Middle
English
111.
Middle English a Period of Great Change.
The
Middle English period (1150–1500) was marked by momentous changes in the
English
language, changes more extensive and fundamental than those that have taken
place
at any time before or since. Some of them were the result of the Norman
Conquest
and
the conditions which followed in the wake of that event. Others were a
continuation
of
tendencies that had begun to manifest themselves in Old English. These would
have
gone
on even without the Conquest, but they took place more rapidly because the
Norman
invasion removed from English those conservative influences that are always
felt
when a language is extensively used in books and is spoken by an influential
educated
class. The changes of this period affected English in both its grammar and its
vocabulary.
They were so extensive in each department that it is difficult to say which
group
is the more significant. Those in the grammar reduced English from a highly
inflected
language to an extremely analytic one.1 Those
in the vocabulary involved the
loss
of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of
words
from
French and Latin. At the beginning of the period English is a language that
must be
learned
like a foreign tongue; at the end it is Modern English.
112.
Decay of Inflectional Endings.
The
changes in English grammar may be described as a general reduction of
inflections.
Endings
of the noun
1
That the change was complete by 1500 has been shown
with convincing statistics by Charles
C.Fries,
“On the Development of the Structural Use of Word-Order in Modern English,” Language,
16(1940),
199–208.
and
adjective marking distinctions of number and case and often of gender were so
altered
in pronunciation as to lose their distinctive form and hence their usefulness.
To
some
extent the same thing is true of the verb. This leveling of inflectional
endings was
due
partly to phonetic changes, partly to the operation of analogy. The phonetic
changes
were
simple but far-reaching. The earliest seems to have been the change of final -m
to -n
wherever
it occurred, i.e., in the dative plural of nouns and adjectives and in the
dative
singular
(masculine and neuter) of adjectives when inflected according to the strong
declension
(see § 43). Thus mūðum
(to the mouths) >mūðun,
gōdum>gōdun.
This -n,
along
with the -n of the other inflectional endings, was then dropped (*mūðu,
*gōdu).
At
the
same time,2 the
vowels a, o, u, e in inflectional endings were obscured to a sound, the
so-called
“indeterminate vowel,” which came to be written e (less often i, y,
u, depending
on
place and date). As a result, a number of originally distinct endings such as -a,
-u, -e, -
an,
-um were reduced generally to a
uniform -e, and such grammatical distinctions as
they
formerly expressed were no longer conveyed. Traces of these changes have been
found
in Old English manuscripts as early as the tenth century.3
By the end of the twelfth
century
they seem to have been generally carried out. The leveling is somewhat obscured
in
the written language by the tendency of scribes to preserve the traditional
spelling, and
in
some places the final n was retained even in the spoken language,
especially as a sign
of
the plural (cf. § 113). The effect of these changes on the inflection of the
noun and the
adjective,
and the further simplification that was brought about by the operation of
analogy,
may be readily shown.
113.
The Noun.
A
glance at the few examples of common noun declensions in Old English given in §
41
will
show how seriously the inflectional endings were disturbed. For example, in the
London
English of Chaucer in the strong masculine declension the forms mūð,
mūðes,
mūðe,
mūð
in the singular, and mūðas,
mūða
and mūðum,
mūðas
in the plural were
reduced
to three: mūð,
mūðes,
and mūðe.
In such words the -e, which was organic in the
dative
singular and the genitive and dative plural (i.e., stood for an ending in the
Old
English
paradigm), was extended by analogy to the nominative and accusative singular,
so
that forms like stōne,
mūðe
appear, and the only distinctive
termination is the -s of the
possessive
singular and of the nominative and accusative plural. Because these two cases
of
the plural were those most
2
The chronology of these changes has been worked out
by Samuel Moore in two articles: “Loss of
Final
n in Inflectional Syllables of Middle English,” Language, 3
(1927), 232–59; “Earliest
Morphological
Changes in Middle English,” Language, 4 (1928), 238–66.
3
Kemp Malone, “When Did Middle English Begin?” Curme
Volume of Linguistic Studies
(Philadelphia,
1930), pp. 110–17.
Middle
english 147
frequently
used, the -s came to be thought of as the sign of the plural and was
extended to
all
plural forms. We get thus an inflection of the noun identical with that which
we have
today.4
Other declensions suffered even more, so that in
many words (giefu, sunu, etc.)
the
distinctions of case and even of number were completely obliterated.
In
early Middle English only two methods of indicating the plural remained fairly
distinctive:
the -s or -es from the strong masculine declension and the -en
(as in oxen)
from
the weak (see § 41). And for a time, at least in southern England, it would
have
been
difftcult to predict that the -s would become the almost universal sign
of the plural
that
it has become. Until the thirteenth century the -en plural enjoyed great
favor in the
south,
being often added to nouns which had not belonged to the weak declension in Old
English.
But in the rest of England the -s plural (and genitive singular) of the
old first
declension
(masculine) was apparently felt to be so distinctive that it spread rapidly.
Its
extension
took place most quickly in the north. Even in Old English many nouns
originally
of other declensions had gone over to this declension in the Northumbrian
dialect.
By 1200 -s was the standard plural ending in the north and north Midland
areas;
other
forms were exceptional. Fifty years later it had conquered the rest of the
Midlands,
and
in the course of the fourteenth century it had definitely been accepted all
over
England
as the normal sign of the plural in English nouns. Its spread may have been
helped
by the early extension of -s throughout the plural in Anglo-Norman, but
in general
it
may be considered as an example of the survival of the fittest in language.
114.
The Adjective.
In
the adjective the leveling of forms had even greater consequences. Partly as a
result of
the
sound-changes already described, partly through the extensive working of
analogy,
the
form of the nominative singular was early extended to all cases of the
singular, and
that
of the nominative plural to all cases of the plural, both in the strong and the
weak
declensions.
The result was that in the weak declension there was no longer any
distinction
between the singular and the plural: both ended in -e (blinda>
blinde and
blindan>blinde).
This was also true of those adjectives under the strong declension whose
singular
ended in -e. By about 1250 the strong declension had distinctive forms
for the
singular
and plural only in certain monosyllabic adjectives which ended in a consonant
in
Old
English (sing. glad, plur. glade). Under the circumstances the
only ending which
remained
to the adjective was often without distinctive grammatical meaning and its use
was
not governed by any strong sense of adjectival inflection. Although it
4
For the use of the apostrophe in the possessive, see
§ 180.
A
history of the english language 148
is
clear that the -e ending of the weak and plural forms was available for
use in poetry in
both
the East and West Midlands until the end of the fourteenth century, it is
impossible
to
know the most usual status of the form in the spoken language. Certainly
adjectival
inflections
other than -e, such as Chaucer’s oure aller cok, were archaic
survivals by the
close
of the Middle English period.5
115.
The Pronoun.
The
decay of inflections that brought about such a simplification of the noun and
the
adjective
as has just been described made it necessary to depend less upon formal
indications
of gender, case, and (in adjectives) number, and to rely more upon
juxtaposition,
word order, and the use of prepositions to make clear the relation of words
in
a sentence. This is apparent from the corresponding decay of pronominal
inflections,
where
the simplification of forms was due in only a slight measure to the weakening
of
final
syllables that played so large a part in the reduction of endings in the noun
and the
adjective.
The loss was greatest in the demonstratives. Of the numerous forms of sē,
sēo,
þæt
(cf. § 44) we have only the and that
surviving through Middle English and continuing
in
use today. A plural tho (those) survived to Elizabethan times. All the other
forms
indicative
of different gender, number, and case disappeared in most dialects early in the
Middle
English period. The same may be said of the demonstrative þēs,
þēos,
þis6 (this).
Everywhere
but in the south the neuter form þis came to be used early in Middle
English
for
all genders and cases of the singular, while the forms of the nominative plural
were
similarly
extended to all cases of the plural, appearing in Modern English as those and
these.
In
the personal pronoun the losses were not so great. Most of the distinctions
that
existed
in Old English were retained (see the paradigm given in § 45). However the
forms
of
the dtive and accusative cases were early combined, generally under that of the
dative
(him,
her, [t]hem). In the neuter the form of the
accusative (h)it became the general
objective
case, partly because
5
In context oure aller cok is translated ‘the
cock who wakened us all,’ where the r of aller ‘of us
all’
indicates the genitive plural of al. Today we have what may be
considered an inflected
adjective
in such combinations as men students, women soldiers.
6
In Old English it had the following inflection:
Middle
english 149
SINGULAR
PLURAL
Masc.
Fem. Neut. All Genders
N.
þēs
þēos
þis þās,
G.
þisses þisse þisses þissa
D.
þissum þisse þissum þissum
A.
þisne þās
þis þās,
I.
it
was like the nominative, and partly because the dative him would have
been subject to
confusion
with the corresponding case of the masculine. One other general simplification
is
to be noted: the loss of the dual number. A language can get along without a
distinction
in
pronouns for two persons and more than two; the forms wit, and their
oblique
cases
did not survive beyond the thirteenth century, and English lost the dual
number.
It
will be observed that the pronoun she had the form hēo
in Old English. The modern
form
could have developed from the Old English hēo,
but it is believed by some that it is
due
in part at least to the influence of the demonstrative sēo.
A similar reinforcing
influence
of the demonstrative is perhaps to be seen in the forms of the third person
plural,
they, their, them, but here the source of the modern developments was
undoubtedly
Scandinavian (cf. § 77). The normal development of the Old English
pronouns
would have been hi (he), here, hem, and these are very common. In the
districts,
however, where Scandinavian influence was strong, the nominative hi began
early
to be replaced by the Scandinavian form þei (ON þeir), and
somewhat later a
similar
replacement occurred in the other cases, their and them. The new
forms were
adopted
more slowly farther south, and the usual inflection in Chaucer is thei,
here, hem.
But
by the end of the Middle English period the forms they, their, them may
be regarded
as
the normal English plurals.
116.
The Verb.
Apart
from some leveling of inflections and the weakening of endings in accordance
with
the
general tendency,7 the
principal changes in the verb during the Middle English period
were
the serious losses suffered by the strong conjugation (see §§ 117–18). This
conjugation,
although including some of the most important verbs in the language, was
relatively
small8 as
compared with the large and steadily growing body of weak verbs.
7
For example, the -an of the Old English
infinitive became -en and later -e: OE drīfan>
M.E.
dnīven>drive.
8
The facts stated in this section are based upon
collections for 333 strong verbs in Old English.
This
number includes a few verbs for which only isolated forms occur and one (*stecan)
that is not
recorded
at all, although its existence is to be inferred from its surviving forms in
Middle English.
A
history of the english language 150
While
an occasional verb developed a strong past tense or past participle by analogy
with
similar
strong verbs, new verbs formed from nouns and adjectives or borrowed from
other
languages were regularly conjugated as weak. Thus the minority position of the
strong
conjugation was becoming constantly more appreciable. After the Norman
Conquest
the loss of native words further depleted the ranks of the strong verbs. Those
that
survived were exposed to the influence of the majority, and many have changed
over
in
the course of time to the weak inflection.
117.
Losses among the Strong Verbs.
Nearly
a third of the strong verbs in Old English seem to have died out early in the
Middle
English period. In any case about ninety of them have left no traces in written
records
after 1150. Some of them may have been current for a time in the spoken
language,
but except where an occasional verb survives in a modern dialect they are not
recorded.
Some were rare in Old English and others were in competition with weak verbs
of
similar derivation and meaning which superseded them. In addition to verbs that
are
not
found at all after the Old English period there are about a dozen more that
appear
only
in Layamon (c. 1200) or in certain twelfth-century texts based directly on the
homilies
of Ælfric and other Old English works. In other words, more than a hundred of
the
Old English strong verbs were lost at the beginning of the Middle English
period.
But
this was not all. The loss has continued in subsequent periods. Some thirty
more
became
obsolete in the course of Middle English, and an equal number, which were still
in
use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, finally died out except in the
dialects,
often
after they had passed over to the weak conjugation or had developed weak forms
alongside
the strong. Today more than half of the Old English strong verbs have
disappeared
completely from the standard language.
118.
Strong Verbs That Became Weak.
The
principle of analogy—the tendency of language to follow certain patterns and
adapt a
less
common form to a more familiar one—is well exemplified in the further history
of
the
strong verbs. The weak conjugation offered a fairly consistent pattern for the
past
tense
and the past participle, whereas there was much variety in the different
classes of
the
strong verb. We say sing—sang—sung, but drive—drove—driven,
fall—fell—fallen,
etc.
At a time when English was the language chiefly of the lower classes and
largely
removed
from the restraining influences of education and a literary standard, it was
natural
that many speakers should apply the pattern of weak verbs to some which were
historically
strong. The tendency was not unknown even in Old English. Thus
(to
advise) and sceððan (to injure) had already become weak in Old English,
while other
verbs
show occasional weak forms.9 In
the thirteenth century the trend becomes clear in
9
For example, dwīnan
(to disappear), rēocan
(to smoke). Ten strong verbs had developed weak
forms
by the twelfth century. Doubtless most of these weak forms were of occasional
occurrence in
Old
English though they have not been recorded.
Middle
english 151
the
written literature. Such verbs as bow, brew, burn, climb, flee, flow, help,
mourn, row,
step,
walk, weep were then undergoing
change.
By the fourteenth century the movement was at its height. No less than
thirty-two
verbs
in addition to those already mentioned now show weak forms. After this there are
fewer
changes. The impulse seems to have been checked, possibly by the steady rise of
English
in the social scale and later by the stabilizing effect of printing. At all
events the
fifteenth
century shows only about a dozen new weak formations and in the whole
modern
period there are only about as many more.
In
none of the many verbs which have thus become weak was the change from the
strong
conjugation a sudden one. Strong forms continued to be used while the weak ones
were
growing up, and in many cases they continued in use long after the weak
inflection
had
become well established. Thus oke as the past tense of ache was
still written
throughout
the fifteenth century although the weak form ached had been current for
a
hundred
years. In the same way we find stope beside stepped, rewe beside rowed,
clew
beside
clawed. In a good many cases the strong forms remained in the language
well into
modern
times. Climb, which was conjugated as a weak verb as early as the
thirteenth
century,
still has an alternative past tense clomb not only in Chaucer and
Spenser but in
Dryden,
and the strong past tense crope was more common than crept down
to
Shakespeare’s
day. Low for laughed, shove for shaved, yold for yielded,
etc., were still
used
in the sixteenth century although these verbs were already passing over to the
weak
conjugation
two centuries before. While the weak forms commonly won out, this was not
always
the case. Many strong verbs also had weak forms (blowed for blew,
knowed for
knew,
teared for tore) that did not survive in
the standard speech, while in other cases
both
forms have continued in use (cleft—clove, crowed—crew, heaved—hove, sheared—
shore,
shrived—shrove).
119.
Survival of Strong Participles.
For
some reason the past participle of strong verbs seems to have been more
tenacious
than
the past tense. In a number of verbs weak participles are later in appearing
and the
strong
form often continued in use after the verb had definitely become weak. In the
verb
beat
the principle beaten has remained
the standard form, while in a number of other
verbs
the strong participle (cloven, graven, hewn, laden, molten, mown,
(mis)shapen,
shaven,
sodden, swollen) are still used,
especially as adjectives.
120.
Surviving Strong Verbs.
When
we subtract the verbs that have been lost completely and the eighty-one that
have
become
weak, there remain just sixty-eight of the Old English strong verbs in the
language
today. To this number may be added thirteen verbs that are conjugated in both
ways
or have kept one strong form. These figures indicate how extensive the loss of
strong
verbs in the language has been. Beside this loss the number of new strong for-
A
history of the english language 152
mations
has been negligible.10 Since
the irregularity of such verbs constitutes a difficulty
in
language, the loss in this case must be considered a gain.
The
surviving strong verbs have seldom come down to the present day in the form
that
would
represent the normal development of their principal parts in Old English. In
all
periods
of the language they have been subjected to various forms of leveling and
analogical
influence from one class to another. For example, the verb to slay had
in Old
English
the forms slēan—slōg—slōgon—slægen.
These would normally have become
slea
(pronounced slee)—slough—slain,
and the present tense slea actually existed down
to
the seventeenth century. The modern slay is reformed from the past
participle. The past
tense
slew is due to the analogy of preterites like blew, grew. In Old
English the past
tense
commonly had a different form in the singular and the plural,11
and in two large
classes
of verbs the vowel of the plural was also like that of the past participle
(e.g.,
bindan—band—bundon—bunden).
Consequently, although normally the singular form
survived
in Modern English, in many cases the vowel of the plural or of the past
participle
has taken its place. Thus cling, sting, spin, etc., should have had a
past tense
clang,
stang, span (like sing), but these forms
have been replaced by clung, stung, spun
from
the plural and the past participle. The past tense of slide should have
been slode, but
the
plural and the past participle had i and we now say slide—slid—slid.
Sometimes a
verb
has changed from one class to another. Break belonged originally to the
fifth class of
strong
verbs, and had it remained there, would have had a past participle breken.
But in
Old
English it was confused with verbs of the fourth class, which had o in
the past
participle,
whence our form broken. This form has now spread to the past tense. We
should
be saying brack or brake, and the latter is still used in the
Bible, but except in
biblical
language the current form is now broke. Speak has had a similar
development.
Almost
every strong verb in the language has an interesting formhistory, but our
present
purpose
will be sufficiently served by these few examples of the sort of fluctuation
and
change
that was going on all through the Middle English period and which has not yet
ended.
10
There are fifteen such verbs. Strive (from
French) has been inflected on the pattern of drive, as
have
thrive and rive (both from Old Norse). In some varieties of
English dive has developed a past
tense
dove. Since the eighteenth century stave has had a strong form stove.
So, too, has reeve, a
nautical
term. Wear—wore—worn, a weak verb in
Old English, has been reformed on the analogy
of
verbs like bear and swear. Spat has been the past tense of
spit since the sixteenth century, and
the
strong forms of stick date from the same time. An analogous formation dug
appears as a past
participle
at this date and since the eighteenth century has been used as the past tense. Fling,
ring,
and
string are conjugated like cling, sting, and swing. Hide
and occasionally chide have strong past
participles
like ride—ridden. Tug and drug (like dug) are
sometimes heard for tagged and dragged
but
are not in standard use. A few verbs like show have developed past
participles on the analogy of
know.
11
The second person singular had the vowel of the
plural.
Middle
english 153
121.
Loss of Grammatical Gender.
One
of the consequences of the decay of inflections described above was the
elimination
of
that troublesome feature of language, grammatical gender. As explained in § 42,
the
gender
of Old English nouns was not often determined by meaning. Sometimes it was in
direct
contradiction with the meaning. Thus woman (OE wīf-mann)
was masculine,
because
the second element in the compound was masculine; wife and child, like
German
Weib
and Kind, were neuter. Moreover,
the gender of nouns in Old English was not so
generally
indicated by the declension as it is in a language like Latin. Instead it was
revealed
chiefly by the concord of the strong adjective and the demonstratives. These by
their
distinctive endings generally showed, at least in the singular, whether a noun
was
masculine,
feminine, or neuter. When the inflections of these gender-distinguishing
words
were reduced to a single ending for the adjective, and the fixed forms of the,
this,
that,
these, and those for the demonstratives,
the support for grammatical gender was
removed.
The weakening of inflections and the confusion and loss of the old gender
proceeded
in a remarkably parallel course. In the north, where inflections weakened
earliest,
grammatical gender disappeared first. In the south it lingered longer because
there
the decay of inflections was slower.
Our
present method of determining gender was no sudden invention of Middle English
times.
The recognition of sex that lies at the root of natural gender is shown in Old
English
by the noticeable tendency to use the personal pronouns in accordance with
natural
gender, even when such use involves a clear conflict with the grammatical
gender
of
the antecedent. For example, the pronoun it in Etað þisne hlāf
(masculine), hit is mīm
līchama
(Ælfric’s Homilies) is exactly in
accordance with modern usage when we say,
Eat
this bread, it is my body. Such a use of the
personal pronouns is clearly indicative of
the
feeling for natural gender even while grammatical gender was in full force.
With the
disappearance
of grammatical gender sex became the only factor in determining the
gender
of English nouns.
122.
Middle English Syntax.
As
a result of the leveling of inflections, syntactic and semantic relationships
that had
been
signaled by the endings on words now became ambiguous. Whereas in Old English
the
grammatical functions of two consecutive nouns were clear from their endings
in,
say,
the nominative and dative cases, in Middle English their functions might be
uncertain.
The most direct way to avoid this kind of ambiguity is through limiting the
possible
patterns of word order. The process of development from the highly synthetic
stage
of Old English (see § 40) to the highly analytic stages of Late Middle English
and
Modern
English can be seen in the Peterborough Chronicle. Written in
installments
between
1070 and 1154, this text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronide spans the period
from Old
English
to Early Middle English. Within the continuations of the text it is possible to
trace
first a significant loss of inflections and afterwards a corresponding rigidity
of word
order,
making clear the direction of cause and effect.12
This process of development and
A
history of the english language 154
the
reality of Middle English as a separate stage of the language grammatically (as
well
as
phonologically and lexically) can be seen in the patterns of subject and verb.
In
addition
to the Modern English order SV, Old English had VS and, in subordinate
clauses,
S…V (with the finite verb in final position). All of these patterns are still
possible
even in the last years of the Peterborough Chronicle. Thus, the word
order
looked
much like that of Old English at a time when the inflectional system looked much
like
that of Modern English. As Bruce Mitchell writes, “the language of the
Peterborough
Chronide 1122–1154 is Middle, not Modern,
English. It is transitional.”13
And
as its most recent editor puts it: “before our eyes English is beginning to
change
from
a synthetic language to an analytic one.”14
It
is important to emphasize that these changes which affected the grammatical
structure
of English after the Norman Conquest were not the result of contact with the
French
language. Certain idioms and syntactic usages that appear in Middle English are
clearly
the result of such contact.15 But
the decay of inflections and the confusion of
forms
that constitute the truly significant development in Middle English grammar are
the
result
of the Norman Conquest only insofar as that event brought about conditions
favorable
to such changes. By removing the authority that a standard variety of English
would
have, the Norman Conquest made it easier for grammatical changes to go forward
unchecked.
Beyond this it is not considered a factor in syntactic changes.
123.
French Influence on the Vocabulary.
While
the loss of inflections and the consequent simplification of English grammar
were
thus
only
12
Although some earlier scholars believe the loss of
inflections to have resulted from a fixed word
order,
the sequence of development is clearly the reverse. See Cecily Clark, ed., The
Peterborough
Chronicle,
1070–1154 (2nd ed., Oxford, 1970), p. lxix; and
Bruce Mitchell, Old English Syntax (2
vols.,
Oxford, 1985), § 3950.
13
Mitchell, “Syntax and Word-Order in The
Peterborough Chronicle,” Neuphilologische
Mitteilungen,
65 (1964), 143.
14
Clark, p. lxxiii.
15
F.H.Sykes, French Elements in Middle English (Oxford,
1899) makes an attempt to support this
view.
The most extensive treatment of the subject is A.A.Prins, French Influence
in English
Phrasing
(Leiden, Nether lands, 1952), supplemented by
articles in English Studies, vols. 40–41. A
striking
array of instances in which English reflects the use of prepositions and
adverbs in French,
Latin,
and Danish is given in H.T.Price, Foreign Influences on Middle English (Ann
Arbor, MI,
1947;
Univ. of Michigan Contributions in Modern Philology, no. 10). The
standard work on Middle
English
syntax is Tauno F.Mustanoja, A Middle English Syntax, part 1 (Helsinki,
1960).
Middle
english 155
indirectly
due to the use of French in England, French influence is much more direct and
observable
upon the vocabulary. Where two languages exist side by side for a long time
and
the relations between the people speaking them are as intimate as they were in
England,
a considerable transference of words from one language to the other is
inevitable.
As is generally the case, the interchange was to some extent mutual. A good
many
English words found their way into the French spoken in England. We are
naturally
less
interested in them here, because they concern rather the history of the
Anglo-Norman
language.
Their number was not so large as that of the French words introduced into
English.
English, representing a culture that was regarded as inferior, had more to gain
from
French, and there were other factors involved. The number of French words that
poured
into English was unbelievably great. There is nothing comparable to it in the
previous
or subsequent history of the language.
Although
this influx of French words was brought about by the victory of the
Conqueror
and by the political and social consequences of that victory, it was neither
sudden
nor immediately apparent. Rather it began slowly and continued with varying
tempo
for a long time. Indeed it can hardly be said to have ever stopped. The large
number
of French words borrowed during the Middle Ages has made it easy for us to go
on
borrowing, and the close cultural relations between France and England in all
subsequent
periods have furnished a constant opportunity for the transfer of words. But
there
was a time in the centuries following the Conquest when this movement had its
start
and
a stream of French words poured into English with a momentum that continued
until
toward
the end of the Middle English period.
In
this movement two stages can be observed, an earlier and a later, with the year
1250
as
the approximate dividing line. The borrowings of the first stage differ from those
of
the
second in being much less numerous, in being more likely to show peculiarities
of
Anglo-Norman
phonology, and, especially, in the circumstances that brought about their
introduction.
When we study the French words appearing in English before 1250, roughly
900
in number, we find that many of them were such as the lower classes would
become
familiar
with through contact with a French-speaking nobility (baron, noble, dame,
servant,
messenger, feast, minstrel, juggler, largess).
Others, such as story, rime, lay,
douzepers
(the twelve peers of the Charlemagne
romances), obviously owed their
introduction
into English to literary channels. The largest single group among the words
that
came in early was associated with the church, where the necessity for the
prompt
transference
of doctrine and belief from the clergy to the people is sufficient to account
for
the frequent transfer of words. In the period after 1250 the conditions under
which
French
words had been making their way into English were supplemented by a new and
powerful
factor: those who had been accustomed to speak French were turning
increasingly
to the use of English. Whether to supply deficiencies in the English
vocabulary
or in their own imperfect command of that vocabulary, or perhaps merely
yielding
to a natural impulse to use a word long familiar to them and to those they
addressed,
the upper classes carried over into English an astonishing number of common
French
words. In changing from French to English they transferred much of their
governmental
and administrative vocabulary, their ecclesiastical, legal, and military
terms,
their familiar words of fashion, food, and social life, the vocabulary of art,
learning,
and medicine. In general we may say that in the earlier Middle English period
A
history of the english language 156
the
French words introduced into English were such as people speaking one language
often
learn from those speaking another; in the century and a half following 1250,
when
all
classes were speaking or learning to speak English, they were also such words
as
people
who had been accustomed to speak French would carry over with them into the
language
of their adoption. Only in this way can we understand the nature and extent of
the
French importations in this period.
124.
Governmental and Administrative Words.
We
should expect that English would owe many of its words dealing with government
and
administration to the language of those who for more than 200 years made public
affairs
their chief concern. The words government, govern, administer might
appropriately
introduce a list of such words. It would include such fundamental terms as
crown,
state, empire, realm, reign, royal, prerogative, authority, sovereign, majesty,
scepter,
tyrant, usurp, oppress, court, council, parliament, assembly, statute, treaty,
alliance,
record, repeal, adjourn, tax, subsidy, revenue, tally, exchequer.
Intimately
associated
with the idea of government are also words like subject, allegiance, rebel,
traitor,
treason, exile, public, liberty. The word office
and the titles of many offices are
likewise
French: chancellor, treasurer, chamberlain, marshal, governor, councilor,
minister,
viscount, warden, castellan, mayor, constable, coroner, and
even the humble
crier.
Except for the words king and queen, lord, lady, and earl, most
designations of
rank
are French: noble, nobility, peer, prince, princess, duke, duchess, count,
countess,
marquis,
baron, squire, page, as well as such words
as courtier, retinue, and titles of
respect
like sir, madam, mistress. The list might well be extended to include
words
relating
to the economic organization of society—manor, demesne, bailiff, vassal,
homage,
peasant, bondman, slave, servant, and caitiff—since
they often have a political
or
administrative aspect.
125.
Ecclesiastical Words.
The
church was scarcely second to the government as an object of Norman interest
and
ambition.
The higher clergy, occupying positions of wealth and power, were, as we have
seen,
practically all Normans. Ecclesiastical preferment opened the way to a career
that
often
led to the highest political offices at court. In monasteries and religious
houses
French
was for a long time the usual language. Accordingly we find in English such
French
words as religion, theology, sermon, homily, sacrament, baptism, communion,
confession,
penance, prayer, orison, lesson, passion, psalmody; such
indications of rank
or
class as clergy, clerk, prelate, cardinal, legate, dean, chaplain, parson,
pastor, vicar,
sexton,
abbess, novice, friar, hermit; the names of
objects associated with the service or
with
the religious life, such as crucifix, crosier, miter, surplice, censer,
incense, lectern,
image,
chancel, chantry, chapter, abbey, convent, priory, hermitage, cloister,
sanctuary;
words
expressing such fundamental religious or theological concepts as creator,
savior,
trinity,
virgin, saint, miracle, mystery, faith, heresy, schism, reverence, devotion,
sacrilege,
simony, temptation, damnation, penitence, contrition, remission, absolution,
Middle
english 157
redemption,
salvation, immortality, and the more general
virtues of piety, sanctity,
charity,
mercy, pity, obedience, as well as the word virtue
itself. We should include also a
number
of adjectives, like solemn, divine, reverend, devout, and verbs, such as
preach,
pray,
chant, repent, confess, adore, sacrifice, convert, anoint, ordain.
126.
Law.
French
was so long the language of the law courts in England that the greater part of
the
English
legal vocabulary comes from the language of the conquerors. The fact that we
speak
of justice and equity instead of gerihte, judgment rather
than dom (doom), crime in
place
of synn, gylt, undæd, etc., shows how completely we have adopted the
terminology
of
French law. Even where the Old English word survives it has lost its technical
sense.
In
the same way we say bar, assize, eyre, plea, suit, plaintiff, defendant,
judge, advocate,
attorney,
bill, petition, complaint, inquest, summons, hue and cry, indictment, jury,
juror,
panel,
felon, evidence, proof, bail, ransom, mainpernor, judgment, verdict, sentence,
decree,
award, fine, forfeit, punishment, prison, gaol, pillory.
We have likewise a rich
array
of verbs associated with legal processes: sue, plead, implead, accuse, indict,
arraign,
depose, blame, arrest, seize, pledge, warrant, assail, assign, judge, condemn,
convict,
award, amerce, distrain, imprison, banish, acquit, pardon.
The names of many
crimes
and misdemeanors are French: felony, trespass, assault, arson, larceny,
fraud,
libel,
slander, perjury, adultery, and many others. Suits
involving property brought into
use
such words as property, estate, tenement, chattels, appurtenances,
encumbrance,
bounds,
seisin, tenant, dower, legacy, patrimony, heritage, heir, executor, entail.
Common
adjectives like just, innocent, culpable have obvious legal import
though they
are
also of wider application.
127.
Army and Navy.
The
large part that war played in English affairs in the Middle Ages, the fact that
the
control
of the army and navy was in the hands of those who spoke French, and the
circumstance
that much of English fighting was done in France all resulted in the
introduction
into English of a number of French military terms. The art of war has
undergone
such changes since the days of Hastings and Lewes and Agincourt that many
words
once common are now obsolete or only in historical use. Their places have been
taken
by later borrowings, often likewise from French, many of them being words
acquired
by the French in the course of their wars in Italy during the sixteenth
century.
Nevertheless,
we still use medieval French words when we speak of the army and the
navy,
of peace, enemy, arms, battle,
combat, skirmish, siege, defense, ambush, stratagem,
retreat,
soldier, garrison, guard, spy, and we have kept
the names of officers such as
captain,
lieutenant, sergeant. We recognize as once
having had greater significance
words
like dart, lance, banner, mail, buckler, hauberk, archer, chieftain,
portcullis,
barbican,
and moat. Sometimes we have
retained a word while forgetting its original
military
significance. The word “Havoc!” was originally an order giving an army
the
signal
to commence plundering and seizing spoil. Verbs like to arm, array, harness,
A
history of the english language 158
brandish,
vanquish, besiege, defend, among many, suffice to
remind us of this important
French
element in our vocabulary.
128.
Fashion, Meals, and Social Life.
That
the upper classes should have set the standard in fashion and dress is so
obvious an
assumption
that the number of French words belonging to this class occasions no
surprise.
The words fashion and dress are themselves French, as are apparel,
habit, gown,
robe,
garment, attire, cape, cloak, coat, frock, collar, veil, train, chemise,
petticoat. So
too
are lace, embroidery, pleat, gusset, buckle, button, tassel, plume, and
the names of
such
articles as kerchief, mitten, garter, galoshes, and boots. Verbs
like embellish and
adorn
often occur in contexts which suggest
the word luxury, and this in turn carries with
it
satin, taffeta, fur, sable, beaver, ermine. The colors blue, brown,
vermilion, scarlet,
saffron,
russet, and tawny are French borrowings
of this period. Jewel, ornament, brooch,
chaplet,
ivory, and enamel point to the luxuries
of the wealthy, and it is significant that
the
names of all the more familiar precious stones are French: turquoise,
amethyst, topaz,
garnet,
ruby, emerald, sapphire, pearl, diamond, not
to mention crystal, coral, and beryl.
The
French-speaking classes, it would seem, must also be credited with a
considerable
adornment
of the English table. Not only are the words dinner and supper French,
but
also
the words feast, repast, collation, and mess (now military). So,
too, are appetite,
taste,
victuals, viand, and sustenance.
One could have found on the medieval menu, had
there
been one, among the fish, mackerel, sole, perch, bream, sturgeon, salmon,
sardine,
oyster,
porpoise; among meats, venison, beef, veal,
mutton, pork, bacon, sausage, tripe,
with
a choice of loin, chine, haunch, or brawn, and with gravy included;
among fowl,
poultry,
pullet, pigeon, and various game birds mentioned
below. One could have
pottage,
gruel, toast, biscuit, cream, sugar, olives, salad, lettuce, endive, and
for dessert
almonds,
and many fruits, including raisin,
fig, date, grape, orange, lemon, pomegranate,
cherry,16
peach, or a confection,
pasty, tart, jelly, treacle. Among seasoning and
condiments
we find spice, clove, thyme, herb, mustard, vinegar, marjoram, cinnamon,
nutmeg.
The verbs roast, boil, parboil, stew, fry, broach, blanch, grate, and mince
describe
various culinary processes, and goblet, saucer, cruet, plate, platter suggest
French
refinements in the serving of meals. It is melancholy to think what the English
dinner
table would have been like had there been no Norman Conquest.
A
variety of new words suggests the innovations made by the French in domestic
economy
and social life. Arras, curtain, couch, chair, cushion, screen, lamp,
lantern,
sconce,
chandelier, blanket, quilt, coverlet, counterpane, towel, and
basin indicate
articles
of comfort or convenience, while dais, parlor, wardrobe, closet, pantry,
scullery,
and
garner (storehouse) imply improvements in domestic arrangements. Recreation,
solace,
jollity, leisure, dance, carol, revel, minstrel, juggler, fool, ribald, lute,
tabor,
melody,
music, chess, checkers, dalliance, and
conversation reveal various aspects of
entertainment
in a baronial hall, while numerous words associated with hunting and
riding
are a reflection of the principal outdoor pastime of the nobility: ambler,
courser,
hackney,
palfrey, rouncy, stallion for various types of
horse, together with rein, curb,
crupper,
rowel, curry, trot, stable, harness; mastiff, terrier, spaniel, leash, kennel,
scent,
retrieve;
falcon, merlin, tercelet, mallard, partridge, pheasant, quail, plover, heron,
Middle
english 159
squirrel;
forest, park, covert, warren. One might extend the
list to include other activities,
with
terms like joust, tournament, pavilion, but those given are sufficient
to show how
much
the English vocabulary owes to French in matters of domestic and social life.
129.
Art, Learning, Medicine.
The
cultural and intellectual interests of the ruling class are reflected in words
pertaining
to
the arts, architecture, literature, learning, and science, especially medicine.
Such words
as
art, painting, sculpture, music, beauty, color, figure, image, tone are
typical of the first
class,
while architecture and building have given us cathedral, palace, mansion,
chamber,
ceiling, joist, cellar, garret, chimney, lintel, latch, lattice,
wicket,
tower, pinnacle, turret, porch, bay, choir, cloister, baptistry, column,
pillar,
base,
and many similar words. Literature is
represented by the word itself and by poet,
rime,
prose, romance, lay, story, chronicle, tragedy, prologue, preface, title,
volume,
chapter,
quire, parchment, vellum, paper, and pen, and
learning by treatise, compilation,
study,
logic, geometry, grammar, noun, clause, gender, together
with verbs like copy,
expound,
and compile. Among the sciences,
medicine has brought in the largest number
of
early French words still in common use, among them the word medicine itself,
chirurgy,
physician, surgeon, apothecary, malady, debility, distemper, pain, ague, palsy,
pleurisy,
gout, jaundice, leper, paralytic, plague, pestilence, contagion, anatomy,
stomach,
pulse, remedy, ointment, balm, pellet, alum, arsenic, niter, sulphur, alkali,
poison.
It is clear that the arts and sciences, being largely cultivated or patronized
by the
higher
classes, owe an important part of their vocabulary to French.
130.
Breadth of the French Influence.
Such
classes of words as have been illustrated in the foregoing paragraphs indicate
important
departments in which the French language altered the English vocabulary in
the
Middle Ages. But they do not sufficiently indicate how very general was the
adoption
of
French words in every province of life and thought. One has only to glance over
a
miscellaneous
list of words—nouns, adjectives, verbs—to realize how universal was the
French
contribution. In the noun we may consider the range of ideas in the following
list,
made
up of words that were already in English by 1300: action, adventure,
affection, age,
air,
bucket, bushel, calendar, carpenter, cheer, city, coast, comfort, cost,
country,
courage,
courtesy, coward, crocodile, cruelty, damage, debt, deceit, dozen, ease, envy,
error,
face, faggot, fame, fault, flower, folly, force, gibbet, glutton, grain, grief,
gum,
harlot,
honor, hour, jest, joy, labor, leopard, malice, manner, marriage, mason, metal,
mischief,
mountain, noise, number, ocean, odor, opinion, order, pair, people, peril,
person,
pewter, piece, point, poverty, powder, power, quality, quart, rage, rancor,
reason,
river, scandal, seal, season, sign, sound, sphere, spirit, square, strife,
stubble,
substance,
sum, tailor, task, tavern, tempest, unity, use, vision, waste.
The same
universality
is shown in the adjective. Here the additions were of special importance
since
Old English was not very well provided with adjective distinctions. From nearly
a
thousand
French adjectives in Middle English we may consider the following selection,
A
history of the english language 160
all
the words in this list being in use in Chaucer’s time: able, abundant,
active, actual,
amiable,
amorous, barren, blank, brief, calm, certain, chaste, chief, clear, common,
contrary,
courageous, courteous, covetous, coy, cruel, curious, debonair, double, eager,
easy,
faint, feeble, fierce, final, firm, foreign, frail, frank, gay, gentle,
gracious, hardy,
hasty,
honest, horrible, innocent, jolly, large, liberal, luxurious, malicious, mean,
moist,
natural,
nice, obedient, original, perfect, pertinent, plain, pliant, poor, precious,
principal,
probable, proper, pure, quaint, real, rude, safe, sage, savage, scarce, second,
secret,
simple, single, sober, solid, special, stable, stout, strange, sturdy, subtle,
sudden,
supple,
sure, tender, treacherous, universal, usual A
list of the verbs borrowed at the
same
time shows equal diversity. Examples are: advance, advise, aim, allow,
apply,
approach,
arrange, arrive, betray, butt, carry, chafe, change, chase, close, comfort,
commence,
complain, conceal, consider, continue, count, cover, covet, cry, cull, deceive,
declare,
defeat, defer, defy, delay, desire, destroy, embrace, enclose, endure, enjoy,
enter,
err,
excuse, flatter, flourish, force, forge, form, furnish, grant, increase, nform,
inquire,
join,
languish, launch, marry, mount, move, murmur, muse, nourish, obey, oblige,
observe,
pass, pay, pierce, pinch, please, practise, praise, prefer, proceed, propose,
prove,
purify, pursue, push, quash, quit, receive, refuse, rejoice, relieve, remember,
reply,
rinse,
rob, satisfy, save, scald, serve, spoil, strangle, strive, stun, succeed,
summon,
suppose,
surprise, tax, tempt, trace, travel, tremble, trip, wait, waive, waste, wince.
Finally,
the influence of French may be seen in numerous phrases and turns of
expression,
such as to take leave, to draw near, to hold one’s peace, to come to a head,
to
do
justice, or make believe, hand to hand, on the
point of, according to, subject to, at
large,
by heart, in vain, without fail. In these and
other phrases, even when the words are
English
the pattern is French.17
These
four lists have been presented for the general impression which they create and
as
the basis for an inference which they clearly justify. This is, that so far as
the
vocabulary
is concerned, what we have in the influence of the Norman Conquest is a
merging
of the resources of two languages, a merger in which thousands of words in
common
use in each language became partners in a reorganized concern. English retains
a
controlling interest, but French as a large minority stockholder supplements
and rounds
out
the major organization in almost every department.
131.
Anglo-Norman and Central French.
It
will be observed that the French words introduced into English as a result of
the
Norman
Conquest often present an appearance quite different from that which they have
in
Modern French. This is due first of all to subsequent developments that have
taken
place
in the two languages. Thus the OF feste passed into Middle English as feste,
whence
it has become feast in Modern English, while in French the s disappeared
before
other
consonants at the end of the twelfth century and we have in Modern French the
form
fête. The same difference appears in forest—
17
See the references on page 167.
Middle
english 161
forêt,
hostel—hôtel, bêast—bete, and many other words.
The difference is not always
fully
revealed by the spelling but is apparent in the pronunciation. Thus the English
words
judge and chant preserve the early French pronunciation of j and
ch, which was
softened
in French in the thirteenth century to [ž] and [š] as in the Modern French juge
and
chant. Therefore we may recognize charge, change, chamber, chase,
chair, chimney,
just,
jewel, journey, majesty, gentle, and many other
words as early borrowings, while
such
words as chamois, chaperon, chiffon, chevron, jabot, rouge, and the
like, show by
their
pronunciation that they have come into the language at a later date. The word
chivalry
is an early word and should be
pronounced [́č],
but it has been influenced by
such
words as chevalier and by Modern French. A similar case is that of words
like
police
and ravine, where we pronounce
the i in the French manner. If these words had
been
borrowed early, we should pronounce them as we do nice and vine.
A
second cause of difference between English words and their French counterparts
is
the
fact that the Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French dialect spoken in England differed
from
the
language of Paris (Central French) in numerous respects. A few examples will
make
this
clear. In Anglo-Norman18 initial
ca- was often retained, whereas it became cha-,
chie-
in Central French.19
For example, our word caitiff represents the
AN caitif, whereas
the
Central French form was chaitif. In the same way are explained words
like carry,
carriage,
case (box), cauldron, carrion, etc.,
since the corresponding words in the dialect
of
Paris were pronounced with ch (charrier, chaudron, etc.). In some
cases English has
taken
over the same word in both its Norman and its Central French form. Thus AN catel
corresponds
to Central French chatel: one gives us our word cattle, the other
chattel(s).
The
English verb catch represents the Anglo-Norman cachier, while the
Central French
chacier
(Modern French chasser) appears
in the English chase. Or we may take another
peculiarity
of Anglo-Norman which appears in English. It is a well-known fact that
Central
French showed an early avoidance of the wsound, both separately and in
combination
with other consonants, and
18
There is still considerable difference of opinion as
to whether this dialect was in any real sense a
unified
speech. It shows great diversity of forms and this diversity may reflect the
variety of the
French
people who settled in England. Many others besides Normans took part in
William’s
invasion,
and among those who came later every part of France was represented. In this
mixture,
however,
it is certain that Normans predominated, and the Anglo-Norman dialect agrees in
its most
characteristic
features with the dialects of northern France and especially with that of
Normandy.
Some
features of the Norman dialect were characteristic also of its neighbor,
Picard, and such
features
would be reinforced in England by the speech of those who came from the Picard
area.
19
This distinction as it appears in Middle English has
been studied by S.H.Bush, “Old Northern
French
Loan-words in Middle English,” PQ, 1 (1922), 161–72.
A
history of the english language 162
whether
found in Latin or in words borrowed from the Germanic languages. But the
dialects
of northern and especially northeastern France, possibly because of their
proximity
to Flemish and Dutch, showed less hostility to this sound and it accordingly is
found
in Anglo-Norman. And so we have English wicket representing the old
Norman
French
wiket, which became in the Paris dialect guichet, the form which
it has in Modern
French.
In the same way waste (AN waster) was in Central French guaster
or gaster
(Mod.
F. gâter). Other examples are wasp (F.guêpe), warmnt (F.garantir),
reward
(F.regarder),
wardrobe, wait, warden (cf. guardian, from Central French), wage,
warren,
wince.
In the combination qu– Central French likewise dropped the labial
element while
it
was retained for a time in Anglo-Norman. For this reason we say quit,
quarter, quality,
question,
require, etc., all with the sound of [kw], where
French has a simple [k] (quitter,
quartier,
qualité, etc.).
The
consonants were not alone in showing special developments in England. The
vowels
also at times developed differently, and these differences are likewise
reflected in
the
words borrowed by English. One or two illustrations will have to suffice. In
Old
French
the diphthong ui was originally accented on the first element (úi).
This
accentuation
was retained in Anglo-Norman and the i disappeared, leaving a simple u
[y].
In
Middle English this [y] became [u] or [iu], written u, ui, ew, etc.
Hence the English
word
fruit. In Central French, on the other hand, the accentuation of this
diphthong was
shifted
in the twelfth century from úi to uí, and as a consequence we
have in Modern
French
the form fruit with a quite different pronunciation. Again, the
diphthong ei was
retained
in Anglo-Norman, but early in the twelfth century it had become oi in
Central
French.
Thus we have in English leal, real (AN leial, reial) as compared
with French
loyal,
royal (which we have also subsequently
adopted). The Latin endings -ārius,
-ōrius
appear
in AngloNorman as -arie,20 -orie,
but in Central French they developed
into -aire,
-oire.
Hence we have English salary, victory, but in French salaire,
victoire. Of course, in
many
respects the French spoken in England was identical in its forms with that of
Paris,
but
the cases in which it differed are sufficient to establish the conclusion that
until well
into
the fourteenth century English borrowed its French words generally in the form
which
they had in the spoken French of England.
While
this statement is in accordance with inherent probability and is supported by
abundant
evidence so far as that evidence enables us to recognize dialectal differences,
it
must
be qualified in one way. We have already seen (§ 101) that by the thirteenth
century
the
preeminence of the Paris dialect was
20
Also as -er, as in carpenter, danger.
Middle
english 163
making
itself felt outside the capital and it is probable that the French of England was
gradually
modified in the direction of conformity with that dialect. In spite of
Chaucer’s
jest
about the French of Stratford-at-Bow and the undoubted fact that the French of
England
was ridiculed by those who spoke the dialect of the Ile-de-France, we know that
English
children were at times sent abroad to correct their accent and that there was
much
travel
to the continent. All this could not have been without some effect in making
the
forms
of Central French more familiar in England. There was moreover the constant
influence
of French literature. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that as time went
on
and
the use of French in England became more artificial, a larger share of the
English
borrowing
was from Central French. This was more particularly the case in the fifteenth
century
when the less popular character of many of the words borrowed suggests that
they
came more often through literary than through colloquial channels.21
132.
Popular and Literary Borrowings.
There
can be little doubt that a large proportion of the words borrowed from French
were
thoroughly
popular in character, that is, words current in the everyday French spoken in
England.
At the same time the importance of literature is not to be underestimated as a
means
of transfer. So much of Middle English literature was based directly on French
originals
that it would have been rather exceptional if English writers had consistently
resisted
the temptation to carry French words over into their adaptations. Layamon
resisted,
but most others did not, and when in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
French
words were being taken by the hundreds into the popular speech, the way was
made
easier for the entrance of literary words as well. Although literature was one
of the
channels
by which French words entered English all through the Middle English period,
in
the fifteenth century it became the principal source. Words like adolescence,
affability,
appellation,
cohort, combustion, destitution, harangue, immensity, ingenious,
pacification,
representation, sumptuous betray their learned or
bookish origin, and in the
works
of Caxton at the end of the century new words like aggravation, diversify,
furtive,
prolongation,
and ravishment abound. The number
of such words entering the language
at
this time is probably no greater than in the preceding century, but they are
more
prominent
because the adoption of popular words was now greatly curtailed by the
practical
disappearance of French as a spoken language in England.
133.
The Period of Greatest Influence.
Some
time elapsed after the Norman Conquest before its effects were felt to any
appreciable
degree by the
21
There is a discussion of the Central French element
in English in Skeat, Principles of English
Etymology,
Second Series (Oxford, 1891), chap. 8.
A
history of the english language 164
English
vocabulary. This fact has long been recognized in a general way, but it is only
within
this century that the materials have been available which enable us to speak
with
any
assurance as to the exact period when the greatest number of French words came
into
the
language. These materials are the dated quotations in the Oxford English
Dictionary.
In
1905 Otto Jespersen made a statistical study of one thousand words borrowed
from
French,
classifying them according to the dates when they were first recorded in
English
and
grouping them by half centuries.22 The
result is highly illuminating. For a hundred
years
after the Conquest there is no increase in the number of French words being
adopted.
In the last half of the twelfth century the number increases slightly and in
the
period
from 1200 to 1250 somewhat more rapidly. But it does not become really great
until
after 1250. Then the full tide sets in, rising to a climax at the end of the
fourteenth
century.
By 1400 the movement has spent its force. A sharp drop in the fifteenth century
has
been followed by a gradual tapering off ever since.
Although
there is no way of knowing how long a word had been in the language
before
the earliest recorded instance, it is a striking fact that so far as surviving
records
show,
the introduction of French words into English follows closely the progressive
adoption
of English by the upper classes (cf. § 95). As we have seen, the years from
1250
to
1400 mark the period when English was everywhere replacing French. During these
150
years 40 percent of all the French words in the English language came in.23
A
further calculation shows that the total number of French words adopted during
the
Middle
English period was slightly over 10,000. Of these about 75 percent are still in
current
use.
22
Growth and Structure of the English Language (10th
ed., 1982), p. 94. The following table
differs
somewhat from his. It represents an independent calculation based upon the
completed
dictionary.
Jespersen took the first hundred words under the letters A–H and the first
fifty under I
and
J. The method followed in compiling the present table is described in Modern
Language Notes,
50
(1935), 90–93.
…1050
2 1301–1350 108 1601–1650 61
1051–1100
0 1351–1400 198 1651–1700 37
1101–1150
2 1401–1450 74 1701–1750 33
1151–1200
7 1451–1500 90 1751–1800 26
1201–1250
35 1501–1550 62 1801–1850 46
1251–1300
99 1551–1600 95 1851–1900 25
For
statistics based on the letter A only, see F.Mossé, “On the Chronology of
French Loan-Words
in
English,” English Studies, 25 (1943), 33−40.
See also Xavier Dekeyser, “Romance Loans in
Middle
English: A Re-assessment,” in Linguistics across Historical and Geographical
Boundaries:
In
Honour of Jacek Fisiak, ed. Dieter Kastovsky
and Aleksander Szwedek (2 vols., Berlin, 1986), I,
253–65.
23
As indicated in the text, a word may have been in
use some time before the date at which it is
first
recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, but such a circumstance can
hardly invalidate the
conclusion
here stated.
Middle
english 165
134.
Assimilation.
The
rapidity with which the new French words were assimilated is evidenced by the
promptness
with which many of them became the basis of derivatives. English endings
were
apparently added to them with as much freedom as to English words. For example,
the
adjective gentle is recorded in 1225 and within five years we have it
compounded
with
an English noun to make gentlewoman (1230). A little later we find
gentleman
(1275),
gentleness (1300), and gently (1330). These compounds and derivatives
all occur
within
about a century of the time when the original adjective was adopted. In the
same
way
we have faith (1250) giving faithless and faithful (both
by 1300), faithfully (1362),
and
faithfulness (1388), as well as the obsolete faithly (1325). The
adverbial ending -ly
seems
to have been added to adjectives almost as soon as they appeared in the
language.
The
adverbs commonly, courteously, eagerly, feebly, fiercely, justly,
peacefully, and
many
more occur almost as early as the adjectives from which they are derived, while
faintly
by mere chance has been preserved in
writing from a slightly earlier date than
faint.
Hybrid forms (French root with English prefix or suffix) like chasthed (chastity),
lecherness,
debonairship, poorness, spusbruche (spousebreach,
adultery), becatch,
ungracious,
overpraising, forscald24 occur
quite early (mostly before 1250), while
common
(1297) has been made into commonweal (OE
wela) by 1330, battle (1297)
combined
with ax (OE æx) by 1380, and so on. It is clear that the new
French words were
quickly
assimilated, and entered into an easy and natural fusion with the native
element
in
English.
135.
Loss of Native Words.
Language
often seems lavish, if not wasteful, in having many words that appear to
duplicate
each other. And yet it has been said that there are no exact synonyms in
English.
There are usually certain peculiarities of meaning or use that distinguish a
word
from
others with which it has much in common. This seems to indicate that a certain
sense
of economy characterizes people in their use of language and causes them to get
rid
of
a word when its function is fully performed by some other word. After the
Norman
Conquest,
duplications frequently resulted, for many of the French words that came into
use
bore meanings already expressed by a native word. In such cases one of two
things
happened:
of the two words one was eventually lost, or, where both survived, they were
differentiated
in meaning. In some cases the French word disappeared, but in a great
many
cases it was the Old English word that died out. The substitution was not
always
immediate;
often both words continued in use for a longer or shorter time, and the
24
Behrens, Beiträge zur Geschichte der
französischen Sprache in England (Heilbronn, Germany,
1886),
p. 9.
A
history of the english language 166
English
word occasionally survives in the dialects today. Thus the OE ēam,
which has
been
replaced in the standard speech by the French word uncle, is still in
use (eme) in
Scotland.
The OE anda contested its position with the French envy until the
time of
Chaucer,
but eventually lost out and with it went the adjective andig (envious)
and the
verb
andian (to envy). In this way many common Old English words succumbed. The
OE
æþele
yielded to F. noble, and æþeling
became nobleman. Dryhten and frēa
were
displaced
by the French prince, although the English word lord, which
survived as a
synonym,
helped in the elimination. At the same time leod was being ousted by people.
The
OE dēma
(judge), dēman
(to judge), and dōm
(judgment) gave way before French
influence
in matters of law, but we still use deem in the sense of to think or
hold an
opinion,
and dōm
has survived in special senses, as in the
day of doom, or to meet one’s
doom.
OE (witness),firen (crime), and scyldig (guilty) have likewise
disappeared,
as have here (army), cempa (warrior), and sibb (peace). OE
lived
on
beside flower from French until the thirteenth century, and blēo
(color) survives
dialectally
as blee. Other common words that were lost may be illustrated by ādl
(disease),
ieldu (age), lof (praise), lyft (air), hold (gracious),
earm (poor), slīþe
(cruel),
gecynde
(natural), although it survived as kind
with this meaning until the sixteenth
century,
wuldor (glory) with its adjective wuldrig (glorious), and wlite
(beauty), wlitig
(beautiful).
In all these cases the place of the English word was taken by the word in
parentheses,
introduced from French. Many common verbs died out in the same way,
such
as andettan (confess), beorgan (preserve, defend), bieldan and
elnian (encourage),
dihtan
(composo), flītan
(contend; flite [dialect]), gōdian
(improve), healsian (implore),
herian
(praise), lēanian
(reward), belīfan
(remain), miltsian (pity). Here
likewise the
words
in parentheses are the French verbs that replaced the native word. Not all the
Old
English
words that have disappeared were driven out by French equivalents. Some gave
way
to other more or less synonymous words in Old English. Many independently fell
into
disuse. Nevertheless the enormous invasion of French words not only took the
place
of
many English words that had been lost but itself accounts for a great many of
the
losses
from the Old English vocabulary.
136.
Differentiation in Meaning.
Where
both the English and the French words survived they were generally
differentiated
in
meaning. The words doom and judgment, to deem and to judge are
examples that have
already
been mentioned. In the fifteenth century hearty and cordial came
to be used for
feelings
which were supposed to spring from the heart. Etymologiscally they are alike,
coming
respectively from the Old English and the Latin words for heart. But we have
kept
them both because we use them with a slight difference in meaning, hearty implying
a
certain physical vigor and downrightness, as in a hearty dinner, cordial a
more quiet or
conventional
manifestation, as in a cordial reception. In the same way we have kept a
number
of words for smell. The common word in Old English was stench.
During the
Middle
English period this was supplemented by the word smell (of unknown
origin) and
the
French words aroma, odor, and scent. To these we have since added
stink (from the
Middle
english 167
verb)
and perfume and fragrance, from French. Most of these have special
connotations
and
smell has become the general word. Stench now always means an
unpleasant smell.
An
interesting group of words illustrating the principle is ox, sheep, swine, and
calf
beside
the French equivalents beef, mutton, pork, and veal. The French
words primarily
denoted
the animal, as they still do, but in English they were used from the beginning
to
distinguish
the meat from the living beast.25 Other
cases of differentiation are English
house
beside mansion from French, might
beside power, and the pairs ask—demand,
shun—avoid,
seethe—boil, wish—desire. In most of these
cases where duplication
occurred,
the French word, when it came into English, was a close synonym of the
corresponding
English word. The discrimination between them has been a matter of
gradual
growth, but it justifies the retention of both words in the language.
137.
Curtailment of OE Processes of Derivation.
Because
language is a form of human activity, it often displays habits or tendencies
that
one
recognizes as characteristic of the speech of a given people at a given time.
These
habits
may be altered by circumstances. As we have already seen (§§ 49–50), Old
English,
like other Indo-European languages, enlarged its vocabulary chiefly by a
liberal
use
of prefixes and suffixes and an easy power of combining native elements into
selfinterpreting
compounds.
In this way the existing resources of the language were
expanded
at will and any new needs were met. In the centuries following the Norman
Conquest,
however, there is a visible decline in the use of these old methods of word
formation.
138.
Prefixes.
This
is first of all apparent in the matter of prefixes. Many of the Old English
prefixes
gradually
lost their vitality, their ability to enter into new combinations. The Old
English
prefix
for- (corresponding to German ver-) was often used to intensify
the meaning of a
verb
or to add the idea of something destructive or prejudicial. For a while during
the
Middle
English period it continued to be used occasionally in new formations. Thus at
about
1300 we find forhang (put to death by hanging), forcleave (cut to
pieces), and
forshake
(shake off). It was even combined with
words borrowed from
25
The well-known passage in Scott’s Ivanhoe in
which this distinction is entertainingly introduced
into
a conversation between Wamba and Gurth (chap. 1) is open to criticism only
because the
episode
occurs about a century too early. Beef is first found in English at
about 1300.
A
history of the english language 168
French:
forcover, forbar, forgab (deride), fortmvail (tire). But while
these occasional
instances
show that the prefix was not dead, it seems to have had no real vitality. None
of
these
new formations lived long, and the prefix is now entirely obsolete. The only
verbs
in
which it occurs in Modern English are forbear, forbid, fordo, forget,
forgive, forgo,
forsake,
forswear, and the participle forlorn. All
of them had their origin in Old English.
The
prefix to-(German zer-) has disappeared even more completely.
Although the 1611
Bible
tells us that the woman who cast a millstone upon Abimelech’s head “all tobrake
his
skull,” and expressions like tomelt and toburst lived on for a
time, there is no trace of
the
prefix in current use. With- (meaning against) gave a few new
words in Middle
English
such as withdraw, withgo, withsake, and others. Withdraw and withhold
survive,
together
with the Old English withstand, but other equally useful words have been
replaced
by later borrowings from Latin: withsay by renounce, withspeak by
contradict,
withset
by resist, etc. Some prefixes
which are still productive today, like over- and
under-,
fell into comparative disuse for a time
after the Norman Conquest. Most
compounds
of over- that are not of Old English origin have arisen in the modern
period.
The
prefix on- (now un-) which was used to reverse the action of a
verb as in unbind,
undo,
unfold, unwind, and which in Middle English gave us
unfasten, unbuckle, uncover,
and
unwrap, seems to owe such life as it still enjoys to association with
the negative
prefix
un-. The productive power which these formative elements once enjoyed
has in
many
cases been transferred to prefixes like counter-, dis-, re-, trans-, and
others of Latin
origin.
It is possible that some of them would have gone out of use had there been no
Norman
Conquest, but when we see their disuse keeping pace with the increase of the
French
element in the language and find them in many cases disappearing at the end of
the
Middle English period, at a time when French borrowings have reached their
maximum,
it is impossible to doubt that the wealth of easily acquired new words had
weakened
English habits of word formation.
139.
Suffixes.
A
similar decline is observable in the formative power of certain suffixes that
were
widely
used in Old English. The loss here is perhaps less distinctly felt because some
important
endings have remained in full force. Such are the noun suffix -ness and
the
adjective
endings -ful, -less, -some, and -ish. But others
equally important were either lost
or
greatly diminished in vitality. Thus the abstract suffix -lock (OE lāc)
survives only in
wedlock,
-red (OE ) only in hatred and
kindred. The ending -dom was used in
Old
English to form abstract nouns from other nouns (kingdom, earldom,
martyrdom) and
from
adjectives (freedom, wisdom). In Middle English there are some new
formations
such
as dukedom and thralldom, but most of the formations from
adjectives, like
falsedom
and richdom, did not prove
permanent, and the suffix is to all intents and
purposes
now dead. When used today it is for the most part employed in half serious
coinages,
such as fandom, stardom, topsy-turvydom. The endings -hood and -ship
have
had
a similar history. Manhood, womanhood, likelihood are new formations in
Middle
English,
showing that the suffix retained its power for a while. In fact it occasionally
reasserts
itself in modern times. Boyhood and girlhood date from the
eighteenth century,
Middle
english 169
while
hardihood is apparently a creation of Milton’s that was revived by Macaulay.
Many
of the Old English abstracts in -ship were lost. We have kept friendship
but not
fiendship,
and of those formed from adjectives in
Old English the only one still in use is
worship
(worthship). Most of the new formations
in Middle English had a short life. We
have
retained hardship but not boldship, busiship, cleanship, kindship, etc.
In all these
instances
the ending -ness was preferred. As in the case of prefixes, we can see
here a
gradual
change in English habits of word formation resulting from the available supply
of
French
words with which to fill the needs formerly met by the native resources of the
language.
140.
Self-explaining Compounds.
One
further habit that was somewhat weakened, although by no means broken, was that
of
combining native words into self-interpreting compounds. The extent to which
words
like
bookhouse or boatswain entered into Old English has been pointed
out above (§ 49).
The
practice was not abandoned in Middle English, but in many cases where a new
word
could
have been easily formed on the native model, a ready-made French word was
borrowed
instead. Today self-explaining compounds are still formed by a sure instinct
(picture
tube, driver’s-side air bag, four-wheel disc brakes), but
the method is much less
universal
than it once was because of new habits introduced after the Norman Conquest.
141.
The Language Still English.
It
must not be thought that the extensive modification of the English language
caused by
the
Norman Conquest had made of it something else than English. The language had
undergone
much simplification of its inflections, but its grammar was still English. It
had
absorbed
several thousand French words as a natural consequence of a situation in which
large
numbers of people were for a time bilingual and then gradually turned from the
habitual
use of French to the habitual use of English. It had lost a great many native
words
and abandoned some of its most characteristic habits of word formation. But
great
and
basic elements of the vocabulary were still English. No matter what class of
society
they
belonged to, the English ate, drank, and slept, so to speak, in
English, worked and
played,
spoke and sang, walked, ran, rode, leaped, and
swam in the same language. The
house
they lived in, with its hall, bower,
rooms, windows, doors, floor, steps, gate, etc.,
reminds
us that their language was basically Germanic. Their meat and drink,
bread,
butter,
fish, milk, cheese, salt, pepper, wine, ale, and
beer were inherited from pre-
Conquest
days, while they could not refer to their arms, legs, feet, hands, eyes,
ears,
head,
nose, mouth, or any common part of the body
without using English words for the
purpose.
While we are under the necessity of paying considerable attention to the large
French
element that the Norman Conquest brought directly and indirectly into the
language,
we must see it in proper perspective. The language that the Normans and their
successors
finally adopted was English, and although it was an English changed in many
important
particulars from the language of King Alfred, its predominant features were
those
inherited from the Germanic tribes that settled in England in the fifth
century.
A
history of the english language 170
142.
Latin Borrowings in Middle English.
The
influence of the Norman Conquest is generally known as the Latin Influence of
the
Third
Period in recognition of the ultimate source of the new French words. But it is
right
to
include also under this designation the large number of words borrowed directly
from
Latin
in Middle English. These differed from the French borrowings in being less
popular
and
in gaining admission generally through the written language. Of course, it must
not
be
forgotten that Latin was a spoken language among ecclesiastics and men of
learning,
and
a certain number of Latin words could well have passed directly into spoken
English.
Their
number, however, is small in comparison with those that we can observe entering
by
way of literature. In a single work like Trevisa’s translation of the De
Proprietatibus
Rerum
of Bartholomew Anglicus we meet with
several hundred words taken over from
the
Latin original. Since they are not found before this in English, we can hardly
doubt
that
we have here a typical instance of the way such words first came to be used.
The
fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries were especially prolific in Latin borrowings. An
anonymous
writer of the first half of the fifteenth century complains that it is not easy
to
translate
from Latin into English, for “there ys many wordes in Latyn that we have no
propre
Englysh accordynge therto.”26 Wycliffe
and his associates are credited with more
than
a thousand Latin words not previously found in English.27
Since many of them occur
in
the so-called Wycliffe translation of the Bible and have been retained in
subsequent
translations,
they have passed into common
26
The Myroure of Oure Ladye, EETSES, 19,
p. 7.
27
Otto Dellit, Über lateinische Elemente im
Mittelenglischen (Marburg, Germany, 1905), p. 38.
Middle
english 171
use.
The innovations of other writers were not always so fortunate. Many of them,
like
the
inkhorn terms of the Renaissance, were but passing experiments. Nevertheless
the
permanent
additions from Latin to the English vocabulary in this period are much larger
than
has generally been realized.
It
is unnecessary to attempt a formal classification of these borrowings. Some
idea of
their
range and character may be gained from a selected but miscellaneous list of
examples:
abject, adjacent, allegory, conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract,
frustrate,
genius,
gesture, history, homicide, immune, incarnate, include, incredible, incubus,
incumbent,
index, individual, infancy, inferior, infinite, innate, innumemble, intellect,
interrupt,
juniper, lapidary, legal, limbo, lucrative, lunatic, magnify, malefactor,
mechanical,
minor, missal, moderate, necessary, nervous, notary, ornate, picture, polite,
popular,
prevent, private, project, promote, prosecute, prosody, pulpit, quiet,
rational,
reject,
remit, reprehend, rosary, script, scripture, scrutiny, secular, solar,
solitary,
spacious,
stupor, subdivide, subjugate, submit, subordinate, subscribe, substitute,
summary,
superabundance, supplicate, suppress, temperate, temporal, testify, testimony,
tincture,
tract, tributary, ulcer, zenith, zephyr.
Here we have terms relating to law,
medicine,
theology, science, and literature, words often justified in the beginning by
technical
or professional use and later acquiring a wider application. Among them may be
noticed
several with endings like -able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous,
-ive, and others, which thus
became
familiar in English and, reinforced often by French, now form common elements
in
English derivatives. All the words in the above list are accepted by the Oxford
English
Dictionary
as direct borrowings from Latin. But in
many cases Latin words were being
borrowed
by French at the same time, and the adoption of a word in English may often
have
been due to the impact of both languages.
143.
Aureate Terms.
The
introduction of unusual words from Latin (and occasionally elsewhere) became a
conscious
stylistic device in the fifteenth century, extensively used by poets and
occasionally
by writers of prose. By means of such words as abusion, dispone, diurne,
equipolent,
palestral, and tenebrous, poets attempted
what has been described as a kind
of
stylistic gilding, and this feature of their language is accordingly known as
“aureate
diction.”28
The beginnings of this tendency have been traced
back to the fourteenth
century.
It occurs in moderation in the poetry of Chaucer, becomes a distinct mannerism
in
the work of Lydgate, and runs riot in the productions of the Scottish
Chaucerians—
James
I, Henryson, Dunbar, and the rest. How
28
The standard treatment of the subject is John
C.Mendenhall, Aureate Terms (Lancaster, PA,
1919).
A
history of the english language 172
far
this affectation went may be seen in the opening lines of Dunbar’s Ballad of
Our
Lady:
Hale,
sterne superne! Hale, in eterne,
In
Godis sicht to schyne!
Lucerne
in derne,29 for
to discerne
Be
glory and grace devyne;
Hodiern,
modern, sempitern,
Angelicallregyne!
Our
tern30 infern for to dispern
Helpe,
rialest Rosyne!31
The
use of such “halff chongyd Latyne,” as a contemporary poet describes it,32
was quite
artificial.
The poets who affected aureate terms have been described as tearing up words
from
Latin “which never took root in the language, like children making a mock
garden
with
flowers and branches stuck in the ground, which speedily wither.”33
This is
essentially
true, but not wholly so. The novelty that was sought after, and that such words
had
in the beginning, wore off with use; and words which were “aureate” in Chaucer,
like
laureate,
mediation, oriental, prolixity, have sometimes
become part of the common
speech.
These innovations are of considerable interest in the history of style; in the
history
of language they appear as a minor current in the stream of Latin words flowing
into
English in the course of the Middle Ages.
144.
Synonyms at Three Levels.
Much
nonsense has been written on the relative merits of the Germanic and Romance
elements
in the English vocabulary.34 The
Latinized diction of many seventeenth- and
29
lamp in darkness
30
woe
31
rose
32
John Metham, Cf. P.H.Nichols, “Lydgate’s Influence
on the Aureate Terms of the Scottish
Chaucerians,”
PMLA, 47 (1932), 516–22.
33
Thomas Campbell, Essay on English Poetry (London,
1848), p. 39.
34
Even so sensible a scholar as Freeman could write:
“This abiding corruption of our language I
believe
to have been the one result of the Norman Conquest which has been purely evil.”
(Norman
Conquest,
V, 547.)
Middle
english 173
eighteenth-century
writers brought up in the tradition of the classics provoked a reaction
in
which the “Saxon” element of the language was glorified as the strong, simple,
and
direct
component in contrast with the many abstract and literary words derived from
Latin
and French. It is easy to select pairs like deed—exploit, spell—enchantment,
take—
apprehend,
weariness—lassitude and on the basis of
such examples make generalizations
about
the superior directness, the homely force and concreteness of the Old English
words.
But such contrasts ignore the many hundreds of words from French which are
equally
simple and as capable of conveying a vivid image, idea, or emotion—nouns like
bar,
beak, cell, cry, fool, frown, fury, glory, guile, gullet, horror, humor, isle,
pity, river,
rock,
ruin, stain, stuff, touch, wreck, or adjectives
such as calm, clear, cruel, eager,
fierce,
gay, mean, rude, safe, tender, to take examples
almost at random. The truth is that
many
of the most vivid and forceful words in English are French, and even where the
French
and Latin words are more literary or learned, as indeed they often are, they
are no
less
valuable and important. Language has need for the simple, the polished, and
even the
recondite
word. The richness of English in synonyms is largely due to the happy
mingling
of Latin, French, and native elements. It has been said that we have a synonym
at
each level—popular, literary, and learned. Although this statement must not be
pressed
too
hard, a difference is often apparent, as in rise—mount—ascend, ask—question—
interrogate,
goodness—virtue—probity, fast—firm—secure,
fire—flame—conflagration,
fear—terror—trepidation,
holy—sacred—consecrated, time—age—epoch.
In each of
these
sets of three words the first is English, the second is from French, and the
third
from
Latin. The difference in tone between the English and the French words is often
slight;
the Latin word is generally more bookish. However, it is more important to
recognize
the distinctive uses of each than to form prejudices in favor of one group
above
another.
145.
Words from the Low Countries.
The
importance of the Romance element in English has overshadowed and caused to be
neglected
another source of foreign words in the vocabulary, the languages of the Low
Countries—Flemish,
Dutch, and Low German. The similarity of these languages to
English
makes it difftcult often to tell whether a word has been adopted from one of
them
or
is of native origin. Moreover, the influence was not the result of some single
cause,
like
the introduction of Christianity or the Norman Conquest, confined more or less
to a
given
period of time, but was rather a gradual infiltration due to the constant and close
relations
between England and the people of Flanders, Holland, and northern Germany.
This
intercourse extends from the days of William the Conqueror, whose wife was
Flemish,
down to the eighteenth century. All through the Middle Ages Flemings came to
England
in considerable numbers. In the English wars at home and abroad we repeatedly
find
Flemish mercenaries fighting with the English forces. Others came for more
peaceful
purposes
and settled in the country. The wool industry was the major industry of England
in
the Middle Ages. Most of the wool exported from England went to supply Flemish
and
Dutch
looms. On the other hand, weavers from the Low Countries, noted for their
superior
cloths, were encouraged to come to England and at various times came in large
numbers.
They were sufficiently numerous to arouse at intervals the antagonism of the
A
history of the english language 174
native
population. In the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 we are told that “many fflemmynges
loste
here heedes…and namely they that koude nat say Breede and Chese, But Case and
Brode.”35
Trade between these countries and England was
responsible for much travel to
and
fro. Flemish and German merchants had their hanse at London, Boston, Lynn, and
elsewhere.
The English wool staple was at different times at Dordrecht, Louvain, Bruges,
and
other towns near the coast. Add to this the fact that the carrying trade was
largely in
the
hands of the Dutch until the Navigation Act of 1651, and we see that there were
many
favorable
conditions for the introduction of Low German words into English. At the end
of
the Middle Ages we find entering the language such words as nap (of
cloth), deck,
bowsprit,
lighter, dock, freight, rover, mart, groat, guilder.
Later borrowings include
cambric,
duck (cloth), boom (of a boat), beleaguer,
furlough, commodore, gin, gherkin,
dollar.
Dutch eminence in art is responsible for easel, etching, landscape, while
Dutch
settlers
in America seem to have caused the adoption of cruller, cookie, cranberry,
bowery,
boodle, and other words. The latest study of the
Low Dutch element in English
considers
some 2,500 words. Many of these are admittedly doubtful, but one must grant
the
possibility of more influence from the Low Countries upon English than can be
proved
by phonological or other direct evidence.36
146.
Dialectal Diversity of Middle English.
One
of the striking characteristics of Middle English is its great variety in the
different
parts
of England. This variety was not confined to the forms of the spoken language,
as it
is
to a great extent today, but appears equally in the written literature. In the
absence of
any
recognized literary standard before the close of the period, writers naturally
wrote in
the
dialect of that part of the country to which they belonged. And they did so not
through
any
lack of awareness of the diversity that existed. Giraldus Cambrensis in the
twelfth
century
remarked that the language of the southern parts of England, and particularly
of
Devonshire,
was more ar-
35
C.L.Kingsford, Chronicles of London (Oxford,
1905), p. 15.
36
The fullest discussion of the Flemings in England
and English relations with the Low Countries
generally
is J.F.Bense, Anglo-Dutch Relations from the Earliest Times to the Death of
William the
Third
(London, 1925). J.A.Fleming, Flemish Influence in
Britain (2 vols., Glasgow, 1930), is rather
discursive
and concerned mostly with Scotland. The Low German influence on English has
been
treated
by Wilhelm Heuser, “Festländische Einflüsse im Mittelenglischen,” Bonner
Beiträge zur
Anglistik,
12 (1902), 173–82; J.M.Toll, Niederländisches
Lehngut im Mittelenglischen (Halle,
Germany,
1926); J.F.Bense, A Dictionary of the Low-Dutch Element in the English
Vocabulary
(The
Hague, 1939); H.Logeman, “Low-Dutch Elements in English,” Neophilologus, 16
(1930–
1931),
31–46, 103–16 (a commentary on Bense); T.de Vries, Holland’s Influence on
English
Language
and Literature (Chicago, 1916), a work of slighter
value; and E.Ekwall, Shakspere’s
Vocabulary
(Uppsala, Sweden, 1903), pp. 92 ff.
Middle
english 175
chaic
and seemed less agreeable than that of other parts with which he was familiar;37
and
at
a slightly earlier date (c. 1125) William of Malmesbury had complained of the
harshness
of the speech of Yorkshire, saying that southerners could not understand it.38
Such
observations continue in subsequent censturies.39
The author of the Cursor Mundi, a
northern
poem of about 1300, notes that he found the story of the Assumption of Our
Lady
in Southern English and turned it into his own dialect for “northern people who
can
read
no other English.”40 Even
Chaucer, by whose time a literary standard was in process
of
creation, sends off his Troilus and Criseyde with the famous “Go, little
book,” adding,
And
for ther is so gret diversite
In
Englissh, and in writyng of oure tonge,
So
prey I god that non myswrite the,
Ne
the mys-metre for defaute of tonge.
147.
The Middle English Dialects.
The
language differed almost from county to county, and noticeable variations are
sometimes
observable between different parts of the same county. The features
characteristic
of a given dialect do not all cover the same territory; some extend into
adjoining
districts or may be characteristic also of another dialect. Consequently it is
rather
difftcult to decide how many dialectal divisions should be recognized and to
mark
off
with any exactness their respective boundaries. In a rough way, however, it is
customary
to distinguish four principal dialects of Middle English: Northern, East
Midland,
West Midland, and Southern. Generally speaking, the Northern dialect extends
as
far south as the Humber; East Mid-land and West Midland together cover the area
between
the Humber and the Thames; and Southern occupies the district south of the
Thames,
together with Gloucestershire and parts of the counties of Worcester and
Hereford,
thus taking in the West Saxon and Kentish districts of Old English. Throughout
37
Description of Wales, Bk.
I, chap. 6.
38
Gesta Pontificum, Bk.
III. The remark is repeated in Higden, and in Trevisa’s translation of
Higden.
39
“Our language is also so dyverse in yt selfe, that
the commen maner of spekyng in Englysshe of
some
contre [i.e., county] can skante be understonded in some other contre of the
same londe.” The
Myroure
of Oure Ladye (first half of the fifteenth
century), EETSES, 19, pp. 7–8.
40
In sotherin englis was it draun,
And
turnd it haue I till our aun
Langage
o northrin lede
can
nan oiþer englis rede. (II. 20,061–64)
A
history of the english language 176
the
Middle English period and later, Kentish preserves individual features marking
it off
as
a distinct variety of Southern English.41
The
peculiarities that distinguish these dialects are of such a character that
their
adequate
enumeration would carry us beyond our present purpose. They are partly
matters
of pronunciation, partly of vocabulary, partly of inflection. A few
illustrations
will
give some idea of the nature and extent of the differences. The feature most
easily
recognized
is the ending of the plural, present indicative, of verbs. In Old English this
form
always ended in -th with some variation of the preceding vowel. In
Middle English
this
ending was preserved as -eth in the Southern dialect. In the Midland
district,
however,
it was replaced by -en, probably taken over from the corresponding forms
of the
subjunctive
or from preterite-present verbs and the verb to be,42
while in the north it was
altered
to -es, an ending that makes its appearance in Old English times. Thus
we have
loves
in the north, loven in the
Midlands, and loveth in the south. Another fairly
distinctive
form is the present participle before the spread of the ending -ing. In
the north
we
have lovande, in the Midlands lovende, and in the south lovinde.
In later Middle
English
the ending -ing appears in the Midlands and the south, thus obscuring
the
dialectal
distinction. Dialectal differences are more noticeable between Northern and
Southern;
the Midland dialect often occupies an intermediate position, tending toward the
one
or the other in those districts lying nearer to the adjacent dialects. Thus the
characteristic
forms of the pronoun they in the south were hi, here (hire, hure),
hem,
while
in the north forms with th- (modern they, their, them) early
became predominant. In
matters
of pronunciation the Northern and Southern dialects sometimes presented notable
differences.
Thus OE ā,
which developed into an south of the
Humber, was retained in
the
north, giving us such characteristic forms as Southern stone and home,
beside stane
and
hame in Scotland today. Initial f and s were often voiced
in the south to v and z. In
Southern
Middle English we find vor, vrom, vox, vorzoþe instead of for, from,
fox,
forsope
(forsooth). This dialectal difference is
preserved in Modern English fox and
vixen,
where the former represents the Northern
and Midland pro-
41
A pioneering attempt to define significant dialect
features was “Middle English Dialect
Characteristics
and Dialect Boundaries,” by Samuel Moore, Sanford B.Meech, and Harold
Whitehall,
in Univ. of Michigan Pubns in Lang. and Lit., vol. 13 (1935). It
was based primarily on
localized
documents, which are not sufficiently numerous. The limitations of this study
are pointed
out
in A.Mclntosh, “A New Approach to Middle English Dialectology,” English
Studies, 44 (1963),
1–11.
See also M.L.Samuels, “Some Applications of Middle English Dialectology,” ibid.,
pp. 81–
94.
The results of several decades of research by Mclntosh and Samuels are
published in A
Linguistic
Atlas of Late Mediaeval English by Angus
Mclntosh, M.L.Samuels, and Michael
Benskin
with the assistance of Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson (4 vols., Aberdeen,
1986).
42
W.F.Bryan, “The Midland Present Plural Indicative
Ending -e(n),” MP, 18 (1921), 457–73.
Middle
english 177
THE
DIALECTS OF MIDDLE
ENGLISH
nunciation
and the latter the Southern. Similarly ch in the south often corresponds
to a k
in
the north: bench beside benk, or church beside kirk.
Such variety was fortunately
lessened
toward the end of the Middle English period by the general adoption of a
standard
written (and later spoken) English.43
A
history of the english language 178
148.
The Rise of Standard English.
Out
of this variety of local dialects there emerged toward the end of the
fourteenth
century
a written language that in the course of the fifteenth won general recognition
and
has
since become the recognized standard in both speech and writing. The part of
England
that contributed most to the formation of this standard was the East Midland
district,
and it was the East Midland type of English that became its basis, particularly
the
dialect
of the metropolis, London. Several causes contributed to the attainment of this
result.
In
the first place, as a Midland dialect the English of this region occupied a
middle
position
between the extreme divergences of the north and south. It was less
conservative
than
the Southern dialect, less radical than the Northern. In its sounds and
inflections it
represents
a kind of compromise, sharing some of the characteristics of both its
neighbors.
Its intermediate position was recognized in the fourteenth century by Ranulph
Higden.
A well-known passage in Trevisa’s translation of Higden’s Polychronicon (c.
1385)
reads:
for
men of þe est wiþ men of þe west, as it were vnder þe same partie of
heuene,
acordeþ more in sownynge of speche þan men of þe norþ wiþ
men
of þe souþ; þerfore it is þat Mercii, þat beeþ men of myddel
Engelond,
as it were parteners of þe endes, vnderstondeþ bettre þe side
langages,
Norþerne and Souþerne, þan Norþerne and Souþerne
vnderstondeþ
eiþer oþer.
In
the second place, the East Midland district was the largest and most populous
of the
major
dialect areas. The land was more valuable than the hilly country to the north
and
west,
and in an agricultural age this advantage was reflected in both the number and
the
prosperity
of the inhabitants. As Maitland remarks, “If we leave Lincolnshire, Norfolk
and
Suffolk out of account we are to all appearances leaving out of account not
much less
than
a quarter of the whole nation…. No doubt all inferences drawn from medieval
statistics
are exceedingly precarious; but, unless a good many figures have conspired to
deceive
us, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were at the time of the Conquest and for
three
centuries afterwards vastly richer and more populous than any tract of equal
area in
the
West.”44 Only
the southern counties pos-
43
For further illustration see Appendix A.
44
Domesday Book and Beyond,
pp. 20–22.
Middle
english 179
sessed
natural advantages at all comparable, and they were much smaller. The
prominence
of Middlesex, Oxford, Norfolk, and the East Midlands generally in political
affairs
all through the later Middle Ages is but another evidence of the importance of
the
district
and of the extent to which its influence was likely to be felt.
A
third factor, more difficult to evaluate, was the presence of the universities,
Oxford
and
Cambridge, in this region. In the fourteenth century the monasteries were
playing a
less
important role in the dissemination of learning than they had once played, while
the
two
universities had developed into important intellectual centers. So far as
Cambridge is
concerned
any influence that it had would be exerted in support of the East Midland
dialect.
That of Oxford is less certain because Oxfordshire is on the border between
Midland
and Southern and its dialect shows certain characteristic Southern features.
Moreover,
we can no longer attribute to Wycliffe an important part in the establishment
of
a written standard.45 Though
he spent much of his life at Oxford, he seems not to have
conformed
fully to the Oxford dialect. All we can say is that the dialect of Oxford had
no
apparent
influence on the form of London English, which was ultimately adopted as
standard.
Such support as the East Midland type of English received from the universities
must
have been largely confined to that furnished by Cambridge.
Much
the same uncertainty attaches to the influence of Chaucer. It was once thought
that
Chaucer’s importance was paramount among the influences bringing about the
adoption
of a written standard. And, indeed, it is unbelievable that the language of the
greatest
English poet before Shakespeare was not spread by the popularity of his works
and,
through the use of that language, by subsequent poets who looked upon him as
their
master
and model. But it is nevertheless unlikely that the English used in official
records
and
in letters and papers by men of affairs was greatly influenced by the language
of his
poetry.
Yet it is the language found in such documents rather than the language of
Chaucer
that is at the basis of Standard English. Chaucer’s dialect is not in all
respects
the
same as the language of these documents, presumably identical with the ordinary
speech
of the city. It is slightly more conservative and shows a greater number of
Southern
characteristics. Chaucer was a court poet, and his usage may reflect the speech
of
the court and to a certain extent literary tradition. His influence must be
thought of as
lending
support in a general way to the dialect of the region to which he belonged
rather
than
as determining
45
Wycliffe was credited with the chief part in the
establishment of Standard English by Koch, as
Chaucer
was by Ten Brink. Later Dibelius (Anglia, 23–24) argued for the
existence of an Oxford
standard,
recognized for a time beside the language of London. This view has now
generally been
abandoned.
A
history of the english language 180
the
precise form which Standard English was to take in the century following his
death.
149.
The Importance of London English.
By
far the most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was the
importance of
London
as the capital of England. Indeed, it is altogether likely that the language of
the
city
would have become the prevailing dialect without the help of any of the factors
previously
discussed. In doing so it would have been following the course of other
national
tongues—French as the dialect of Paris, Spanish as that of Castile, and others.
London
was, and still is, the political and commercial center of England. It was the
seat
of
the court, of the highest judicial tribunals, the focus of the social and
intellectual
activities
of the country. In the practicalities of commerce the London economy was
especially
important as “an engine of communication and exchange which enabled ideas
and
information to be distributed and business to be done across an increasingly
extensive,
complex and varied field.”46 Patterns
of migration at this time cannot be fully
reconstructed,
but clearly London drew in a constant stream those whose affairs took
them
beyond the limits of their provincial homes. They brought to it traits of their
local
speech,
there to mingle with the London idiom and to survive or die as the silent
forces of
amalgamation
and standardization determined. They took back with them the forms and
usages
of the great city by which their own speech had been modified. The influence
was
reciprocal.
London English took as well as gave. It began as a Southern and ended as a
Midland
dialect. By the fifteenth century there had come to prevail in the East
Midlands a
fairly
uniform dialect, and the language of London agrees in all important respects
with
it.
We can hardly doubt that the importance of the eastern counties, pointed out
above, is
largely
responsible for this change. Even such Northern characteristics as are found in
the
standard
speech seem to have entered by way of these counties. The history of Standard
English
is almost a history of London English.
150.
The Spread of the London Standard.
In
the latter part of the fifteenth century the London standard had been accepted,
at least
in
writing, in most parts of the country. Its prestige may possibly be reflected
in the fact
that
Mak the sheep-stealer in the Towneley Plays attempts to impose upon the
Yorkshire
shepherds
by masquerading as a person of some importance and affects a “Southern
tooth.”
Considerable diversity still existed in the spoken dialects, as will be
apparent from
what
is said in the next paragraph. But in literary works after 1450 it becomes almost
impossible,
except in distinctly
46
Derek Keene, “Metropolitan Values: Migration,
Mobility and Cultural Norms, London 1100–
1700,”
in The Development of Standard English 1300–1800: Theories,
Descriptions, Conflicts, ed.
Laura
Wright (Cambridge, UK, 2000), p. 111.
Middle
english 181
northern
texts, to determine with any precision the region in which a given work was
written.
And in correspondence and local records there is a widespread tendency to
conform
in matters of language to the London standard. This influence emanating from
London
can be seen in the variety of English used in documents of the national
bureaucracy
as written by the clerks of Chancery. By the middle of the century a fairly
consistent
variety of written English in both spelling and grammar had developed, and as
the
language of official use it was likely to have influence in similar situations
elsewhere.47
With the introduction of printing in 1476 a new
influence of great
importance
in the dissemination of London English came into play. From the beginning
London
has been the center of book publishing in England. Caxton, the first English
printer,
used the current speech of London in his numerous translations, and the books
that
issued from his press and from the presses of his successors gave a currency to
London
English that assured more than anything else its rapid adoption. In the
sixteenth
century
the use of London English had become a matter of precept as well as practice.
The
author of The Arte of English Poesie (attributed to Puttenham) advises
the poet: “ye
shall
therefore take the usuall speach of the Court, and that of London and the
shires
lying
about London within 1x. myles, and not much above.”
151.
Complete Uniformity Still Unattained.
It
would be a mistake to think that complete uniformity was attained within the
space of a
few
generations. Even in matters of vocabulary dialectal differences have persisted
in
cultivated
speech down to the present day, and they were no less noticeable in the period
during
which London English was gaining general acceptance. Then, too, there were
many
French and Latin words, such as the aureate stylists were indulging in, that
had not
been
assimilated. It was not easy for a writer at the end of the fifteenth century
to choose
his
words so that his language would find favor with all people. How difftcult it
was may
be
seen from the remarks that Caxton prefixed to his Eneydos, a paraphrase
of Virgil’s
Aeneid
that he translated from French and
published in 1490:
After
dyverse werkes made, translated, and achieved, havyng noo werke
in
hande, I, sittyng in my studye where as laye many dyverse paunflettis
and
bookys, happened that to my hande came a lytyl booke in frenshe,
whiche
late was translated oute of latyn by some noble clerke of fraunce,
whiche
booke is named Eneydos…. And whan I had advysed me in this
sayd
boke, I delybered and concluded to translate it into englysshe, and
forthwyth
toke a penne & ynke, and wrote a
47
See John H.Fisher, The Emergence of Standard
English (Lexington, KY, 1996).
A
history of the english language 182
leef
or tweyne, whyche I oversawe agayn to corecte it. And whan I sawe
the
fayr & straunge termes therin I doubted that it sholde not please some
gentylmen
whiche late blamed me, sayeng that in my translacyons I had
over
curyous termes whiche coude not be understande of comyn peple,
and
desired me to use olde and homely termes in my translacyons. And
fayn
wolde I satysfye every man, and so to doo, toke an olde boke and
redde
therin; and certaynly the englysshe was so rude and brood that I
coude
not wele understande it. And also my lorde abbot of westmynster
ded
do shewe to me late, certayn evydences wryton in olde englysshe, for
to
reduce it in-to our englysshe now usid. And certaynly it was wreton in
suche
wyse that it was more lyke to dutche than englysshe; I coude not
reduce
ne brynge it to be understonden. And certaynly our langage now
used
varyeth ferre from that whiche was used and spoken whan I was
borne.
For we englysshe men ben borne under the domynacyon of the
mone,
whiche is never stedfaste, but ever waverynge, wexynge one
season,
and waneth & dyscreaseth another season. And that comyn
englysshe
that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother. In so moche
that
in my dayes happened that certayn marchauntes were in a shippe in
tamyse,
for to have sayled over the see into zelande, and for lacke of
wynde,
thei taryed atte forlond, and wente to lande for to refreshe them.
And
one of theym named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam in-to an hows and
axed
for mete; and specyally he axyd after eggys. And the goode wyf
answerde,
that she coude speke no frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry,
for
he also coude speke no frenshe, but wolde have hadde egges, and she
understode
hym not. And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde have
eyren.
Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel. Loo, what
sholde
a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren? Certaynly it is
harde
to playse every man by cause of dyversite & chaunge of langage.
For
in these dayes every man that is in ony reputacyon in his countre, wyll
utter
his commynycacyon and maters in suche maners & termes that fewe
men
shall understonde theym. And som honest and grete clerkes have ben
wyth
me, and desired me to wryte the moste curyous termes that I could
fynde.
And thus bytwene playn, rude, & curyous, I stande abasshed. But
in
my judgemente the comyn termes that be dayli used ben lyghter to be
understonde
than the olde and auncyent englysshe. And for as moche as
this
present booke is not for a rude uplondyssh man to laboure therin, ne
rede
it, but onely for a clerke & a noble gentylman that feleth and
understondeth
in faytes of armes, in love, & in noble chyvalrye, therfor in
a
meane bytwene bothe I have reduced & translated this sayd booke in to
our
englysshe, not ouer rude ne curyous, but in suche termes as shall be
understanden,
by goddys grace, accordynge to my copye.
Middle
english 183
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The
changes in Middle English are discussed in the various Middle English grammars
listed in the
footnote
to § 174. On the loss of grammatical gender, see L.Morsbach, Grammatisches
undpsychologisches
Geschlecht im Englischen (2nd ed., Berlin,
1926); Samuel Moore,
“Grammatical
and Natural Gender in Middle English,” PMLA, 36 (1921), 79–103; and
Charles
Jones,
Grammatical Gender in English: 950 to 1250 (London, 1988). Donka Minkova
has
published
a series of studies on the loss of final -e, culminating in The
History of Final Vowels
in
English: The Sound of Muting (Berlin, 1991). On the
retention of final -e in fourteenthcentury
poetry,
see Thomas Cable, The English Alliterative Tradition (Philadelphia,
1991). The
later
history of strong verbs is treated by Mary M.Long, The English Strong Verb
from Chaucer
to
Caxton (Menasha, WI, 1944). A pioneer in the
study of the French element in English and its
dependence
on the Anglo-Norman dialect was Joseph Payne, whose paper on “The Norman
Element
in the Spoken and Written English of the 12th, 13th, and 14th Centuries, and in
Our
Provincial
Dialects” was published in the Trans. of the Philological Soc., 1868–1869, pp.
352–
449.
His views largely underlie the treatment of Skeat in his Principles of
English Etymology,
Second
Series (Oxford, 1891). Dietrich Behrens dealt in detail with the French
borrowings
before
1250 in his Beiträge zur Geschichte der französischen Sprache in England: I,
Zur
Lautlehre
der französischen Lehnwörter im Mittelenglischen (Heilbronn,
Germany, 1886).
Other
treatments of the subject in various aspects are Robert Mettig, Die
französischen
Elemente
im Alt-und Mittelenglischen (800–1258) (Marburg,
Germany, 1910); O. Funke, “Zur
Wortgeschichte
der französischen Elemente im Englischen,” Englische Studien, 55 (1921),
1–
25;
S.H. Bush, “Old Northern French Loan-words in Middle English,” Philol Qu., 1
(1922),
161–72;
Robert Feist, Studien zur Rezeption des französischen Wortschatzes im
Mittelenglischen
(Leipzig, 1934); Emrik Slettengren, Contributions
to the Study of French
Loanwords
in Middle English ( Örebro, Sweden,
1932); and Bernhard Diensberg,
Untersuchungen
zur phonologischen Rezeption romanischen Lehnguts im Mittelund
Frülhneuenglischen
(Tübingen, Germany, 1985), the last two studies
dealing with phonological
developments
in Anglo-French and Middle English. The extent of the French penetration in
certain
sections of the vocabulary can be seen in such studies as Bruno Voltmer, Die
mittelenglische
Terminologie der ritterlichen Verwandtschaftsund Standesverhältnisse nach der
höfischen
Epen und Romanzen des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts (Pinneberg,
Germany, 1911), and
Helene
Döll, Mittelenglische Kleidernamen im Spiegel literarischer Denkmäler des
14.
Jahrhunderts
(Giessen, Germany, 1932). Comprehensive, and
treating borrowings down to the
nineteenth
century, is Fraser Mackenzie, Les Relations de l’Angleterre et de la France
d’après
le
vocabulaire, vol. 2 (Paris, 1939). There are
also special treatments of the Romance element in
individual
writers, such as Hans Remus, Die kirchlichen und speziellwissenschaftlichen
romanischen
Lehnworte Chaucers (Halle, Germany, 1906);
Joseph Mersand, Chaucer’s
Romance
Vocabulary (2nd ed., New York, 1939); Georg
Reismüller, Romanische Lehnwörter
(erstbelege)
bei Lydgate (Leipzig, 1911); and Hans
Faltenbacher, Die romanischen, speziell
französischen
und lateinischen (bezw. latinisierten) Lehnwörter bei Caxton (Munich,
1907).
Much
additional material has become available with the publication of the Middle
English
Dictionary,
ed. Hans Kurath, Sherman M.Kuhn, John Reidy, and
Robert E.Lewis (Ann Arbor,
MI,
1952–2001).
For
the study of Anglo-Norman the appendix to A.Stimming’s Der Anglonormannische
Boeve de
Haumtone
(Halle, Germany, 1899) is invaluable. For the
earlier period J.Vising’s Étude sur le
dialecte
anglo-normand du XIIe siècle
(Uppsala, Sweden, 1882) is important, and Emil
Busch,
Laut-und
Formenlehre der Anglonormannischen Sprache des XIV.
Jahrhunderts, is helpful for
the
later. L.E.Menger’s The Anglo-Norman Dialect (New York, 1904) attempts
to survey the
A
history of the english language 184
phonology
and morphology down to the early fourteenth century. M.K.Pope’s From Latin
to
Modern
French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman (2nd
ed., Manchester, 1952)
contains
a chapter on the special developments in England. Skeat’s two lists in the Trans.
of the
Philological
Soc., 1880–1881 and 1888–1890, offer a
convenient collection of French words
used
in England.
The
loss of native words is treated in a series of monographs, such as Emil Hemken,
Das
Aussterben
alter Substantiva im Verlaufe der englischen Sprachgeschichte (Kiel,
Germany,
1906).
Similar treatments are those of Oberdörffer on the adjective (Kiel, 1908), Offe
on the
verb
(Kiel, 1908), Rotzoll on diminutives (Heidelberg, 1909), and the more general
dissertations
of
Fr.Teichert, Über das Aussterben alter Wörter im Verlaufe der englischen
Sprachgeschichte
(Kiel,
1912), and Kurt Jaeschke, Beiträge zur Frage des Wortschwundes im Englischen
(Breslau,
1931); and Xavier Dekeyser and Luc Pauwels, “The Demise of the Old English
Heritage
and Lexical Innovation in Middle English,” Leuvense Bijdragen, 79
(1990), 1–23. The
curtailment
of prefix and suffix derivatives can be seen in such studies as T.P.Harrison, The
Separable
Prefixes in Anglo-Saxon (Baltimore, MD, 1892),
and the studies of individual
prefixes
in Old English such as bi by Lenze (Kiel, 1909), for(e) by
Siemerling (Kiel, 1909),
on(d)
by Lüngen (Kiel, 1911), wið(er) by Hohenstein
(Kiel, 1912), and ofer by Röhling
(Heidelberg,
1914). Full titles of all these works can be found in Kennedy’s Bibliography.
The
Latin borrowings in Middle English and the affectation of aureate terms are
treated in the
works
of Dellit and Mendenhall mentioned in the footnotes to § 142 and § 143. The
important
references
for the influence of the Low Countries are given in the footnote to § 145.
The
major study of Middle English dialects is by Angus Mclntosh, M.L.Samuels, and
Michael
Benskin
with the assistance of Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson, A Linguistic
Atlas of Late
Mediaeval
English (4 vols., Aberdeen, 1986). During the
preparation of the Atlas several
important
essays on the principles of Middle English dialectology were published by
Mclntosh
and
by Samuels and have been reprinted in Middle English Dialectology: Essays on
Some
Principles
and Problems, ed. Margaret Laing (Aberdeen,
1989). There are individual studies of
particular
dialect features and dialect areas, including the works of Wyld, Ekwall,
Serjeantson,
and
others. A more extensive monograph is Gillis Kristensson, A Survey of Middle
English
Dialects
1290–1350: The Six Northern Counties and Lincolnshire (Lund,
Sweden, 1967; Lund
Stud.
in English, vol. 35), with a useful
bibliography covering the whole of England. On
Chaucer’s
English, see David Burnley, The Language of Chaucer (London, 1983);
Arthur
O.Sandved,
Introduction to Chaucerian English (Cambridge, UK, 1985), and
Christopher
Cannon,
The Making of Chaucer’s English: A Study of Words (Cambridge, UK, 1998).
Structural
changes in the verb phrase during Chaucer’s period are examined by Ans van
Kemenade,
Syntactic Case and Morphological Case in the History of English (Dordrecht,
Netherlands,
1987) and by Elly van Gelderen, The Rise of Functional Categories (Amsterdam,
1993).
A good overview of Middle English syntax is Olga Fischer’s chapter, “Syntax,”
in The
Cambridge
History of the English Language, Volume II: 1066–1476, ed.
Norman Blake
(Cambridge,
UK, 1992), pp. 207−408.
On
the rise of Standard English the fundamental work is L.Morsbach, Ueber den
Ursprung der
neuenglischen
Schriftsprache (Heilbronn, Germany, 1888), which
may be supplemented by
H.M.Flasdieck,
Forschungen zur Frülhzeit der neuenglischen Schriftsprache (2 parts,
Halle,
Germany,
1922). Contributing elements are discussed by R.E.Zachrisson, “Notes on the Essex
Dialect
and the Origin of Vulgar London Speech,” Englische Studien, 59 (1925),
346–60; Agnes
Peitz,
Der Einfluss des nördlichen Dialektes im Mittelenglischen auf die
entstehende
Hochsprache
(Bonn, 1933); and H.C.Wyld, “South-Eastern and
South-East Midland Dialects in
Middle
English,” Essays and Studies, 6 (1920), 112–45. The characteristics of
the London
dialect
are treated by B.A.Mackenzie, The Early London Dialect (Oxford, 1928),
to which may
be
added two articles by P.H.Reaney, “On Certain Phonological Features of the
Dialect of
London
in the Twelfth Century,” Englische Studien, 59 (1925), 321–45, and “The
Dialect of
London
in the Thirteenth Century,” ibid., 61 (1926), 9–23. A later period is
treated in Hans
Middle
english 185
Friederici,
Der Lautstand Londons um 1400 (Jena, Germany, 1937; Forsch. zur engl.
Phil, no.
6).
An influential classification of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century varieties is
by M.L.
Samuels,
“Some Applications of Middle English Dialectology,” English Studies, 44
(1963), 81–
94,
revised in Laing. The latest of these varieties, Chancery English, is examined
by John
H.Fisher
in a series of essays and in The Emergence of Standard English (Lexington,
KY,
1996).
For complexities to be considered in a full account, see Laura Wright, “About
the
Evolution
of Standard English,” in Studies in English Language and Literature, ed.
Elizabeth
M.Tyler
and M.Jane Toswell (London, 1996), pp. 99–115, and the essays in The
Development
of
Standard English 1300–1800: Theories, Descriptions, Conflicts, ed.
Laura Wright
(Cambridge,
UK, 2000). More generally on literacy and writing in medieval England, see
M.T.Clanchy’s
From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307 (2nd ed., Oxford, 1993).
Important
collections of localized documents will be found in L.Morsbach, Mittelenglische
Originalurkunden
von der Chaucer-Zeit bis zur Mitte des XV. Jahrhunderts (Heidelberg,
1923);
H.M.Flasdieck,
Mittelenglische Originalurkunden (1405–1430) (Heidelberg, 1926);
R.W.Chambers
and Marjorie Daunt, A Book of London English, 1384–1425 (2nd ed.,
Oxford,
1967);
and John H. Fisher, Malcolm Richardson, and Jane L.Fisher, An Anthology of
Chancery
English
(Knoxville, TN, 1984).
