Middle English

Detailed description of Middle English Period including vowel and consonant changes, inflectional endings, loss of grammatical gender and French influence in English language.

1. by
SARAH NAZ SAYED
ID# 1431373
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2. Letter ‘v’: -

• No standard English word starts with ‘v’.
• ‘Very’ is not an English word.
•It was introduced in Middle English.
• Before 1066, we had only ‘f’.
•Ex: drifan driven

‘v’ & ‘u’:-
• When ‘v’ comes in the middle of a word, it was written ‘u’.
•Ex: ever  euen

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3. ‘hw’ to ‘wh’
•Ex: cild  child
•This change was introduced by Norman tribes.
Addition of ‘h’ after ‘c’:-
‘sc’ (sounds ‘sk’) to ‘sh’
•Ex: sceal (OE)  sheal (ME)  shall (MnE)
•This was introduced by Norman tribes as well.
Omission of ‘h’ from ‘hl’, ‘hn’, ‘hr’
• Ex: hwat  what
• ‘hw’ is phonetically more accurate as ‘wh’.
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• Ex: hleapen  leapen (to leap)
• ‘h’ got omitted.
• ‘en’ was no more in use (inflectional endings). So it got omitted later as well.
• leapen  leap

4. Omission of ‘w’ between a consonant and a back vowel
• Consonant, particularly ‘s’ or ‘t’.
•Ex: swa  so twa  to

Transformation of ‘g’
• ‘g’ became ‘w’ placed after the consonant ‘l’ or ‘r’.
• ‘g’ got it original sound in ME.
•Ex: morgen  morwen (morrow)

OE prefix ‘ge’ became ‘i’
Inflectional ‘n’ was lost
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• Ex: gelimpan  ilimpan (to happen)
• Ex: min faðer  my fader an ewte  a newt

5. ‘ӯ’ [ü:] changed to [i:]
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• OE long vowel sounds ē, ī, ō, ū remained unchanged but their spelling changed.
 Ex: fēt  feet
fōda  food
• Ex: hӯdan (OE)  hīden (ME)
‘y’ [ü] changed to [i]
• Same as above.

6. ‘ā’ became [ɔ:]
• [ɛ:] were written both ‘e’ and ‘ee’ in ME.
• Later in MnE, [ɛ:] was written as ‘ea’.
• Ex: brɛ:θ  breath
‘æ’ became ‘a’
• ‘e’ was dropped.
•Ex: glæd  glad
[æ:] became [ɛ:]
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• It was spelt with ‘o’ or double ‘o’ (oo).
• Ex: stān (OE)  st[o/oo]n (ME, pronounced [ɔ])  stone (MnE, pronounced [o]).

7. NOUN
•In the strong masculine declension, singular mūð, mūðes, mūðe, mūð and plural
mūðas, mūða and mūðum, mūðas were reduced to only three forms : mūð, mūðes,
and mūðe (to the mouth).
• ‘-s’ and ‘-es’ refer to plurality in MnE.
•Exception of plural nouns: deer, feet, oxen, childen
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Middle English was known as ‘The Period of Leveled Inflection’ because most of the
inflections were lost during that time.

8. ADJECTIVE
•all adj. inflections fall together as -e;
•The indication of number, gender and case were lost.
•The declensions were gradually lost
•Ex: blinda blind blinde  blind
PRONOUN
• ‘this’ is a MnE word.
•In OE, it has 3 forms : þēs, þēos, þis
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9. •‘woman’ was a masculine gender in OE.
Ex: wīf-mann (because the 2
nd
element of the word is masculine)
• ‘woman’ was a feminine gender in ME.
•The role of grammatical gender in OE was beginning to decline by 11
th
century.
•‘the’ came to be used generally as a definite article.
•‘that’ is used as a demonstrative article.
•There was not any grammatical gender in ME.
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ASSIMILATION
• The new French words were quickly assimilated.
• Ex: gentle (French)  gently (English)
faith (French)  faithful (English)
SYNONYMS
• Sometimes a French word completely replaced an Old English word .
Ex: firen was replaced by crime.
eam was replaced by uncle.
 The French language didn’t retain its originality after it entered into English
Language
French language didn’t change the grammar of English Language but OE started
to lose its features.

11. PREFIX & SUFFIX
•Many of the Old English prefixes gradually lost their vitality, their ability to enter
into new combinations.
•Prefixes no more in use: to-, be-, a-
•Prefixes used today: un-, im-, counter-, dis-, re-, trans-, over-, under-
•A similar decline is observable in the formative power of certain suffixes that
were widely used in Old English.
•Suffixes no more in use: -de, -by
•Suffixes which are still in use: noun suffix –ness
adjective endings - ful, -less, -some, -ish

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Below are some of the French words widely used in English Language today.
Governmental &
administrative words
•govern
•noble
Ecclesiastical
words
•religion
•theology
Law
•crime
•banish

13. Social Life
•curtain
•couch
Art
•painting
•sculpture
Medicine
•physician
•remedy
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Army and Navy
•battle
•combat
Fashion
•gown
•cape
Meals
•mackerel
•mutton

14. THANK
YOU!
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