Some Characteristics Of Middle English: Grammar, Vocabulary, Spelling And Speech Sounds

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Introduction

Before we go on to discuss changes in Middle English, have you ever wondered why changes occur in language at all? Why is English, like other languages, in a constant state of change? Well, language operates as a system, a group of related parts that work together as a whole. A change in one part can cause a change in the other. For example, the Middle English ‘trone’ changed to ‘throne’ in Modern English, and ‘tesis’ changed to ‘thesis’. So, the first sounds being pronounced as /t/ changed to /Ө/. Thus a change in spelling led to a change in pronunciation. You will know more about this in Module 2 Unit 3.

You will recall that during the Scandinavian age, French and English were spoken side by side, thus these languages were in close contact.

You know that where two languages are spoken in a community, some members of the community will speak more than one language and may frequently switch between languages. This will generally lead to mutual influence of the languages. That is why we still have many French words in English today.

Another possible reason for changes in language is that speakers are likely to imitate languages they consider to be prestigious. This was what happened when Latin and French were introduced in England. People learned and copied French for social reasons. Up till now French is still considered as a language of prestige and sophistication. And very often, changes that affect our physical environment, social status, social attitudes and reflected in language, especially in vocabulary and meaning.

Let me remind you again that the boundaries that exist in the periods of the history of English, i.e., Old English (AD 450-1100); Middle English (1100-1500), early Modern English (1500-1750), and late Modern English (1750) are conventional labels which are used as a matter of convenience mainly to show the major linguistic changes as well as cultural, social, and political changes that occurred in the. And as we said, language is in a continual state of change, and the history of English as we are tracing it in this study, shows that change does not just happen suddenly. In this Unit, we shall be looking at how changes in Middle English are reflected in the grammar, vocabulary, spellings, and speech sounds.

Some Characteristics of Middle English Grammar

One of the major features of the Middle English is the decay of inflections which was a feature of Latin in Old English. Inflections place stresses on the first syllable of words and it became increasingly difficult to hear them when pronounced. Unlike most Germanic languages in which stress within a word moved according to some rules, the Old English stress pattern was fixed and this created auditory problems. When speakers could no longer cope with this, the system was gradually dropped. The disappearance can be traced throughout the Middle English period.

The most important grammatical development of this period is that a fixed pattern of word order between clause elements was established. The subject-verb-object (SVO) order that was partially evident in Old English was now consolidated. Where the Old English would say ‘robbed they’, Middle English would say “they robbed”. Today, we rely much on word order to enable us to work out grammatical function. In Old English this was determined by inflections.

As a result of the decay of inflections, nouns lost their numerous inflectional endings or declensions. In early Middle English, only two methods of indicating plurals remained fairly distinct: -s, -es or –en, (as in oxen). Adjectives also lost their inflections, partly because of changes in sounds. What this means is that rather than have a word like ‘blinde’ in Old English as “blinda - blinde and blindan” indicating singular and plural, it became simply ‘blinde’ (blind) in Middle English. So we can easily say “blind man” or “blind Men.” In Old English, it would be something like “blinde man” or “blindan men”.

With the decay of inflections, nouns and adjectives were now simplified and it became necessary to depend less on gender, case, and number. To make clear the relation of words in a sentence, word order and prepositions were now used. Demonstratives and pronouns forms were also reduced and simplified. For example, the various forms of sē, sēo, ðæt (i.e. the) survived as “the” and “that” through Middle English till today.

The demonstrative “pēs” “pēos” “pis” (i.e. this) was also reduced to “this”. However, some personal pronouns in Old English were retained e.g. hē (he) hēo (she) hit (it). The same is true of some forms of accusative (objective) and dative (indirect object) which were combined e.g. him, her (t) hem, h (it). This means that rather than have different forms say “him” or “her” as direct object and indirect object. The Middle English had the same form e.g. I gave him the book (indirect object). I love him (direct object). This survived till Modern English. Remember, in Old English, “him” would have different forms using inflections to show grammatical functions (i.e. to indicate which is direct or indirect object in this case).

Some nominative (subjective) plurals were also extended to all cases of plural appearing in Modern English as “those” and “these”. The second person pronouns in Middle English looked like this:

Function Singular Plural

Subjective (nominative) Thou Ye

Objective (accusative) Thee You

Possessive (genitive) Thy/thine Your/yours

Now let’s see how verbs were affected by these changes. An important point to note here is that like nouns, the general process has been that of simplification with the gradual decay of inflections.

In Old English, verbs generally had two forms depending on their conjugations “strong verbs” and “weak verbs”. Strong verbs are those whose forms are changed in order to derive their past tense. Today, we call them “irregular verbs” e.g. write, wrote, written, or sing, sang, sung; while weak verbs (regular verbs) are those that take –d, -ed, or –en for their past tense, e.g. walk, walked, walked. In Middle English, almost one-third of strong verbs in Old English died out. More than a hundred Old English strong verbs were lost at the beginning of the Middle English while about thirty more became absolute in the course of Middle English. Today, more than half have disappeared. Some strong verbs in Old English became weak verbs in Middle English.

We noted that English was mainly spoken by the lower class and largely removed from the influences of education and literature; naturally many speakers were already wrongly applying the pattern of weak verbs. For example, we have come, came, come (strong verb) but drive, drove, driven; (notice “driven”) as a feature of a weak verb. In the 13th century, this trend became clear in written literature. Verbs like burn, brew, flow, help, mourn, step, weep were then undergoing change and by the 14th century, these verbs showed weak forms. During the Middle period, however, strong forms continued to be used while the weak forms continued to grow, and in many cases, the inflections for weak verbs were established. So there were variations. People still had the past tense of “ache” as “oke” while “ached” was used by others. In some ways “stope” and “stepped”, “clew” and “clawed” were used side by side. However, strong verbs still survived. We must add here that in Middle English, there were still inflections for simple present tense in verbs. For example:

Person Modern English Middle English

Singular Ist – I Thank Thanke

                           (thou Thank Thankest

                           (he/she/it) Thanks Thanketh (-es)

Plural Ist – we Thank Thanke (n) (-es)

                           (you) Thank Thanke (n) (-es)

                           (they) Thank Thanken (n) (es)

The inflections in brackets show other forms, depending on the dialect. There were about six (6) dialects of the Middle English, namely Northern dialect, Southern dialect, West Midland, East Midland, Kentish, and East Anglia. The examples above are Midlands.

Self Assessment Exercise 1

1. Explain why changes normally occur in language, with particular reference to English.

2. Describe some general features of Middle English grammar.

3. Distinguish between Old English forms of nouns and that of Middle English.

Middle English Vocabulary

The most dominant influence on the Middle English vocabulary is French, though Latin also contributed a great deal. It was estimated that about 10,000 French words came into English in the 13th century. These words were mainly from law, administration, medicine, art, fashion, science, and learning. Over 20% were nouns. Some were constructed using French affixes like con-, trans-, pre-, -ance, -tion, and -ment. No doubt you are familiar with some of these words. As new words came into English, there were cases where certain words were duplicated due to similar already existing words in Anglo-Saxon. In that case, one either replaced the other or both remained with slight differences in meaning. Some existed with different senses e.g. house (O.E) mansion (F), hearty (O.E) cordial (F). In most cases, the French word replaced the Old English equivalent. Many Old English words were lost in this way. As I said earlier, many French loanwords were drawn from the fields of administration e.g. authority, empire, duke, crown, liberty, majesty, palace, parliament, tax, treaty, royal; can you think of other ones? From Law we have examples like adultery, accuse, arrest, assault, execute attorney, evidence, crime, fine, fraud, indictment, judge, summons, legacy etc. Religion – baptism, cathedral, chaplain, clergy, communion, confess, immorality, convert, prayer, salvation, saviour, sermon, temptation, theology, virtue etc. From Military we have: ambush, army, besiege, captain, lieutenant, battle, navy, peace, retreat, sergeant, soldier, spy, etc. From Food and Drink - appetite, beef, biscuit, cream, dinner, feast, fruit, fry, herb, lemon, orange, plate, pork, etc.

                                                                       

Can you think of words in the fields of fashion, leisure, and the arts, science and learning, and home? Write at least ten (10) words from each of these areas.

Some general nouns such as action, affection, adventure, age, country, courtesy, labour, marriage, noise, number, ocean, opinion, sign, sound, reason, rage, river, etc., are French words, while some adjectives and verbs are also of French origin. Examples are: active, amorous, calm, certain, natural, nice, original, perfect, poor, precious, real, honest, scarce, advise, arrange, close, cry, delay, prove, prefer, receive, remember, refuse, save, travel, wait, deceive, etc.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, several thousands of Latin words were introduced into English, most of which came through French. Most of these words were technical terms belonging to religion, medicine, law, and literature. So, you see that Middle English vocabulary comprises words largely borrowed from French and Latin simultaneously. This has resulted in what we have today in modern English where some set of items all expressing the same idea but with slight differences in meaning and style are being used. For example, rise/mount/ascend are possible synonyms.

Other sources of new words in Middle English include the Scandinavian words. There were also a few evidences of loan words from Dutch, Russian, and Arabic resulting from commercial and maritime contacts. The effects of this borrowing on the English lexicon were that in early Middle English over 90% of words were of native English, but by the end of Middle English, this has fallen to about 75%.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

1. Give at least 15 English words that are of French origin.

2. Write 10 words that were borrowed from Latin.

3. Mention some professional areas from which French loan words were derived.

Middle English Spellings

Let’s begin this section by trying to identify some of the factors that influenced English spelling. First was the social and linguistic impact of the French invasion; secondly, the continued process of sound change that began in the Anglo-Saxon times; and thirdly, the considerable growth and movement in population during the medieval period. All these were responsible for the marked difference between the spelling irregularity that were evident earlier in the development of English and the more stable system of spelling which began to appear in the 15th century, especially in the works of William Caxton.

In Middle English, there was no standard convention for spelling, which led to some variations. A writer’s spelling reflected the dialect he happened to speak, thus, a number of spelling forms were introduced by Middle English writers. Norman scribes in particular adopted spelling conventions of the French language. Let’s look at a few of them:

- sh replaced sc in words like OE scip (ship)

- qu replaced cw in words like OE cwen (queen)

- gh replaced h in words like OE riht (right)

- ch replaced c in words like OE cin (chin)

- wh replaced hw in words like OE hwаet (what)

- c replaced s in words OE is (ice)

- ou replaced u in words like OE wund (wound)

These changes helped some to solve problems associated with having two different sounds for one phoneme. For example, the first sounds of ‘c’ in Old English ‘cin’ (chin) and cyning (king) were not the same. With the adoption of ‘ch’, it became easy to differentiate between ‘chin’ and cyning (i.e., king). Also, the adoption of ‘ou’ helped to indicate a long vowel without having to use double u as was the case in Old English. Sometimes, the scribes wrote ‘o’ for ‘u’, e.g., love (OE luve), to bring spelling closer to pronunciation, thus making it clearer this way.

The advent of printing with William Caxton in 1476 was a significant step towards the standardization of spelling, which provided a national standard for written English. It was an important factor that suggested the beginning of Modern English. (We shall see more of this in Module 2 Unit 2).

Printing made it possible to promote a standard in spelling with a vast amount of reading materials. This does not mean that all the early printers agreed on what the standard should be or were consistently applying it. After all, Caxton chose a particular dialect which was not general to the early printers. In some respects, the printers added some strangeness to spelling. Many of the printers were Dutch, and sometimes, Dutch spelling influenced English words. For instance, the ‘h’ in the word ‘ghost’ was not originally there in Old English. The word was spelt “gast”. Printers also added ‘e’ in words like “olde” (old), or doubled up consonants like “shoppe” (shop) or used “y” instead of ‘i’ for economy of space. All these resulted in the general spelling differences in the English Language.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Now look at this text, which is a part of Caxton’s Prologue to the Eneydos - a story about some merchants who tried to ask for eggs in Kent.

TEXT 2

And certaynly our langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that. whiche was vsed and spoken whan I was borne/ for we englysshe men/ ben borne vnder the domynacyon of the mone. which is neuer stedfaste/ be euer wauerynge wexynge one season/ and waneth and dyscreaseth another season/ and that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother … ”

Study the spelling in this text:

(i) What inconsistencies in the spelling can you find? (ii) Can you explain why these occur? (iii) Letters g and i; u and v are said to be interchangeable. How true is this in the above text?

Middle English Speech Sounds

As new spelling formats were emerging, a new system of pronunciation was equally emerging. The result is that there was never a regular correspondence between phonemes or speech sounds with the letters that represent them. But this is not totally true of the Old English period. A word like ‘twa’ (two) was pronounced with the “w” sounding, unlike in Modern English. Look at the following words in Modern English and try to pronounce them: sword, answer, walk, half, wreck, write, gnarl, gnaw, know, knight.

English adopted the Roman alphabet, i.e. Latin. Today English has over 40 phonemes, but only 26 letters represent those phonemes. In particular, there are 24 vowels sounds in English, but only five vowels letters. Even in Old English, letters were represented by pairs of letters called “diagraphs” (today we call them diphthongs). For example, sc was used to represent /S/ as in scep (sheep); cg represent the phoneme /dз/ as in ecg (edge). The diagraph ea and eo were used as in Old English eare (ear) and beor (beer).

In the Middle English period, several sounds altered. Some took on different values Original diphthongs became pure vowels and new diphthongs emerged. Some diphthongs emerged and certain consonants at the end of a syllable came to be pronounced like vowels, as in /wei/ (way) from Old English weg. French loan words also introduced new diphthongs like /oi/ and /ui/, which can be linked to the modern /ɔɪ/ in boy or joy.

Several pure vowels also changed their values. Old English /a:/ as in ban was now pronounced as bon (bone), and swa became so. Interestingly, the /h/ sound, which occurred at the beginning of many Old English words like hring (ring) and hnecca (neck), was completely lost in the Middle English period. It was restored later in many words during the Modern English period through the influence of spelling.

The /v/ sound became important due to its use in French loan words and began to distinguish between /v/ and /f/ sounds as in vin and film. French influence also brought the contrast between /s/ and /z/ as in ‘zeal’ and ‘seal’. The ng sound /ŋ/ distinguished meanings in words like thing and thin. In Old English, this sound has always been followed by a /g/, e.g., cyning (king), which was realized as /kyniŋg/. The /g/, however, disappeared at the end of the Old English period, leaving only /ŋ/ as the only distinguishing unit.

It is not always easy to give a general description of Middle English pronunciation because of the variation that exists due to different dialects and the spellings that represent particular sounds.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4

1. Do you think spelling had some influence on Middle English pronunciations?

2. Describe some features of Middle English speech sounds.

CONCLUSION

We have examined some general characteristics of Middle English grammar, vocabulary, spellings, and speech sounds. And you can see that changes had been gradual, and whether it was social, political, or economic, each had its effects on language. Some of these effects were certainly beneficial in a way to the overall development of the English language. The English grammar became more structured; spellings more stabilized, and vocabulary more enhanced.

SUMMARY

A major grammatical feature of Middle English is the disappearance of the inflectional system. English nouns, verbs, and adjectives became more simplified. And where necessary, some general rule of inflection was applied for some classes of words. A fixed pattern of grammatical structure was also established at this time. Middle English vocabulary was enriched by French and Latin loan words, particularly words related to administration, law, art, medicine, science, and learning. English spelling became more stabilized during the Middle English period, especially with the introduction of printing. Pronunciation also underwent definite changes which led to Modern English pronunciations.