Middle English

Question 1

What kind of things happened when Old Norse was introduced?

Answer 1

• Levelling of endings (they caused confusion)

- Started dropping relative pronouns: ‘The man who I saw’

Question 2

What happened in 1066?

Answer 2

The normans (from North of France) conquered the English

Question 3

What happened after the Norman conquest of 1066?

Answer 3

Many crossings took place to and from France, which means there was a lot of contact.

Question 4

During Middle English, what were the languages of the church and royal court?

Answer 4

• The church - Latin

- Royal court - French

Question 5

French and Latin were popular in England after the 1066 conquest, what roles did they have?

Answer 5

• Latin was used in church (administration)

- French was used in the royal court.

Question 6

How was French effecting English?

Answer 6

• Decline of inflections
• Borrowing from French
• Influence on native population.

Question 7

What problems occurred because of the French/Latin roles?

Answer 7

Social division had occurred: French was considered higher class, though most people still spoke English.

Question 8

What is the MAIN thing to remember in terms of the effects Middle English had overall?

Answer 8

• The Norman’s were a ruling class, but the Vikings integrated closely. This meant that Old Norse effected grammar, pronunciation and word function.
• French didn’t have that effect ^ but gave us thousands of words.

Question 9

What kind of effect did germanic language have overall?

Answer 9

They gave us different accents and dialects.

Question 10

In what ways did this period effect English?

Answer 10

• English - was reduced from a highly inflectional language.
• We adopted lots of French and Latin words.

Question 11

What period had the biggest influence on English?

Answer 11

Middle English - because of the French. They gave us a bigger vocabulary.

Question 12

What are some literary works during this period?

Answer 12

• Religious texts: The Owl and the Nightingale.
• Wycliffe
• Chaucer

Question 13

How did English become so popular after the normans conquered?

Answer 13

• The Black Death, people who spoke English (lower class) gained social hierarchy, thus it was on the rise.

Question 14

When was The Black Death?

Answer 14

1348

Question 15

What happened in 1348?

Answer 15

The Black Death.

Question 16

What happened after there was no social hierarchy (after the black death) to the law?

Answer 16

English began to be used in court of law and people demanded that we don’t use French any more.

Question 17

What happens after parliament opens in English?

Answer 17

English began to be used in writing again.

Question 18

What significant figure was important during (late) Middle English?

Answer 18

Henry IV

Question 19

What did Henry IV do?

Answer 19

Spoke in Old English, which allowed it to continue to grow.

Question 20

What happened to the casing system (morphology) from Old English, during this time?

Answer 20

Strict word order was introduced because of loss of inflections.

Question 21

What were the social causes of change?

Answer 21

Language contact: Old Norse/Old English/French/English

Question 22

What is the term that is most important to remember about Middle English (what we still use today)

Answer 22

Dialectical Diversity

Question 23

What is dialectical diversity?

Answer 23

Dialects of English:

• Northern, East Midland, West Midland and Southern.

Question 24

When was printing introduced?

Answer 24

1476

Question 25

What is the most popular literary text of this period?

Answer 25

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales