse).

With the past tense, it is necessary to begin by making a distinction, which still applies in Modern

English, between strong and weak verbs. Strong verbs form the past tense by changing their stem (thus,
I sing, I sang; you throw, you threw), while weak verbs add to the stem (I wish, I wished; you

There are, of course, some irregular verbs; but most verbs in the present tense add an ending to
the stem (bind in the following examples): –e in the first person singular (I binde), –est in the second
person singular (thou bindest), –eth in the third person singular (she bindeth), and –en in all plural forms
(we/ye/they binden). Modern English uses an identical form for the singular and plural versions of the
second person, but they were differentiated in Middle English: singular thou/thy and plural ye/you/your.
Middle English has more inflections than Modern English, but the system is The ending –eth can also
indicate the singular imperative: Refuseth nat (Do not refuse). With the past tense, it is necessary to
begin by making a distinction, which still applies in Modern English, between strong and weak verbs.
Strong verbs form the past tense by changing their stem (thus, I sing, I sang; you throw, you threw),
while weak verbs add to the stem ( I wished; you laugh, you laugh

past tense enough

In the past tense in Middle English, strong verbs change their stems (so sing becomes sang or song)
and also add –e in the second person singular (thou songe) and –en in the plural (they songen). Weak
verbs add –de or –te, so here becomes herde, fele becomes felte; the second person singular takes the
ending –st (thou herdest) and plural forms take –n (they felten). The table below compares the past
tense in Middle and Modern English for strong and weak verbs.

Strong Verbs

Middle Englis. Modern English

Present stem: ‘sing’

Singular

1 I sang (or soong) I sang

2 Thou songe You sang

3 He/She/It sang He/She/It sang

Plural

1 We songen We sang

2 Ye songen You sang

3 They songen They sang

Weak Verbs

Middle English Modern English

Present stem: ‘here’

Singular

1 I herde I heard

2 Thou herdest You heard

3 He/She/It herde He/She/It heard

Plural

1 We herden We heard

2 Ye herden You heard

3 They herden They heard

This made Old English grammar extremely complex. In contrast, Middle English grammar was based
more heavily on fixed word order, meaning that the arrangement of words could communicate the
writer's intention over unnecessarily complex inflections.

Old English also used three genders to describe nouns: masculine, feminine and neuter. Today we see
this only in languages like German and Icelandic.
 b) Personal Pronouns

The forms of the personal pronouns are somewhat different from those used in Modern English, so are
reproduced here in full:

Subject Object Possessive

Singular

1 I, ich =I me =. Me myn, my= my

2 thou, thow = You thee = you thyn, thy= your

3 masculine :he = he hym, him =him his = his

3 feminine: she, ho= she her = her hir, hire= her

3 neuter: it, hi = it it, hit = It his= his

Plural

1'we = we us = us owre, our, owres= our

2 ye = you you, yow = you your, youres= your

3 they = they hem = Them hire, here= theirs

In a manner similar to the use of tu and vous in modern French, the distinction between thou and
you in Middle English may be governed not simply by number, but by politeness and the social
relationship between speakers. Thus thou forms are used with friends, family and social inferiors, and
you forms with strangers or superiors. There are occasions when changes between the forms seem to
indicate a change in the speaker’s attitudes to the different people addressed, but in other places it is
hard to detect any significance in the change.

Word Order
 Word order in Middle English is often more free than in Modern English, and in particular there is more
inversion of subject and verb

E..g.: wol I wake, ‘I shall wake up

’ or subject and object

E g.: knokke they, ‘they knock’ often dictated by the needs of the poetic metre or rhyme

Change of Meaning

Quite simple words in Middle English may carry a variety of meanings, so take care to make a
selection that fits the context. Many of the words Chaucer uses are also found in Modern English (often
with different spellings), but some of them have changed their meaning, so it is a good idea to check the
notes or the glossary even where words look familiar.If you are interested in investigating the ways in
which words change their meanings over time you can look at the entries and quotations provided in
large historical dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary (online via the library catalogue) or the
Shorter Oxford Dictionary; see also R. W. Burchfield, The English Language (Oxford, 1985), pp. 113–23,
or G. Hughes, Words in Time: A Social History of English Vocabulary (Oxford, Blackwell). Below are some
examples.

Middle English word. Meaning Modern Equivalent

aventure happening/event adventure

biddeth pray bid, ask

buxom obedient, humble, submissive full-bosomed, amply proportioned

caste planned cast

chambre bedroom chamber

debonair meek debonair, confident, sty

Difference between middle English and morden English

The primary difference between Middle English and Modern English is the amount of
standardisation in the language. The invention of the printing press in 1436 allowed texts to be mass-
printed. This helped regulate the written word, eventually making spelling, punctuation and grammar
consistent throughout the country.
 Middle English Period: Literature

Most of the surviving literature we have from both the Middle English and Old English period is either
administrative or religious. Hymns, sermons, laws and documents are the most readily available texts for
scholars who want to learn more about life in the Middle Ages.

There are many surviving examples of Middle English fiction from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
that tell us a lot about language use, the way writers constructed texts, and the themes that medieval
authors were concerned with. Let's look at three essential works created during this period.

Middle English Period Writers

English Literature from 1066-1485:

Let's look at some important authors and poets from the Middle English period.

1.Geoffrey Chaucer - (the father of middle English period)

The most important text to come from Middle English is Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400),
which contains twenty-four unique tales told from the perspective of travelling pilgrims who are trying
to win a story-telling contest. The work is largely written in poetry, but some passages are written in
prose.

EXAMPLES.

*Old English:

And bathed every veyne in swich licourOf which vertu engendred is the flour…

Now, here's a modern translation of the same two lines.

*Modern translation:

And bathed every vein in such liquorOf which virtue engendered is the flower...

2.John Gower, Confessio Amantis, 1390.

4. William Langland, Piers Ploughman, 1370-90.

3. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, 1373.

4 The Book of Margery Kempe, late 1430s.

5.Mystery Plays (mid-1300s through 1400s)

famous literary work in Middle English.

 The Canterbury Tales

The most significant work written in the Middle English language is The Canterbury Tales by
Geoffrey Chaucer, written late in the 14th century. These works are a collection of stories about English
pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, one of the holiest sites in England.

Why is the centenbury tales a famous literary work?

The Canterbury Tales is important for several reasons. It is a great resource for learning about Middle
English; it paved the way for later writers like William Shakespeare; and it provides a lot of insight into
life in medieval England.

The main features of Middle English

Two very important linguistic developments characterize Middle English:

∆. in grammar, English came to rely less on inflectional endings and more on word order to convey
grammatical information. ...

∆.in vocabulary, English became much more heterogeneous, showing many borrowings from French,
Latin, and Scandinavian.