Middle English Flashcards
Period of Middle English
c.1100 - c.1500
What were the major languages in Middle English?
French
Latin
English
When was English recognised as a language in Parliament?
1362
Who was the first English speaking king after 1066?
Henry IV
11th Century Latin: What was it used for?
Legal documents, church, education and literature
11th Century English: What was it used for?
Common, spoken dialects
11th Century Norman French: What was it used for?
Court & aristocracy; army; administration & official documents; but also church & education
12th Century English: What did it not have?
No written standard
13th Century English: How had it changed?
Used in court as a first and second language
Some literary texts and official documents
13th Century French: How had it changed?
Court and aristocracy learnt Central French (no longer Norman)
14th Century English: How had it changed?
Was now recognised for legal documents and education (after 1349)
14th Century Central/Parisian French: How had it changed?
Diminished presence in court
When did the English written standard emerge?
15th Century
How did French influence the English language post-conquest?
Introduced c.10,000 words, 75% survived
What is top-down transmission of words?
When words are originally used by the aristocracy and are adopted by the lower classes
What is down-top transmission of words?
When words are originally used by the lower classes and are then adopted by the aristocracy
What is a doublet?
Double borrowings that have been borrowed at different periods which are not felt to be identical in form and content
What influence did French have on word formation?
Derivational morphing
Which graphemes were used in Middle English?
Ash, wynn, yogh, thorn and eth
How did the inflections of English change throughout the Middle Ages?
Weakened inflections - loss and weakening of stressed syllables
Simplification of inflectional system
What is an analytic language?
A language that conveys relations between words in sentences primarily by means of function words and word order rather than using inflections to express word functions in the sentence
What is a synthetic language?
A language that conveys relations between words in sentences primarily by means of inflections rather than function words and word order
What are Periphrastic Constructions?
Linguistic elements that express grammatical meanings by one or more free morphemes instead of inflection or derivation
What is Standardisation?
A process in which a standard language develops that can serve more than just local needs. It normally involves a reduction of variation in spelling, grammar and pronunciation.
What are the stages of standardisation?
selection, diffusion, elaboration, codification and prescription.
What is a substrate?
A less socially prestigious linguistic variety that has influenced the structure or use of a more dominant variety within a community.
What is a superstrate?
A more socially prestigious linguistic variety which has influenced the structure or use of a less prestigious variety. It is especially the result of social, economical and political dominance of the speakers of one language over another culture.
What were the Middle English dialect areas?
Northern, Scots, East Midlands, West Midlands, South West and Kent
When did the Standardisation process of English begin?
14th Century
Who were in charge of the diffusion of the standard?
Chancery - Texts from London sent all over the country
Who was William Caxton?
Introduced the printing press to Britain in 1476
