Middle English Written Records

Main Written Records of the Middle English Period

See § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

Geoffrey Chaucer and His Contribution

Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the most prominent authors of the Middle English Period and he set up a language pattern to be followed. He is considered to be the founder of the literary language of that period. Most authors of the Middle English Period tried to fallow this standard.

Features of the Chaucer’s Language:

· Chaucer’s Language was the basis for the national literary language (15^th – 16^th c.).

· New spelling rules (digraphs) and new rules of reading (1 letter = several sounds) appeared as compared to the Old English.

· New grammatical forms appeared (Perfect forms, Passive forms, “to” Infinitive constructions, etc.).

· Chaucer tried to minimize the number of the French loans in the English Language.

· Chaucer introduced rhyme to the poetry.

Middle English Alphabet

The Middle English Alphabet resembled the Old English Alphabet but some changes were introduced:

· th replaced ð/þ/Đ/đ;

· w replaced ?;

· æ, œ disappeared;

· digraphs(2 letters = one sound) appeared (came from French):

o th for [q] and [ð];

o tch/chfor [t∫];

o sch/ssh/shfor [∫];

o dgfor [dζ];

o whreplace hw but was pronounced still as [hw]!;

o ghfor [h];

o qufor [kw];

o ow/oufor [u:] and [ou];

o iefor [e:].

Rules of Reading:

They resemble the modern rules, with several exceptions though:

1.Double vowels stood for long sounds, e.g. oo = [o:]; ee = [e:].

2.g = [dζ]

c = [s] before front vowels ( [i, e] ).

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g = [g]

c = [k] before back vowels ( [a, o, u] ).

3.y = [j] – at the beginning of the word;

=[i] – in the cases when i stood close together with r, n, m and could be confused with one of these letters or could be lost among them, it was replaced with y, sometimes also for decorative purpose.(e.g. nyne [‘ni:nə], very [‘veri]).

4.th = [ð]

s = [z] between vowels.

5.o = [o] – in most cases;

=[u] – in the words that have [Λ] sound in Modern English (e.g. some, love)

6.j = [dζ]

H/w:

1. § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

2. Using your knowledge of the Middle English spelling and the rules of reading (Lecture 8) read an abstract from the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer (lines 1-14) on p. 33-34 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and try to identify the peculiarities of the Middle English spelling and rules of reading.

Lecture 9

New English Period in the History of the English Language

In the 15^th – 16^th c. the feudal system started to decay and bourgeois relationships and capitalism started to develop. England became a centralised state.

Introduction of Printing

The first printer of English books was William Caxton (1422-1491). He was born in Kent. In 1441 he moved to Flanders (a region in Belgium) and later, in 1473, he opened up his own printing press in Bruges.

1475– the first English book was printed in Bruges by William Caxton. It was a translation of the story of Troy.

A few years later William Caxton brought his printing press to England and set it up in Winchester. Here he published the work of the famous authors of that time – Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Lydgate – and translated books from French.

Contribution of Printing:

· The works of the authors of that time were edited and brought into conformity with the London Dialect and as far as all the book were written in this dialect, it spread quickly and became the true standard of the English language;

· As far as printing allowed to multiply books in great number, they were sold and thus the literacy of the population grew;

· Before the introduction of printing different scribes could spell the same words differently; with the introduction of printing the spelling became fixed and it hasn’t changed since that time though the pronunciation has changed greatly (this fact explains the difficulties of the English spelling).

Age of Shakespeare

See lectures in the English Literature on Shakespeare and his works.

The sources of information about the language:

· private letters (as far as books became available, more people became literate and started to write letters, wills, diaries, etc.);

· books for pupils and didactic works (e.g. “An Orthographie” by John Hart; “Grammatica Lingæ Anglicanæ” by John Wallis, etc.);

· lists of difficult words and dictionaries (e.g. “English-English Dictionary” (dialectal words explained with the help of the bookish English) by Henry Cockeram, etc.).