Middle English Alphabet

Geoffrey Chaucer and His Contribution

Main Written Records of the Middle English Period

Middle English Written Records

Lecture 8

London Dialect

Middle English Dialects

OE Dialects	Kentish	West Saxon	Mercian	Northumbrian
	¯	¯	¯	¯
ME Dialects	Kentish Dialect	South-Western Dialects	Midland Dialects	Northern Dialects
Examples	-	East Saxon Dialect London Dialect Gloucester Dialect	West Midland Dialect	East Midland Dialect	Yorkshire Dialect Lancashire Dialect

The most important dialect in the Middle English period was the LONDON DIALECT.

In the 12^th -13^th c. the London Dialect became the literary language and the standard, both in written and spoken form. The reasons why this happened:

· The capital of the country was transferred from Winchester, Wesses, to London a few years before the Norman Conquests.

· The East Saxon Dialect, that was the basis of the London Dialect got, became the most prominent in the Middle English period.

· Most writers and authors of the Middle English period used the London Dialect in their works.

Features of the London Dialect:

· The basis of the London Dialect was the East Saxon Dialect

· The East Saxon Dialect mixed with the East Midland Dialect and formed the London Dialect.

· Thus the London Dialect became more Anglican than Saxon in character à The London Dialect is an Anglican dialect.

H/w:

1. § 349-354, p. 181-183 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (expansion of English overseas) (copioes).

See § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the most prominent authors of the Middle English Period and he set up a language pattern to be followed. He is considered to be the founder of the literary language of that period. Most authors of the Middle English Period tried to fallow this standard.

Features of the Chaucer’s Language:

· Chaucer’s Language was the basis for the national literary language (15^th – 16^th c.).

· New spelling rules (digraphs) and new rules of reading (1 letter = several sounds) appeared as compared to the Old English.

· New grammatical forms appeared (Perfect forms, Passive forms, “to” Infinitive constructions, etc.).

· Chaucer tried to minimize the number of the French loans in the English Language.

· Chaucer introduced rhyme to the poetry.

The Middle English Alphabet resembled the Old English Alphabet but some changes were introduced:

· th replaced ð/þ/Đ/đ;

· w replaced?;

· æ, œ disappeared;

· digraphs (2 letters = one sound) appeared (came from French):

o th for [q] and [ð];

o tch/ch for [t∫];

o sch/ssh/sh for [∫];

o dg for [dζ];

o wh replace hw but was pronounced still as [hw]!;

o gh for [h];

o qu for [kw];

o ow/ou for [u:] and [ou];

o ie for [e:].

Rules of Reading:

They resemble the modern rules, with several exceptions though:

1. Double vowels stood for long sounds, e.g. oo = [o:]; ee = [e:].

2. g = [dζ]

c = [s] before front vowels ([i, e]).

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g = [g]

c = [k] before back vowels ([a, o, u]).

3. y = [j] – at the beginning of the word;

= [i] – in the cases when i stood close together with r, n, m and could be confused with one of these letters or could be lost among them, it was replaced with y, sometimes also for decorative purpose.(e.g. nyne [‘ni:nə], very [‘veri]).

4. th = [ð]

s = [z] between vowels.

5. o = [o] – in most cases;

= [u] – in the words that have [Λ] sound in Modern English (e.g. some, love)

6. j = [dζ]

H/w:

1. § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

2. Using your knowledge of the Middle English spelling and the rules of reading (Lecture 8) read an abstract from the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer (lines 1-14) on p. 33-34 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and try to identify the peculiarities of the Middle English spelling and rules of reading.

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