Middle English 1150 1500 Ce (

1. Middle English
1150-1500 CE (?)
English 4613—English Linguistics
Fall 2008

2. Root Causes
Norman Conquest removed from English
those “preservational” tendencies that
occur when an educated upper class writes
and speaks in a language
Loss of Old English word-stock
Importation of French/Latinate words

3. Decay of Inflections
Noun and adjective endings related to
number/case/gender
Analogy changes certain adjective endings
(final m to n)
“leveling” of vowels

4. Nouns
The forms of the strong masculine
declensions reduced from 5 forms to two
forms (-e and –es)
The weak declensions reduced in most
cases to zero form (e.g., ox) and “-en” in
the plural
Weakening of gender

5. Adjectives
The form of the nominative singular was
extended to all cases of the singular
In weak declensions, no longer any
distinction between singluar and plural (ex.,
blinda>blinde and blindan>blinde)
Distinctions only remained in certain
momosyllabic adjectives until around 1300.

6. Pronouns
Reduction in endings
Word order and context become more
important
Loss not as great in personal pronouns

7. Verbs
Losses among strong verbs
Some strong verbs become weak
Borrowed verbs conjugated as weak
Many strong past participles survive