Linguistic Situation

Historical Background

Middle English Period in the History of the English Language

Lecture 7

1042-1066 – King Edward the Confessor:

· brought up in France;

· had lots of Norman advisors and favourites;

· spoke French and wanted his court to speak it;

· rumour had it that he appointed William, Duke of Normandy, his successor.

However, after the death of Edward in 1066 the government of the country was in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon feudal lords and they proposed their own king – Earl Harold Godwinson of Wessex.

1066 – Harold Godwinson became king of England. William was not satisfied with this fact. He gathered a big army, there happened the Battle of Hastings, William won it, became king and was called since then William the Conqueror.

After the Norman Conquest of the British Isles the Normans occupied important positions in church, government and army. William strengthened feudal system and royal power (vassals were not allowed to have big armies so they could not oppose the king; with the Oath of Salisbury each vassal promised direct loyalty to king and military help in return for land; Domesday Book provided William with information about all people and lands he possessed, he proclaimed himself the owner of all the lands in the country). This led to the centralization of the country:

· Wales – was the first to join England in the 13^th – 16^th c.;

· Scotland – remained independent until Queen Elizabeth the 1^st of England died and as far as she was childless the throne passed to James the 4^th of Scotland who became James the 1^st of England and unified Scotland and England. Finally, in 1707 Great Britain appeared as a country consisting of England, Wales and Scotland;

· Ireland – the attempts to conquer Ireland were made in the 12^th c. but they did not prove to be successful. In 1921, after a long fight, the UK managed to keep only a small part of Ireland – Northern Ireland.

After the Norman Conquest:

· French became the official language of administration (it was used in the king’s court, in the law courts, in the church (as well as Latin), in the army, by the nobles in the south of England). It was also used as a language of writing and teaching as well as Latin.

· English was the language of common people in the Midlands and in the north of England. It still remained the language of the majority who were the representatives of the lower classes of society and never learned French, so the Norman barons had to learn English to be able to communicate with locals.

· Celtic Dialects were still used by the Celtic population in the remote areas of the country.

Actually, during the presence of the Normans the country experienced the period of bilingualism (French and English were both used in the country and started to intermix, i.e. a lot of the French words crept into the Middle English Dialects and it came to resemble present-day English a lot).

The Norman and the English drew together in the course of time and intermixed. French lost its popularity due to the fact that it was not the language of the majority and could not be used to communicate with local people. English regained its leading position with time and became accepted as the official language. The proofs are:

· The Parliamentary Proclamation of 1258 – Henry the 3^rd addressed the councilors in Parliament in French, Latin and English.

· In the 14^th – 15^th c. legal documents (wills, municipal acts, petitions, etc.) started to be issued in English.

· 1364 – Parliament was opened with an address in English.

· 1399 – Henry the 4^th accepted the throne and made a speech in English.

· Translations of the documents written in French into English.

Thus in the 14^th c. English becomes the language of literature and administration.

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