1. The role of foreign influence in MidE
Such historical events of the Middle English period as the Scandinavian invasion and the Norman conquest, the growth of feudalism in the country, the development of trade and handicraft were certain to influence the vocabulary of the English language of that period, for the vocabulary is the most mobile part of the language. The vocabulary, being the most sensitive to all changes always tends to alter through the addition of new words, which appear in the language due to changes in society, development of production, culture, science and so on.
Many new words appeared, on the one hand, and many old words changed their meanings on the other. Here are some examples of the changes in meaning.
ME hloverd, loverd (master) ,then lord (feudal title)
ME lady (the wife of the feudal lord),
ME -knight (a knight)
A number of words in Middle English preserved their old meanings and simultaneously acquired new ones, e.g,
The French word corage (heart, spirit) was used by Chaucer in the meaning of 'courage bravery’. The French word 'vertu' (power, force) becomes also 'virtue', the latter meaning being preserved in the language.
Terms connected with handicrafts appeared such as 'huckster’ (торгаш) 'spool (шпулька) and others.
Scandinavian borrowings are represented by simple everyday words which sometimes took the place of those used in the Old English period, e.g. Scand. taka (take) instead of the 0E niman. The verb ‘cealla’ replaced the Old English ‘hatan' (to call) the Scand. 'deya’ (to die) replaced the Old English 'steorfan'. However, 'steorfan’ was not lost, it was preserved in a different meaning (-compare NE 'to die’ and to starve)
Scandinavian borrowings also include such words as law, wrong (noun), husband (the lord of the house), to cast, low, wrong, sky, egg, the pronoun 'they’ instead of the Old English ‘hie’), the prepositions till, fro, the conjunction ‘though’ (instead of the Old English 'Þeah’ and others.
2. The MidE spelling. What new letters and digraphs denoting consonants appeared in MidE? What new spelling devices denoting vowels appeared in MidE
Old English so far removed from Modern English that one may take it for an entirely different language. And this is largely (mostly) due to the peculiarities of its pronunciation.
The OE tendency to positional vowel change is most apparent in the process termed “mutation”. Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding syllable.
Palatal Mutation occurred somewhere during the 6th-7th centuries.
The dating, mechanism and causes of PM have been a matter of research and discussion over the last 100 years. PM in OE had already benn completed by the time of the earliest written records.
The successive stages of the change can be shown as follows
[a]>[æ]> [ea]>[ie]
The generally accepted phonetic explanation of PM is that sound I or j palatalized(смягчать) the proceeding consonant and that this consonant in its turn fronted and raised the root-vowel. “mechanistic”
Another explanation called physiological that speaker unconsciously anticipates (ускоряет)the [i] and [j] in pronouncing the root-syllable and that’s why adds an i-glide to the root- vowel.
In Early OE, mutations affected numerous vowels and brought about profound changed in the system and use of vowels.
PM is the fronting (переднеязычный) and raising of vowels through the influence of i (the non-syllabic[i]) and j in the immediately following syllable.
In other words almost all vowels in diphthongs and monophthongs became further forward and higher or more palatal and more narrow as to approach the articulation of [i]. Except [e] and [i]cause they couldn’t go further.
3. London dialect
The ME period was characterized by division into numerous local dialects, which was connected with the economic division of the country into feudal territories.The London dialect is usually chosen as a sample of ME as it subsequently became the basis of the national literary language.
In the 2nd half of the 14th century dialectial difference began to hamper the association between counties where different dialects were spoken; the people of the far north could not understand those living in the south of the country. The need for a language common to all the people arose. This language had to be comprehensible to all the people, and it was gradually formed on the basis of the London dialect.
London by that time was rapidly turning into the economic and cultural centre of the country and it was also a political centre. It was here that people came from all he country. A process took place in London similar which had taken place at the time when the Anglo -Saxon and the Scandinavian tribes mixed with one another; this process led to a similar destruction of the endings and to the elaboration of new grammar rules. A certain Stabilization language forms began, called forth by the growing influence of literature in the London dialect.
4. Written records in MidE
Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the most prominent authors of the Middle English Period and he set up a language pattern to be followed. He is considered to be the founder of the literary language of that period. Most authors of the Middle English Period tried to fallow this standard.
Features of the Chaucer’s Language:
· Chaucer’s Language was the basis for the national literary language (15th – 16th c.).
· New spelling rules (digraphs) and new rules of reading (1 letter = several sounds) appeared as compared to the Old English.
· New grammatical forms appeared (Perfect forms, Passive forms, “to” Infinitive constructions, etc.).
· Chaucer tried to minimize the number of the French loans in the English Language.
· Chaucer introduced rhyme to the poetry.
Middle English Alphabet
The Middle English Alphabet resembled the Old English Alphabet but some changes were introduced:
· th replaced ð/þ/Đ/đ;
· w replaced ?;
· æ, œ disappeared;
· digraphs(2 letters = one sound) appeared (came from French):
o th for [q] and [ð];
o tch/chfor [t∫];
o sch/ssh/shfor [∫];
o dgfor [dζ];
o whreplace hw but was pronounced still as [hw]!
