Changes in Spelling

Another outcome of the Norman Conquest was to change the writing of English from the clear and easily readable insular hand of Irish origin to the delicate Carolingian script then in use on the Continent. Spelling of many English words changed considerably as well. Some changes reflected the sound changes that were in progress in MidE; but most of new spelling habits were introduced by French scribes under the influence of Norman spelling traditions.

1. The runic letters passed out of use. The letters ‘thorn’ Þ and ‘eth’ ð were replaced by th, the rune ‘wynn’ was replaced by ‘double u’, combinations æ and  disappeared.

2. The sibilants were represented by the combination sh, sch [ʃ]; ch, tch [tʃ], dg, j [ʤ] borrowed from French (compare: OE cild – MidE child).

3. According to the French habit, the letter c represented the sound [k] only before back vowels; before front vowels it stood for [s]. In some English words it was replaced by k (compare: OE cyning – MidE king).

4. The sound [j] was denoted by y.

5. The front vowel [e:] was denoted by ie as in Frend: field [fe:ld].

6. The combination ou was used for [u:] in the words of French origin and in some English words: round [ru:nd], house [hu:s] (compare OE h­ūs).

7. The English sound [u] was similar to the sound [o] in French, so in many words [u] started to be represented through o, especially when it stood between the Gothic letters with vertical bars (u, n, m). Compare: OE cumin – MidE comen.

8. The letters u and v were often used one instead of another, thus some words could have two variants of spelling: but – bvt.

9. Long sound were shown by double letters: MidE book – OE bōk.

10. The combination gh was used for the fricative [x]: MidE knight – OE cnieht.

Phonetic Changes in Middle English

In the MidE period the phonetic system underwent some considerable changes, some of which reflected in spelling.

Vowel changes:

1. A long vowel was shortened before two consonants, e.g. OE cēpan  MidE kēpen, but OE cēpte  MidE kept.

2. Short vowels a, e, o were pronounced longer in open syllables: OE macian  MidE māken.

3. The long sound ā became in MidE higher and labilized, people started to pronounce it similar to [o:]: OE stān  MidE stōn, OE hām  MidE hōm.

4. OE long ō mostly remained unchanged, but in the Nothern dialect it began to develop into [u:], which was represented in spelling by French scribes: buk

5. Short [æ] developed into [a]: wæs  was, in West Saxon dialect into ē [e:]: slǣpon  slēpan.

6. The sound [y], [] changed into [i], hyll  hill.

7. All unstressed vowels were, as a rule, weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel.

8. All OE diphongs became monophthongs in MidE, for example OE short ea  MidE a: healf  half.

Consonant changes:

1. Some new consonants were developed from old ones due to palatalization: [sk’]  [ʃ], [k’]  [ʧ], [gg’] [ʤ].

2. Some sonorants became vowels and new diphthongs appeared: g [y]  [u], bōga  bowe, [y’]  [i], dæg  day, ag  ai, eg ei, ag  aw.

Changes in Middle English Grammar

The MidE period is often called ‘the period of leveling of endings’. The phonetic tendency to reduce an unstressed vowel ensued in dropping grammatical endings. With its simplified case-ending system, Middle English is closer to modern English than its pre-Conquest equivalent.

1. Loss of most case-related inflections. This happened first with nouns, which were leveled to generic forms: dog, dogs, dog's; thenit happened to adjectives as well.

Singular Nouns
NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE, DATIVE	dom	nome
GENITIVE	domes	nomen
Plural Nouns
NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE, DATIVE, GENITIVE	domes	nomen

The strong -splural form has survived into Modern English, while the weak -nform is rare (oxen, children, brethren).

2) Loss of grammatical gender and appearance of "natural" gender. ie: "table" was no longer a "male" noun and "house" no longer a female noun, but words like "mare" and "stallion" would have pronoun references based on gender.

3) As inflections disappeared, English changed from a synthetic to an analytic language, which lead to the development of a fixed word order.

4) Words began to take on new meanings; in particular, nouns began to find themselves being used as verbs for the first time: mouth, fish(conversion)

5) The first person singular of present tense verbs ends in -e(ic here), the second person in-(e)st (þou spekest), and the third person in -eþ (he comeþ).

6) In the past tense, weak verbs are formed by an -ed(e), -d(e) or -t(e) ending, so they became more orderly and simple.

7) Strong verbs form their past tense by changing their stem vowel.

Strong Verbs – drink
INFINITIVE	drinke(n)
PRETERITE SINGULAR	drank, dronk
PRETERITE PLURAL	dronke(n)
PAST PARTICIPLE	dronke(n)
I drinke. Thou drinkest. He drinketh. We, ye, they drinke(n).

8) In some verbs Preterite singular form of the verb started to be used for both Preterite singular and plural.

Compare:

	Infinitive	Preterite Singualar	Preterite Plura;	Participle II
Old English	stēlan (str, Class IV)	hē stæl	hie stǣlon	stolen
Middle English	stēlen	stal	stal	stōlen

9) Many OE strong verbs became weak, for example:

OE helpan (Class III) – healp – hulpon – holpen;

MidE helpen – helped – helped.

A few new strong verbs appeared and there were some weak verbs that became strong.

10) -ende particilple disappeared in MidE, the new Particilple ended in –ing.

The future forms became quite usual, as modal verbs shal and will lost their original meaning.

11) Use of the double and triple negative became common:

"ne isaeh naevere na man selere chiht nenne"

("no-one had ever seen a better knight").

12) Middle English personal pronouns:

First person
Case	Singular	Plural
Nom.	I	we
Gen.	my, myn	oure
Dat.	me	us
Acc.	me	us

Second person
Case	Singular	Plural
Nom.	thou	ye
Gen.	thy, thyn	youre
Dat.	thee	yow
Acc.	thee	yow

Third person
	Masc.	Fem.	Neuter	Plural
Nom.	he	she	hit	they
Gen.	his	hir	his	hir
Dat.	him	hir	him	hem
Acc.	him	hir	hit	hem

The third person plural personal pronoun is replaced by the Scandinavian they.

Though the MIdE noun lost most of its endings, it acquired the new morphological determiner – the article. People started t use the demonstrative pronoun sēas an article in late OE period; in MidE it got the formthe, the initial sound [s] was replaced by [] by analogy.

The indefinite article originated from the numeral ān (one).