Middle English

Question 1

the great vowel shift - Chain Shift - a) Pull-Chain

Answer 1

• long vowels were shifted upwards → vowels in the top
  space were diphthongized
• upper long vowel
  space became empty → space reoccupied by high-mid vowels
  → sth. moves out of a space, leaving a void that is
  reoccupied

Question 2

the great vowel shift - Chain Shift - b) Push-Chain

Answer 2

• vowels move upwards first → vowel space becomes crowded and leads to confusion → push the already occupying vowels out of their space
  → we don’t know which scenario is more likely
  → but: long vowels changed, short vowels remained constant (e.g. april, inspired)

Question 3

the great vowel shift - Vowel Lengthening

Answer 3

knight: nixt > ni:t > naɪt

• no direct change, but a step in between → “x” sound was lost and
  compensated by vowel lengthening (short vowel became a long vowel ɪ → ɪː and
  then diphthongized)

Question 4

the great vowel shift - Variation

Answer 4

• different changes happened at different times, some vowels
  jumped
• but: what appears to be random with lots of exceptions is
  actually very systematic and regular
• GVS only affected the South of England

Question 5

Orthography

Answer 5

• variation between u and v letters: <u> is used to map onto a vowel or a consonant when in medial position</u>

<v> is used initially, e.g. vpon ‘upon’, loue ‘love’

- letters that have fallen out of use æ ‘ash’ → replaced by a
þ ‘thorn’ + ð ‘eth’ → replaced by th
</v>

Question 6

Morphology - Plural Form

Answer 6

• -(e)n ending in some modern English words → oxen, children,
  brethren
• -(e)n-plural already on the way out at the beginning of the ME
  Period
• -(e)s–plural dominant

Question 7

Morphology - Pronouns

Answer 7

• moving back in time, things get more complex → more differences but at the same time a lot of variation
• not every pronoun has the same impact → some
  are used more often than others
  e.g. 1st pers. sing. noun = three forms: ic/ich/I → changed from left to right, I dominant
  → Gradual change

Question 8

Morphlogy - Verb Morphology

Answer 8

• distinction between weak and strong verbs: love > love weak verbs do not change their stem;
  help > holp strong verbs change their stem in the past tense
• also irregular forms
  → lots of forms for plural and present form

Question 9

Regional Variation

Answer 9

• new form was mostly spread in the north, in the south the old
  form was dominant → change spread from the south to the
  north
• no standardization yet but a clear pattern; indication
  whereto change spreads

Question 10

Rise of English

Answer 10

• French still language of prestige in Europe & bilingualism persisted in the upper class → now spoke ME as well
• noble children started learning French from books: first language was English
• clergy were multilingual
• correlation of events that brought English language back: rise of English – Rise of middle class; power shift – Rise of national unity
  → nobility taking up the language of the lower classes

Question 11

Lexical borrowing

Answer 11

• lexical borrowings from French that were inflected and used in word formation processes according to English rules
• French influence was mostly lexical and not grammatical
• English gained a few derivational affixes from French (e.g. -ment)
• loans from different word-fields borrowed from French

Question 12

Linguistic integration

Answer 12

• French morphemes compounded with Germanic ones
• new productive affixes outdating old ones
  -replacement and differentiation may happen when integrating two or more languages