Middle English Period (1150 to 1500)
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The greatest event in the shaping of the English language, however, was the
Norman Conquest. in 1066, William of Normandy defeated King Harold at the
Battle of Hastings and became rule of England. The Anglo-Saxon nobles were
replaced by a French-speaking aristocracy who regarded themselves as
primarily Frenchmen, and who looked upon England as an occupied territory.
Norman-French became the official language of the country, the language of
law courts, the schools, and the army.
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For a time, Norman-French, spoken by the nobles, and English, spoken by
the lower classes, existed side by side in the conquered land, without
affecting each other as much as is often supposed.
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By 1500, English has reasserted itself, but it was an English far different from
the language of the Angles and Saxons.
Since French was more polished than their own language, which had declined
somewhat in the centuries when it was use mainly by the uneducated classes,
they naturally borrowed French words to make up deficiencies in their native
tongue. Often both the French word and its English equivalent were kept,
sometimes with varying shades of meaning, and this has tended to make
English vocabulary rich and varied. Thus we have both “begin,” which is
native English, and “commence,” which is of French origin, as well as the
following examples: “sin” and “crime”, “wretched” and “miserable”.
During the centuries when the distinction between Frenchman and
Englishman was disappearing in England, the English vocabulary was
enriched by the addition of thousands of French words. The language of this
period is called Middle English.
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Characteristics of Middle English
The writing system changed dramatically in Middle English:
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a historical h (usually not pronounced) was added to some words (it was
assumed that these words had once begun with an h): honor, heir, honest, herb,
habit
sometimes words were written with o but pronounced as [ʊ] but later were
pronounced [ʌ]: son, come, ton, some, from, money, honey.
Verb infinitives dropped the -an ending, and used "to" before the verb to signify the
infinitival form.
More strong (irregular) verbs became weak (regular) as well.
Syntax was stricter and more prepositions were used. New compound tenses were
used, such as the perfect tenses, and there was more use of the progressive and
passive voice. The use of the verbs will and shall for the future tense were first used
too.
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The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Unlike Old English, Middle English can be read with difficulty, by modern
English-speaking people.
Grammar
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Nouns
The plurals of nouns generally end in –s or –es. However, some nouns end in
–n or –en (like Modern English ox, oxen), especially in earlier texts.
- Possessive forms end in –s or –es. There is no apostrophe; possessives are
distinguished from plurals by context.
- Verbs
- The infinitive form (e.g. ‘to go’, ‘to sleep’, ‘to sing’) ends in –n or –en: e.g.
goon, slepen,
- singen. In later texts, the –n may disappear.
- Pronouns
- Middle English pronouns are most easily understood by means of a broad
historical overview. The tables below give only some common spellings, the
actual number of spellings to be found in Middle English texts is much larger.
In using the tables below, keep in mind that there is considerable overlap
between the different periods.
Early Modern
Late Middle
Early Middle
For the subject of
English
English
English
a sentence: Old
English
I
I
ich
ic
he
he
he
he
she
she
he, heo, ha
heo
it
hit
hit
hit
we
we
we
we
you, ye
ye, you
ye, you
ge
they
they
hi, heo, ha
hi
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