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Published byCora Boyd Modified over 9 years ago
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Middle English Roughly spoken from 1066-1485 *Language change is slow, but definable
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I. Pronunciation changes A. schwa –e sound (like in 2nd syllable of cola or 1st syllable in alone) 1. Germ. Emphasis on the 1st syllable (like we still do for a good part today) 2. 2nd syllables lost distinct vowel sound ex: census, legal, ribbon, valid 3. no one knew how to spell those words, ended up using an e to represent this unstressed vowel (and Middle English began)
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II. Endings and Order Old English had depended on the vowels in the last syllables of words to help tell many things: they indicated whether an adjective’s or noun’s gender was masculine, feminine, or neutral; whether a verb was indicative (stating a fact) or subjunctive (stating a wish or reality); whether a noun was singular or plural; what function a noun filled in a sentence (subject or object); etc. The loss of the vowel distinctions meant we had to find other ways of indicating those things or do without that information totally.
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II. Endings and Order (cont.) A. Grammatical Gender Ended (thank goodness) 1. old way – “the door... she” “the roof... he” “the wife... it” 2. new way – males = “he” ; females = “she” ; objects = “it”
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II. Endings and Order (cont.) B. Plural Forms Changed 1. old way – everything was irregular ex: ox/oxen ; tooth/teeth 2. new way – just add an –s ex: tree/trees ; peasant/peasants
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II. Endings and Order (cont.) C. Word Order Replaces Word Endings Old English showed grammatical meanings and relations by word endings; Middle English showed meanings and relations by word order and by function words such as prepositions, helping verbs (will, shall, etc.), articles, etc.
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II. Endings and Order (cont.) C. Word Order Replaces Word Endings (cont.) 1. old way – SVO or OVS or OSV ex: the book read the man ; the book the man read 2. new way – SVO ex: the man read the book
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III. Normans Invade the Anglo- Saxons A. French vs. English (England is bilingual) 1. Fr. – ruling class, law courts, government 2. Eng – peasant class, servants, craftsmen, farmers 3. English wins! (eventually) a) more people spoke it b) 100 Years War = nationalism 4. English borrows TONS of French words
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