HEL 9

 

Middle English Grammar

Biggest dialect areas:

 

North:

much more innovative:

contact with Norse, less French influence

Source of our inflections (= simplified inflections)

innovative pronouns:

they, them, their

she?

 

South:

much more conservative:

retain more inflection longer

more French contact

 

General Middle English:

 

Reduction

Leveling

Analogy spreads!

 

 

simplification” of inflectional system

with attendant increase in rigidity of word order

 

Ex: Peterborough Chronicle:

 

1083: On žissum geare

1117: On žison geare

1135: On žis geare

1154: On žis gear

 

Vowel Reduction:

 

centralization and laxing of unstressed/weak stressed vowels

leveling” of inflections: merger, followed by loss

/a/, /u/, /o/, > /ə/

silencing, then loss

 

 

Final ‘e’ is silenced, even though often kept in spelling

 

loss of all final ‘e’ inflections

 

pronunciation of final ‘e’ maintained in poetry into 14th century

 

even false final ‘e’s:

lore < OE lar

 

Medial ‘e’ disappears—syncope

 

             es genitive > s (except following sibilants)

 

            eth generally reduced > th

 

            ed retained in past participle, but not in past tense (pronounce)

 

                        though some have calléd thee”

                        banishéd

                        marked / mark’d

                        learned / learned”

 

Adjectives:

Comparatives and superlatives stick around: as in modern English

OE –ra > –er  OE ost > –est

            periphrastic method: in OE, but the norm in French

                        double comparatives / superlatives

                                    most best”

 

Nouns inflections:

            Genders and hence classes disappear

 

                        NOM/ACC –0

                        Dat: sometimes –e

                        gen      sing: --(e)s       Analogical/productive

                        pl: --(e)s           Analogical/productive

                                    no CASE in pl at all

 

But in south, including London, a rival analogical plural form: –en

 

                                                            shooeneven in Shakespeare’s time

                                                            develen, children, kyn

 

Personal Pronouns

           

            Third person singular FEM: they mystery of SHE

 

                        he / ho / heo / scho / seo / hi

 

 

            Third Plural: borrowed from Norse, esp in North

 

                        h-forms last longer in South

 

 

           

Birth of the Article

            se, seo, žęt > the

            žęt > that

           

 

                       

VERBS:

 

Inflections: greatly reduced

 

            in North, only inflection is –s (as modern English)

 

                        South keeps st/th around longer

 

                                    Thou makest

he maketh

 

 

            Subjunctive –e, reduced to –0 (but not –s):

“Thy kingdom come”

                                                “God save the Queen”

 

 

 

Present Participle: –ende, in OE:

 

mysterious rise in –ING

 

            based on gerundial ung?

 

            he was in huntung” > “he was a-hunting” > “he was hunting”

 

SYNTAX:

 

Increased use of periphrasis

 

Greater reliance on word order (though much freer than ModEng)

 

Dative: “to –“ periphrasis

 

Gen: “of –“ periphrasis

 

 

 Perfect tense: formed with “is” or “have

            he is come”

he has come”

 

 

Big Pictures:

 

Move from Synthetic to Analytic Language:

 

but which came first?

            nobody looks at the ending in OE”

 

 

Middle English as Creole?

What’s a Creole?

The growing up of a pidgin: (contact language)

(not everything that’s called a pidgin is one)

 

French and English:

yes massive lexical borrowing

but structural changes? not so much

plus the South was the most conservative (greatest French influence)

 

 

Massive changes underway; suppression of English as official language accelerated internal changes; but none of the changes are really borrowed from French

 

Think of the Verb

 

But what of Norse: Shouting cognates?

In the North: (the most innovative); add to reduction of inflections

Scandinavian languages even more analytic

Standard Dialect:

 

            Literary Texts produced throughout Middle English

in the whole variety of diversified Dialects

 

            No strong need for Unified Standard, because French and Latin did this work

 

 

 

Factors:

 

William Caxton 1476 brought printing press to England; he was in London

 

Rise of Urbanization: especially London: becomes center of economic life

 

Patriotism vis-ą-vis the Hundred Years War

 

East Midlands: good compromise:

 

not as innovative as North or Conservative as South

 

(cf. New England and Southern American English

Standard American English is derived from Philadelphia English)

 

Traditional importance assigned to the Chancery: state documents copied and standardized (perhaps written standard, but spoken?)