Old English to Middle English
Dr. Brian McFadden
History of the English Language
ENGL 3372/5334
Æthelred and the Danes
✔
From mid – 950’s Edwig, Eadred, and Edgar (the Peaceable) eventually regain
control of most of Danelaw via defeat of Eric and submission of local nobles; Five
Boroughs area still fairly well supported, and some areas on east coast still firmly
under Danish/Norse control
✔
Edgar had supported the Benedictine Reform, but dies sudenly in 975; brief “antimonastic reaction”
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978 Aethelred II Unræd (often called the “Unready,” actually “ill-advised”) takes
the throne after murder of Edward (“the Martyr”)
– pickup in Viking raiding – has a hard time dealing with it after some early
success
– OE poetry - Beowulf MS, Exeter Book, Junius MS, Vercelli Book all date
between 950-1010
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1002 St. Brice's Day Massacre - Aethelred orders murder of all Danes in England;
mostly in former Danelaw or areas with small Danish populations
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1013 Aethelred flees; Canute the Dane controls England
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1016 Æthelred dies 23 April; his son Edmund “Ironside” wins a few battles, but
dies in November; Canute acknowledged as King of England
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1035 Canute dies; his two sons, Harold and Hardacnut, both die young
The End of Anglo-Saxon England
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1042 Edward the Confessor succeeds as king; his choice of heir is supposedly
William of Normandy
– Good deal of historical debate on this
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1066 Harold Godwinson claims throne on Edward's death
– William invades from the south; Norwegian Harald III ‘Hardrada’ invades
from the north
– 9/25/28 - Battle of Stamford Bridge; Harold defeats Harald
– 10/14/1066 – William defeats Harold at Hastings; Harold dies
✔
1085 William orders census of the kingdom (“Domesday Book”); rise of
“feudalism”
Major effects from external history
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1066 - Norman Conquest - began a period of contact - Anglo-Norman is born
– French becomes prestige language with Latin
– about 1150 - a new, recognizable Middle English
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Pidgin? Creole? Not so much, in my view
– Changes in inflections, rise of prepositions, new vocabulary, syntax changes,
but basic structure of the language does not change
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1204 - John loses all French possessions - England cut off from Normandy
– French begins to lose prestige - no reason or inclination to speak it
The 1300’s
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Early 1300’s - English becomes prestige language at court
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Hundred Years War - more separation from France
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Plague – fewer workers, more mobility, contact between dialects
– Statute of Laborers 1351 – attempted to stem movement
– 1381 – Peasant’s Revolt
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Commons gain more power - English, not Latin, promoted
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Lollardy/ecclesiastical reforms – promotion of English over Latin
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Literature - Gower, Chaucer, Langland, Gawain become famous for writing in
English
Dialectal changes
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Dialect - a version of a language spoken in a certain geographic area or by a
particular group within an area
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Effects of the Norman Conquest - Southern and Midlands dialects of English began
to show greater differences from Northern dialects - most contact with Normans
✔
London dialect (East Midlands) was often very different from other regions, but a
great proportion of the documents was written in it; did not share much with West
Saxon, the major written dialect of Old English (West Midlands) or Kentish
✔
Results - certain major changes from OE
Dialectal changes
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Example: In London, you will have a “mutton chop” for dinner. In Yorkshire, it
will be a “lamb chop.” Why?
✔
Fr. mouton = lamb in English; greater contact with Normans in the South after the
Conquest.
Consonant sounds
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voiced fricatives become phonemic; they change the meanings of the morphemes in
which they occur (phonemicization)
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f, þ, s branch out into v, ð, z; the sounds existed in OE, but as allophones
✔
OE þin, ðin both mean thine; no change in meaning with change of sound
✔
fine, vine (Fr. fin, delicate or subtle; vin, wine)
Consonant sounds 2
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Why are voiced fricatives so important?
✔
✔
✔
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French loanwords used them - identifies a word’s origin
English used to dialect differences - if they draw a distinction, it means the changes
are phonemic
Loss of final vowels/endings
– OE hus - ME huse - PDE house - /s/
– OE husian - ME huse(n) - PDE to house - /z/ - retains pronunciation after the
ending drops
voiced fricatives take less energy - lightly stressed words such as articles or
demonstratives tended to vocalize
Consonant sounds 3
✔
Modern effects:
– almost all words that start with /v/ or /z/ are French loanwords
– /v, z, ð/ phonemes are not as widely distributed
– words that start with /ð/ are mostly function words, pronouns, and
demonstratives
• them, these, those, then, there, the
Consonant sounds 4
✔
Long or geminate consonants shorten
– OE mann > man
✔
h drops out of /hl, hn, hr/
– OE hræfn > raven; OE hloh > ME loh (laughed)
– /γ/ becomes voiced or becomes /w/ after liquids
• OE swelgan > ME swelwan > swallow
✔
prefix ge- becomes y, i
– OE genog > ME inough > enough
– “sumer is icumen in, loude sing cuccu....”
Consonant sounds 5
✔
Final -s in plurals and 3sg. became voiced after voiced sounds, voiceless after
voiceless
– foules - /z/ ; cours (course) - /s/; his = /hɪz/
✔
Unstressed final consonants after vowels tended to drop in ME
– OE ic - ME I; OE -lic (luflic) > li, ly (lufli) > lovely
Consonant sounds 6
✔
Loss of certain consonant clusters
– /w/ often drops after /s, t/ - OE swa > sa or so
– sometimes remains in spelling (sword = /sɔrd/)
– /l/ lost near /tʃ/: OE micel > much
– /v/ drops near consonant or vowel+consonant: OE hlafdige > ME ladi > lady
– final /b/ after /m/ drops out in pronunciation, not spelling: lamb, comb;
medial /mb/ remains (timber)
Consonant sounds 7
✔
Intrusive consonants, esp. before /l, r, n/
– b after m: OE bremel > ME brembel > bramble
– b after final m, but silent: OE þuma > thumb
– d after final n or n+resonant: OE þunor > ME thunder; Fr. son > ME sound
– t after s: OE hlysnan > ME listnen > listen
✔
These are tendencies only, not universal; some words did not develop intrusive
consonants
– bridging or breaking consonant clusters
Consonant sounds 8
✔
OE leftovers
– gn- and kn- still pronounced (“You silly English knights!” - /kənɪgətz/)
– /h/ used medially or finally is still pronounced - OE þoht (/θoxt/) > ME
thought (/θɔxt/) > PDE thought (/θɔt /)
– letter -þ- still used to about 1400, but is eventually replaced by digraph -th• digraph - two letters used to represent one sound
• æ and ð tend to disappear by about 1300
Vowel Changes 1
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Very hard to track exactly with all of the different dialects of Middle English
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This system is one version and does not always reflect what other scholars say; very
hard to get agreement
Vowel Changes 2
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OE / y / > ME /ɪ/
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OE / i / > ME / ɪ /
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OE / e / > ME / ɛ /
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OE / æ / > ME / ɑ /
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OE / ɑ / > ME / ɑ /
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OE / o / > ME / ɔ /
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OE / u / > ME / ʊ /
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OE / y: / > ME / ī /
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OE / i: / > ME / ī /
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OE / e: / > ME / ē /
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OE / æ: / > ME / ɛ̅, ē /
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OE / ɑ: / > ME / ɔ: /
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OE / o: / > ME / o: /
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OE / u: / > ME / u: /
Vowel Changes 3
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unstressed vowel sounds tended to move to / ə, ɪ /, spelled e (think of how many e’s
today are unstressed!)
✔
parasitic/epenthetic vowel - tends to break up consonant combinations
– OE þurh > ME thoroh/w > thoroughfare
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/ ə / in OE diphthongs tended to drop out
Vowel Changes 4
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ME diphthongs arose from use of semivowels and French loanwords
– ME / iu /: OE spiwan > ME spewen, “spit, vomit”
– ME / ɛu /: OE feawe > ME fewe, “few”
– ME / ɑu /: OE clawu > ME clawe, “claw”
– ME / ɔu /: OE dohtor > ME doughter, “daughter”
– ME / æi /: OE dæg > ME day, “day”
– ME / ʊi /: OFr point > ME point, “point”
– ME / ɔi /: OFr choisir > ME chois, “choice”
Vowel Changes 5
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Lengthening of short vowels before consonant pairs
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✔
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i or o + mb: OE climban > ME climbe > climb
– cf. comb, but bomb
i or u + nd: OE grindan > ME grinde > grind
– cf. bound < bunden
any vowel + ld: OE milde > ME milde > mild
– cf. wilderness
Vowel Changes 5a
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What does this account for in PDE?
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Unpronounced/unstressed letters often dropped
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-b is not pronounced in climb, so why didn’t it drop, yielding PDE *clim?
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retained in spelling to indicate length of vowel
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archaism that is still meaningful in PDE graphics
Vowel Changes 6
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Lengthening of the vowel in the syllable preceding an open syllable
– Open - ends in vowel; closed - ends in consonant
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OE gatu > ME gāte (unstressed /ə/ pronounced) > gate
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OE stelan > ME stēle > steal
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OE hopa > ME hōpe > hope
Vowel Changes 6a
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What does this account for in PDE?
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OE hopa > ME hōpe (unstressed and pronounced e) > PDE hope; if vowel has
lengthened, why not PDE *hop?
✔
silent -e retained in graphics as a sign of vowel length
Vowel Changes 7
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General tendency for shortening of long sounds in syllables preceding closed
syllables
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OE scēaphierde > ME shepherde > shepherd
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OE gōdsibbe > ME godsib > gossip
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not always consistent: OE gæst > ME gost > ghost
Vowel Changes 8
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Lengthening/shortening effects in PDE
– Later medieval scribal practice: double a letter to indicate length
• ME kēpe(n) > keepe > PDE keep
• OE gōd > ME and PDE good
–
Doubled e and o are the only double vowel spellings that have survived
– in weak verb survivals, adding a -d or a -t closed the syllables, so apparent
irregularities occur
• ME slepe, slepte > PDE sleep, slept
•
conjectured form *slep(e)te - unstressed -e- sound would have dropped
out
Vowel Changes 9
✔
Loss of final unstressed vowels/inflections
– OE heorte > ME herte > late ME/PDE heart
✔
French loanwords stressed on final syllable
– Fr. cité > ME cite > city - no loss at end
Graphic changes
✔
long u - ou or ow (OE hus; ME hous)
✔
doubled vowels to indicate length (OE gōd; ME good); only o and e survive in PDE
(from London dialect)
✔
sc > sh (OE fisc; ME fish); occasionally -sch-, as in German
✔
c(e) > ch (OE ceap, cild; ME cheape, childe)
✔
gg/cg > dge (OE brycg > ME bridge); initially, still written as j✔
h (/x/) > gh (OE þoht > ME thoughte)
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hw > wh (OE hwile > ME while)
– No h for light aspiration, esp, in south (wile); qu- if heavy, esp. in north
(quhile)
✔
g > gu, esp. French loanwords: guard, guild, guest
– g sometimes goes to a semivowel sound; represented by w (cf. PDE
guarantee, warranty)
Loss of inflections
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Strong noun singulars: -es retained in possessive, all others tend to drop off
✔
Strong/weak plurals: all tend toward -es (French noun endings)
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Weak nouns - -n drops off end, open a > e, -es retained in plurals, so -e in singular,
-es in plurals tend to stay
✔
Scribal abbreviation ‘ indicates loss of an e - our ‘s ending is the only real surviving
singular inflection (-es)
Noun Declensions
See handout.
Loss of inflections
✔
Strong/weak adjectives survive, but change
– Strong adjectives - no ending in singular, -e in plural (sg. blind, pl. blinde)
– Weak adjectives - all tend to go to -e (sg. blinde, pl. blinde)
✔
French influence - if adjectives follow nouns, they often add an -s in plural;
otherwise, no ending (greete huses), but pretty much lost by Chaucer’s time
(shoures soote)
✔
-er, -est for comparative and superlative (from OE -or,
-ost)
✔
more and most could be combined with an adjective with an ending for emphasis
– No rule yet for use of more and most (swetter, more swete)
Loss of inflections
✔
Personal pronouns - reduced to a subject, object, and possessive case, as PDE
– Gradual adoption of natural gender over grammatical gender, as in PDE
– Plurals adopted Norse forms to distinguish between masculine and feminine
singulars
• hire > þair > their; hem > þeim > them
Personal Pronouns
See handout.
Loss of inflections
✔
Demonstrative pronouns reduced to four forms: þis and þat, þise and þose
– PDE this, that, these, those
✔
þe (the) is the only remaining indeclinable pronoun, survives as definite article the
Strong verbs
✔
There were many more weak verbs than strong verbs
✔
Also, some strong verbs are very rare or specialized
✔
Implications:
– greater percentage of strong verbs were lost from OE to ME
– others adopted weak forms and survived
Strong verbs 2
✔
Class 1 - OE i, a, i, i > ME rise(n), ros, risen, (y)risen
– /a/ > /ɔ/; often written as <o> in ME
✔
Class 2 - OE eo/u, ea, u, o > ME crepe(n), crep, crupen, (y)cropen - diphthongs
simplify to single vowels
– went weak - creep, crept, crept in PDE
✔
Class 3 - varies in OE - stabilizes in ME: singe(n), sang, sungen, (y)sungen
– Most went weak; molten survives as a strong form, though
Strong verbs 3
✔
Class 4 - OE e, æ,ǣ, o - ME bere(n), bar, beren, (y)boren
– after ME period, a > o (bore), unstressed e may drop out (born)
✔
Class 5 - OE e, æ,ǣ, e - speke(n), spak, speken, (y)speken
– archaic spake > spoke as above; e > o (spoken) by analogy
✔
Class 6 - OE a, o, o, a - wake(n), wok, woken, (y)waken
– no real change - PDE forms visible here
– hladan > load, loaded, loaded – went weak, but laden survives
✔
Class 7 OE Varies: e(o),e(o),Varies - falle(n), fel, fellen, (y)fallen
– PDE forms visible - fall, fell, fallen
Weak Verbs
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A smaller percentage were lost
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Many French and Norse loanwords were incorporated as weak verbs
-ed, -de, -te endings survived, but eventually -ed became the main ending
Northern dialect tends to simplify the most
Verb Conjugations
See handout.
Development of verb tenses
✔
Reminder: OE only had a present and a preterite
✔
Use of shall or will to indicate futurity
– movement of meanings of OE sculan/willan from “to be obliged/to will,”
motan (moste) from “to be allowed” to “must”
– Grammaticalization – start to serve a purpose in the grammar of the sentence
as opposed to naming an action
✔
Perfect and pluperfect - use of have, has, had with past participle
– cf. French auxiliaries avoir/être
✔
modals - may, might, etc. to indicate conditional, subjunctive
– OE verb magan – “to be permitted, to be able”
✔
do to indicate causation or emphasis