The Middle English is the name given by the Linguiste S to the forms varied of the English language spoken between the Conquête Norman about England (1066) and second half of the 15th century, when the standard of the Chancellery, spoken English with London, became the reference in all the Kingdom, process supported by the introduction of the Imprimerie in England by William Caxton into the Années 1470 and a little later by Richard Pynson.

At the same time, the Dialect of Northumbrie, spoken in south-east about the Scotland, evolves/moves to give rise to the Scots.

The spoken language in England of the end of the 15th century with 1650 approximately is known under the name of English modern being born.

With the difference of the old English, who largely tends to adopt conventions of writing of the Saxon late Westerner during the time preceding the Conquest immediately, the Middle English, as a written language, has a broad range of written forms (and undoubtedly also of dialects). Nevertheless, the diversity of the shapes of the written Middle English means by no means that one finds a large variety of forms in English of before 1066. This diversity tends to mean the end of the part played by the Wessex like centers scriptural activity and the emergence of several centers distinct from written English or spoken dialects. To the wire of the centuries, areas like Northumbrie, the East Anglia and London gradually will emerge and be essential like centers impossible to circumvent of the literary production, with characteristics suitable for each one.

Literary and linguistic cultures

The Middle English was one of the five spoken languages in medieval England. Not having never been adopted by the Roman Catholic church, which always preferred the Latin to him, the Middle English lost his statute of language of the Court, Littérature and Documentation, being largely supplanted by the Anglo-Norman . He remained however the spoken language by the people and can, for this reason, being considered as only the vernacular Language of the English, which was taught besides at the Court as of the middle of the 12th century, like the Anglo-Norman and Latin. In the areas of the west, one also spoke about other vernacular languages like the Welsh and the Cornique. English did not cease being employed at the Court - one used it in particular in the drafting of the majority of the Charte S - nor in the literary production. Even at the time of what was called the “lost” era of the English history literary - end of the 11th century in the middle of the 12th century - English texts old continued to be copied, used and adapted by Copiste S, and in particular of the Homélie S, Hagiographie S and texts grammatical. End of the 12th century at the 13th century were produced colossal masses of written works, such as songs, hagiographies, handbooks of devotion, Encyclopédie S, poems on morality (and often also on immorality), of the exchanges and other texts, for the majority not yet studied, partly because they leave the traditional diagrams of the literature.

The Middle English is more familiar to us than the language employed in poetry richardienne and those which followed to him - the literary cultures of the 14th century and 15th century were formed around the the Midlands of the West like in East Anglia and in the area of London. This includes/understands works of William Langland, Geoffrey Chaucer, Lydgate, Gower, Malory, Caxton and Hoccleve. Most known of these authors is undoubtedly Chaucer, for its Contes of Canterbury short and other poems, in which it reinvents unceasingly on the basis of tradition old without giving up them completely.

History

The 11th century

Although it is difficult to consider the shock cultural which represented the transfer to be able in England of 1066, the disappearance of old English at the top of the highest institutions of the countries, as much political than ecclesiastical, and its replacement by the Anglo-Norman, opened the way with the introduction of the French into the arts of public speaking and the literature and basically deteriorated its role in education and the administration. Although old English was to also in no case standardized only modern English, its written forms were prone to less of variations than English according to 1066.

Today still, nearly thousand years later, the Norman influence is always seen in the English language. The pairs of words which follow prove it. The first word comes from former English and second is of Anglo-Norman origin free/: pig/pork - cow/beef - Wood/forest - sheep/mutton - house/mansion - worthy/honourable - bold/courageous .

The role of the Anglo-Norman like language of governorship and law is also noted in the abundance of the terms which has modern English to describe the shapes of government inspired by the Norman ones: short , judge , jury , appeal , parliament . Other fields are concerned, such as the Chevalerie, which was born at the 12th century in response to the Féodalité and the Croisade S. Upon the departure, this vocabulary of organized control starts to make its way in the English language: the word debonaire appears in 1137 in the Chronique of Peterborough, just as manor house , another importation Normand which imposes its mark on the territory of the English language as on that of England even.

This period when simultaneously three languages coexist supports the development of the modern English synonyms. Thus, English has three words which mean “of a king” (or “related to a king”):

• kingly , derived from former royal English,
• , derived from French, and
• treat , derived from Latin.

Major modifications still appear in grammar. Little by little, as we saw, the capacity wishes to anglicize the daily life, in spite of the prevalence of French, who will remain the language of the literature and justice for still of the centuries, and in spite of the loss of the majority of the English possessions on the unintermitting . New English does not resemble old. Old English had a complex system of inflected terminations , but those disappear gradually while being simplified in the dialects from spoken English. Gradually, the change is also felt in the written forms of the language. This fixing of the terminations is not only ascribable with the French-speaking population living on the English ground. At the same time, others Germanic languages undergo the same transformations. English remains the common language and, most probably also, a literary language, with equality with the Anglo-Norman and the lation of the 12th century at the 14th century. At the end of the 14th century, the standard of the Chancellery (The Chancery Standard) , also called “English of London”, - phenomenon caused by the concentration of the bureaucracy in London and a concomitant increase in the London literary production - tends to standardize the Orthographe of English. While the literature as Middle English tends to be popularized at the end of the 14th century, with works of Chaucer and Gower, an immense corpus literature manages to spend the centuries.

The 14th century

The 14th century marks a reinforced employment of English, even within the roadbases of the company. Since 1360, the Parlement of England employs English more and more, while the Court of the king mainly speaks English since the time about Henry V (crowned in 1413). With the standardization of the language, English starts to present a grammatical Syntaxe and forms recognizable, that one will find in the later dialects.

Nevertheless, the time is particularly disturbed. Five kings are relieved between 1399 and 1500, and one of them is even twice. New heads arrive at the stations - keys of the kingdom, of the people sometimes resulting from other areas, even from lower social classes. It is only with the advent of the Maison Tudor (1485) that a real stability is born. The English language undergoes modifications during this disturbed century. At the end of the 15th century, finally, more modern English starts to emerge. Printing works appears in England in the Années 1470. The Bible is translated into English, of the prayer books are printed and these works are read with the religious offices as of the Années 1540. Many people start to have access to this standardized language and modern English appears.

Construction

With his simplified system of terminations, the Middle English approaches more modern English that of sound equivalent to before 1066.

Names

In spite of the abandonment of the system slightly more complex of the inflected endings, the Middle English preserves two forms distinct from terminations borrowed from the former English. Compare, for example, the words of Middle English engel (angel) and names (name):

Strong plural in - S survived in modern English, while low plural in - N is rarer nowadays, although it remained: oxen (“oxen”), children (“children”), brethren (“brothers”), and in certain dialects: eyen (instead of eyes , “eyes”), shoon (instead of shoes , “shoes”) and kine (instead of cows , “cows”).

Verbs

In general, the first nobody of the singular in the Verbe S with the present of the indicative finishes in - E (ich young stag), the second nobody in - (E) St (þou spekest), and the third nobody in - eþ (He comeþ). With the Last , the weak verbs have endings in - ED (E), - D (E) or - T (E). These endings come from former English Ge , I , there and sometimes bi- . The strong verbs on the other hand form their time spent while changing the vowel of the root (e.g. binden - > bound ), as in modern English.

Pronouns

English according to 1066 inherited his pronouns former English:

The pronouns of the first and second people survived without much change, with only of small orthographical modifications. For the third nobody, the singular male accusative became him in modern English. The female form was replaced by a form of conclusive which gradually evolved/moved to become she . The absence of a standard written between the 11th century and the 15th century prevents from dating this evolution precisely.

Pronunciation

In general, all the letters are marked as Middle English. Thus, the word knight (“knight”) decides (if the K of this word is not today marked any more, it was it then), the Digramme gh decides like the German CH of nicht . In modern English, this name decides .

Thanne longen folk to goon one pilgrimages

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

(Chaucer, Tales of Canterbury)

A word as straunge is dissyllabic; palmeres is trisyllabic.

Antiquated characters

The characters which follow can surprise a modern reader. They were however employed in the texts as Middle English:

The standard of the Chancellery

The standard of the Chancellery was the written shape of English employed in the governmental bureaucracy and with other official ends, at the end of the 14th century. It is estimated that this standard contributed to a significant degree to emergence of modern English. Because of the great number of dialects of spoken English and writings at that time in the country, the government needed for a clear standard and without ambiguity for the drafting for the official documents. It is to this end that the standard of the Chancellery was created.

History of the standard of the Chancellery

This standard developed during the reign of the king Henry V (1413 - 1422) to answer its will to privilege in the controlling authorities the employment of English to that of the Anglo-Norman or the Latin . This standard was strongly standardized in the Années 1430. It was inspired mainly by the dialects spoken in London and in the '' the Midlands '' of the East which were major areas in terms of Démographie and about Politique. Nevertheless, certain elements coming from other dialects were incorporated there, which made it possible to clarify expressions. For example, the forms of north which are they , to their and them were preferred with the hi/they , to hir and hem of London, probably because there was a risk of confusion with words like He , her or him .

In the first times of its development, the ecclesiastical which employed it were more familiarized with the French and Latin. Fixed grammars of these languages influenced the constitution of the standard for the English language. In fact the only influences contributed to the formation of this standard, but that made it possible to create a core around whose the Middle English could crystallize.

In the middle of the 15th century, the standard of the Chancellery was employed in all the official documents, except for the Church, which continued to speak Latin, and in certain fields of right, where one preferably employed French and Latin. This " new anglais" was gradually disseminated in all the country by the bureaucracy and gained little by little in popularity.

Moreover, the standard of the Chancellery had the advantage of offering largely comprehensible English and of which the first printers (15th century) supported the expansion.

Example of text

The text which follows presents the first sentences of the Prolog of the Contes of Canterbury of Geoffrey Chaucer. The first column proposes the text as Middle English, the modern English second:

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