CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. LINGUISTICSITUATION IN OLD ENGLISH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
1.1 Thedevelopment of Futhark
1.1.1 The runicalphabet as an Old Germanic writing tradition
1.1.2 OldEnglish literature in the period of Anglo-Saxon ethnic extension
1.2 Linguisticsituation in the Middle English
1.2.1Linguistic situation in Medieval England after the Norman Conquest
1.2.2 DialectalDiversity in the Middle English Period
1.3 The MiddleEnglish corpus
1.3.1 GeoffreyChaucer and his lending support of the London Standard’s diffusion
1.3.2 The role ofthe printing in the formation of the English language
1.3.3 PrincipalMiddle English written records as a reflection of ongoing changes in Standardization
CHAPTER 2. CHANGINGCONDITIONS IN THE PERIOD OF STANDARDISATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
2.1 Origins ofStandard English
2.1.1 The Riseof Standard English
2.1.2 Theimportance of London English
2.1.3 Theimportance of Chancery Line
2.2 MiddleEnglish Spelling and Sounds
2.2.1 Changesin Spelling due to the introduction of French scribal tradition
2.2.2 MiddleEnglish Pronunciation
2.3 Changes inGrammar in Middle and Early New English
2.3.1 MiddleEnglish Noun
2.3.2 MiddleEnglish and Early New English Adjective and Pronoun
2.3.3 MiddleEnglish and Early New English Verb
2.4 Thecomplexity of Middle English Vocabulary
2.4.1 Frenchfactor in the development of Middle English Vocabulary
2.4.1.1 Frenchinfluence on the English Vocabulary
2.4.1.2 Coresemantic spheres of loanwords from French
2.4.2 Latinborrowings in the Middle and Early New English
2.4.3 Othersources of borrowings in the Middle English CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1
INTODUCTION
linguistichistory english language
The English language has had a remarkable history. When we firstcatch it in historical records, it is a language of none-too-civilized tribeson the continent of Europe along the North Sea. From those murky andundistinguished beginnings, English has become the most widespread language inthe world, used by more peoples for more purposes than any language on Earth.
The early part of the Modern English saw the establishment of theStandard written English we know today. Its standardization was first due tothe need of the central government for regular procedures by which to conductits business, to keep its records and to communicate with the citizens of theland. Standard languages are often the by-products of bureaucracy, developed tomeet a specific administrative need, rather than spontaneous developments ofthe populace or the artifice of writers and scholars .A standard language isspread widely over a the large region, is respected, because people recognize itsusefulness and is codified in the sense of having been described so that peopleknow what it is [27; 54].
A standard language has to be described before it is fullystandard. The purpose of the paper in question is to retrace development of theStandard English language formation as well as to study linguistic background ofits establishment.
The purpose of the research stipulated the arrangement andconsecutive solving of the following tasks:
1. to review written records in an early stage of the Englishlanguage development that is of Old English Period;
2. to inspect the origins of the Standard English language;
3. to analyze linguistic situation in the Middle English Agebefore the Standardization;
4. to consider the main factors contributing to the StandardEnglish language development;
5. to examine changes in the English language on all levels duringits standardization.
The topicality of the paper given can be explained by the followingfact: in the course of its history the English language has changed a lot, inother words it has been globalized. Additionally, it gave birth to manyregional varieties. And although most people nowadays speak a variety ofregional English or an admixture of standard and regional Englishes, andreverse such labels as BBC English or “the Queen’s English” for what theyperceive to be a pure Standard English it is still vitally important to knowwhat the Standard English language represents as such and what is moreimportant to use it to be able to communicate with English speakers of variousethnic backgrounds. The personal contribution to the research work lies in anattempt to integrate fundamental and modern sources on the English languageformation to give a contrastive view of the issue.
The following methods were applied in the research:
1. Descriptive analysis;
2. Historical-philological analysis;
3. Comparative analysis.
This work consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion, listof references and appendixes. Theintroduction covers topicality, theoretical base of research, as well as,methods of research and the structure of the work.
In the 1st chapter we are concerned with linguistic situation inOld English and Medieval period. The 2nd chapter is dedicated to the changes inthe language on phonetic, lexical and grammar levels that later constituted thebasis of English Standard. The conclusion colligates the main propositions andultimate results of the research.
The results of the given work were introduced in March, 2011 at thescientific conference in the breakup group devoted to Linguistic text researchat Irkutsk State Linguistic University.
The research is founded on fundamental works of well-knownscholars such as A.C. Baugh [1978], K. Brunner [2008], D. Crystal [1995, 1997],O. Jespersen [1938]; Russian scientists: V.D Arakin [1985], A.A. Rastorgueva[1997], B.A. Ilyish [1972] and many others.
CHAPTER 1. LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN OLDENGLISH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
1.1 The development of Futhark
The earliest form of German writing is commonly believed to beconnected to the early Germanic runes. Old English was first written in the runic alphabet which wascalled FUTHARK. It was named after the first six letters. The reason for theunique sequences of characters in the futhark is unknown. It is proposed thatthis sequence was the result of some mnemonic device which is no longer retrievable,but which may have left some slight echo in the runic poems preserved in themedieval manuscripts [38].
The Old Germanic runic alphabet consisted of twenty-four letters.In England at least thirty runes were used to reflect the old Englishphonological changes. It can be written both horizontally in either direction.The arrangement of runic characters differs greatly from the order of lettersin all other European alphabets.
The name of each rune was associated with a certain word in theOld English language. Therefore the runes can stand for these words. Besides,each rune could stand for the initial sound of the corresponding word. Thus ifwe read only initial letters in the words for which the runes stand in theabove mentioned six stanzas, we get Futhark [41].
This alphabet was used in northern Europe – in Scandinavia, present-dayGermany, and the British Isles – and it has been preserved in about 4,000inscriptions and in a few manuscripts. It dates from around the 3rd century AD.No one knows exactly where the alphabet came from, but it seems to be a developmentof one of the alphabets of southern Europe, probably by the Roman, which runesresemble closely [28].
The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not to befound in the languages of other groups. The letters are angular; straight linesare preferred, curved lines avoided; this is due to the fact that the runicinscriptions were cut in hard material: stone, wood or bone. The shapes of someletters resemble to those of Greek or Latin, others have not been traced to anyknown alphabet, and the order of the runes is certainly original [38].
An early offshoot of Futhark was employed by Goths, and so it isknown as Gothic Runes. It was used until 500 CE when it was replaced by theGreek-based Gothic alphabet. One theory concerning the origin of Futhark statesthat the Goths were the inventors of Futhark, but there is insufficientsupporting evidence to prove this theory. In England, the Anglo-Saxons broughtFuthark from continental Europe in the 5th century CE and modified it into thethirty-three-letter Futharc to accommodate sound changes that were occurring inOld English, the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Even the name ‘Futhorc’is evidence to a phonological change where the long [a] vowel in Old Englishevolved into a later [o] vowel.
Even though Futhark continued to thrive as a writing system, itstarted to decline with the spread of the Latin alphabet. In England,Anglo-Saxon Futharc started to be replaced by the Latin alphabet by the 9thcentury, and did not survive much more past the Norman Conquest of 1066.Futhark continued to be used in Scandinavia for centuries longer, but by 1600CE, it had become nothing more than curiosities among scholars and antiquarians[28; 38; 41; 54].
1.1.1 The runic alphabet as an Old Germanicwriting tradition
According to David Crystal what rune (OE run) means is debatable.There is a long standing tradition which attributes to it such senses as‘whisper’, ‘mystery’, ‘secret’, suggesting that the symbols were originallyused to magical or mystery rituals. Such associations were certainly present inthe way the pagan Vikings (and possibly continental Germans) used tocorresponding word, but there is no evidence that they were present in OldEnglish. Current research suggests that the word run had been thoroughlyassimilated in to Anglos-Saxon Christianity, and meant simply ‘sharing ofknowledge and thoughts’. Any extension to the word of magic and superstitionsis not part of the native tradition. Modern English word rune is not even asurvival of the Old English word, but a later borrowing from Norse via Latin[28].
For the modern, magical sense of rune the English language istherefore indebted to the Scandinavian and not Anglo-Saxon tradition. In thissense which surfaced in the 19th century in a variety of esoteric publications,and which lives on the popular and fantastic imagination of the 20th century,perhaps most famously in the writing of John Ronald Tolkien.
There are less than thirty clear inscriptions in Old English, somecontaining only a single name .The two most famous examples both date from the8th century, and present the Northumbrian dialect [20; 28; 38].
One of them is an inscription on a box called the “Franks Casket”.It was discovered in the early years of the 19th in France, and was presentedto the British Museum by British archeologist, A.W Franks. The casket is asmall box made of whale bone; the four sides are carved: there are pictures inthe center and runic inscriptions around. The longest among them, inalliterative verse, tells the story of the whale bone, of which the Casket wasmade.
The Ruthwell Cross is a fifteen- feet tall cross inscribed andornamented on all sides. The principal inscription has been reconstructed intoa passage from an Old English poem, the dream of the Rood, which was also foundin another version in a later manuscript.
Many runic inscriptions have been preserved on weapons, coins,amulets, tombstones, rings, various cross fragments [20; 28; 38; 41; 54].
1.1.2 Old English literature in theperiod of Anglo-Saxon ethnic extension
It is often postulated that there is a dark age between thearrival of the Anglo — Saxons and the first arrival of Old English manuscripts.A few scattered inscriptions in the language date from the 5th and 6thcenturies, written in the runic alphabet which the invaders brought with them,but these give very little information about what the language was like. Theliterary age began only after the arrival of the Roman missionaries, led byAugustine, who came there to Kent in 597 AD. Because of the increasingly literaryclimate Оld Englishmanuscripts also began to be written much earlier, indeed, that the earliestvernacular texts from other north European countries. The first texts datingfrom around 700, are glossaries of Latin words translated into English, and afew early inscriptions and poems. But very little material remains from thisperiod. Doubtless many manuscripts were burnt during the 8th century Vikingsinvasion. There are a number of short poems, again almost entirely preserved inthe late manuscripts, over half of them concerned with Christian subjects–legends of the saints, extracts from the Bible, and devotional pieces. Severalothers reflect the Germanic tradition, dealing with such topics as war,travelling, patriotism, and celebration. Most extant Old English texts werewritten in the period following the reign of King Alfred, who arranged for manyLatin works to be translated including Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. But thetotal corpus is extremely small and makes about 3, 5 million – the equivalentof about 30 medium-sized modern novels. Only five per cent of this total ispoetry [14; 16; 24; 28; 39; 41].
The Anglo-Saxon ethno-social system began forming as a result ofBritish invasion at the end of the 6th century.
This brought about some considerable changes in the socialstructure of the Anglo-Saxon society. To get a better understanding of theAnglo-Saxon society it is worth considering the Old-English words of status.The key-words are given below in order of precedence:
cyning ‘chief’, laterthe founder the royal dynasty
ealdorman ‘sub-king’,a kind of hereditary aristocracy; later replaced by the
term eorl
þegn ‘warrior’
čeorl ‘a free man’, ‘farmer’
þeow ‘a slave’, ‘servant’
The given structure provided an effective functioning ofconsiderably tough ethno-social system needed for the Anglo-Saxons during theperiod of their ethnic extension when the former tribal organization of thesociety did not meet the stereotypes evoked by military orientation of theethnic dominant at that time. As a result, there emerged a peculiar class ofprofessional warriors who swore to their lords in exchange for lands and giftsseized in the military campaigns. The kings and noble people belonged to theruling upper circles, whereas professional soldiers – took an interim niche inthe social hierarchy standing between noble and common people [2; 13; 15; 41].
I.V. Shaposhnikova points out that a þegn was a personalservant who was one degree higher in the ranks of freeman than a čeorl. Asservants of the King the status of þegn gradually rose, until they formedthe elected nobility of the Kingdom [41].
The analysis of early Old English written records allows singlingout two distinct imperatives throughout the period of the Anglo-Saxon ethnicextension. On the one hand it was militancy, the orientation to the persecutionof the war and submission of the person’s concerns to this imperative and onthe other hand there existed an archetypal fear to be reduced to the status ofsocial outcast, a person deprived of any kind of rights. The cowards were mostcommonly threatened with exile. This was the severest punishment for their‘inglorious act’ to live a shameful life in exile. In the time of instabilityand violence the fear of being reduced to the position of an exile was sostrong that it became one of the prevailing motives in the early Anglo-Saxonliterature.
Whereas warfare for the sake of wealth provided the motive powerthat moulded ethnic stereotypes thus organizing the passionateness of the earlyAnglo-Saxons in the period of their ethnic extension. The same warfare motiveunderlay the ethnics justifying the prevailing stereotypes. This epoch of greatdeeds and brave heroes is known in literature as the Heroic Age. The folk epicBeowulf is considered to represent the most telling evidence of the outlook andtemper of the Germanic mind [7; 19; 39; 41].
The epic Beowulf is of about three thousand lines. This poem seemsto have originated on the Continent, but when and where are not now to beknown. It may have been carried to England in the form of ballads by theAnglo-Saxons; or it may be Scandinavian material, later brought in by Danish orNorwegian pirates. At any rate it seems to have taken on its present form inEngland during the seventh and eighth centuries. It relates how the heroBeowulf, coming over the sea to the relief of King Hrothgar, delivers him froma monster, Grendel, and then from the vengeance of Grendel’s only lessformidable mother. Returned home in triumph, Beowulf much later receives thedue reward of his valor by being made king of his own tribe, and meets hisdeath while killing a fire-breathing dragon which has become a scourge to hispeople. As he appears in the poem, Beowulf is an idealized Anglo-Saxon hero,but in origin he may have been any one of several other different things.Perhaps he was the old Germanic god Beowa, and his exploits originallyallegories, like some of those in the Greek mythology, of his services to man;he may, for instance, first have been the sun, driving away the mists and coldof winter and of the swamps, hostile forces personified in Grendel and hismother. Or, Beowulf may really have been a great human fighter who actuallykilled some especially formidable wild beasts, and whose superhuman strength inthe poem results, through the similarity of names, from his being confused withBeowa. This is the more likely because there is in the poem a slight trace ofauthentic history. Beowulf presents an interesting though very incompletepicture of the life of the upper, warrior, caste among the northern Germanictribes during their later period of barbarism on the Continent and in England,a life more highly developed than that of the Anglo-Saxons before theirconquest of the island.
Outside of Beowulf and a few fragments, the recording ofAnglo-Saxon heroic story begins with a 9th century entry in The Anglo-SaxonChronicle for the year 755 (actually 757). To this can be added a few of theannals devoted to the combats of King Alfred’s son and grandsons in the tenthcentury. While not a Chronicle poem, The Battle of Maldon has a place in thisrange, if only as an inspired response to what otherwise the Chronicle (in theCanterbury and Peterborough manuscripts) records for 991 as ealdorman Byrthnoth’sdeath in battle at Maldon. Typically, guides, translations and readersintroducing students to Old English texts highlight three of the stories fromthis range of years: the story of West Saxon feud are called Cynewulf andCyneheard (chronicle entry 755), The Battle of Brunanburh, (entry for 937), andThe Battle of Maldon (sometime after 991). Traditionally, and here allintroductions in Old English readers follow suit, these narratives are seen asenshrining, in some literary intensified way, heroic values reflecting theirancient, Germanic roots.
Hence, the literature of the Old English period was not notablefor its diversity of literature genres. The leading place was taken by heroicromances and religious writings. Obviously, heroes of the old times had no timeto think of love as in ancient epic romances love did not play any importantrole. However, the situation considerably changed in the subsequent period [6;8; 17; 28; 54].
1.2 Linguistic situation in MedievalEngland
1.2.1 Linguistic situation in Englandafter the Norman Conquest
It hardly can be argued that the Norman Conquest was not only agreat event in British political history but also the greatest single event inthe history of the English language. Its earliest effect was a drastic changein the linguistic situation.
The Norman Conquerors of England had originally come from Scandinavia.About one hundred and fifty years before they seized the valley of the Scineand settled in what was known as Normandy. They were swiftly assimilated by theFrench and in the 11th century came to Britain as French speakers and bearersof French culture. They spoke the Northern dialect of French, which differed insome points from Central, Parisian French. Their tongue in Britain is oftenreferred to as ‘Anglo-French’ or ‘Anglo-Norman’, but may just as well be calledFrench, since we are less concerned here with the distinction of Frenchdialects than with the continuous French influence upon English, both in theNorman period of history and a long while after the Anglo-Norman language hadceased to exist.
In the early 13th century, as a result of lengthy and inefficientwars with France King John Lackland lost the French provinces, including thedukedom of Normandy. Among other consequences the loss of the lands in Francecut off the Normans in Britain from France, which speeded up the decline of theAnglo-French language.
The most immediate consequence of the Norman domination in Britainis to be seen in the wide use of the French language in many spheres of life.For almost three hundred years French was the official language of administration:it was the language of the king’s court, the law courts, the church, the armyand the castle. It was also everyday language of many nobles, of the higherclergy and of many townspeople in the South. The intellectual life, literatureand education were in the hands of French-speaking people; French, alongsideLatin, was the language of writing. Teaching was largely conducted in Frenchand boys at school were taught to translate their Latin into French instead ofEnglish [20; 28; 38].
As A. Baugh states, England never stopped being anEnglish-speaking country. The bulk of the population held fast to their owntongue: the lower classes in the towns, and especially in the country-side,those who lived in the Midlands and up north, continued to speak English andlooked upon French as foreign and hostile. Since most of the people wereilliterate, the English language was almost exclusively used for spokencommunication.
At first the two languages existed side by side without mingling.Then, slowly and quickly, they began to permeate each other. The Norman baronsand the French town-dwellers had to pick up English words to make themselvesunderstood while the English began to use French words in current speech. Agood knowledge of French would mark a person of higher standing giving him acertain social prestige probably many people become bilingual and had a faircommand of both languages [20].
Undoubtedly, these peculiar linguistic conditions could not remainstatic. The struggle between French and English was bound to end in thecomplete victory of English, for English was the living language of the entirepeople, while French was restricted to certain social spheres and to writing.Yet the final victory was still a long way off. In the 13th century only a fewsteps were made in that direction. The earliest sign of the official recognitionof English by the Norman hinges was the famous Proclamation issued by Henry IIIin 1258 to the councilors in Parliament. It was written in three languages:French, Latin and English.
The three hundred years of the domination of French affected Englishmore than any other foreign influence before or after. The early Frenchborrowings reflect accurately the spheres of Norman influence upon Englishlife; later borrowings can be attributed to the continued cultural, economicand political contacts between the countries. The French influence added newfeatures to the regional and social differentiation of the language. New words,coming from French, could not be adopted simultaneously by all the speakers ofEnglish; they were first used in some varieties of the language, namely in theregional dialects of Southern England and in the speech if the upper classes,but were unknown in the other varieties of the language [4; 17; 18; 20].
1.2.2 Dialectal diversity of the MiddleEnglish
Apparently, in the Middle English period the language differedalmost from county to county, and noticeable variations are sometimesobservable between different parts of the same county. The featurescharacteristic of a given dialect do not all cover the same territory; someextend into adjoining districts or may be characteristic also of anotherdialect. Consequently it is rather difficult to decide how many dialectaldivisions should be recognized and to mark off with any exactness their respectiveboundaries. In a rough way, however, it is customary to distinguish fourprincipal dialects of Middle English: Northern, East Midland, West Midland, andSouthern. Generally speaking, the Northern dialect extends as far south as theHumber; East Midland and West Midland together cover the area between theHumber and the Thames; and Southern occupies the district south of the Thames,together with Gloucestershire and parts of the counties of Worcester andHereford, thus taking in the West Saxon and Kentish districts of Old English.Throughout the Middle English period and later, Kentish preserves individualfeatures marking it off as a distinct variety of Southern English (for countiessee APPENDIX 1, p.67) [17; 20; 24].
Middle English Dialects are partly matters of pronunciation,partly of vocabulary, partly of inflection. A few illustrations will give someidea of the nature and extent of the differences. The feature most easilyrecognized is the ending of the plural, present indicative, of verbs. In OldEnglish this form always ended in th with some variation of the precedingvowel. In Middle English this ending was preserved as eth in the Southerndialect. In the Midland district, however, it was replaced by en, probablytaken over from the corresponding forms of the subjunctive or from preterit-presentverbs and the verb to be while in the north it was altered to es, an endingthat makes its appearance in Old English times. Thus we have loves in thenorth, loven in the Midlands, and loveth in the south. Another fairlydistinctive form is the present participle before the spread of the ending-ing. In the north we have lovande, in the Midlands lovende, and in the southlovinde. In later Middle English the ending ing appears in the Midlands and thesouth, thus obscuring the dialectal distinction. Dialectal differences are morenoticeable between Northern and Southern; the Midland dialect often occupies anintermediate position, tending toward the one or the other in those districtslying nearer to the adjacent dialects. Thus the characteristic forms of thepronoun they in the south were hi, here (hire, hure), hem, while in the northforms with th modern they, their, them early became predominant. In matters ofpronunciation the Northern and Southern dialects sometimes presented notabledifferences. Thus OE ā, was retained in the north, giving suchcharacteristic forms as Southern stone and home, beside stane and hame inScotland today. Initial f and s were often voiced in the south to v and z. InSouthern Middle English we find vor, vrom, vox, vorzoþe instead of for,from, fox, forsope ‘forsooth’. This dialectal difference is preserved in ModernEnglish fox and vixen, where the former represents the Northern and Midlandpronunciation and the latter the Southern. Similarly ch in the south often correspondsto k in the north: bench beside benk, church beside kirk. Such a variety fortunatelywas lessened toward the end of the Middle English period by a general adoptionof a Standard written (and later spoken) English [10; 20; 45].
1.3 The Middle English corpus
It is commonly accepted that the Middle English period has a muchricher documentation than is found in Old English. This is partly a result ofthe post-conquest political situation. The newly centralized monarchycommissioned national and local surveys, beginning with the Domesday Book andthere is a marked increase in the number of public and private documents –mandates, charters, contracts, tax-rolls, and other administrative or judicialpapers. However, the early material is of limited value to those interested inthe linguistic history of English because it is largely written in Latin orFrench, and the only relevant data which can be extracted relate to English andpersonal names. Most religious publication falls into the same category, withLatin maintaining its presence throughout the period as the official languageof the Church [7; 28; 40]
A major difference from Оld English is the absence of a continuing tradition of historicalwriting in the native language, as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – a functionwhich Latin supplanted, and which was not revived until the 15th century.
Material in English appears as a trickle in the 13th century, butwithin 150 years it has become a flood. In the early period, we can see a greatdeal of religious prose writing, in the form of homilies, tracts, lives of theSaints, and the other aids to devotion and meditation. Sometimes a text waswritten with a specific readership in mind; the Ancrene Rewle ‘AnchoritesGuide’, for example, was compiled by a spiritual director for three noblewomenwho had abandoned the world to live as anchoresses. During the 14th century,there is a marked increase in the number of translated writings from French andLatin, and of the texts for teaching these languages. Guild records, proclaims,proverbs, dialogues, allegories, and the letters illustrate the diverse rangeof new styles and genres. Towards the end of the century, the translations ofthe Bible inspired by John Wycliff appear amid considerable controversy, andthe associated movement produces many manuscripts. Finally, in the 1430es,there is a vast output in English from the office of the London Chanceryscribes, which strongly influenced the development of the standard writtenlanguage [28; 44; 49].
Poetry presents a puzzle. The Anglo-Saxon poetic traditionapparently dies out in the 11th century, to reappear patchily in the 13th. Alengthy poetic history of Britain is known as Lagamon’s Brut as we havementioned above, one of the earliest to survive from Middle English, and in the14th century come the important texts of Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight. What is surprising in that the alliterative Old English style isstill present in all these works, despite an apparent break in poeticcontinuity of at least a hundred years. The conundrum has generated muchdiscussion. Perhaps the alliterative technique was retained though prose:several Middle English prose texts are strongly alliterative, and it issometimes difficult to tell from a manuscript which genre (poetry or prose) apiece belongs to, because the line divisions are not shown. Perhaps the OldEnglish style survived through the medium of oral transmission. Or perhaps itis simply that most poetic manuscripts have been lost. Middle English poetrywas inevitably much influenced by French literary traditions, both in contentand style. One of the earliest examples is the 13th century verse-contest knownas The Owl and the Nightingale. Later works include romances in the French style,secular lyrics, bestiaries, biblical poetry, Christian legends, hymns, prayersand elegies [28; 35; 50].
The mystical dream vision popular in Italy and France, is wellillustrated by the poem modern editors have called Pearl, in which the writerrecalls the death of his two-year- old daughter, who then acts as his spiritualcomforter. Drama also begins to make its presence felt, in the form ofdialogues, pageants, and the famous cycles of mystery plays. Much of the MiddleEnglish literature is of unknown authorship, but the end of the period thissituation has changed. Among the prominent names which emerge in the latterpart of the 14th century are John Gower, William Langland, and some time laterJohn Lydgate, Thomas Malory, William Caxton, and the poets who are collectivelyknown as Chaucerians.
Rather than a somewhat random collection of interesting texts,there is now a major body of literature, in the modern sense. It is this whichprovides the final part of the bridge between Middle and Early Modern English.
The flourishing of literature, which marks the seconds half of the14th century, apart from its cultural significance, testifies, to the completereestablishment of English as the language of writing. Some authors wrote intheir local dialect from outside London, but most of them used the Londondialect or forms of the language combining London and provincial traits.Towards the end of the century the London dialect had become the principal typeof language used in literature a sort of literary pattern to be imitated byprovincial authors.
The literary text of the late 14th century preserved in numerousmanuscripts, belong to a variety of genres. Translation continued, but originalcompositions were produced in abundance; poetry was more prolific than prose.This period of literary florescence is known as the “age of Chaucer”; thegreatest name in English literature before William. Shakespeare other writersare referred to as “Chaucer’s contemporaries” [6; 11; 7; 28; 39].
1.3.1 Geoffrey Chaucer and his lendingsupport of the London Standard’s diffusion
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) was by far the most outstandingfigure of the time. A hundred years later William Caxton, the first Englishprinter, called him the worshipful father and first founder and embellisher ofornate eloquence in our language. In many books on the history of Englishliterature and the history of English Chaucer is described as the founder ofthe literary language.
His early works more of less imitative of other authors – Latin, French orItalian – though they bear abundant evidence of his skill. He never wrote inany other language than English [28; 38].
However, it is not quite correct to consider his language as abasis for Standard English. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in a dialect which in themain coincided with that used in documents produced in London shortly beforehis time and for a long time after. Although he did not really create theliterary language, as a poet of outstanding talent he made better use of it thancontemporaries and set up two patterns to be followed in the 15th century. Hispoems were copied so many times that over sixty manuscripts of The CanterburyTales have survived to this day. His books were among the first to be printed,a hundred years after their composition.
According to D. Crystal Chaucer’s literary language, based on themixed (largely East Midland) London dialect is known as classical Middle English.In the 15th and 16th centuries it became the basis of the national literaryEnglish language.
The 15th century could produce nothing worthy to rank with GeoffreyChaucer. The two prominent poets, Thomas Hoccleve and John Lydgate, werechiefly translators and imitators. The style of Chaucer’s successors isbelieved to have drawn farther away from everyday speech; it was highlyaffected in character, abounding in abstract words and strongly influenced byLatin rhetoric, it is also termed aureate language) [28].
The importance of Geoffrey Chaucer’s work to any history of the languagecan be affirmed with some conviction. It is partly matter of a quantity – onecomplete edition prints over 43, 000 of a poetry, as well as two of a majorprose works – but more crucial is the breadth and variety of his language,which ranges from the polished complexity of high flown rhetoric to the naturalsimplicity of domestic chat. No previous author has shown such a range, andChaucer’s writing – in addition to its merits – is thus unique in the evidenceit has provided about the state of medieval grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
Chaucer’s best-known work, The Canterbury Tales, is not of coursea guide to the spoken language of the time; it is a variety of the writtenlanguage which has been carefully crafted. It uses a regular metrical structureand rhyme scheme –itself a departure from the free rhythms and the alliterationof much earlier poetry. It contains many variations in word order, dictated bythe demands of the prosody. There are also frequent literary allusions andturns of a phrase which make the text difficult to follow. What has impressedreaders so much is that, despite the constraints, Geoffrey Chaucer has managedto capture vividly the intriguing characters of the speakers, and to reflectnaturally the colloquial features of their speech. In no other author, is therebetter support for the view that there is an underlying correspondence betweenthe natural rhythm of English poetry and that of English everyday conversation[21; 23; 26; 28; 40].
1.3.2 The role of the printing in theformation of the Standard English language
The creation of printing was, undoubtedly, one of the greatestinventions. It eased the writing process as the whole, and it also had a greatdeal of influence over language.
Linguists claim that one of the most important things printingbrought was a development of a standard language of symbols and codes that weuse today [27; 28; 34].
Printing which was introduced into England by William Caxton in1476, helped to increase the spread of knowledge and literacy level among theBritish public as more and more people had better access to reading materials.Over the centuries, as more English texts were printed, such as novels,dictionaries, the Bible and other documents, the English language graduallygained popularity and established itself as the national language of England.Apart from the advent of printing, political, social and economic factors alsocontributed to the development of English as a national language.
Through printing Caxton played a very significant and instrumentalrole in establishing English as the national language of England. By adoptingthe dialect of London and the South-East as the English for his books, Caxtontook a decisive step forward in establishing that particular variety as theEnglish language. William Caxton as the first printer in England was highlyresponsible for imposing some form of uniformity to the English language simplyby default. His choice of the dialect of the southeast Midlands has given usthe present form of Standard English [34; 37; 46].
William Caxton was born in Kent, England and was accepted as anapprentice in London in 1438. This was not a regular apprenticeship. Accordingto N. F. Blake, Robert Large was an important and influential merchant. Caxtonhad thus become apprentice to one of the more important men in the city. Hebecame part of what was certainly a flourishing business, which would haveprovided him with useful contacts and future trading partners. Seven yearslater, in 1445, he moved to Bruges, Belgium as a mercer to take part in thetrade there of the Merchant Adventurers of whom the London Mercers where prominentmembers. Many Englishmen were attracted to Bruges due to its production of finecloths, which also made other textiles of import. The move to Bruges wasimportant in the scheme of Caxton’s shift to printing. As the years progressed,so did his skills as a mercer and his career. He eventually became an importantfigure among his colleagues, which would again benefit him in the future withprinting. In this period Caxton learned how to finance projects and he acquiredconsiderable wealth. Both were necessary for the successful completion of hisventure into printing [23].
With the trouble that ensued with the government, William Caxtonbegan to look elsewhere for merchandise to sell. English mercers where notallowed to sell fine cloths for a while and it is assumed that Caxtonsupplemented his sales with manuscripts. He worked closely with many of thenoble who were the only ones that could afford such luxuries as readingmaterials. Through his handling of manuscripts and even books, he gained aninterest in literature [23; 28].
His first effort with literature was not in printing, but intranslating. He knew enough Dutch, Flemish, French and Latin to translate booksinto English. This was unheard of before; English was not a scholarly languagelike French or Latin, but one used only by the common folk. The first book tobe translated by him was the Latin book History of Troy (1475), that had beentranslated into French. However, he had such a difficult time in translatingthat he would almost given up on the notion. He had begun translating in 1469and then given it up. The reason, according to Caxton, was his incompetence asa translator and his lack of command of English. It is not a convincing one,for in the centre of the European book trade he could probably have foundsomeone else to do it for him if he had just wanted a translation. He evidentlywanted to make the translation himself and was prevented from completing it fortwo years [23; 26].
Many of the translators in Caxton’s day stated that they attemptedto stay as close to the original text as possible, even though this was more ofa selling point for their work than reality. Caxton made the same claims, probablyout of obligation. How would it look if everyone were doing it except him? Hisnumber one priority was not accuracy of translation, but ensuring that therewas always something on the press. Because he owned it, it was up to him howmany books he had available for printing and if nothing was printing, he wasn’tmaking money. To keep the presses working may have appeared more important thana finely wrought phrase [23].
In his closing remarks on the subject of Caxton as a translator, HenryBlake says, that in general he can hardly be distinguished from the host oftranslators who crowd the 15th century scene, except perhaps in the sheerquantity of his output. Of the 106 works printed by or attributed to Caxton, hetranslated at least twenty-five. It is hardly surprising that he did not alwayshave time to polish his version for the press [23].
Caxton eventually resigned as the Governor within the MerchantAdventurers, a post he held for several years, so he could travel to Cologne,Germany. He lived there from 1471 – 1472, a total of eighteen months. It is assumed that his intention in traveling there was to learn how to be a printer sohe could print his own book, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, translatedfrom French. Cologne, with a press dating from about 1465, was the town nearestto Bruges which had a press at that time, and Caxton had little choice where togo [18]. It had become the capital of the Low Countries because of itsuniversity, which attracted a lot of scholars and students; an importantarchbishopric; and strong trade, especially with English tradesmen.
An interesting aspect to the printing world is the fact that therewas an immediate division of labor within the profession. There were theskilled craftsmen who actually did the work on the presses and then there werethe tradesmen that already had connections to sell the books who wereconsidered the publishers and entrepreneurs. Paper was the most expensiveinvestment that had to be available upfront, before any books were sold, and itwas the tradesmen who had the money readily available for purchasing. SurelyCaxton learned how to print, for it was his responsibility to teach hisassistants once he returned to Bruges and set up shop as a printer. Blakeexplains it thus: “Normally he would not have interfered in the actual printingoperations, and it is not right to think of Caxton as a printer. He was thepublisher and entrepreneur. He provided the capital, chose the books anddistributed them, leaving the printing to others” [23:59].
Once he returned to Bruges, Caxton used the patronage of Margaretof Burgundy to help him publish his book. The first book he printed, and thefirst book to appear in English, was his own translation of the History of Troyin 1475. Before returning to England to set up a printing press there, Caxtonprinted six or seven other volumes while in Bruges. Two were in English, theone already mentioned and Game of Chess, and four were in French. The seventhpamphlet is attributed to him but has not been confirmed to be his work [18].Caxton finally returned to England to set up his own printing press in 1476.Since Caxton settled in Westminster instead of his hometown of London, it wassupposed that the relations between the scribes and the printers were at odds.It was thought that perhaps the scribes felt threatened by this new device thatwould ultimately outdate them, stealing all of their work. However, this hasnever been proved and, in fact, there are several accounts of printers workingclosely with the scribes. As an example, the first known item to be printed inEngland is an indulgence which must be dated prior to 13 December 1476, since thatdate has been entered by hand in the surviving copy. It is printed in Caxton’stype 2 with six letters in his type 3 [23; 26]. Obviously he was working withthe abbots, who were also scribes, in the production of indulgences.
Caxton could not have ever hoped to have the entire publishingmarket of England in his hands for the rest of his life. And accordingly,rivals began to arrive, setting up their own print shops. The first few were noreal threat to the well-known Caxton; however, by 1480, a real competitor entered the stage. John Lettou, a native of Lithuania, moved into London andactually had better books than Caxton. It at once became evident that the newprinter had learnt his art under a much better master than Caxton had [37].This became a wake-up call to William Caxton, letting him know that he neededto begin fixing some of the problems with his own printing so as not to losethe business entirely and this he did.
At the time of Caxton’s translations, English was a language thatwas still new. It had begun to change from the Old English to a more modernEnglish but different ways of spelling and pronunciation abounded. This wasbound to make any printer go insane. It is said the English vernacular was onlyjust beginning to develop a prose form, and Caxton coped with the problem ofmeager vocabulary and wide variations in the spelling of even the simplestEnglish words .As an example, the word little can be spelled several ways inCaxton’s texts. Two variants are litil and lytel. At this very period, theEnglish language was still passing from its mediaeval pronunciation into thatstate with which we are familiar today, and it was precisely then that thepress began to crystallize the orthography of a language still in flux.Gradually, the spelling tended to become fixed, while the pronunciationcontinued to evolve [23; 26].
Caxton knew of these difficulties personally and recognized theneed for a remedy. Through his efforts as a printer and publisher, things beganto slowly change. [26]. An interesting side note about this event in Englishhistory is the current spellings and pronunciations found in the languagetoday. Because the written word began to take a more permanent form while the spokenword had not, many variants developed on how to pronounce the same word. Forthis reason, we see many differences in the pronunciation of British Englishand American English. Even within England there are dialects with differencesin word pronunciation. This all developed due to the solidifying of the writtenand spoken language at different times [26; 37].
The standardization of the English language or any language is anissue which linguists always have to grapple with. Printing had brought into focusproblems regarding the variations in the English language, which Caxton hadobserved, such as:
· Should he use foreign wordsin his translations or replace them with native English words?
· Which variety of Englishshould he follow, given the existence of major regional differences?
· Which literary style shouldbe used as a model?
· How the language should bespelled and punctuated, given the scribal variations of the previous centuries?
· In publishing native writers,should he change their language to make it is more widely understood?
Nevertheless, printing provides a way to reduce these variationsin the language. As Caxton himself showed, publishers would set their ownsystem of spelling and somewhat codify the language [28].
Hence, theintroduction of the printing by William Caxton gave an unprecedented impetus tothe formation of a standard language and the study of its properties. Apartfrom its role in fostering norms of spelling and punctuation, the availabilityof printing provided more opportunities for people to write, and gave theirworks much wider circulation. As a result, more texts of the period havesurvived. Within the following 150 years, it is estimated that nearly 20,000books appeared. The story of English thus becomes more definite in the 16thcentury, with more evidence available about the way the language wasdeveloping, both in the texts themselves, and in a growing number ofobservations dealing with such areas as grammar, vocabulary, writing system,and style. In that century, scholars seriously got down to talking abouttheir language [20; 23; 26; 28; 34; 38; 45].
1.3.3 Principal Middle English writtenrecords as a reflection of ongoing changes in Standard
The literature written in England during the Middle English periodreflects fairly accurately the changes fortunes of English. During the timethat French was the language best understood by the upper classes, the booksthey read or listened to were French. The rewards of patronage were seldom tobe expected by those who wrote in English; with them we must look for otherincentives for writing. Such incentives were most often found among members ofthe religious body, interested in promoting right living and in the care ofsouls. Accordingly, the literature in English that has come down to us fromthis period is almost exclusively religious or admonitory.
The Ancrene Riwle, the Ormulum, a series of paraphrases andinterpretations of Gospel passages, and a group of saint’s lives and shorthomiletic pieces showing the survival of an Old English literary tradition inthe south-west are the principal works of this class. The two outstandingexceptions are Lagamon’s Brut based largely on Wace, and the astonishing debatebetween The Owl and the Nightingale, a long poem in which two birds exchangerecriminations in the liveliest fashion.
There was certainly a body of popular literature that circulatedorally among the people, just as at a later date in the English and Scottishpopular ballads did, but such literature has left slight traces in this period.The hundred years from 1150 to 1250 have been justly called the Period ofreligious Record [28].
The separation of the English nobility from France by about 1250and the spread of English among the upper class are manifested in the nexthundred years of English literature. Types of polite literature that hadhitherto appeared in French now appear in English. Of these types most popularwas the romance. Only one English romance exists from an earlier date than1250, but from this time translations and adaptations from French begin to bemade, and in the course of the 14th century their number become quite large.The period of 1250 – 1350 is a period of Religious and secular literature ofthe English language. The generaladoption of English by all classes, which had taken place by the latter half ofthe 14th century, gave rise to a body of literature that represents the highpoint in English literary achievement in the Middle Ages.
The 15th century is sometimes known as the Imitative Periodbecause so much of the poetry then written was written in emulation of Chaucer.It is also spoken of as a Transition Period, because it covers a large part of the interval between the age ofChaucer and the age of Shakespeare. That period has been unjustly neglected. StephenHawes is not negligible, though admittedly overshadowed by some of his greatpredecessors, and at the end of the century there appeared the prose of Thomas Maloryand William Caxton. In the north the Scottish Chaucerians, particularly Robert Henryson,William Dunbar, Gawin Douglas and David Lindsay, produced significant work.These authors carry on the tradition of English as a literary medium into theRenaissance. Thus, Middle English literature follows and throws interestinglight on the fortunes of the English language [20; 24; 28; 54].
The runic writing system is a set of related alphabets usingletters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoptionof the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. The Scandinavianvariants are also known as futhark.
The literature of the Old English period was presented by two maintenors epic and religious. Among the most important works of this period wasthe poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in England. The Anglo-SaxonChronicle otherwise proves significant to the study of the era, preserving achronology of early English history, while the poem Cædmon’s Hymn fromthe 7th century survives as the oldest extant work of literature in English.
The effects of the Norman Conquest added new features to theregional and social differentiation of the language. New words, coming fromFrench, could not be adopted simultaneously by all the speakers of English;they were first used in some varieties of the language.
The dialectal position of Middle English is basically acontinuation of that of Old English. The most important extra linguistic factfor the development of the Middle English dialects is that the capital of thecountry was moved from Winchester (in the Old English period) to London byWilliam the Conqueror in his attempt to diminish the political influence ofnative English.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s literary standing had greatly added to theprestige associated with written language in the London dialect.
The introduction of the printing by William Caxton was one of themost significant factors of the Standard English diffusion. This resulted inthe spread of a single norm over most of the country, so much that during the15th century it becomes increasingly difficult to determine on internallinguistic grounds the dialects in which a literal work is written.
CHAPTER 2. CHANGING CONDITIONS IN THEPERIOD OF STANDARDISATION OF THE LANGUAGE
2.1 The origins of Standard English
The variety which we now call Standard English is a result ofcombination of influences, the most important of which do not emerge until theMiddle English period. There is no connection between West Saxon, the writtenstandard of old English, and the modern Standard.
The political heart of the country moved from Winchester to Londonafter the Conquest, and majority of the linguistic trends increasingly relateto the development of the capital as a social, political and commercial centre.A written standard language began to emerge during the 15th century and,following the detailed study of the dialectal characteristics of the period itis now possible to isolate several factors which contributed to its identity.
A literally standardized language appeared in the last part of the14th century, based on dialects of the Central Midland countries, especiallyNorthunptonshire, Hutingtonshire, and Bedfordshire. This is chiefly found inthe large number of John Wycliffe’s manuscripts which have survived includingsermons, tracts, plays, poems, and the different versions of the WycliffeBible, as well as several secular works. The Lollards spread this varietywidely, even into South-West England, thus increasing its status as standard.In the long term it was unable to compete with quantity of material emanatingfrom the capital; but its central Midland origins are nonetheless noteworthy(for the map of Middle English counties, see Appendix 1, p. 67) [27; 28; 53].
2.1.1 The Rise of Standard English
Out of the variety of local dialects there emerged toward the endof the 14th century a written language that in the course of the 15th centurywon general recognition and has since become the recognized standard in bothspeech and writing. The part of England that contributed most to the formationof this standard was the
East Midland district, and it was the East Midland type of Englishthat became its basis, particularly the dialect of the metropolis, London.Several causes contributed to the attainment of this result.
In the first place, as a Midland dialect the English of thisregion occupied a middle position between the extreme divergences of the northand south. It was less conservative than the Southern dialect, less radicalthan the Northern. In its sounds and inflections it represents a kind ofcompromise, sharing some of the characteristics of both its neighbors [20].
In the second place, the East Midland district was the largest andmost populous of the major dialect areas. The land was more valuable than thehilly country to the north and west, and in an agricultural age this advantagewas reflected in both the number and the prosperity of the inhabitants. If weleave Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk out of account we are to allappearances leaving out of account not much less than a quarter of the wholenation. No doubt all inferences drawn from medieval statistics are exceedinglyprecarious; but, unless a good many figures have conspired to deceive us,Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were at the time of the Conquest and forthree centuries afterwards vastly richer and more populous than any tract ofequal area in the West. Only the southern counties possessed natural advantagesat all comparable, and they were much smaller. The prominence of Middlesex,Oxford, Norfolk, and the East Midlands generally in political affairs allthrough the later Middle Ages is but another evidence of the importance of thedistrict and of the extent to which its influence was likely to be felt [20;27; 53].
A third factor, more difficult to evaluate, was the presence ofthe universities, Oxford and Cambridge, in this region. In the 14th century themonasteries were playing a less important role in the dissemination of learningthan they had once played, while the two universities had developed intoimportant intellectual centers. So far as Cambridge is concerned any influencethat it had would be exerted in support of the East Midland dialect. That ofOxford is less certain because Oxfordshire is on the border between Midland andSouthern and its dialect shows certain characteristic Southern features.Moreover, we can no longer attribute to Wycliffe an important part in the establishmentof a written standard. Though he spent much of his life at Oxford, he seems notto have conformed fully to the Oxford dialect. Supposedly, the dialect ofOxford had no apparent influence on the form of London English, which wasultimately adopted as standard. Such support as the East Midland type ofEnglish received from the universities must have been largely confined to thatfurnished by Cambridge.
Much the same uncertainty attaches to the influence of Chaucer. Itwas once thought that Chaucer's importance was paramount among the influencesbringing about the adoption of a written standard. And, indeed, it isunbelievable that the language of the greatest English poet before Shakespearewas not spread by the popularity of his works and, through the use of thatlanguage, by subsequent poets who looked upon him as their master and model.But it is nevertheless unlikely that the English used in official records andin letters and papers by men of affairs was greatly influenced by the languageof his poetry. Yet it is the language found in such documents rather than thelanguage of Chaucer that is at the basis of Standard English. Chaucer’s dialectis not in all respects the same as the language of these documents, presumablyidentical with the ordinary speech of the city. It is slightly moreconservative and shows a greater number of Southern characteristics. Chaucerwas a court poet, and his usage may reflect the speech of the court and to acertain extent literary tradition. His influence must be thought of as lendingsupport in a general way to the dialect of the region to which he belongedrather than as determining.
A later and much larger group of diverse manuscripts include thework of Chaucer and Langland. These texts in their different ways representLondon English of around 1400, but the amount of variation of their displayssuggests that they cannot be called standard, in any strict sense. Not evenChaucer’s writing traditionally thought to be a precursor of modern StandardEnglish, exercised a specific influence on the form this standard took – nor itis likely that poetic usage would ever influence general usage in any real way.It can be hardly doubted though that Chaucer’s literary standing would havegreatly added to the prestige associated with written language in the Londondialect.
The final factor in the emergence of the southern literarystandard was the development of printing. This resulted in the spread of asingle norm over most of the country, so much that during the 15th century itbecomes increasingly difficult to determine on internal linguistic grounds thedialects, in which a literal work is written- apart from the northern dialects,such as Scots, which retained their written identity longer [20; 27; 28; 53].
2.1.2 The importance of London English
By far the most influential factor in the rise of Standard Englishwas the importance of London as the capital of England. Indeed, it isaltogether likely that the language of the city would have become theprevailing dialect without the help of any of the factors previously discussed.In doing so it would have been following the course of other national tongues –French as the dialect of Paris, Spanish as that of Castile, and others. Londonwas, and still is, the political and commercial center of England. It was theseat of the court, of the highest judicial tribunals, the focus of the socialand intellectual activities of the country. In the practicalities of commercethe London economy was especially important as an engine of communication andexchange which enabled ideas and information to be distributed and business tobe done across an increasingly extensive, complex and varied field. Patterns ofmigration at this time cannot be fully reconstructed, but clearly London drewin a constant stream those whose affairs took them beyond the limits of theirprovincial homes. They brought to it traits of their local speech, there tomingle with the London idiom and to survive or die as the silent forces ofamalgamation and standardization determined. They took back with them the formsand usages of the great city by which their own speech had been modified. Theinfluence was reciprocal. London English took as well as gave. It began as aSouthern and ended as a Midland dialect. By the 15th century there had come toprevail in the East Midlands a fairly uniform dialect, and the language ofLondon agrees in all important respects with it. It is undoubtedly that theimportance of the eastern counties, pointed out above, is largely responsiblefor this change. Even such Northern characteristics as are found in thestandard speech seem to have entered by way of these counties. The history ofStandard English is almost a history of London English.
In the latter part of the 15th century the London standard hadbeen accepted, at least in writing, in most parts of the country. Its prestigemay possibly be reflected in the fact that Mak the sheep-stealer in theTowneley Plays attempts to impose upon the Yorkshire shepherds by masqueradingas a person of some importance and affects a “Southern tooth.” Considerablediversity still existed in the spoken dialects, as will be apparent from whatis said in the next paragraph. But in literary works after 1450 it becomesalmost impossible, except in distinctly northern texts, to determine with anyprecision the region in which a given work was written. And in correspondenceand local records there is a widespread tendency to conform in matters oflanguage to the London standard. This influence emanating from London can beseen in the variety of English used in documents of the national bureaucracy aswritten by the clerks of Chancery. By the middle of the century a fairlyconsistent variety of written English in both spelling and grammar haddeveloped, and as the language of official use it was likely to have influencein similar situations elsewhere. With the introduction of printing in 1476 a new influence of great importance in the dissemination of London English came into play. Fromthe beginning London has been the center of book publishing in England.
2.1.3 The importance of Chancery Line
The most important area for the development of writing standardsis that of London and its immediate environs. The London dialect is portrayedin broad terms as one which turned from being an essentially Southern dialectto one which became an East Midland one. However, it is possible to be muchmore specific about various standards within the London area itself. These maybe associated with different types of work so that in the Chancery scribesdeveloped their own standard which was by no means constant since it changedwith time, whereas other standards developed in association with particularscribes who wrote literary and other works. The copying of manuscripts oftenproduced mixed dialects or Mischsprachen as one scribe superimposed his ownconventions on those of the manuscript he was copying, but this is somethingwhich is more particularly associated with literary and didactic texts sincethese are the texts which are copied most frequently. They are also the textsread most frequently today. It might be said that each local standard draws itsconventions from a pool which consists of traditional, national and localfeatures, with the local and traditional features being more important at firstand the national gaining in importance as the 15th century progresses. InLondon itself it is perhaps surprising that so much standardization is found,for although one might expect such standardization in religious houses withtheir traditions, London is characterized by secular copying. As far as it isprobable to tell, secular scribes worked individually on a piece-work basis,though they might occasionally have teamed up to form a loose co-operative.However, many individual scribes may, like Hoccleve, have worked for a majororganization such as the Chancery during the day and done private copying atother times. Hence even in secular private copying the process ofstandardization would gradually manifest itself.
The Chancery hand developed in Italian chancelleries in the 13thcentury and spread to France in the early 14th century. Later in that centuryit spread to London, and the standardization of the handwriting went hand inhand with the standardization of the spelling.
The Chancery clerks fairly consistently preferred the spellingswhich have since become standard. The documents in this anthology show theclerks trying to eliminate the kind of orthographic eccentricity found in thePrivy Seal minutes, the petitions passed on to them for entering in the rolls,and most of the documents printed by Chambers and Daunt. At the very least, wecan say that they were trying to limit choices among spellings and that by the1440’s and 1450’s they had achieved a comparative regularization.
Among examples of this regularization process they note that suchis the preferred Chancery form which had ousted sich, sych, seche and swiche.Which replaced wich. The auxiliary verbs appear more regularly in their modernforms: can, could, shall, should and would. Furthermore it is difficult todetect spellings used by the Chancery scribes that can be described asphonetic. In other words a standardized spelling was developing which wasdivorced from the immediate phonetic environment so that sound and spellingwere becoming two separate, if parallel, systems (for more details see Appendix2, p. 68) [24; 27; 28].
2.2 The Middle English Spelling andSounds
What is immediately noticeable is the extraordinary diversity ofMiddle English spelling – far greater than that found in Old English.
This situation results from a combination of historical,linguistic, and social factors. The sociolinguistic impact of the Frenchinvasion, the continuation of the processes of sound change which began inAnglo- Saxon times, and the considerable growth and movement in populationduring the medieval period, especially in the south-east of the country, allhelped to influence the shape of the writing system. The change is quitedramatic. There is a marked contrast between the diverse and idiosyncraticforms used at the beginning of the period and the highly regularized system ofspelling which begins to appear in the 15th century, in the work ofthe Chancery scribes and William Caxton [28].
2.2.1 Changes in Spelling due to theintroduction of French scribal tradition
The striking change in the written language of England during the12th century was, to a considerable extent, a matter of mere spelling. Afterthe Norman Conquest children ceased to be regularly taught to read and writeEnglish, and were taught to read and write French instead. When, therefore, themass of the new generation tried to write English, they had no orthographicaltraditions to guide them, and had to spell the words phonetically according toFrench rules. They used ch instead of the old c, when it was pronounced as in cirice‘church’. The sound of the Old English sc in sceamu ‘shame’, which did notexist at that time in French, was rendered by ss,ssh,sch, or sh. The French qutook the place of hw. The f between vowels [v] was replaced by u or v (thesebeing still, as long afterwards, treated as forms of one and the same letter,used indifferently for vowel and consonant). The Old English symbol æ wasdropped, its place being taken by a or e. The sound of the Old English y, inthe dialects where it survived, was expressed by u; and that of the Old Englishlong u was written ou, as in French.
Of course these changes did not take place all at once. It is notto be supposed that no one ever read an Old English Manuscript and there was,for a long time, some mixture of the traditional spelling with the new one.Some few English sounds admitted of no tolerable representation in the Frenchalphabet; and for the expression of these the native characters were retainedin use. The letters, þ, ð and /> were used, though often blunderingly, even by scribes who, inother respects, were thoroughly French in their spelling; though often the soundswere awkwardly rendered by t, th, ht, or d, and u. And in the 12th century,though the continental variety of the Roman alphabet was generally used forwriting English, it was found convenient to retain the native form of theletter g for those two of its sounds that the French g lacked, namely, those ofgh and y (as in year). A new letter was thus added to the alphabet, and, thoughit came to be written /> exactly like the contemporary form of z, it preserved its name‘yok’ until the 14th century. It may be remarked in passing that the ambiguityof pronunciation of this letter has misled modern writers into calling theauthor of the Brut Layamon instead of Laghamon; the incorrect form, however,has become too well known to be displaced. In addition to the two originalvalues of the ‘yok’, it very early obtained a third use, being employed(without indicating any change of pronunciation) instead of the Old English hin certain positions, as in kni[x]t, ibro[x]t, rou[x], for which the olderspelling was cniht, gebroht, ruh.
The letter was retained; but, although it was still called ‘thorn’in the 14th century, it seems in Geoffrey Chaucer’s time to have been regardedas a mere compendium for th, which generally took its place except initially.It may be noted that Thomas Usk, in the acrostic sentence of his Testament ofLove (1387) spells in ‘thine’ with the four letters THIN. The adoption of anumber of French words like ioie ‘joy’, in which i was pronounced like themodern English j, introduced the consonantal use of this letter into Englishorthography.
The Old English initial combination hl survived (written lh) insome dialects down to the 14th century; but hr was very early reduced to r. Forthe Old English hw, Middle English writers substituted wh, though the h was, atfirst, often omitted in this combination, as in other positions, by scribes ofFrench education. The northern spelling qua, quilk for Wha, whilk ‘who’, ‘which’arose from a dialectal pronunciation of qu as wh, which still survives locallyin a few words./>
From the 12th century onwards, the letter y, when used as a vowel,was treated as a mere alternative form of i.
The Ormulum is written in a peculiar phonetic spelling devised bythe author himself. This is based, to a considerable extent, on nativetradition, though the handwriting is of the continental type. There are,however, some of the new features. Orm uses ch and sh as we do now, and retainsthe Old English form of /> for the two sounds which the French letter had not. A devicepeculiar to himself is the appropriation of different shapes of the letter g tothe two sounds in god ‘good’ and egge ‘edge’.
But the most noteworthy characteristic of his orthography is themethod of indicating the quantity of the vowels. The shortness of a vowel, in asyllable ending with a consonant, is shown by doubling the following consonant,as in Crisstenndom. When the short vowel ended a syllable in the middle of aword, Orm indicated a long vowel by one, two, or even three acute accents overthe letter. This elaborate and cumbrous system found no imitators, but, aspreserved in the author’s autograph Manuscript, it is one of the most importantaids that we possess for ascertaining the English pronunciation of the time [2;11; 20; 28; 54].
2.2.2 Middle English pronunciation
Severalsounds altered during the early Middle English period. Some took on a differentvalue; some disappeared altogether. In particular, there was a restructuring ofthe Old English vowel system. The original diphthongs became pure vowels, andnew diphthongs emerged. Some of the new units arose when certain consonants atthe end of a syllable came to be pronounced in a vowel-like manner an example iswei ‘way’, from Old Englissweg. French loan words alsointroduced new diphthongs, in the form of [oi] and [ui] – unusual sounds forEnglish, and the ancestors of modern [ɔi] in joy, point, etc.
Severalof the pure vowels also changed their values. For example, in most parts of thecountry (except the north), Old English [a:] came to be articulated higher atthe back of the mouth, as is shown by such spelling changes as ban becoming bon ‘bone’ or swa becoming so. Northern speech followed its owncourse in several other areas too; for example, several of the new diphthongswere far more evident in the south, being replaced by pure vowels in the north(light vs licht).
An interesting change happened to [h]. This sound appeared beforea consonant at the beginning of many Old English words, such as hring ‘ring’ and hnecca ‘neck’. It was lost early on inthe Middle English period – the first sign of the process of ‘aitch-dropping’which is still with us today. The loss of hbefore a vowel began some time later, producing variations in usage which continuedinto the 16th century. Middle English manuscripts show many examples of an h absent where it shouldbe present (adde for had, eld for held) or present where itshould be absent (ham for am, his for is). The influence of spelling (anddoubtless the prescriptive tradition in schools) led to the h-forms being laterrestored in many words in Received Pronunciation (though not in such Romanceloans like honour), and thus to the present-day situation where the use of [h]in socially diagnostic [20; 28].
In a few cases, new contrastive unitsemerged. The [v] sound became much more important, because of its use in Frenchloan words, and began to distinguish pairs of words, as it does today f (feel vs veal).Although both [f] and [v] sounds are found in Old English, the language did notuse them to differentiate words. Similarly, French influence caused [s] and [z]to become contrastive (zeal vs seal). Andthe ng sound [ŋ] at the end of a word also began to distinguish meaningsat this time thing vs thin. InOld English, this sound had always been followed by a [g]– cyning ‘king’, for example, was kyniŋg. However, the [g]died away at the end of the Old English period, leaving [ŋ] as the soledistinguishing unit.
The study of Middle English phonology ismade increasingly difficult (and fascinating) by the intricate dialectsituation. On the one hand, a letter might be given different pronunciationsdepending on the dialect area in which it appears; an example is the letter y,which for a while represented an unrounded sound quality in the south and arounded sound quality in the north. On the other hand, a sound might be givendifferent spellings depending on the dialect area in which it appears; anexample here is Old English [х], spelled in the middle of words as gh inthe south, and as chin the north (nightvs nicht).Finally, we should note the continuing need for analytical caution becausespelling was not standardized. Problems of authorial idiosyncrasy and copyisterror abound, contributing to both the complex character of the period and themoral fibre of its students [28; 31; 38; 43].
2.3 Changes in Grammar in Middle andEarly New English
The changes in English grammar may be described as a generalreduction of inflections. Endings of the noun and adjective markingdistinctions of number and case and often of gender were so altered inpronunciation as to lose their distinctive form and hence their usefulness. Tosome extent the same thing is true of the verb. This leveling of inflectionalendings was due partly to phonetic changes, partly to the operation of analogy.The phonetic changes were simple but far-reaching. The earliest seems to havebeen the change of final m to n wherever it occurred, i.e., in the dativeplural of nouns and adjectives and in the dative singular (masculine andneuter) of adjectives when inflected according to the strong declension. Thus, mūðum >mūðun,gōdum>gōdun. This n, along with the n of the other inflectionalendings, was then dropped (*muðu, *gōdu). At the same time, the vowelsa, o, u, e in inflectional endings were obscured to a sound, the so-called “indeterminatevowel”, which came to be written e (less often i,y, u, depending on place anddate). As a result, a number of originally distinct endings such as a, u, e,an, um were reduced generally to a uniform e, and such grammatical distinctionsas they formerly expressed were no longer conveyed. Traces of these changeshave been found in Old English manuscripts as early as the 10th century. By theend of the 12th century they seem to have been generally carried out. Theleveling is somewhat obscured in the written language by the tendency ofscribes to preserve the traditional spelling, and in some places the final nwas retained even in the spoken language, especially as a sign of the plural. The effect of thesechanges on the inflection of the noun and the adjective, and the further simplificationthat was brought about by the operation of analogy, may be readily shown [10; 20;22; 46].
2.3.1 Middle English Noun
A glance at the few examples of common noun declensions in OldEnglish will show how seriously the inflectional endings were disturbed. Forexample, in the London English of Chaucer in the strong masculine declensionthe forms muð, mūðe,mūðe, mūð in the singular, and mūða, mūðaand mūðum, mūðas in the plural were reduced to three: mūð,mūðes, and mūðe. In such words the e, which was organic inthe dative singular and the genitive and dative plural (i.e., stood for anending in the Old English paradigm), was extended by analogy to the nominativeand accusative singular, so that forms like stōne, mūðe appear,and the only distinctive termination is the s of the possessive singular and ofthe nominative and accusative plural. Because these two cases of the pluralwere those most frequently used, the s came to be thought of as the sign of theplural and was extended to all plural forms. We get thus an inflection of thenoun identical with that which we have today. Other declensions suffered evenmore, so that in many words like giefu, sunu, the distinctions of case and evenof number were completely obliterated.
In early Middle English only two methods of indicating the pluralremained fairly distinctive: the s or es from the strong masculine declensionand the en (as in oxen) from the weak. And for a time, at least in southern England, it would have beendifficult to predict that the -s would become the almost universal sign of theplural that it has become. Until the 13th century the en plural enjoyed great favorin the south, being often added to nouns which had not belonged to the weakdeclension in Old English. But in the rest of England the s plural (andgenitive singular) of the old first declension (masculine) was apparently feltto be so distinctive that it spread rapidly. Its extension took place mostquickly in the north. Even in Old English many nouns originally of other declensionshad gone over to this declension in the Northumbrian dialect. By 1200 s was the standardplural ending in the north and north Midland areas; other forms wereexceptional. Fifty years later it had conquered the rest of the Midlands, andin the course of the 14th century it had definitely been accepted all overEngland as the normal sign of the plural in English nouns. Its spread may havebeen helped by the early extension of s throughout the plural in Anglo-Norman,but in general it may be considered as an example of the survival of thefittest in language.
One of the consequences of the decay of inflections describedabove was the elimination of that troublesome feature of language, grammaticalgender. The gender of Old English nouns was not often determined by meaning.Sometimes it was in direct contradiction with the meaning. Thus woman (OEwīf-mann) was masculine, because the second element in the compound wasmasculine; wife and child, like German Weib and Kind, were neuter. Moreover,the gender of nouns in Old English was not so generally indicated by thedeclension as it is in a language like Latin. Instead it was revealed chieflyby the concord of the strong adjective and the demonstratives. These by their distinctiveendings generally showed, at least in the singular, whether a noun wasmasculine, feminine, or neuter. When the inflections of these gender distinguishingwords were reduced to a single ending for the adjective, and the fixed forms ofthe, this, that, these, and those for the demonstratives, the support forgrammatical gender was removed. The weakening of inflections and the confusionand loss of the old gender proceeded in a remarkably parallel course. In thenorth, where inflections weakened earliest, grammatical gender disappearedfirst. In the south it lingered longer because there the decay of inflectionswas slower.
The present method of determining gender was no sudden inventionof Middle English times. The recognition of sex that lies at the root ofnatural gender is shown in Old English by the noticeable tendency to use thepersonal pronouns in accordance with natural gender, even when such useinvolves a clear conflict with the grammatical gender of the antecedent. Forexample, the pronoun it in Etað þisne hlaf (masculine), hit is mīmlīchama (Ælfric’s Homilies) is exactly in accordance with modernusage when we say, Eat this bread, it is my body. Such a use of the personalpronouns is clearly indicative of the feeling for natural gender even whilegrammatical gender was in full force. With the disappearance of grammaticalgender sex became the only factor in determining the gender of English nouns[20; 28; 54].
2.3.2 Middle English and Early NewEnglish Adjective and Pronoun
In the adjective the leveling of forms had even greaterconsequences. Partly as a result of the sound-changes already described, partlythrough the extensive working of analogy, the form of the nominative singularwas early extended to all cases of the singular, and that of the nominativeplural to all cases of the plural, both in the strong and the weak declensions.The result was that in the weak declension there was no longer any distinctionbetween the singular and the plural: both ended in e as in blinda> blindeand blindan>blinde. This was also true of those adjectives under the strongdeclension whose singular ended in e .By about 1250 the strong declensionhad distinctive forms for the singular and plural only in certain monosyllabicadjectives which ended in a consonant in Old English (sing. glad, pl. glade).Under the circumstances the only ending which remained to the adjective wasoften without distinctive grammatical meaning and its use was not governed byany strong sense of adjectival inflection. Although it is clear that the eending of the weak and plural forms were available for use in poetry in boththe East and West Midlands until the end of the 14th century, it is impossibleto know the most usual status of the form in the spoken language. Certainlyadjectival inflections other than e, such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s oure aller cok,were archaic survivals by the close of the Middle English period.
The decay of inflections that brought about such a simplificationof the noun and the adjective as has just been described made it necessary todepend less upon formal indications of gender, case, and (in adjectives)number, and to rely more upon juxtaposition, word order, and the use ofprepositions to make clear the relation of words in a sentence. This isapparent from the corresponding decay of pronominal inflections, where thesimplification of forms was due in only a slight measure to the weakening offinal syllables that played so large a part in the reduction of endings in thenoun and the adjective. The loss was greatest in the demonstratives. Of thenumerous forms of sē, sēo, þæt. only the and that survivedthrough Middle English and are used today. A plural tho ‘those’ survived toElizabethan times. All the other forms indicative of different gender, number,and case disappeared in most dialects early in the Middle English period. Thesame may be said of the demonstrative þēs, þēos, þis ‘this’. Everywhere but inthe south the neuter form þis came to be used early in Middle English forall genders and cases of the singular, while the forms of the nominative pluralwere similarly extended to all cases of the plural, appearing in Modern Englishas those and these.
In the personal pronoun the losses were not so great. Most of thedistinctions that existed in Old English were retained. However the forms ofthe dative and accusative cases were early combined, generally under that ofthe dative (him, her, [t]hem). In the neuter the form of the accusative [h]itbecame the general objective case, partly because it was like the nominative,and partly because the dative him would have been subject to confusion with thecorresponding case of the masculine. One other general simplification is to be noted: the loss ofthe dual number. A language can get along without a distinction in pronouns for two personsand more than two: the forms wit, and their oblique cases did not survivebeyond the 13th century, and English lost the dual number.
It will be observed that the pronoun she had the form hēo inOld English. The modern form could have developed from the Old English hēo,but it is believed by some that it is due in part at least to the influence ofthe demonstrative sēo. A similar reinforcing influence of thedemonstrative is perhaps to be seen in the forms of the third person plural,they, their, them, but here the source of the modern developments wasundoubtedly Scandinavian. The normal development of the Old English pronouns would have beenhi (he), here, hem, and these are very common. In the districts, however, whereScandinavian influence was strong, the nominative hi began early to be replacedby the Scandinavian form þei (ON þeir), and somewhat later asimilar replacement occurred in the other cases, their and them. The new formswere adopted more slowly farther south, and the usual inflection in Chaucer isthei, here, hem. But by the end of the Middle English period the forms theytheir, them may be regarded as the normal English plurals [8; 20; 38].
2.3.3 Middle English and Early NewEnglish Verb
Apart from some leveling of inflections and the weakening ofendings in accordance with the general tendency, the principal changes in theverb during the Middle English period were the serious losses suffered by thestrong conjugation. This conjugation, although including some of the most importantverbs in the language, was relatively small as compared with the large andsteadily growing body of weak verbs. While an occasional verb developed a strong past tense or past participleby analogy with similar strong verbs, new verbs formed from nouns and adjectivesor borrowed from other languages were regularly conjugated as weak. Thus theminority position of the strong conjugation was becoming constantly moreappreciable. After the Norman Conquest the loss of native words furtherdepleted the ranks of the strong verbs. Those that survived were exposed to theinfluence of the majority, and many have changed over in the course of time tothe weak inflection.
Nearly a third of the strong verbs in Old English seem to havedied out early in the Middle English period. In any case about ninety of themhave left no traces in written records after 1150. Some of them may havebeen current for a time in the spoken language, but except where an occasionalverb survives in a modern dialect they are not recorded. Some were rare in OldEnglish and others were in competition with weak verbs of similar derivationand meaning which superseded them. In addition to verbs that are not found atall after the Old English period there are about a dozen more that appear onlyin Layamon (c. 1200) or in certain 12th -century texts based directly on the homiliesof Ælfric and other Old English works. In other words, more than ahundred of the Old English strong verbs were lost at the beginning of theMiddle English period.
But this was not all. The loss has continued in subsequentperiods. Some thirty more became obsolete in the course of Middle English, andan equal number, which were still in use in the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, finally died out except in the dialects, often after they had passedover to the weak conjugation or had developed weak forms alongside the strong.Today more than half of the Old English strong verbs have disappeared completelyfrom the standard language.
The principle of analogy – the tendency of language to follow certain patterns and adapt aless common form to a more familiar one –is well exemplified in thefurther history of the strong verbs. The weak conjugation offered a fairlyconsistent pattern for the past tense and the past participle, whereas therewas much variety in the different classes of the strong verb. We saysing—sang—sung, but drive—drove—driven, fall—fell—fallen, etc. At a time whenEnglish was the language chiefly of the lower classes and largely removed fromthe restraining influences of education and a literary standard, it was naturalthat many speakers should apply the pattern of weak verbs to some which were historically strong. Thetendency was not unknown even in Old English. Thus rædan ‘to advise’and sceddan ‘to injure’ had already become weak in Old English, while otherverbs show occasional weak forms. In the 13th century the trend becomes clearin change. By the 14th century the movement was at its height. No less thanthirty-two verbs in addition to those already mentioned now show weak forms.After this there are fewer changes. The impulse seems to have been checked,possibly by the steady rise of English in the social scale and later by thestabilizing effect of printing. At all events the 15th century shows only abouta dozen new weak formations and in the whole modern period there are only aboutas many more.
In none of the many verbs which have thus become weak was thechange from the strong conjugation a sudden one. Strong forms continued to beused while the weak ones were growing up, and in many cases they continued inuse long after the weak inflection had become well established. Thus oke as thepast tense of ache was still written throughout the 15th century although theweak form ached had been current for a hundred years. In the same way we find stopebeside stepped, rewe beside rowed, clew beside clawed. In a good many cases thestrong forms remained in the language well into modern times. Climb, which wasconjugated as a weak verb as early as the thirteenth century, still has analternative past tense clomb not only in Chaucer and Spenser but in Dryden, andthe strong past tense crope was more common than crept down to William Shakespeare’sday. Low for laughed, shove for shaved, yold for yielded, etc., were still usedin the 16th century although these verbs were already passing over to the weakconjugation two centuries before. While the weak forms commonly won out, thiswas not always the case. Many strong verbs also had weak forms blowed for blew,knowed for knew, teared for tore that did not survive in the standard speech,while in other cases both forms have continued in use such as cleft –clove,crowed –crew, heave –hove, sheared –shore, shrived –shrove.
For some reason the past participle of strong verbs seems to havebeen more tenacious than the past tense. In a number of verbs weak participlesare later in appearing and the strong form often continued in use after theverb had definitely become weak. In the verb beat the principle beaten hasremained the standard form, while in a number of other verbs the strongparticiple (cloven, graven, hewn, laden, molten, mown, (mis)shapen, shaven,sodden, swollen) are still used, especially as adjectives.
When we subtract the verbs that have been lost completely and theeighty-one that have become weak, there remain just sixty-eight of the OldEnglish strong verbs in the language today. To this number may be addedthirteen verbs that are conjugated in both ways or have kept one strong form.These figures indicate how extensive the loss of strong verbs in the languagehas been. Beside this loss the number of new strong formations has beennegligible. Since the irregularity of such verbs constitutes a difficulty inlanguage, the loss in this case must be considered a gain.
The surviving strong verbs have seldom come down to the presentday in the form that would represent the normal development of their principalparts in Old English. In all periods of the language they have been subjectedto various forms of leveling and analogical influence from one class toanother. For example, the verb to slay had in Old English the forms slēan–slōg –slōgon—slægen. These would normally have become slea(pronounced slee) –slough –slain, and thepresent tense slea actually existed down to the 17th century. The modern slayis reformed from the past participle. The past tense slew is due to the analogyof preterites like blew, grew. In Old English the past tense commonly had adifferent form in the singular and the plural, and in two large classes ofverbs the vowel of the plural was also like that of the past participle bindan–band –bundon –bunden. Consequently, although normally the singular form survived inModern English, in many cases the vowel of the plural or of the past participlehas taken its place. Thus cling, sting, spin, etc., should have had a pasttense clang, stang, span (like sing), but these forms have been replaced by clung, stung, spun from theplural and the past participle. The past tense of slide should have been slode,but the plural and the past participle had i and we now say slide –slid –slid.Sometimes a verb has changed from one class to another. Break belongedoriginally to the fifth class of strong verbs, and had it remained there, wouldhave had a past participle breken. But in Old English it was confused withverbs of the fourth class, which had o in the past participle, whence our formbroken. This form has now spread to the past tense. We should be saying brackor brake, and the latter is still used in the Bible, but except in biblicallanguage the current form is now broke. Speak has had a similar development.Almost every strong verb in the language has an interesting prehistory, but thepresent purpose will be sufficiently served by these few examples of the sortof fluctuation and change that was going on all through the Middle Englishperiod and which has not yet ended.
As a result of the leveling of inflections, syntactic and semanticrelationships that had been signaled by the endings on words now becameambiguous. Whereas in Old English the grammatical functions of two consecutivenouns were clear from their endings in, say, the nominative and dative cases,in Middle English their functions might be uncertain. The most direct way toavoid this kind of ambiguity is through limiting the possible patterns of wordorder. The process of development from the highly synthetic stage of OldEnglish to the highly analytic stages of Late Middle English and ModernEnglish can be seen in the Peterborough Chronicle. Written in installmentsbetween 1070 and 1154, this text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle spans the period from OldEnglish to Early Middle English. Within the continuations of the text it ispossible to trace first a significant loss of inflections and afterwards acorresponding rigidity of word order, making clear the direction of cause andeffect. This process of development and the reality of MiddleEnglish as a separate stage of the language grammatically (as well asphonologically and lexically) can be seen in the patterns of subject and verb.In addition to the Modern English order SV, Old English had VS and, insubordinate clauses, S...V (with the finite verb in final position). All ofthese patterns are still possible even in the last years of the PeterboroughChronicle. Thus, the word order looked much like that of Old English at a timewhen the inflectional system looked much like that of Modern English. As BruceMitchell writes, “the language of the Peterborough Chronicle 1122-1154 is Middle,not Modern English. It is transitional [1; 4; 20; 46].
It is important to emphasize that these changes which affected thegrammatical structure of English after the Norman Conquest were not the resultof contact with the French language. Certain idioms and syntactic usages thatappear in Middle English are clearly the result of such contact. But the decayof inflections and the confusion of forms that constitute the truly significantdevelopment in Middle English grammar are the result of the Norman Conquestonly insofar as that event brought about conditions favorable to such changes.By removing the authority that a standard variety of English would have, theNorman Conquest made it easier for grammatical changes to go forward unchecked.Beyond this it is not considered a factor in syntactic changes [4; 20; 38; 43;46; 54].
2.4 The complexity of Middle EnglishVocabulary
The vocabulary of the Peterborough Chronicle is not typical of the MiddleEnglish period as a whole. Despite the fact that it was written almost acentury after the Conquest, there is little sign of the French vocabulary whichwas to be the distinctive characteristic of the era. The Chronicle vocabularyis still typical of what would have appeared in literary West Saxon – predominantly Germanic,with an admixture of Latin and Scandinavian. Several of its wordshave since dropped from the language –for example, þines ‘cruelties’, ornamen ‘took’ were not longer used. And of the words which are still foundtoday, several have altered meanings: wonder could mean ‘atrocities’ as well as‘marvels’ and flesh had the general sense of meat. Such “false friends” arealways a problem in reading a Middle English text because of their misleadingsimilarity to the modern words [28].
2.4.1 French factor in the development ofMiddle English Vocabulary
While the loss of inflections and the consequent simplification ofEnglish grammar were thus only indirectly due to the use of French in England,French influence is much more direct and observable upon the vocabulary. Wheretwo languages exist side by side for a long time and the relations between thepeople speaking them are as intimate as they were in England, a considerabletransference of words from one language to the other is inevitable. As isgenerally the case, the interchange was to some extent mutual. A good manyEnglish words found their way into the French spoken in England. Their numberwas not so large as that of the French words introduced into English. English,representing a culture that was regarded as inferior, had more to gain fromFrench, and there were other factors involved. The number of French words thatpoured into English was unbelievably great. There is nothing comparable to itin the previous or subsequent history of the language [20; 24; 54].
2.4.1.1 French influence on the EnglishVocabulary
French influence became increasingly evident in English manuscriptsof the 13th century. It has been estimated that some 10,000 French words came intoEnglish at that time – many previously borrowed from more distant sources (such as alkalifrom Arabic). These words were largely to do with the mechanisms of law andadministration, but they also included words from such fields as medicine, art,and fashion. Many of the new words were quite ordinary, everyday terms. Over 70 per cent were nouns. Alarge number were abstract terms, constructed using such new French affixes ascon-, trans-, pre-, -ance, -tion, and -ment. About three-quarters of all these French loans arestill in the language today.
As new words arrived, there were many cases where they duplicatedwords that had already existed in English from Anglo-Saxon times. In suchcases, there were two outcomes. Either one word would supplant the other; orboth would co-exist, but develop slightly different meanings. The first outcomewas very common, in most cases the French word replacing an Old Englishequivalent; for example, leod gave way to people, wlitig to beautiful, and stow to place. Hundreds of Old English words were lost in this way. But at thesame time, Old English and French words often both survived with differentsenses or connotations, such as doom (OE) and judgment (F ), hearty (OE) and cordial (F), andhouse (OE) and mansion (F). Sometimes pairs of words were used, one glossing the other: forrouthe and for pitie is a Chaucerian for example, and legal terminology oftendeveloped coordinations of this kind. Bilingual word lists were compiled as early as the mid-13th centuryto aid intelligibility between English and French [20; 28].
Although this influx of French words was brought about by thevictory of the Conqueror and by the political and social consequences of thatvictory, it was neither sudden nor immediately apparent. Rather it began slowlyand continued with varying tempo for a long time. Indeed it can hardly be saidto have ever stopped. The large number of French words borrowed during the MiddleAges has made it easy to go on borrowing, and the close cultural relationsbetween France and England in all subsequent periods have furnished a constantopportunity for the transfer of words. But there was a time in the centuriesfollowing the Conquest when this movement had its start and a stream of Frenchwords poured into English with a momentum that continued until toward the endof the Middle English period.
In this movement two stages can be observed, an earlier and alater, with the year 1250 as the approximate dividing line. The borrowings ofthe first stage differ from those of the second in being much less numerous, inbeing more likely to show peculiarities of Anglo-Norman phonology, and,especially, in the circumstances that brought about their introduction. When westudy the French words appearing in English before 1250, roughly 900 in number, we find that many of them were such as the lower classes would become familiar withthrough contact with a French-speaking nobility –baron, noble, dame, servant,messenger, feast, minstrel, juggler, largess. Others, such as story, rime, lay,douzepers (the twelve peers of the Charlemagne romances), obviously owed theirintroduction into English to literary channels. The largest single group amongthe words that came in early was associated with the church, where thenecessity for the prompt transference of doctrine and belief from the clergy tothe people is sufficient to account for the frequent transfer of words. In theperiod after 1250 the conditions under which French words had been making theirway into English were supplemented by a new and powerful factor: those who hadbeen accustomed to speak French were turning increasingly to the use ofEnglish. Whether to supply deficiencies in the English vocabulary or in theirown imperfect command of that vocabulary, or perhaps merely yielding to anatural impulse to use a word long familiar to them and to those theyaddressed, the upper classes carried over into English an astonishing number ofcommon French words. In changing from French to English they transferred muchof their governmental and administrative vocabulary, their ecclesiastical, legal,and military terms, and the familiar words of fashion, food, and social life,the vocabulary of art, learning, and medicine. In general we may say that inthe earlier Middle English period the French words introduced into English weresuch as people speaking one language often learn from those speaking another;in the century and a half following 1250, when all classes were speaking orlearning to speak English, they were also such words as people who had beenaccustomed to speak French would carry over with them into the language oftheir adoption. Only in this way can we understand the nature and extent of theFrench importations in this period [1; 20; 28; 54].
2.4.1.2 Core semantic spheres of loanwordsfrom French
We should expect that English would owe many of its words dealingwith government and administration to the language of those who for more than200 years made public affairs their chief concern. The words government,govern, administer might appropriately introduce a list of such words. It wouldinclude such fundamental terms as crown, state, empire, realm, reign, royal,prerogative, authority, sovereign, majesty, scepter, record, repeal, adjourn,tax, subsidy, revenue, tally, exchequer. The word office and the titles of manyoffices are likewise French. Except for the words king and queen, lord, lady,and earl, most designations of rank are French: noble, nobility, peer, prince,princess, duke, duchess, count, countess, marquis, baron, squire, page, as wellas such words as courtier, retinue, and titles of respect like sir, madam, mistress.
The church was scarcely second to the government as an object ofNorman interest and ambition. The higher clergy, occupying positions of wealthand power, were, as we have seen, practically all Normans. Ecclesiasticalpreferment opened the way to a career that often led to the highest politicaloffices at court. In monasteries and religious houses French was for a longtime the usual language. Accordingly in English it is possible to find suchFrench words as religion, theology, sermon, homily, sacramen, prayer, orison,lesson, passion, psalmody; such indications of rank or class as clergy, clerk,prelate, cardinal, legate, dean, chaplain, parson, pastor, vicar, sexton,abbess, novice, friar, hermit; the names of objects associated with the serviceor with the religious life, such as crucifix, crosier, miter, surplice, censer,incense, lectern, image, chancel, chantry, chapter, abbey, convent, priory,hermitage, cloister, sanctuary; words expressing such fundamental religious ortheological concepts as creator, savior, trinity, virgin, saint, miracle,mystery, faith, heresy, schism, reverence, devotion, salvation, immortality,and the more general virtues of piety, sanctity, charity mercy pity, obedience,as well as the word virtue itself. Also a number of adjectives, like solemn,divine, reverend, devout, and verbs, such as preach, pray, chant, repent,confess, adore, sacrifice, convert, anoint, ordain should be included.
French was so long the language of the law courts in England thatthe greater part of the English legal vocabulary comes from the language of theconquerors. The fact that we speak of justice and equity instead of gerihte,judgment rather than dom ‘doom’, crime in place of synn, gylt, undæd,etc., shows how completely the terminology of French law was adopted. Evenwhere the Old English word survives it has lost its technical sense. In thesame way we say bar, assize, eyre, plea, suit, plaintiff, defendant, juror,panel, felon, evidence, proof, bail, ransom, mainpernor, judgment, verdict,sentence, decree, award, fine, forfeit, punishment, prison, gaol, pillory.
The large part that war played in English affairs in the MiddleAges, the fact that the control of the army and navy was in the hands of thosewho spoke French, and the circumstance that much of English fighting was donein France all resulted in the introduction into English of a number of Frenchmilitary terms. The art of war has undergone such changes since the days ofHastings and Lewes and Agincourt that many words once common are now obsoleteor only in historical use. Their places have been taken by later borrowings,often likewise from French, many of them being words acquired by the French inthe course of their wars in Italy during the sixteenth century. Nevertheless,medieval French words are used when it comes to the army and the navy, topeace, enemy, arms, battle, combat, skirmish, siege, defense, ambush,stratagem, retreat, guard, spy, and the names of officers such as captain,lieutenant, sergeant are preserved. It is possible to recognize as once havinghad greater significance words like dart, lance, banner, mail, buckler, hauberk,archer, chieftain, portcullis, barbican, and moat. Sometimes a word has been retainedwhile its original military significance is forgotten.
That the upper classes should have set the standard in fashion anddress is so obvious an assumption that the number of French words belonging tothis class occasions no surprise. The words fashion and dress are themselvesFrench, as are apparel, habit, gown, robe, garment, attire, cape, cloak, coat,frock, collar, veil, train, chemise, petticoat. So too are lace, embroidery,pleat, gusset, buckle, button, tassel, plume, and the names of such articles askerchief, mitten, garter, galoshes, and boots. Verbs like embellish and adornoften occur in contexts which suggest the word luxury, and this in turn carrieswith it satin, taffeta, fur, sable, beaver, ermine. The colors blue, brown,vermilion, scarlet, saffron, russet, and tawny are French borrowings of thisperiod. Jewel, ornament, brooch, chaplet, ivory, and enamel point to theluxuries of the wealthy and it is significant that the names of all the morefamiliar precious stones are French: turquoise, amethyst, topaz, garnet, ruby,emerald, sapphire, pearl, diamond, not to mention crystal, coral, and beryl.
The French-speaking classes, it would seem, must also be creditedwith a considerable adornment of the English table. Not only are the wordsdinner and supper French, but also the words feast, repast, collation, and mess(now military). So, too, are appetite, taste, victuals, viand, and sustenance.One could have found on the medieval menu, had there been one, among the fish,mackerel, sole, perch, bream, sturgeon, salmon, sardine, oyster, porpoise;among meats, venison, beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, sausage, tripe, with achoice of loin, chine, haunch, or brawn, and with gravy included; among fowl, poultry,pullet, pigeon, and various game birds mentioned below. One could have pottage,gruel, toast, biscuit, cream, sugar, olives, salad, lettuce, endive, and fordessert almonds, and many fruits, including raisin, fig, date, grape, orange,lemon, pomegranate, cherry1 peach, or a confection, pasty, tart, jelly,treacle. Among seasoning and condiments we find spice, clove, thyme, herb,mustard, vinegar, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg. The verbs roast, boil, parboil,stew, fry, broach, blanch, grate, and mince describe various culinaryprocesses, and goblet, saucer, cruet, plate, platter suggest French refinementsin the serving of meals. It is melancholy to think what the English dinnertable would have been like had there been no Norman Conquest.
A variety of new words suggests the innovations made by the Frenchin domestic economy and social life. Arras, curtain, couch, chair, cushion,screen, lamp, lantern, sconce, chandelier, blanket, and basin indicate articlesof comfort or convenience, while dais, parlor, wardrobe, closet, pantry,scullery, and garner (storehouse) imply improvements in domestic arrangements.Recreation, solace, jollity, leisure, dance, carol, revel, minstrel, juggler,fool, ribald, lute, tabor, melody, music, chess, checkers, dalliance, andconversation reveal various aspects of entertainment in a baronial hall, whilenumerous words associated with hunting and riding are a reflection of theprincipal outdoor pastime of the nobility: ambler, courser, hackney palfrey,stallion for various types of horse, together with rein, curb, mallard,partridge, pheasant, quail, plover, heron, squirrel; forest, park, covert,warren. One might extend the list to include other activities, with terms likejoust, tournament, pavilion, but those given are sufficient to show how muchthe English vocabulary owes to French in matters of domestic and social life.
The cultural and intellectual interests of the ruling class arereflected in words pertaining to the arts, architecture, literature, learning,and science, especially medicine. Such words as art, painting, sculpture,music, beauty, color, figure, image, tone are typical of the first class, whilearchitecture and building have given us cathedral, palace, tower, pinnacle,turret, porch, bay, choir, cloister, baptistry, column, pillar, base, and manysimilar words. Literature is represented by the word itself and by poet, rime,prose, romance, lay, story, chronicle, tragedy, prologue, preface, title, paper,and pen, and learning by treatise, compilation, study, logic, geometry,grammar, noun, clause, gender, together with verbs like copy, expound, andcompile. Among the sciences, medicine has brought in the largest number ofearly French words still in common use, among them the word medicine itself,physician, surgeon, apothecary, malady, debility, distemper, pain, ague, pals,poison. It is clear that the arts and sciences, being largely cultivated orpatronized by the higher classes, owe an important part of their vocabulary toFrench.
There can be little doubt that a large proportion of the wordsborrowed from French were thoroughly popular in character, that is, wordscurrent in the everyday French spoken in England. At the same time theimportance of literature is not to be underestimated as a means of transfer. Somuch of Middle English literature was based directly on French originals thatit would have been rather exceptional if English writers had consistentlyresisted the temptation to carry French words over into their adaptations.Layamon resisted, but most others did not, and when in the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries French words were being taken by the hundreds into thepopular speech, the way was made easier for the entrance of literary words aswell. Although literature was one of the channels by which French words enteredEnglish all through the Middle English period, in the 15th century it becamethe principal source. Words like adolescence, affability, appellation, cohort,combustion, destitution ingenious, pacification, representation, sumptuousbetray their learned or bookish origin, and in the works of Caxton at the endof the century new words like aggravation, diversify furtive, prolongation, andravishment abound. The number of such words entering the language at this timeis probably no greater than in the preceding century, but they are moreprominent because the adoption of popular words was now greatly curtailed bythe practical disappearance of French as a spoken language in England (for thedetails, see Appendix 3, p. 69) [20; 24; 28; 54].
2.4.2 Latin borrowings in the Middle andEarly New English
French is the most dominant influence on the growth of MiddleEnglish vocabulary, but it is by no means the only one. During the 14th and 15th centuriesseveral thousand words came into the language directly from Latin (though it isoften difficult to exclude an arrival route via French). Most of these wordswere professional or technical terms, belonging to such fields as religion,medicine, law, and literature. They also included many words which wereborrowed by a writer in a deliberate attempt to produce a ‘high’ style.
The influence of the Norman Conquest is generally known as theLatin Influence of the Third Period in recognition of the ultimate source ofthe new French words. But it is right to include also under this designationthe large number of words borrowed directly from Latin in Middle English. Thesediffered from the French borrowings in being less popular and in gainingadmission generally through the written language. Of course, it must not beforgotten that Latin was a spoken language among ecclesiastics and men oflearning, and a certain number of Latin words could well have passed directlyinto spoken English. Their number, however, is small in comparison with thosethat we can observe entering by way of literature. In a single work likeTrevisa’s translation of the De Proprietatibus Rerum of Bartholomew Anglicus wemeet with several hundred words taken over from the Latin original. Since theyare not found before this in English, we can hardly doubt that we have here atypical instance of the way such words first came to be used. The 14th and 15thcenturies were especially prolific in Latin borrowings. An anonymous writer ofthe first half of the 15th century complains that it is not easy to translatefrom Latin into English, for “there ys many wordes in Latyn that we have nopropre Englysh accordynge therto.” Wycliffe and his associates are creditedwith more than a thousand Latin words not previously found in English. Sincemany of them occur in the so-called Wycliffe translation of the Bible and havebeen retained in subsequent translations, they have passed into common use. Theinnovations of other writers were not always so fortunate. Many of them, likethe inkhorn terms of the Renaissance, were but passing experiments.Nevertheless the permanent additions from Latin to the English vocabulary inthis period are much larger than has generally been realized.
It is unnecessary to attempt a formal classification of theseborrowings. Some idea of their range and character may be gained from aselected but miscellaneous list of examples: abject, adjacent, allegory,conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract, frustrate, genius, gesture, history,homicide, immune, incarnate, include, incredible, incubus, incumbent, index,individual, infancy, inferior, infinite, innate, intellect, interrupt, juniper,lapidary legal, limbo, lucrative, lunatic, magnify, malefactor, mechanical,minor, missal, moderate, necessary, nervous, notary, ornate, picture, polite,popular, prevent, private, project, promote, prosecute, prosody, pulpit, quiet,rational, reject, remit, reprehend, rosary, script, scripture, scrutiny,suppress, temperate, temporal, testify, testimony, tincture, tract, tributary,ulcer, zenith, zephyr. Here we have terms relating to law, medicine, theology,science, and literature, words often justified in the beginning by technical orprofessional use and later acquiring a wider application. Among them may benoticed several with endings like -able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -ive, andothers, which thus became familiar in English and, reinforced often by French,now form common elements in English derivatives. All the words in the abovelist are accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary as direct borrowings fromLatin. But in many cases Latin words were being borrowed by French at the sametime, and the adoption of a word in English may often have been due to theimpact of both languages.
The simultaneous borrowing of French and Latin words led to ahighly distinctive feature of Modern English vocabulary sets of three items allexpressing the same fundamental notion but differing slightly in meaning orstyle, such as kingly, royal, regal and rise, mount, ascend. The Old English word isusually the more popular one, with the French word more literary, and the Latinword more learned [20; 24; 28].
2.4.3 Other sources of the borrowings inthe Middle English language
The effects of the Scandinavian invasions also made themselvesfelt during this period. Although the chief period of borrowing must have beenmuch earlier, relatively few Scandinavian loans appear in Old English, and mostdo not come to be used in manuscripts until well into the 13th century, andthen mainly in northern areas where Danish settlement was heaviest.
Several other languages also supplied a sprinkling of new words atthis time, though not all survived. Contact with the Low Countries brought poll‘head’, doten ‘bе foolish’, bouse ‘drink deeply’, and skipper ‘ship's master’,resulting from commercial and maritime links with the Dutch. Other loansincluded cork (Spanish), marmalade (Portuguese), sable (Russian), lough(Irish), and many words from Arabic, especially to do with the sciences such as saffron, admiral, mattress, algebra, alkali, zenith. In most cases, thewords arrived after they had travelled through other countries (and languages),often entering English via French. A good example is the vocabulary of chess (chess,rook, check, mate), which came directlyfrom French, but which is ultimately Persian.
The effect of all this borrowing on the balance of words in theEnglish lexicon was dramatic. In early Middle English, over 90 per cent of words were of native Englishorigin. By the end of the Middle English period this proportion had fallen toaround seventy-five per cent [20; 28].
The new English language did not sound the same as the old one:for as well as undergoing changes in vocabulary, the complex system ofinflected endings which Old English had was gradually lost or simplified in thedialects of spoken Middle English. This change was gradually reflected in itsincreasingly diverse written forms too. The loss of case endings was part of ageneral trend from inflections to fixed word order that also occurred in otherGermanic languages, so cannot be attributed simply to the influence ofFrench-speaking sections of the population. English remained, after all, thelanguage of the vast majority.
The growth of a standard from the London area can be seen by themid 14th century. Although London was very much a dialectal hybrid, patterns ofstandardization gradually appear.
The most significant factor must have been the emergence of Londonas political and commercial centre of the country. In particular theadministrative office of London Chancery is now thought to have been critical,especially after 1430. Vast amount of manuscripts copying took place within theLondon area, and standards of practice emerged among the Chancery Scribes.These practices then influenced many individual scribes who worked privately,and eventually all kinds of material, including literary texts, were affected.When Caxton set up his press in Westminster and chose local London speech ashis norm, the lasting influence of his Chancery Line was assumed.
These observations add up to the claim that the main influence ofthe standard language was the central Midland area, several of whose linguisticfeatures eventually influenced the shape of Chancery Standard.
Caxton's introduction of printing into England was a crucialturning point in the development of the English language. Besides setting astandard, it eventually turned English into an international language.
CONCLUSION
In this research we endeavored to consider a long period of theEnglish language history from its early stages to the period of standardizationinclusive. Having analyzed this complex epoch we have come to the followingconclusions.
The records of the Old English writing embraced a variety ofmatter, they were dated in different centuries, represent various localdialects, belong to diverse genres and were written in different scripts .Theearliest form of writing in Old English period was known as runes and waspresented as a special semantic code reflecting the beliefs, social hierarchyand the general world view of the people at that particular time. Theliterature of the Old English period is generally grouped in two maindivisions, heroic and Christian. To the former are assigned those poems ofwhich the subjects are drawn from English tradition and history or from thecustoms and conditions of English life; to the latter those which deal withBiblical matter, ecclesiastical traditions and religious subjects of definitelyChristian origin.
The linguistic situation in the Middle English was complex. TheNorman Conquest had a greater effect on the English language and on itsvocabulary in particular than any other in the course of its history. MiddleEnglish dialects were partly matter of pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary andgrammar. The regional Middle English dialects developed from respective OldEnglish dialects and were preserved in the succeeding centuries, though in theLate Middle English the linguistic situation had changed.
A later and much larger group of diverse manuscripts include thework of Chaucer and Langland. These texts in their different ways representLondon English of around 1400, but the amount of variation of their displayssuggests that they cannot be called standard, in any strict sense. Not evenChaucer’s writing traditionally thought to be a precursor of modern StandardEnglish, exercised a specific influence on the form this standard took – nor itis likely that poetic usage would ever influence general usage in any real way.It can be hardly doubted though that Chaucer’s literary standing had greatlyadded to the prestige associated with written language in the London dialect.
The influence of the first printers in spreading the written formof English was significant. The language they used was the London literaryEnglish established since the Age of Chaucer and slightly developed inaccordance with the linguistic change that had taken place during theintervening hundred years.
With cheap printed books becoming available to a greater number ofpeople the London form of speech was carried to other regions and was imitatedin the written works produced all over England.
The changes of the Middle English period affected the language onits different levels including vocabulary, grammar, phonetic and spelling. As aresult at the beginning of the period English is a language that must belearned as a foreign tongue, at the end it is Modern English.
The origins of the Standard English are an amalgamation ofdifferent historical, political, social, economical and geographical factorsthat took place within the span of nearly five centuries from Old English to theend of the Middle English period.
Thus, the English language changed from being a speech of a fewtribes to becoming the major language on Earth and in that process it changedradically.
There is never to be total uniformity on the issue in question butthe forerunner of Standard English undoubtedly existed by the end of the 15thcentury.
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APPENDIX 1
Semantic spheres of the loanwords from the French languageAdministration Authority, bailiff, baron, chamberlain, chancellor, constable, coroner, council, court, crown, duke, empire, exchequer, government, liberty, majesty, manor, mayor, messenger, minister, noble, palace, parliament, peasant, prince, realm, reign, revenue, royal, servant, sir, sovereign, squire, statute, tax, traitor, treason, treasurer, treaty, tyrant, vassal, warden. Law Accuse, adultery, advocate, arrest, arson, assault, assize, attorney, bail, bar, blame, chattels, convict, crime, decree, depose, estate, evidence, executor, felon, fine, fraud, heir, indictment, inquest, jail, judge, jury, justice, larceny, legacy, libel, pardon, perjury, plaintiff, plea, prison, punishment, sue, summons, trespass, verdict, warrant Religion Abbey, anoint, baptism, cardinal, cathedral, chant, chaplain, charity, clergy, communion, confess, convent, creator, crucifix, divine, faith, friar, heresy, homily, immortality, incense, mercy, miracle, novice, ordain, parson, penance, prayer, prelate, priory, religion, repent sacrament, sacrilege, saint, salvation, saviour, schism, sermon, solemn, temptation, theology, trinity, vicar, virgin, virtue Military Ambush, archer, army, barbican, battle, besiege, Captain, combat, defend, enemy, garrison, guard, hauberk, lance, lieutenant, moat, navy, peace, portcullis, retreat, sergeant, siege, soldier, spy, vanquish Food and drink Appetite, bacon, beef, biscuit, clove, confertion, cream, cruet, date, dinner, feast, fig, fruit, fry, grape, gravy, gruel, herb, jelly, lemon, lettuce, mackerel, mince, mustard, mutton, olive, orange, oyster, pigeon, plate, pork, poultry, raisin, repast, roast, salad, salmon, sardine, saucer, sausage, sole, spice, stew, sturgeon, sugar, supper, tart, taste, toast treacle, tripe, veal, venison, vinegar Fashion Apparel, attire, boots, brooch, buckle, button, cape, chemise, cloak, collar, diamond, dress, embroidery, emerald, ermine, fashion, frock, fur, garment, garter, gown, jewel, lace, mitten, ornament, pearl, petticoat, pleat, robe, satin, taffeta, tassel, train, veil, wardrobe Leisure and Arts Art, beauty, carol, chess, colour, conversation, courser, dalliance, dance, falcon, fool, harness, image, jollity, joust juggler, kennel, lay, leisure, literature, lute, melody, minstrel, music, noun, painting, palfrey, paper, parchment park, partridge, pavilion, pen, pheasant, poet, preface, prose, recreation, rein, retrieve, revel, rhyme, romance, sculpture, spaniel, stable, stallion, story, tabor, terrier, title, tournament, tragedy, trot, vellum, volume Science and Learning Alkali, anatomy, arsenic, calendar, clause, copy, gender, geometry, gout grammar, jaundice, leper, logic, medicine, metal, noun, ointment, pain, physician, plague, pleurisy, poison, pulse, sphere, square, stomach, study, sulphur, surgeon, treatise The home Basin, blanket, bucket ceiling, cellar, chair, chamber, chandelier, chimney, closet couch, counterpane, curtain, cushion, garret, joist kennel, lamp, lantern, latch, lattice, pantry, parlour, pillar, porch, quilt, scullery, towel, tower, turret General Nouns Action, adventure, affection, age, air, city, coast, comfort, country, courage, courtesy, cruelty, debt, deceit dozen, envy, error, face, fault, flower, forest, grief, honour, hour, joy, labour, manner, marriage, mischief, mountain, noise, number, ocean, opinion, order, pair, people, person, piece, point, poverty, power, quality, rage, reason, river, scandal, season, sign, sound, spirit substance, task, tavern, unity, vision General Adjectives active, amorous, blue, brown, calm, certain, clear, common, cruel, curious, eager, easy, final, foreign, gay, gentle, honest, horrible, large, mean, natural, nice, original, perfect, poor, precious, probable, real, rude, safe, scarce, scarlet second, simple, single, solid, special, strange, sudden, sure, usual General Verbs advise, allow, arrange, carry, change, close, continue, cry, deceive, delay, enjoy, enter, form, grant, inform, join, marry, move, obey, pass, pay, please, prefer, prove, push, quit, receive, refuse, remember, reply, satisfy, save, serve, suppose, travel, trip, wait, waste Turns of phrase by heart, come to a head, do homage, do justice to, have mercy on, hold one's peace, make complaint, on the point of, take leave, take pity on