A LANGUAGE REBORN Middle English

So, what happened? After William the Conqueror took over, English was suppressed to the lower classes – the poor, uneducated masses – while the aristocracy spoke French Then came King John, younger brother of Richard the Lionhearted, and his affair with Isabel of Angouleme.

Important People Richard the LionheartedKing John

Important People, continued Isabel of AngoulemeKing Philip of France

Chaucer and Co. – Literary Stars Major Literary Works include:  Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales  The Pearl Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur

Major Influences in English’s Rise to Power King John’s fateful decision in 1204 AD The strike of the plague known as the “black death” in the mid 14 th century The Statute of Pleading in 1362 AD

The Power of the Church

Key Features of Middle English Continental long vowel system remains Runic characters lost; entirely Latin alphabet; gain new letters: z, w, v, th, gh, ch, sh Leveling of Inflection – complex ending system of OE simplified to “e” Analytic language – word order determines function Hypotactic language – complex clausal structures Introduction of Latin and French words associated with art, law, goverment, court, fashion, medicine, and military

Sample of Old English 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; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye- (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages) When in April the sweet showers fall That pierce March's drought to the root and all And bathed every vein in liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower; When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath, Filled again, in every holt and heath, The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun His half-course in the sign of the Ram 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)