Thc Middle English Period

The Middle English Period (1066 - 1475) - Period of Levelled Endings:

- The Early ME- unregulated changes in the language system;

- The Late (classical) ME - G. Chaucer established a standard in spelling and pronunciation.

Under the influence of the Norman Conquest ME revealed dramatic variation.

Pnonology

OE long vowels remained unchanged, except that /a:/ (ban, stan, bat) became /о:/, as in bone, stone, boat.

Short vowels in unstressed syllables merged in neutral e /■?/.

The initial consonant clusters hi-, hn-, hr-, cn- lost their initials, as in hlaf- "loaf', hnecca - "neck", hrof, - "roof', cniht - "knight".

The final consonants m, n were pronounced undistinctly and merged into n in unstressed position. By the end of ME, even this final n had dropped: stanum —♦ "stone".

Morphology

Because of the loss of the fiial m, n and weakening of unstressed а, о, и. e to HI, many OE infletions dropped in the late ME.

ME paradigms for the noun were simplified:

in o-stem paradigm: fox - foxes (now fox's) - p)\.foxes\

in u-stem paradigm: deer - deeres - pi. deere.

These distinctions were further levelled when final -e vanished, by 1500.

Adjectival inflections were greatly simplified at the beginning and completely lost by the end of ME.

ME had more or less the same verb inflections as NE, except that of the 3^rd p. sing. pres. tense ends in -(e) th: lyketh, hath & pi. pres. in -n / -en (borrowed from OE subjunctive): gon, eten, bryngen.

Interrogative pronouns began to serve as relatives.

By early ME, pe had become the only definite article in the north & soon spread to all dialects: Chaucer used only the. Indefinite article from OE an "one" also developed in ME period.

Syntax

Morphological changes influenced the syntax. As inflexions disappeared, word order and prepositions came to bear grammatical relations and semantic roles. The free word order yielded to fixed one - SPO. Though OE did not require the subject, in ME it became obligatory. The impesonal constructions, like Euery man taketh what part that him lyketh (That to him (it) likes), i.e. "That (it) pleases him" were lost in ME.

The reduction of verbal inflexional system brought about a marked increase of periphrastic constructions in the future & perfect. Modals replaced the OE subjunctive. The auxiliary system with have & be compensated inflexional reduction.

Since ME period writing and speaking were close in form, the earlier prose and speech show parataxis characteristics.

Lexicon

Aller the Norman Conquest English borrowed many French words to nominate new notions, like relations: countess (the wife of English earl), baron, noble, servant, command, obey, administration & law: charter, council, court, crime, accuse; military terms: arms, troops, guard, navy, battle, victory. Many synonyms appeared because there were two words for the same thing: sheep - mutton, ox - beef, pig - pork, calf - veal.

The study of classics during the late ME period enriched English with borrowings from Latin & Greek. Among the loan words were: education, exist, external, mediate — from L,at., chaos, crisis, autograph, axis, criterion - from Gr. English often adopted Latin words by modifying their endings, e.g.: frivolous from Lat. frivolus. Borrowings from Roman languages were also popular: detail, genteel, surpass - from French; balcony, portico, pizza - from Italian; alligator, armada - from Spanish.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 967