History of the English Language Part II

Middle English 1066 AD - ~1500AD

What did Middle English Sound Like? From Old English to Middle English, only two major consonant sounds were added: [v] and [z]. ex. view, have ex. size, wise Vowels, on the other hand, went through a number of minor changes.

Middle English Vowels While a number of OE vowel sounds remained in use during the ME period, about half of the vowels became longer when people spoke, as compared to when the same word was spoken during the OE period. Ex. hus  hūs  house Ex. scinan  scīn  shine Side note: this phenomenon is also why we have the words shine and sheen, which both mean essentially the same thing when used as nouns.

What did Middle English Look Like? The Middle English Alphabet looked a lot like the Old English Alphabet, with the addition/subtraction of a few letters a b c d e f g ᵹ h i/j k l m n o p q r s t þ u v w x y z

What Happened to Inflections? Fairly early in the Middle English period, English-speakers began to simplify their system of inflections. One of the easiest ways to see this is to compare the Old English and Middle English pronouns: Singular Plural Subject Object Possessive First ik ich I me my(n) we us oure Second þou thou þee thee þy(n) thy(n) ȝe ye ȝow you ȝower your Third Impersonal hit hit / him his he þei they hem þem them her þeir their Masculine he him Feminine ȝho scho sche hire

Middle English Verbs While many of the inflections from Old English had been simplified, Middle English still retained a few and even added one very important new one from French: -ing The Middle English period also saw the beginning of using verb phrases in sentences to substitute for the lack of inflections to mark tense. Ex. Ic cume  I am com  I have come

Where do New Words Come From? Besides the obvious amount of French loanwords due to the Norman Conquest of England, other languages like Old Norse also added to the English lexicon: Ex. anger, bad, cake, cast, clip, ransack, sale, skin, thrive, thrust, ugly, window Old Norse was also a large influence around the time the English began using surnames and is the origin of the suffix –son common even to this day. Besides loanwords, English continued to make new words in a number of ways.

Forming New Words While the processes used to form new words was used during the Old English period as well, with the loss of inflections, English needed new words to fill the gap so English speakers began to use these more often. Compounding: combining two words together. Ex. windfall, gentleman, quicksand, nosebleed, whirlwind, babysit, etc. Affixing: adding prefixes or suffixes. Ex. withstand, forsake, motherhood, counterclaim, restore, etc.

Middle English Syntax By this period, the sentences and clauses of Middle English were looking a lot like Modern English, with SVO emerging as the dominant structure. There were a few exceptions, but one trend had its beginning in Middle English: the use of definite and indefinite articles. Definite Indefinite þe, þat, þise, þo a, an

Review Middle English was the period that introduced the consonants [v] and [z] to the language, and many vowels began being pronounced longer than they had previously. Along with the addition of thousands of loanwords, Middle English also saw the loss of many Old English inflections, resulting in an increase in new word formation. SVO became the dominant word-order and English writers began using verb phrases rather than single verbs to clarify tense.

Quiz Define the following terms: Compounding Affixing