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Lecture 3
Middle English a Period of Great Change

The Middle English period (1150–1500) was marked by great changes in the English
language, changes more extensive and fundamental than those that have taken place at any time
before or since. Some of them were the result of the Norman Conquest and the conditions
which followed that event. Others were a continuation of tendencies that had begun to manifest
themselves in Old English. The changes of this period affected English in both its grammar
and its vocabulary. They were so extensive in each department that it is difficult to say which
group is the more significant. Those in the grammar reduced English from a highly inflected
language to an extremely analytic one. Those in the vocabulary involved the loss of a large
part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and
Latin. At the beginning of the period English is a language that must be learned like a foreign
tongue; at the end it is Modern English.
Historical Background
The end of the Old English period and the beginning of Middle English is marked by two
outstanding political events — the Scandinavian invasion and the Norman conquest.
1. Scandinavian Invasion
The Scandinavian invasion and the subsequent settlement of the Scandinavians on the
territory of England, the constant contacts and intermixture of the English and the
Scandinavians brought about many changes in different spheres of the English language:
word-stock, grammar and phonetics. The influence of Scandinavian dialects was especially felt
in the North and East parts of England, where mass settlement of the invaders and
intermarriages with the local population were especially common. The relative ease of the
mutual penetration of the languages was conditioned by the circumstances of the Anglo-
Scandinavian contacts, i.e.:
a) there existed no political or social barriers between the English and the Scandinavians,
the latter not having formed the ruling class of the society but living on an equal footing with
the English;
b) There were no cultural barriers between the two people as they were approximately the
same in their culture, habits and customs due to their common origin, both of the nations being
Germanic;
c) The language difference was not so strong as to make their mutual understanding
impossible, as their speech developed from the same source — Common Germanic, and the
words composing the basic word-stock of both the languages were the same, and the grammar
systems similar in essence.
2. The Norman Conquest – 1066. Norman influences on English culture and life
In 1066, the Duke of Normandy, the famous William, henceforth called "the
Conqueror", sailed across the British Channel. He challenged King Harold of England in the
struggle for the English throne. After winning the battle of Hastings where he defeated Harold,
William was crowned King of England. A Norman Kingdom was now established. The Anglo-
Saxon period was over.
The Norman Conquest was not only a great event in British political history but also the
greatest single event in the history of the English language. The Norman Conquerors of
England had originally come from Scandinavia. First they had seized the valley of the Seine
and settled in what is known as Normandy. They were swiftly assimilated by the French and in
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the 11th c. came to Britain as French speakers. Their tongue in Britain is often referred to as
“Anglo-French” or “Norman French”, but may just as well be called French. The most
important consequence of Norman domination in Britain is to be seen in the wide use of the
French language in many spheres of life. French became the language of the affairs of
government, court, the church, the army, and education where the newly adopted French words
often substituted their former English counterparts. For all that, England never stopped being an
English-speaking country. The bulk of the population spoke its own tongue and looked upon
French as foreign and hostile. At first two languages – English and French existed side by side
without mingling. Then, slowly and quietly, they began to penetrate each other. The three
hundred years of the domination of French affected English more than any other foreign
influence before or after.
3. The decline of French
When King John lost Normandy in the years following 1200, the links to the French-
speaking community subsided. English then slowly started to gain more weight as a common
tongue within England again. In 1348 English became the language of grammar-schools
(excluding Oxford and Cambridge where Latin was used) and in 1362 the Language Act
declared English the official language of the law courts. In 1399, Henry IV was the first man
on the throne with English as his mother tongue. From 1423 onwards all parliament records
were written in English. A hundred years later, English was again spoken by representatives of
all social classes, this new version of the English language being strikingly different, of course,
from the Old English used prior to the Norman invasion. The English spoken at this turn of
events is called Middle English.

Middle English dialects

The Middle English texts reveal that English went through considerable internal
developments irrespective of the language contact situation with French: The Old English
dialects evolved and became ME dialects. The dialect division which evolved in Early ME was
on the whole preserved in later periods. In the 14th and 15th c. we find the same grouping of
local dialects: 1) the Southern group included Kentish and the South-Western dialects.
Kentish was a direct descendant of the OE dialect known by the same name – Kentish. The
South-Western dialect was a continuation of the OE Saxon dialect), 2) the Midland group is
divided into West Midland and East Midland as two main areas (the Midland group
corresponds to the OE Mercian dialect) and 3) the Northern group (had developed from OE
Northumbrian).
The peculiarities that distinguish these dialects are partly matters of pronunciation,
partly of vocabulary, partly of inflection.
Dialectal differences are more noticeable between Northern and Southern; the Midland
dialect often occupies an intermediate position. Thus the characteristic forms of the pronoun
they in the south were hi, here (hire, hure), hem, while in the north forms with th- (modern they,
their, them) early became predominant.
Different dialects had different inflections: loves in the north, loven in the Midlands, and
loveth in the south.
In matters of pronunciation the Northern and Southern dialects sometimes presented
notable differences. Initial f and s were often voiced in the south to v and z. In Southern Middle
English we find vor, vrom, vox, vorzoþe instead of for, from, fox, forsope (forsooth). This
dialectal difference is preserved in Modern English fox and vixen, where the former represents
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the Northern and Midland pronunciation and the latter the Southern. Similarly ch in the south
often corresponds to a k in the north: bench beside benk, or church beside kirk. Such variety
was fortunately lessened toward the end of the Middle English period by the general adoption
of standard written (and later spoken) English.

The Rise of Standard English. The London dialect

Out of this variety of local dialects there emerged toward the end of the fourteenth
century a written language that in the course of the fifteenth won general recognition and has
since become the recognized standard in both speech and writing.
The part of England that contributed most to the formation of this standard was the East
Midland district, and it was the East Midland type of English that became its basis, particularly
the dialect of the metropolis, London. Several causes contributed to the attainment of this
result:
1. Firstly, as a Midland dialect the English of this region occupied a middle position
between the extreme divergences of the north and south. It was less conservative than the
Southern dialect, less radical than the Northern. In its sounds and inflections it represents a kind
of compromise, sharing some of the characteristics of both its neighbours.
2. Secondly, the East Midland district was the largest and most populated of the major
dialect areas.
3. A third factor, more difficult to evaluate, was the presence of the universities, Oxford
and Cambridge, in this region. In the fourteenth century the monasteries were playing a less
important role in the dissemination of learning than they had once played, while the two
universities had developed into important intellectual centres.
4. By far the most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was the importance of
London as the capital of England. London was, and still is, the political and commercial centre
of England. It was the seat of the court, the focus of the social and intellectual activities of the
country.
The history of Standard English is almost a history of London English. In the latter part
of the fifteenth century the London standard had been accepted, at least in writing, in most
parts of the country. Considerable diversity still existed in the spoken dialects. But in literary
works after 1450 it becomes almost impossible to determine with any precision the region in
which a given work was written. And in correspondence and local records there was a
widespread tendency to conform in matters of language to the London standard.
A further important factor that supported the standardisation process was the introduction
of the printing press by William Caxton in 1476.
Since that time — the end of the 15 th century the English language began its development
as the language of the English nation, whereas up to that time, beginning with the Germanic
conquest of Britain in the 5th century and up to the 15th century, what we call the English
language was no more than a conglomerate of dialects, first tribal and then local.

Vocabulary of Middle English

The principal means of enriching vocabulary in Middle English are not internal, but
external — borrowings. Vocabulary of Middle English was influenced by the Scandinavian,
French and Latin languages. The nature of the borrowings and their amount reflected the
conditions of the contacts between the English and these languages.
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The most significant source of borrowings at that time was French. It is assumed that
about 10,000 words with French origin were borrowed, along with some affixes. About three-
fourths of those words are still in use today.
French borrowings
The influx of French loanwords correlates with the decline of the status of French. In the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, when French was the unchallenged language of the upper
classes, the number of words borrowed by English was not great, but in the thirteenth, and still
more the fourteenth century, there was a flood of loan-words. Bilingual speakers who switched
to English felt the need for specialised terms and brought those terms over from French,
replacing synonymous English words.
As we have seen, the French dominated the domains of courtly life, government,
administration, the law court, and church. These are the domains where most loanwords came
from.
Coutly life: food, fashion, leisure & arts
appetite, beef, biscuit, dinner, fruit, poultry, boots, button, fashion, wardrobe, art, beauty,
literature, painting, etc.
Administration, Government, Military & Law
authority, baron, council, court, crown, government, parliament, noble, minister, prince, tax,
treaty, liberty, archer, enemy, soldier, accuse, arrest, crime, guard, warden, jury, prison,
punishment, etc.
Religion & Church
abbey, catherdral, charity, clergy, confess, prayer, religion, saviour, virgin, virtue, create,
creator, divine, faith, etc.
Aside from the already mentioned new vocabulary pertaining to the affairs of
government, court, the church, the army, and education, many words relating to food and
fashion were introduced as well. In some fields an original English terminology did not exist.
Therefore, many French terms were borrowed. One example is the names of animals and their
meat. Whereas the names of the animals remained the same, their meat was renamed according
to the Norman custom.
This correlated to the sociological structures: the farmers that raised the animals were
predominantly English natives and could afford to keep using their own vocabulary while
farming - those serving the meat at the dining room table to the mainly French upper classes
had to conform to the French language.
ANIMAL MEAT
sheep mutton
cow beef
swine pork

Coming from the language of the upper social classes, French loanwords penetrated the
English language socially downwards from the prestige language to the vernacular, whereas
Scandinavian loanwords entered the Northern and Mid-Eastern dialects and from there spread
socially upwards.

Scandinavian borrowings
Due to contacts between the Scandinavians and the English speaking people many words were
borrowed from the Scandinavian language, for example:
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Nouns: law, fellow, sky, skirt, skill, skin, egg, anger, awe, bloom, knife, root, bull, cake,
husband, leg, wing, guest, loan, race
Adjectives: big, week, wrong, ugly, twin
Verbs: call, cast, take, happen, scare, hail, want, bask, gape, kindle
Pronouns: they, them, their; and many others.

Latin Borrowings in Middle English

Latin Borrowings in Middle English are generally known as the Latin Influence of the
Third Period. The large number of words was borrowed directly from Latin in Middle English.
Though they were less popular and gained admission generally through the written language.
Of course, it must not be forgotten that Latin was a spoken language among ecclesiastics and
men of learning, and a certain number of Latin words could well have passed directly into
spoken English. Their number, however, is small in comparison with those that we can observe
entering by way of literature.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were especially prolific in Latin borrowings. Latin
borrowings related to law, medicine, theology, science, and literature, words often justified in
the beginning by technical or professional use and later acquiring a wider application. Among
them may be noticed several with endings like -able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -ive, and others,
which thus became familiar in English and, reinforced often by French, now form common
elements in English derivatives. There is a selected but miscellaneous list of examples of Latin
loanwords: allegory, conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract, frustrate, genius, gesture, history,
homicide, immune, incarnate, include, incredible, index, individual, infancy, inferior, infinite,
innate, intellect, interrupt, legal, limbo, lucrative, lunatic, magnify, mechanical, minor,
moderate, necessary, nervous, notary, ornate, picture, polite, popular, prevent, private, project,
promote, prosecute, prosody, quiet, rational, reject, script, scrutiny, secular, solar, solitary,
spacious, subdivide, submit, subordinate, subscribe, substitute, summary, suppress, temporal,
testify, testimony. All the words in the above list are accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary
as direct borrowings from Latin.
Other languages also contributed to the Middle English lexis, but to a lesser extent, such
as Persian words connected with chess: chess, rook, check.

Word-building
As we have already discussed, Old English, like other Indo-European languages,
enlarged its vocabulary chiefly by a liberal use of prefixes and suffixes and an easy power of
combining native elements into self interpreting compounds.
In the centuries following the Norman Conquest, however, there is a visible decline in the
use of these old methods of word formation. At a time when French borrowings have reached
their maximum, the wealth of easily acquired new words had weakened English habits of word
formation.
Many of the Old English prefixes gradually lost their vitality, their ability to enter into
new combinations.
For example, the Old English prefix for- (corresponding to German ver-) was often used
to intensify the meaning of a verb or to add the idea of something destructive or prejudicial. For
a while during the Middle English period it continued to be used occasionally in new
formations. Thus at about 1300 we find forhang (put to death by hanging), forcleave (cut to
pieces), and forshake (shake off). It was even combined with words borrowed from French:
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forcover, forbar, forgab (deride). But while these occasional instances show that the prefix was
not dead, it seems to have had no real vitality. None of these new formations lived long, and the
prefix is now entirely obsolete. The only verbs in which it occurs in Modern English are
forbear, forbid, fordo, forget, forgive, forgo, forsake, forswear, and the participle forlorn. All of
them had their origin in Old English.s
A similar decline is observable in the formative power of certain suffixes that were
widely used in Old English. The loss here is perhaps less distinctly felt because some important
endings have remained in full force. Such are the noun suffix -ness and the adjective endings -
ful, -less, -some, and -ish. But others equally important were either lost or greatly diminished
in vitality. Thus the abstract suffix -lock (OE lāc) survives only in wedlock, -red (OE ) only in
hatred and kindred.
As in the case of prefixes, we can see here a gradual change in English habits of word
formation resulting from the available supply of French words with which to fill the needs
formerly met by the native resources of the language.

Changes in alphabet and spelling in Middle English

As we remember, the Old English spelling system was mainly phonetic. However, the
13th and 14th centuries witnessed many changes in the English language, including its alphabet
and spelling. As a result of these modifications the written form of the word became much
closer to what we have nowadays.
In Middle English the former Anglo-Saxon spelling tradition was replaced by that of the
Norman scribes reflecting the influence of French and often mixing purely phonetic spelling
inherited from Old English with French spelling habits and traditions.
Some letters came into disuse, replaced by new means of expressing the sounds formerly
denoted by them — thus the letters þ ("thorn") and p=w ("wynn"), З (“yoke”) being of runic
origin, unknown to the Norman scribes, disappeared altogether. New letters were added —
among them j , w, v and z. Many digraphs — combinations of letters to denote one sound, both
vowel and consonant — appeared, mostly following the pattern of the French language.
1. The following letters disappeared:
ð, þ [θ, ð] replaced by th: þat — that
3 [g, j] replaced by g: 3od — god or y: 3еаг — year
æ [æ] replaced by e: lætan — leten (let)

2. The following letters were introduced:

g for [g] in god and [d3] in singe
j for [d3] in words of French origin: joy, judge
k for [k] instead оf с before front vowels and n: drincan — drinken, cnawan — knowen
v for [v] instead of f as a separate phoneme: lufu — love [luvə]
q fог [k] (followed by u) in quay or [kw] in cwen—queen to replace OE cw
z for [z] as a separate phoneme: zel

3. The following digraphs appeared:

a) consonant digraphs:
ch for the sound [t ] cild — child
dg [d3] brус3 — bridge
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gh [χ] ri3t—right
th [θ, ð] þencan — thinken, moðor — mother
sh [J] scip — ship
ph [f] in words borrowed from Latin: phonetics
ch [k] in words borrowed from Latin: chemistry

b) vowel digraphs — to show the length of the vowel:

еа [е:] mete — meat
ее [е:] fet — feet
оа [о:] bat — boat
оо [о:] fot — foot
ie [e:] feld — field
ou/ow [u:] hus — hous, tun — town

Some changes were made for ease of reading and for a better visual image of the
word:
1. in the final position for better visual separation of words
k was used instead of с boc — book
y instead of i by, my
w instead of u now
Besides, у and w were considered more ornamental than i and u at the end of the word,
allowing to finish it with an elegant curve.

2. to avoid confusion of resembling letters

о was used instead of u when u stood close to letters n, m, v, for they were all made up of down
strokes and were hard to distinguish in a hand-written text, though it was pronounced as [u],
e.g. sunu (OE) — sone (ME), munuc (OE) — monk [muŋk] (

Changes in the phonetic system in Middle English

1. Vowels in the unstressed position

All vowels in the unstressed position underwent a qualitative change and became the vowel of
the type of [ə] or [e] unstressed. This phonetic change had a far-reaching effect upon the system
of the grammatical endings of the English words which now due to the process of reduction
became homonymous. For example:
— forms of strong verbs
Old English writan — wrāt — writon — writen
with the suffixes -an, -on, -en different only in the vowel component became homonymous in
Middle English:
writen — wrōt — writen — writen

2. Vowels under stress

2.1. Qualitative changes
— Changes of monophthongs
Three long monophthongs underwent changes in Middle English:
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Table 1. Long Monophthongs
Periods Old English Middle English (New
English)
a>ō bat bōt boat
ǽ>ē slæpan slēpen sleep
y>ī fyr fir fire

The rest of the long monophthongs preserved their original quality, for example:
Old English Middle English
[ē] tēþ teeth (though the spelling devices
[ō] tōþ tooth may be different)
[ū] ūt out
[ī] tīma time

Out of the seven principal Old English short monophthongs a, e, o, i, u, æ, у — two changed
their quality in Middle English, thus [æ] became [a] and [y] became [i], the rest of the
monophthongs remained unchanged, for example:
Old English Middle English Old English Middle English
þæt that but tellan tellen
first first hors hors
singan singen
putan putten

— Changes of diphthongs
All Old English diphthongs were contracted (became monophthongs) in Early ME.
Table 2. Diphthongs

Sounds Old English Middle English New English

ēo>e: dēoþ deep [de:p] deep
ēa>ε: ēast eest [ε:st] east
eo>e heorte herte [hertə] heart
ea>a earm arm [arm] arm
ie>i/e nieht night [nix’t] night
hierde herd [herd] shepherd

Instead of the former diphthongs that had undergone contraction new diphthongs developed
from some sequences of vowels and consonants. The new diphthongs sprang into being due to:
1) the vocalization of the consonant [j] after the front vowels [e] or [æ] or
2) the vocalization of the consonant [γ] or the semi-vowel [w] after the back vowels [o] and
[a].
In early ME the sounds [j] and [γ] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and
formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowels. For instance:

Old English Middle English New English

weЗ wey [wei] way
ЗrēЗ grey [grei] grey
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mæЗ may [mai] may
laЗu lawe [laue] law
boЗa bowe [bouə] bow
cnāwan knowen [knouən] know

Thus in Middle English there appeared four new diphthongs: [ai], [ei], [au], [ou].

2.2. Quantitative changes

Besides qualitative changes mentioned above vowels under stress underwent certain changes in
quantity.
— Lengthening of vowels
The first lengthening of vowels took place as early as late Old English (IX century). All vowels
which occurred before the combinations of consonants such as mb, nd, ld became long.
Old English Middle English (New English)
[i] > [i:] climban climben climb
findan finden find
cild cild child
[u] > [u:] hund hound hound

The second lengthening of vowels took place in Middle English (XII—XIII century). The
vowels [a], [o] and [e] were affected by the process. This change can be observed when the
given vowels are found in an open syllable.

Old English Middle English (New English)

a>a: talu tale [ta:lə] tale
e>e: stelan stelen [stε:lən] speak
o>o: hopian hopen [ho:pən] hope

— Shortening of vowels
All long vowels were shortened in Middle English if they are found before two consonants
(XI century). The exception here are the clusters mb, ld, nd.
Old English Middle English (New English)
cēpte cepte keep
wīsdom wisdom wisdom
Through phonetic processes the lengthening and the shortening of vowels mentioned above left
traces in grammar and wordstock.
Due to it vowel interchange differentiated between:
— forms of the same word, e.g. [e:] — [e] kepen – kept;
— words formed from the same root, e.g. [i:] — [i] wis – wisdom

Consonants
English consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number of
consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods. Thus we can
assume that the sonorants [m, n, l], plosives [p, b, t, d] and also [k, g] in most positions have
not been subjected to any noticeable changes.
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The most important change in the consonant system that can be observed if we compare
the Old English and the Middle English consonant system will be the development of the
fricative consonant [ ] and the affricates [t ] and [d3] from Old English palatal
consonants or consonant combinations. In Early ME they began to be indicated by special
letters and digraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scribal
tradition – ch, tch, g, dg, sh, ssh, sch. Thus:
Old English Middle English New English

[k'] > [t ] cild child [t i:ld] child

cin chin [t in] chin
[sk'] > [ ] scēap sheep [ ε:p] sheep
scip ship [ ip] ship
[g'] > [d3] brycЗe bridge [bridЗə] bridge
Thus we can notice that variants of some Old English consonant phonemes developed
differenly. For example: the phoneme denoted in Old English by the letter с had two variants:
[k] — hard and [k'] — palatal, the former remaining unchanged, the latter giving us a new
phoneme, the phoneme [t ].
In OE the letter “З” (yoke) denoted sounds: [g], [j] and [γ]. In ME these sounds had the
following development:
[g] remained unchanged, e.g. Зōd (OE) – good (ME);
[j], [γ] were vocalized , e.g. dæЗ (OE) – dai (ME)
draЗan – drauen
Special notice should be taken of the development of such consonant phonemes that had
voiced and voiceless variants in Old English, such as:
[f]— [v] in spelling f
[s] — [z] in spelling s
[θ] —[ð] in spelling þ, ð
They became different phonemes in Middle English.
As a result of these changes the consonant system in Late ME was in some respects
different from the OE system.

Evolution of the Grammatical System in Middle English

General survey of grammar changes in Middle English
The grammar system of the language in the Middle English period underwent radical
changes. In Middle English the paradigms of all parts of speech were to great extent simplified,
and many grammatical notions formerly expressed synthetically either disappeared from the
grammar system of the language or came to be expressed by analytical means. There
developed the use of analytical form consisting of a form word and a notional word, and also
word order, special use of prepositions, etc. — analytical means. The changes in the nominal
system were the most significant.

The Noun. The category of gender was lost; and the loss was total, with no remnants in any of
the nominal parts of speech. The grammatical category of case was preserved but underwent
profound changes. The number of cases in the noun paradigm was reduced from OE four to two
in Late ME (the Nominative and the Genetive). The category of number was preserved. In
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early Middle English only two methods of indicating the plural remained fairly distinctive: the -
s or -es from the strong masculine declension and the -en (as in oxen) from the weak. The
strong -s plural form has survived into Modern English, while the weak -n form is rare . In
Standard Mod E it is found only in oxen, brethren, and children..

The Pronoun. All pronouns in Middle English with the exception of the personal ones
lost the categories of gender and case, some lost their number – that is agreeing with nouns they
simplified their paradigm according to the changes in the system of the noun. Personal
pronouns seem to be the most conservative of all, their system suffered only slight changes.
Though there were some lexical replacements in the system of ME personal pronouns:
1) OE hēo was replaced by ME she [ ε:];
2) the OE pronoun of the 3rd person pl hīe was replaced by the Scandinavian loan-word
they [θei]
Thus Middle English inherited its personal pronouns from Old English, with the
exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from Scandinavian.
Most of the distinctions that existed in Old English were retained. However, the forms of the
dative and accusative cases were early combined, generally under that of the objective. A new
class of pronouns appeared – possessive pronouns. They were derived from the Genitive case
in OE.
The Adjective. The adjective underwent greater simplifying changes than any other part
of speech. In OE the adjective was declined to show the gender, case, and number of the noun it
modified; it had a five-case paradigm and two types of declension, weak and strong. In the
course of the ME period it lost all its grammatical categories with the exception of declension
and the category of number.
The difference between the strong and the weak declension is shown by the zero ending
for the former and the ending -e for the latter, but only in the Singular. The forms of the strong
and the weak declension in the Plural have similar endings. For instance:
Singular Plural
Strong blind blinde
Weak blinde blinde

Thus, the agreement of the adjective with the noun was practically lost.
The degrees of comparison were preserved in ME. The forms of the suffixes of the
degrees of comparison were reduced to -er, -est (glad – gladder – gladdest). Besides, the
analytical form of comparison of adjectives appeared with the help of moore/most (moore
agreeable, most agreeable).

The Verb. All types of verbs existing in Old English - strong, weak, preterite-present
and irregular were preserved in Middle English. In each type we find changes due to phonetic
developments of this period, but the proportional value of the weak ones is greater and
continues to grow, and a tendency is already traced - that is, some of the former strong verbs
are drifting in the direction of the weak ones. The drift was not a comprehensive one; there was
even a reverse process, some of the former weak ones became strong.
As a general rule (and all these rules are general), the first person singular of verbs in the
present tense ended in -e (I here – “I hear"), the second person in -(e)st (thou speakest – you
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speak), and the third person in -eth (he cometh – “he comes") – th is pronounced like the
unvoiced th in "think", plural all persons in -en (tellen).
In the past tense, weak verbs are formed by adding an -ed(e), -d(e) or -t(e) ending.
These, without their personal endings, also form past participles, together with past-participle
prefixes derived from Old English: i-, y- and sometimes bi- (tolde, y-tolde).
Strong verbs, by contrast, form their past tense by changing their stem vowel (e.g. binden
-> bound), as in Modern English.

SUMMARY
Middle English IS CHARACTERISED BY:
 French influence
 Scandinavian influence
 resurrection of English in 13th and 14th c.
 dialects: Northern, Midland, Southern
 dominance of London dialect (East Midland)
 loss of inflections
 less free in word order
 loss of grammatical gender
 final -e pronounced, as well as all consonants

Questions for self-control

1. Speak of the role of foreign influence in Middle English.
2. Account for increased dialectal divergence in Early Middle English. Which dialects are
considered to be more conservative, more radical, or occupy an intermediate position?
3. Which factors favoured the rise of Standard English based on the London dialect?
4. What kind of changes were in Middle English word-stock as compared with Old English?
5. Comment on the peculiarities of Middle English borrowings, their character, and distinctive
features.