SEMINAR 4

Middle English Period.

Questions
1. The Middle English period, its chronological boundaries.

Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, and
covers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c. It was the stage of the greatest
dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences –
Scandinavian and French. Under Norman rule the official language in England
was French, or rather its variety called Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman; it was
also the dominant language of literature. The local dialects were mainly used for
oral communication and were little employed in writing. Towards the end of the
period their literary prestige grew, as English began to displace French in the
sphere of writing, as well as in many other spheres. Early ME was a time of
great changes at all the levels of the language, especially in lexis and grammar.
English absorbed two layers of lexical borrowings: the Scandinavian element in
the North-Eastern area (due to the Scandinavian invasions since the 8th c.) and
the French element in the speech of townspeople in the South-East, especially in
the upper social classes (due to the Norman Conquest). Numerous phonetic and
grammatical changes took place in this period. Grammatical alterations were
so drastic that by the end of the period they had transformed English from
a highly inflected language into a mainly analytical one. Therefore, H.Sweet
called Middle English the period of “leveled endings”.

From the later 14th c. till the end of the 15th century – embraces the age of
Chaucer, the greatest English medieval writer and forerunner of the English
Renaissance. We may call it Late or Classical Middle English. It was the time of
the restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language and
the time of literary flourishing. The main dialect used in writing and literature
was the mixed dialect of London. The literary authority of other dialects was
gradually overshadowed by the prestige of the London written language. In
periods of literary efflorescence, like the age of Chaucer, the pattern set by great
authors becomes a more or less fixed form of language. Chaucer’s language was
a recognized literary form, imitated throughout the 15th c. Literary flourishing
had a stabilizing effect on language, so that the rate of linguistic changes slowed
down.
The written records of the late 14th and 15th c. testify to the growth of the
English vocabulary and to the increasing proportion of French loan-words in
English. The phonetic and grammatical structure had undergone fundamental
changes. Most of the inflections in the nominal system – in nouns, adjectives,
pronouns – had fallen together. H. Sweet called Middle English the period of
“levelled endings”.
2. The Scandinavian Conquest
Under the year 787 three shiploads of Northmen landed upon the coast of
Britain and invaded the country. These invaders were Scandinavian tribes: The
Danes, the Swedes. They inhabited the north of Europe (modern Denmark,
Norway and Sweden). They started their invasion taking possession over the
East of Britain and the Danish invasion resulted in the occupation of a great part
of the territory by Scandinavian settlers. In the year 878 the English King Alfred
the Great, by the Treaty of Wedmore was obliged to recognize Danish rule over
a territory covering two-thirds of modern England; all Northumbria, all East
Anglia and one half of Central England made up a District called the Danelaw.
The effect of the Danish Conquest was a contribution of many Scandinavian
words to the English vocabulary.
The criterion of sound in many cases may be applied in distinguishing
Scandinavian words. Since in native English words the sk sound had regularly
changed to sh and since the k sound before the vowels e and i had regularly
changed to ch, the greater part of the Germanic words in English with the sk
sound such as scare, skill, skin, skirt, sky and many words with the k sound
before e and i, such as kettle, keg, kirk are to be assigned to Scandinavian
origin.
In cases where the Scandinavian form of a word differed from the Eng¬lish
form, sometimes both forms survived with a different meaning.
The Scandinavian influence was especially marked in place-names in Northern
England, Among the more common ones are those ending in-by (0. N. byr, a
dwelling, village); in -beck (has been used as an independent word since 1300
especially in the North; 0. N. bekker, a brook, Ger. Bach); in-dale (O. , a valley,
Ger. Thai); in thorp or-torp (0. N thorp, a hamlet, village); in -toft (O. N, toft a
homestead, enclosure) and in -twaite (veiti, a clearing).
In some cases when the English word and the Scandinavian agreed in form, the
Scandinavian form has imported a new meaning to the English. Thus dream in
О. Е. meant toy, but in Middle English the modern meaning of dream was taken
over from O.N. draumr. The same is true of bread (formerly meaning a fragment
or bloom (bloma, mass of metal), plough (a measure of land); holm (О. Е. holm,
ocean).
A number of common words which existed in Old English have been
assimilated to the kindred Scandinavian synonyms only in form (e. g. sister
descends not from the Old English sweoster, but from the O. N. syster. The
same is true of such everyday words as birth, get, give, etc.

3. The Norman Conquest.

Another branch of Northmen who were related to the Danes carried on raids on
the Northern coasts of France. Those tribes came to be called the Normans, a
variation of the word “Northmen”. The Normans settled down on the land
conquered from the French king – a territory which is still called Normandy
after those Normans.

The Normans lived under the rule of their own duke. By the 11th century the
dukes of Normandy had become very powerful. In fact, they were as strong as
the French king himself. The dukes of Normandy coined their own money,
made their own laws, held their own courts, even against the king himself. As a
well-armed and well-trained cavalry, the Norman knights were the best in
Europe.

In 1066 William, the Duke of Normandy, began the invasion of Britain. The
pretext for the invasion was William’s claim to the English throne, because he
was related to the Anglo-Saxon kings. William of Normandy claimed that
England belonged to him and his large army. The battle between the Normans
and the Anglo-Saxons took place on the 14th of October, 1066 at a little village
near the town now called Hastings. The Normans outnumbered the
Anglo-Saxon forces and were greatly superior in quality. They were
well-armed, and the chance of being killed was not so great, because they all
wore armour and there were no fire-arms at that time. So the Normans defeated
the Anglo-Saxons.

The Norman duke became King of England William I or, as he was generally
known, William the Conqueror. He ruled England for 21 years (1066 - 1087).

The Norman Conquest was a turning point in the history of the country, for it
became a strong and united feudal state, in which trade and commerce were
developed. In those days the basis of the UK proper was laid with the invasion
of Ireland in 1170 and Wales in 1283. Scotland was the last to be joined in 1707.
So we may say that the 11th - 12th centuries were the time of the birth of the
nation.

4. ME dialects. Middle English written records.

During the Middle English period, there were several distinct dialects of English spoken
across England, which were roughly divided into four main regional groups: Northern,
Midlands, West Midlands, and Southern.

The Northern dialects were spoken in the area north of the River Humber and included
Northumbrian, spoken in Northumberland and Durham; and Scots, spoken in Scotland and
northern England.

The Midlands dialects were spoken in the region between the Humber and the Thames and
included East Midlands, spoken in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire; and West Midlands,
spoken in Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Worcestershire.

The West Midlands dialects were spoken in the western part of the Midlands and included
the dialect of Cheshire.

The Southern dialects were spoken in the region south of the Thames and included Kentish,
spoken in Kent; and the dialects of Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire.

During the Middle English period, there were a number of important written records
produced in England, including literary works such as Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
and William Langland's Piers Plowman. Other important works from this period include the
Wycliffe Bible, which was one of the earliest translations of the Bible into English, and the
Ancrene Wisse, a guidebook for anchoresses. In addition to literary works, there are also a
number of legal and administrative documents that provide valuable insights into the
language and society of the time, including charters, court records, and financial accounts.