1. Introduction to Old and Middle English: Part II ME: Overview April 7, 2006 Andreas H. Jucker

2. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis Periodisation Old English: 450-1150 Middle English: 1150 - 1500 Early Modern English: 1500 - 1700 Modern English: 1700 - present

3. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis Recap: Old English Germanic invasion, 449 Germanic language Christianisation, 7th century Latin influence Scandinavian invasions, 9th and 10th century Scandinavian influence Domination of Wessex, 10th century Standardisation

4. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis Main features of OE Mainly Germanic vocabulary Some Latin and Scandinavian influence, and Celtic place names Relatively free word order Inflections Case endings

5. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis The Norman conquest 1066 William the Conqueror wins the Battle of Hastings French and Latin replace English as an official language 1154 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ends 1204 King John loses Normandy to the French king English nationalism begins to develop

6. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis Law documents Poetry literature Scholarly texts Spoken Functional distribution of major languages 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 Latin French E dialects Standard E Source: Görlach 1990. Studies in the History of the English Language.

7. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis Main features of Middle English Less standardised, more dialectal variation in the written sources Much simpler system of inflexions, especially in nouns and adjectives Increased reliance on word-order and prepositions Increasingly more mixed vocabulary (French, Latin, Scandinavian)

8. ahj/Winter semester 2005/06 Dialogue Analysis Reasons for levelling of case endings Stress on root syllable Consequent weakening and centralisation of unstressed syllables [-3n] Loss of case marking function Prepositions take over case marking function