Dr. Fee's Introduction to Middle English

English 209: Introduction to Middle English

Middle English period: mid-eleventh to early-sixteenth centuries
Three suddivisions:
· Sudden decline of English after Norman Conquest (1066-1204) English in decline:
1. Politically and linguistically NC=French conquest of England/ethnically, NC=last great Germanic invasion/migration
2. William was descendant of Rollo the Dane who was granted Normandy in 911 by Charles the Simple to end viking raids/ “Norman”=“northman”
3. Norman French was heavily Germanic, which becomes important in the reemergence of English
4. Within 10 years William subdued all of England; AS nobility mostly dead or displaced; he was accepted as a stern but just ruler who brought stability
5. Norman French take over all important state and church offices: French becomes the language of the ruling classes, government, etc.
6. William brought feudalism: the English farmers were now serfs, tied to the land, and couldn’t move; dialects dicerged rapidly, with no written forms or dominant dialect to act as brake
7. French-speaking court, French-speaking kings who took French-speaking wives, French literature
8. French language of few thousand rulers; bulk of population (with no prestige or power) spoke English, Norse in Danelaw, Latin in Church and Unis, Celtic on fringes
9. A good deal of bilingualism must have prevailed: many nobility took English wives, etc. Many loanwords from this period (tax, estate, trouble, duty, pay—interaction with landlords; table, boil, serve, roast, wine—interaction with masters; religion, savior, pray, trinity—interaction with clerics)
· Gradual reemergence of English as the national language (1204-1348) English in the ascendant:
1. 1204 John loses all of Normandy save Channel Islands; lords had to choose English or French possessions
2. France becomes less of object of interest, often object of scorn or resenment
3. Anglo-French considered uncouth—Parisian French=prestige dialect
4. Henry III brings unpopular French bureaucrats in mid 1200s
5. More mixing and social rising of English speakers smoothed over dialectical differences
6. By 1200 and 1300s, English is native language of nobility; they learn French as 2nd language
7. By late 1300s, English normal language of schools
8. French books for learning the language and rules for the use of French in some contexts suggest its decline
· Rise of a standard form of the language superimposed upon the many English dialects (1348-1509) English triumphs:
1. 1348 Black Death kills 1/3 of English population
2. 1337-1453 Hundred Years War; loss of French possessions, of need to know French, +animosity
3. 1362 English becomes official language of law
4. Acceptance of English as official language was not a policy decision, but a recognition of fact
5. Rise of London English as prestige dialect and model for standard written form; did not supplant dialects, but existed in concert; it is the basis of the prestige dialects today throughout the world
6. London was commercial, literary, and political capital—the ascendancy of this dialect was a natural progression, not a decision; printing industry set up in London seals this fate
7. 1509 Henry VIII takes throne, end of Middle English period