Middle English: The Vikings&The Normans

Viking Invasions Most powerful people of their time 793 a.d. Vikings invade England They were at first merely plundering raids, but some fifty years later these attacks had become more serious and groups had even started settling in Britain.

The lack of unity in England made it a great deal easier for the Vikings to roam and raid the countryside. Eventually, Vikings control much of England This area is called the Danelaw.

Towards the end of the ninth century their eyes turned to Wessex, the strongest of the Saxon kingdoms not yet under Danish control. After that, King Alfred and his followers put up resistance, eventually forcing the Viking troops to surrender in 878

Alfred and the Viking leader Guthrum reached an agreement, called the Treaty of Wedmore, where the Vikings promised to leave Wessex alone and to accept Christianity.

Danelaw

Quick Facts . The Vikings were unusually bloodthirsty and barbarian. . They seemed to take special care to destroy items of religious value and kill churchmen. . They always want to die fighting

.Viking weapons were mostly of three sorts, spears, swords, axes and to some extent bows. Of these the spear seems to have been the most common of them

So what language is being used in British Isles at this time? Various dialects of Old English These dialects continue to be influenced by Latin and Celtic They are also now influenced by Scandinavian languages (Norse) is spoken in Danelaw area.

Where do words come from? Anglo-Saxon words: to, and, for, in, man, wife, child, fight, love, sleep, eat, house, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Latin words: altar, monk, preach, priest, hymn, noon, candle, offer

Viking words Nouns: husband, law, leg, root, score, sister, skin, trust Adjectives: happy, ill, loose, low, odd, Verbs: to cast, clip, crawl, cut, die, drown Pronouns: both, same, they, them and their

Not only did the Scandinavian peoples bring their laws and customs to the Danelaw, but their view on law and legal custom was to a great extent acknowledged by all of England.

The Norman Conquest and the Development of Middle English (1100-1500) William the Conqueror invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 AD. Brought 600 ships and 10 to 12 thousand men Defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings

William of Normandy

Battle of Hastings

William replaces the old English nobility by a new Norman nobility. Soon, every important position in government, church and at universities was held by a Norman.

Norman Influences: Latin Prior to the Norman Conquest, Latin had been only a minor influence on the English language, mainly through vestiges of the Roman occupation and from the conversion of Britain to Christianity in the seventh century (ecclesiastical terms such as priest, vicar, and mass came into the language this way).

Now there was a wholesale infusion of Romance (Anglo-Norman) words.

The Merging of Two Languages The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow. Beef, commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, while the Anglo-Saxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow. .

Many legal terms, such as indict, jury, and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the courts. This split, where words commonly used by the aristocracy have Romantic roots and words frequently used by the Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be seen in many instances

The Norman Conquest made English for two centuries the language mainly of the lower classes while the nobles and those associated with them used French on almost all occasions.

Middle English: 1100-1500 It was not until the14th century—300 years later—that English became dominant in Britain again. In 1399, King Henry IV became the first king of England since the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English. By the end of the 14th Century, the dialect of London had emerged as the standard dialect of what is now call Middle English.

Vocabulary French Words: action, adventure, marriage, power, vision, beef, venison, honest, prefer, master, court, crown Almost half of modern English vocabulary comes from Latin and French

The Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a change in pronunciation that began around 1400 and separates all Middle English and continues till Modern English. In linguistic terms, the shift was rather sudden, the major changes occurring within a century.

The Great Vowel Shift refers to the change in pronunciation of long vowels that occurred in England. After this event, vowel pronunciation shifted up one place. So, for example, the "i" in Middle English had a long "e" sound, as in the word "sweet." Afterward, the long "i" sound was pronounced as it is currently, such as in the word "night." Middle English (ME) "a" is pronounced as the "a" in "father." Early modern English (EME) pronounces the long "a" as in "gate." ME pronounces the long "e" as the long "a" in "gate." EME pronounces the long "e" as the "e" in "tweet." ME pronounces the long "i" as the "e" in "tweet." EME pronounces the long "i" as the "i" in "light." ME pronounces the long "o" as the "o" in "tool." EME pronounces the long "o" as the "o" in "goal." ME scholars suggest that no higher long "u" pronunciation exists. The "ou" as in current "day," would have given the "ow" sound, as in the word "louse." EME pronounces the "u" as long "o" in ME. Long "u" pronunciation in EME is as the long "o" of "tool" or the long "u" of "lute." There are naturally pronunciation exceptions, such as the words "tool" and "lute." Why words with the same essential sound are spelled different suggests that the Great Vowel Shift was certainly not uniform, and did occur over time. Theoretically, "tool" could reasonably be spelled "tule," as is "mule." Whatever the theory, linguists look to the shift as the forebear of modern English pronunciation, and also as to why English speakers spell so many words in ways that make little sense from a phonetic standpoint.

The reasons behind this shift are something of a mystery, and linguists have been unable to account for why it took place. It was first identified and studied by Otto Jesperson, a linguist from Denmark, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Most linguists agree that the Great Vowel Shift did not occur all at once, which accounts for the creative spellings of many English words. Some printers might still have employed an earlier vowel pronunciation when spelling, making English one of the most challenging languages to spell, because so many

exceptions to spelling rules exist exceptions to spelling rules exist. . Some linguists account for the change by suggesting that England’s rule by the French led to disenchantment with French pronunciation of vowels, which is a similar pronunciation to that of Middle English

To distance themselves from prior French occupation and rule, the English ruling class may have deliberately changed the ways vowels were pronounced to reflect that theirs was a different language. . This then filtered down to the lower classes.

Another theory is that England may have had several influential people with speech impediments, and such mispronunciations might be copied in deference to someone of high enough rank. This theory is not endorsed by many, but does show linguists attempting to consider

all possible explanations for the change. The theories regarding the Great Vowel Shift are merely conjectures, but most linguists lean toward the former theory above.

The key pronunciation features of the Great Vowel Shift are the following: Middle English (ME) "a" is pronounced as the "a" in "father." Early modern English (EME) pronounces the long "a" as in "gate." ME pronounces the long "e" as the long "a" in "gate."

EME pronounces the long "e" as the "e" in "tweet." ME pronounces the long "i" as the "e" in "tweet." EME pronounces the long "i" as the "i" in "light." ME pronounces the long "o" as the "o" in "tool." EME pronounces the long "o" as the "o" in "goal."

The shift is still not over, however, vowel sounds are still shortening although the change has become considerably more gradual.

Middle English: 1100-1500 The most famous literary example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Unlike Old English, Middle English can be read, albeit with difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.

The Canterbury Tales Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury Whan that aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Here begins the Book of the Tales of Canterbury When April with his showers sweet The drought of March has pierced unto the root And bathed each vein with liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower;

The Canterbury Tales Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (so priketh hem nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath, Quickened again, in every holt and heath, The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun Into the Ram one half his course has run, And many little birds make melody That sleep through all the night with open eye (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)- Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,

The Canterbury Tales And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially from every shires ende Of engelond to caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan tha they were seeke. And palmers to go seeking out strange strands, To distant shrines well known in sundry lands. And specially from every shire's end Of England they to Canterbury wend, The holy blessed martyr there to seek Who helped them when they lay so ill.

So what language is being used in British Isles at this time? Middle English, in various dialects, is now dominant French begins to disappear from the scene Latin remains prominent among the educated

Important sites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxzM_Y0cYJA How the Celts Saved Britain - HD - 1of2 (BBC) - A New Civilization http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIBkv7pU9Eo "How The Celts Saved Britain" (part 2of2) Dark ages and the Celts  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09vrVfI168Anglo Saxon house - a reconstruction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvB1jLld1W0 The Vikings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsX7i5BCHsoTHE VIKINGS: Who Were They? 1 / 3 (720p) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea0iVLWTtg4 The Lost Vikings

http://www. youtube. com/watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoniyxdgY4I The Conquerors - William theConqueror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9c_dEhzbE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1yAxo94ClU Barbarians - The Vikings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDKLQAraxe8THE BARBARIANS: War Against The Roman Empire (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taVsvYWp1UU The Viking Sagas http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-great-vowel-shift.htm

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html https://www.unidue.de/SHE/SHE_Chronological_Summary.htm

Study Questions Write briefly about the Old English Dialects. Among the Old English Dialects, the West-Saxon is the most important. Explain.

Give a brief outline of significant dates, events, influences, and language contact in the history of the English language.

Which one of the following texts was composed during the Old English period? (a) The Canterbury Tales (b) Beowulf (c) Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge

During the Middle English period, many words were borrowed from which two languages? (a) Celtic and Old Norse (b) Urdu and Iroquoian (c) Latin and French