Transcript History of the English Language

Middle English:
What kind of a language is it?
A Brief Review:
HOW WE GOT THERE?
i.e. HOW MIDDLE ENGLISH CAME
INTO EXISTENCE?
Cnut’s Danish-English Empire 1014-1035
Harold Godwin
Earl of Wessex
William of Normandy
The
Norman
Invasion
1066
Battle of Hastings
• Harold Godwin dies
• Normans pillage southern England
• Christmas 1066: Enthronement of William of Normandy
After the Norman Conquest
1066-1204
William replaces the old English nobility by a
new Norman nobility.
Soon, every important position in government,
church and at universities was held by a
Norman.
Norman
property in
England
and France
KEY EVENT:
1204 - Loss of
Normandy
English in the 13th century
After loss of Normandy:
French remains the
dominant language of
the upper classes.
At the end of the 13th
century, English is used
more commonly by the
upper classes.
King Henry III
1216-1272
The growing importance of
English
1. Upper classes need to communicate with their
people.
2. After the loss of the Normandy, French was no
longer needed as a lingua franca of upper
classes.
3. Speaking French was fashionable in the 13th
century, but Norman French had much lower
prestige than the French spoken in Paris.
The 100 Year’s War 1337-1453
Rise of new middle class
Craftsmen
Merchants
Black Death 1349
LET’S GET BACK TO THE
INITIAL QUESTION:
WHAT KIND OF A LANGUAGE WAS
MIDDLE ENGLISH?
VOCABULARY
A PERIOD OF MASS BORROWINGS
Early French loan words (1066-1250)
baron
noble
servant
messenger
feast
ME French loan words: nouns
action
age
bucket
carpenter
coast
cost
courage
adventure
air
calendar
city
comfort
country
coward
number
pair
person
powder
river
sign
opinion
ME French loan words: nouns
ease
error
noise
flower
Honor
manner
damage
envy
face
fault
force
hour
task
debt
poverty
reason
season
sound
use
honor
people
ME French loan words: verbs
advise
approach
betray
serve
conceal
count
declare
desire
aim
arrange
change
comfort
consider
deceive
defeat
enjoy
allow
arrive
chase
complain
continue
destroy
delay
enter
ME French loan words: verbs
force
form
increase
inform
join
suppose
marry
obey
observe
pay
wait
please
praise
prefer
propose
prove
push
receive
refuse
relieve
remember
waste
satisfy
save
ME French loan words: adjectives
able
active
actual
brief
calm
certain
clear
common
contrary
courageous
cruel
curious
eager
easy
faint
fierce
final
firm
foreign
gentle
hasty
ME French loan words: adjectives
honest
horrible
innocent
large
natural
nice
original
perfect
poor
precious
pure
real
rude
safe
scarce
second
simple
single
special
stable
usual
Government and administration –
ME French loan words:
government
crown
state
empire
realm
authority
court
parliament
assembly
traitor
treason
exile
liberty
office
mayor
prince
baron
duke
sir
madam
mistress
Church and religion –
ME French loan words:
religion
sermon
confess
prayer
lesson
passion
chant
sacrifice
chapter
abbey
cloister
virgin
saint
miracle
mystery
faith
mercy
pity
virtue
preach
pray
Law – ME French loan words:
justice
crime
bill
evidence
ransom
award
prison
blame
pledge
acquit
property
entail
equity
judge
petition
proof
verdict
fine
accuse
arrest
condemn
fraud
estate
just
judgment
attorney
complaint
bail
sentence
punishment
indict
seize
convict
perjury
heir
innocent
Army and navy –
ME French loan words:
army
enemy
siege
retreat
spy
navy
battle
defense
soldier
captain
pace
combat
ambush
guard
besiege
Fashion – ME French loan words:
dress
habit
fashion
robe
coat
collar
veil
mitten
adorn
embellish
blue
brown
fur
jewel
ivory
Meals and food –
ME French loan words:
dinner
taste
beef
sausage
cream
fruits
lemon
spice
supper
appetite
veal
bacon
sugar
orange
cherry
mustard
boil
salmon
pork
gravy
salad
roast
peach
vinegar
Furniture, social life –
ME French loan words:
couch
chair
screen
lamp
blanket
wardrobe
recreation
leisure
dance
fool
music
chess
stable
retrieve
falcon
forest
park
tournament
Art, learning, medicine –
ME French loan words:
art
color
tone
tower
column
rime
pen
geometry
clause
stomach
painting
figure
cathedral
porch
vase
story
study
grammar
copy
ointment
beauty
image
ceiling
bay
poet
paper
logic
noun
medicine
poison
Loss of Germanic words
French borrowing
Lost English word
poor
people
guilty
army
warrior
air
confess
praise
earm
leod
scyldig
here
cempa
lyft
andettan
hearian
Semantic differentiation
French loan
English word
judgment
judge
cordial
power
demand
desire
beef
pork
veal
mutton
doom
deem
hearty
might
ask
wish
ox
swine
calf
sheep
Old English verbal prefixes –
STILL ACTIVE
for- (German ver-)
forget, forbear, forbid
with- (German mit-)
withdraw, withhold
to- (German zu-)
---
English derivational morphemes –
PRODUCTIVE
-hood
childhood, likelihood, manhood
-ship
friendship, kinship, hardship
-dom
freedom, wisdom, kingdom
Latin and Romance verbal affixes –
BORROWED TOGETHER WITH LOAN WORDS
Verbal prefixes
inter–, counter–, re–, trans–, anti–, dis–,
Verbal suffixes
–able, –ible, –ent, –al, –ous, –ive
Loan words from Latin
adjacent
conspiracy
contempt
custody
distract
frustrate
genius
gesture
history
homicide
include
incredible
individual
infancy
suppress
infinite
innate
intellect
Loan words from Latin
interrupt
legal
magnify
minor
moderate
private
necessary
nervous
picture
polite
popular
prevent
project
submit
prosody
reject
summary
substitute
Loan words from Flemish, Dutch, Low
German
deck
dock
freight
rover
booze
gin
easel
etching
landscape
MIDDLE ENGLISH MORPHOSYNTAX
GREAT LOSS OF INFLECTIONS AND THE RISE OF FIXED WORD ORDER
Middle English Grammar
The structure of Middle English is radically
different from the structure of Old English.
Old English is a highly inflectional language.
Middle English has very little morphology.
Morphosyntactic changes
1. Simplification of inflection/morphology
2. Emergence of new grammatical devices:
a. analytical verb forms
b. rigid word order
Noun declension
Old English
SG
SG
NOM
stan
stan-as
GEN
stan-es
stan-a
DAT
stan-e
stan-um
ACC
stan
stan-as
Noun declension
Old English
Middle English
SG
SG
SG
PL
NOM
stan
stan-as
stan
stan-es
GEN
stan-es
stan-a
stan-es stan-es
DAT
stan-e
stan-um
stan
stan-es
ACC
stan
stan-as
stan
stan-es
Noun declension
South
Old English
Middle English
SG
SG
PL
SG
PL
NOM
eag-a
eag-an
eye
eye-n
GEN
eag-an
stan-ena
eye-s
eye-n
DAT
eag-an
stan-um
eye
eye-n
ACC
eag-an
stan-an
eye
eye-n
Relics of the -en plural in EME
EME
eyen
shoon
hosen
housen
peasen
PDE
‘eyes’
‘shoes’
‘hose’
‘houses’
‘peas’
Relics of the -en plural in ME
oxen
children
brethren
OE Gender
NEUT
Þæt scip
‘that.N ship’
MASC
se sta:n
‘that.M stone’
FEM
seo giefu
‘that.F gift’
Gender: from ‘grammatical’ in OE to
‘biological’ in ME
Gender: predicts what adjectives and pronouns will
occur with the noun
 anaphora:
 PDE: the wife … her…
 OE: þæt wīf … his ‘its’…
 concord:
 OE: þæt wīf ‘the woman’
Gender: from ‘grammatical’ in OE to
‘biological’ in ME
Grammatical gender in OE:
 conflicts with biological gender, e.g.







þæt wīf ‘wife, woman’ is ‘neuter’
sēo duru ‘door’ is ‘feminine’
“in most cases nothing in the form of the noun itself to indicate it”
“overtly realized only in … the concordial relation between a noun and its
modifiers and anaphors.”
“the richest and most distinctive marking for nominal categories is on
determiners, the strong adjective declension, and pronouns”
and we’re about to see what happened to them...
was relaxing even in OE, “the further an anaphor was from its governing noun”
Ða on þam ehteoðan dæge hi comon þæt cild ymbsniðan,
Then on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child
and nemdon hyne his fæder naman Zachariam.
and called him his father’s name Zacharias.)
‘Biological’ Gender in ME
 “now a system in which sex (or the lack of it)
became the primary or sole determinant”:
‘SEX’ (M or F) vs ‘NON-SEX’ (neut.)
 as early as the 10th century the change
begins in the north and moves south
 by 1300, pretty much complete, except in
Kent (SE)
OE DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
ME DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
 ME – gross simplification:
 that AND this
 these and those
 definite article THE (indefinite article developed
from OE number ONE)
OE First And Second Person
Pronouns
1. person
Subj
Obj
Poss
2. person
SG
PL
ich, I
me
mine, mi
we
us
ure, our
SG
þu, thou
þe, thee
þin(e), i
PL
ye, ye
you, eu, you
yur(e), your
OE Third Person Pronouns
Subj
Obj
Poss
3SG M
3SG F
3 SG N
3 PL
he
him
his
heo, sche
hit, it
he, hi, thei
hire, her
hit, it, him hem, them
hir(e), her(e) his
here, thair
ME PERSONAL PRONOUNS
 What happened?
 new pronouns: they/their/them, she
 eventual loss of number distinction for second
person once plural ye started to be used as a polite
singular (cf. French vous)
 accusative and dative distinction lost (usually
leveled under dative)
 OE ðæt middan-eard sy gehæled þurh hine
 ME that the world be sauyd by hym
ME PERSONAL PRONOUNS
 Context for new pronouns
 in OE, remember that hī could be
 singular: feminine accusative
 plural: nominative or accusative
 in OE, remember that
 feminine sg. héo
 masculine sg. hé
 by ME, feminine héo would have been converging with
masculine hé
ME PERSONAL PRONOUNS
 They, their, them
 from Scandinavian: þeir, þeirra, þeim
 appear first in the north
 in the other dialects, we find:
 “a gradual southward movement of the þ- paradigm, the
native h- type remaining longest in the conservative
south”
 nominative þ-forms appear first, then the genitive, then
the objective case
 C14th Chaucer has þei, her(e), hem
 genitive next: C15th London texts vary between her(e) and
their
 objective last: C15th: Caxton has hem and sometimes them
 Why do you think the nominative form hi ‘they’ was replaced
first?
OE Adjectives
OE
NOM
ACC
GEN
DAT
INSTR
SG
MASC
NEUT
FEM
til
til-ne
til-es
til-um
til-e
til
til
til-es
til-um
til-e
til-u
til-e
til-re
til-re
ME ADJECTIVES
Adjectives were weak if:
•after a determiner (definite article, demonstrative,
possessive pronoun or noun)
•in direct address
Adjectives were strong if
•without a determiner
•in predicate adjective position (“the man is old”)
OE Verbal inflection
OE
Indicative
1. Sg
2. Sg
3. Sg
Pl.
Subjunctive
Sg.
Pl.
Present
Past
sing-e
sing-est
sing-eð
sing-að
sang
sang-e
sang
sung-on
sing-e
sing-en
sung-e
sung-en
Verbal inflection in Middle
English
Person:
-s (3rd person)
Number:
lost
Tense:
-ed / Ablaut
Mood:
lost
The Advent of Modal verbs
(1)
þat y mowe riche be
‘that I may rich be’
ME Grammatical Innovations
Morphological cases were replaced by new
word order patterns.
Tense and mood affixes were replaced by
new analytical verb forms.
Word order in main clauses
(1)
(2)
Old English
Þa eode se biscop into þa oþaere cyrcan
then went the bishop into that other church
‘Then the bishop went into the other church.’
Middle English
In the contre of Ethyop they slen here
childeryn byforn here goddys.
‘In the country of Ethiopia they slay their
children in front of their gods.’
Word order in main clauses
Nowe haue ye herde þe vertues & þe significacouns.
‘Now have you heard the virtues and the meanings.’
(1)
(2)
(3)
Never has Peter talked to him.
Under no circumstance would she talk to him.
Only on the weekend does he have time to cook
dinner.
Word order in subordinate clauses
(1)
… þat ðu þis weork naht ne forlate.
‘… that you this work not (not) neglect.’
(2)
If a man will þe harme…
‘If a man wants (to) you harm… .’
Word order in questions
(1)
Woot ye not where ther stant a litel toun …
know you not where there stand a little town
‘Don’t you know where the little town is?
(2)
Why make ye youreself for to be lyk a fool?
Why make you yourself for to be like a fool
‘Why do you make a fool of yourself?’
Introduction of Analytical Verb
Forms
Future
Perfect
Passive
Progressive
Modal verbs
will catch
have caught
is caught
is catching
can / may / must catch
Future
and swiche wolle have the kyngdom of helle,
and not of hevene.
‘and such will have the kingdom of hell, and not
of heaven’
Perfect
(1)
Ic hæbbe þo-ne fisc gefange-ne]
I have the-ACC fish caught-ACC
‘I have the fish caught’
(=I have the fish in a state of being caught)
Perfect
(1)
thin geleafa
hæfth
the gehæled.
your faith
has
you healed
‘Your faith has healed you.’
(2)
Ac hie hæfdon þa… hiora mete genotudne.
but they had then… their food used-up
‘But they had then used up their food.’
Perfect
(1)
a.
Peter has a fish caught.
(Peter has a caught fish)
b.
Peter has caught a fish.
Perfect
(1)
þou hauest don oure kunne wo
‘You have done our family woe.’
(2)
I am com to myne ende.
‘I have come to my end.’
Passive
Vorgangspassive:
Zustandspassive
wesen
weorthan
[men] that wol nat be governed by hir wyves.
‘[men] that will not be governed by their wives.’
Progressive
Participle
(1)
For now is gode Gawayn goande ryght here.
For now is good Gawain going right here.
Gerund
(2)
I am yn beldyng of a pore hous.
‘I am in (the process of) building a poor house.’
ME Morphosyntactic Innovations:
Loss of inflectional morphology.
Development of rigid word order.
Development of analytical verb forms.
MIDDLE ENGLISH PHONOLOGY
A (SMALL) STEP TOWARDS MODERN ENGLISH
Consonants
Bilabial Labiodental
Stop
Interdental
p b
Alveola Alveola Velar
r
-palatal
t d
Affricate
Fricative
Nasal
f v
m
Lateral
Retroflex
Glide
w
T D
s z
n
l
r
k g
tS dZ
S Z
y
h
Vowels
Long vowels
i:
Short vowels
u:
e:
o:
a:
i
u
e
@
a
o
Diphthongs
[iu]
[Eu]
[au]
[Ou]
[ai]
[Ui]
[Oi]
trewe
fewe
clawe
bowe
dai
point
chois
‘true’
‘few’
‘claw’
‘bow’
‘day’
‘point’
‘choice’
LOSS OF ALOPHONES
 New phonemes: voiced fricatives /ð/, /v/, /z/
The situation in OE:
 voiced fricatives were just allophones of
voiceless fricatives
 fricatives were voiceless unless they were
between voiced sounds
 [ð]: oðer
 [v]: hlāford, hēafod, hæfde
 [z]: frēosan, ceōsan, hūsian
LOSS OF ALOPHONES
 A number of factors promoted the phonemicization of
voiced fricatives:
 loanwords from French: vine (fine), view (few), veal (feel)
 but French lacks interdental fricatives or (with a few exceptions)
word-initial /z/

dialect mixing:
 (fox), vixen: southern English dialects
 loss of final (vowels in) unstressed syllables
 OE hūsian [z] -> -> ME house, hous /z/ (cf noun hous /s/)
 “voiced consonants require less energy to pronounce”:
previously unvoiced fricatives became voiced in words
receiving little or no stress in a sentence, like function
words:
 e.g. [f] of ->
/v/
 e.g. [s] in wæs, his -> /z/
 e.g. [θ] in þæt ->
/ð/
LOSS OF SHORT VOWELS IN UNSTRESSED
SYLLABLES
 Reduction to /ə/ and eventual loss of short
vowels in unstressed syllables:
 lexical words: nama -> name, mete -> meat, nosu
> nose, sunu -> son
 grammar words:
 folc(e), niht(e): dative falls in with nominative,
accusative
 riht(e), freondlic(e): adverb falls in with adjective
 lufodon, lufoden: preterite indicative and
subjunctive plural fall together
OPEN/CLOSE SYLLABLES AND VOWELS
 Why is this interesting?

Source of vowel difference in keep and kept, nose and nostril
OPEN/CLOSE SYLLABLES AND VOWELS
 By the end of the ME period,
 Closed syllables are associated with short vowels
 tal-ly remains short
 cēp-te becomes short
 Open syllables are associated with long vowels
 ta-lu becomes long
 cē-pan remains long
MIDDLE ENGLISH SPELLING
CHAOS!!!!
Spelling
<þ> and <ð> were gradually replaced by <th>
<k> for [k]
<sh> for [S]
<ch> for [tS]
Old Engl.
Middle E.
Old Engl.
Middle E.
Old Engl.
Middle E.
cyssan
cneow
cene
kiss
knee
keen
scamu
scearp
shame
sharp
cild
ceap
cinn
child
cheap
chinn
Spelling
[u] <ou> or <ow>
[x] <gh>
OE
OE
þoht
riht
ME
thought
right
OE
hwæt
hwil
ME
what
while
hu
thu
hus
brun
ME
hour
round
how
thou
house
brown
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 The most common vowel sound in American English is the




"schwa," an "uh" sound produced in the middle of the
mouth with the mouth half-open and the tongue hanging
slack.
Speech in Chaucer's time required a more open throat, and
a more active tongue.
Generally, Middle English "front vowel" sounds like "aee,"
"ee," "eh," and "ah" shift down one level (e.g., where you'd
say "ee" say "eh," etc.).
Middle English "back vowel" sounds like "au," "oo," "oh,"
and "aw" also shift down one level (where you'd say "au"
say "oo," etc.).
Consonants that now are silent often required active
tongue, lip, and throat movement to sound them.
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 Assume that every letter counts: /ç/ is still
around, /ŋg/ hasn’t become /η/, and you
pronounce the <i> in words ending in <-ion>




<Knyght>
<yonge>
<specially>
<condicioun>
/knɪçt/
/jUŋg*/
/spεsjali/
/kɔndisiun/
 Except perhaps for word-initial /h/ in French
words!
 <hostelrye>
/ɔsətlriə/
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 Remember that long vowels are pronounced
very differently
 haven’t gone through the Great Vowel Shift
 like modern European languages / the IPA
symbols:
 basically, space /ɑ:/, seke /e/, ryse /i/, soote /o/,
flour /u/
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 So, long <a> /a:/ roughly as in ‘father, car’
 <bathed>
 <made>
 <take>
/ba:ðəd/
/ma:də/
/ta:kə/
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 And <ay> is lower too: roughly /æi/
 <day>
 <lay>
/dæi/
/læi/
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 There are 2 ‘long e’s: one from OE /e/ and /eo/,
often PDE /e/, later spelled <ee>
 <slepen>
 <seke>
 <degree>
/slepən/
/sekə/
/dəgre/
 And one from the OE <æ:> that ends up as PDE
<ea>. In ME, it’s pronounced like a long version
of the ‘e’ in ‘pet’: /ɛ:/, to be spelled <ea>
 <breeth>
 <heeth>
 <seson>
/brɛ:θ/
/hɛ:θ/
/sɛ:zun/
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 ME long <i,y> /i/:
 <shires>
 <ryse>
 <devyse>
/širəz/
/rizə/
/dəvizə/
 ME long <o> /o/:
 <soote>
 <roote>
/sotə/
/rotə/
 ME long <ou> /u/:
 <shoures>
 <flour>
 <resoun>
/šurəz/
/flur/
/rɛzun/
READING MIDDLE ENGLISH
 BASICALLY, YOU SHOULD READ THE TEXT
EXACTLY AS IT WAS WRITTEN!
Geoffrey Chaucer
(1340-1400)
Was Middle English a creole?
(Baugh & Cable p.125)
Middle English was not a creole:
The development of Middle English was very different
from the development of a creole language.
Although Middle English has very little morphology, it
has complex syntactic structures and an intricate
phonological system.
The discussion about the creolization of
English demonstrates how radically English
changed in Middle English:
1. different vocabulary
2. different grammar
What led to the grammatical changes?
The Norman Conquest had a significant
effect on the English vocabulary, but did
it also affect the English grammar?
Why did English grammar change so
much?
• The change of stress pattern
• The contact with Old Norse
• The loss of an English standard