The Middle English period: brief outline and main features

Dates: 12^th – 15^th centuries. The period of the Norman rule.

Main features the period in the language development:

1. Thus period is often referred to as ‘the period of leveled endings’This means that vowels of unstressed endings have been leveled into a neutral vowel, represented by a letter e.

2. A lot of new words were borrowed from French.

3. New vowels and consonants appeared :[ʧ,ʃ,ʤ] .

4. Spelling was changed via the traditions of French scribes: sc à sh, c[k’] à ch, Þ, ð à th.

5. Middle English was the period of levelling of endings. All unstressed vowels in the suffixes and flexions were pronouced like e or i.

6. The noun had at that time only two cases – the common case and the possessive case. The adjective lost its case-system altogether.

7. There appeared some new analytical verb forms: Perfect, Continuous and Future.

8. The non-finite form of the Gerund appeared.

Major authors and literary works:

• G. Chaucer, An English writer best known for his poem Canterbury Tales, in which the members of a group of pilgrims tell each other stories, many of which were funny and humorous.

“Whan (when) that April with his shoures (showers) soote (sweet)

The droghte (drought) of March hath perced (pierced) to the roote,

And bathed every veyne (vein) in swich (such) licour (moisture)

Of (by) which vertu (power) engendered is the flour (flower)”

• Works of John Gower, peot at the court of Richard II and Henry IV.

• Works and translations of John Wyclif, the head of a church reform.

The Modern English period: brief outline and main features

Dates: 16^th–17^th centuries – Early Modern English, 17^th century – till now.

Main features the period in the language development:

1. A lot of borrowed words from Latin, French, Italian in the Renaissance period.

2. English came into contact with other cultures around the world and distinctive dialects of English developed in the many areas which Britain had colonized, numerous other languages made small but interesting contributions to its word-stock.

3. ModE is also called “the period of lost endings”. In grammar there was a further tendency to unify different forms of flexions: the plural of nouns is fenerally formed by adding –es, the third person singular of the verbs in the Present rather takes –es than –eth, more and more strong verbs take the endings –ed in the Past Indefinite and Past Participle, etc.

The categories of noun and verb take their modern shape.

4. The neutral vowel of unstressed endings was lost: sorwe –sorw – sorrow.

5. As the result of the Great Vowel Shift modern long vowels and diphthongs appeared.

e.g. bite

Chaucer’s pronunciation: [bi:t], Shakespeare’s pronunciation [beit], Present-day pronunciation [bait].

Take

MidE pronunciation [‘ta:ke], ModE [teik]

5) Spelling in most cases did not change, which resulted in its modern complicated form.

Major authors and literary works:

• W. Shakespeare, an English playwright, one of the most famous ever. Among the most famous of his plays are tragedies of Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet, the comedies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and the Twelfth Night, and historical plays Richard III, and Henry V.

To be, or not to be, that is the question

Whether ‘tis nobler in the minde to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrages fortune,

Or to take Armes against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them?

• Works of Milton (1608–1674), the greatest peot and writer of the epoch.

• Allegory The Pilgrim’s progress by John Bunyan.

• Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1755), first impying the idea of strict norm in language.

The historical aspect of English really encompasses more than the three stages of development just under consideration. English has what might be called a prehistory as well.

Learn more about History of England at: http://www.britannia.com/history/ http://www.britainexpress.com/History/index.htm