Language Change: Old & Middle English

Linguistic Item / Old English / Middle English / Modern English
Pronunciation / Old English script used six vowel symbols: a, e, i, o ,u and γ in addition to æ(ash).These symbols represented both short and long vowels / A major sound change happened in the form of vowels: the lengthening of short vowels such as: old, cold and blind. / The Grate Vowel Shift started with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter.eg, hu:s→ hаws
Wi:f→waif
All symbols represented pure vowels not diphthongs. For diphthongs, they used digraphs such as: ea, eo, io and ie. / ME used separate phonemes for [f,v ], [s,z], [ θ , ð] / Not only did types of sound change, but also some sounds were simply completely disappeared from general pronunciation.
Old English used 16 consonants: b, c, f, g, h, l, m, n, p, s, t, thorn Ϸ, wyn and eth=x / All written vowels were pronounced / The above change is known as Metathesis a reversal in position of two adjoining sounds. Eg, OE:
frist→first
Hros → horse
bridd→ bird
OE had no symbol for(v), f was used instead: (fif)=five / Another change involves the addition of a sound to the middle of a word, which is known as Epenthesis
OE: aemtig→empty
Spinel →spindle
Timr →timber
It had no symbol for (z), s & z were members of the same phoneme: (sǣ =(sea), nosu =(nose)=
The voiceless θ and voiced ð were represented by two symbols: the runic symbol thorn Ϸ: (thane)= Ϸegn and the symbol ð called eth: (fathan)= fæϷn. They had been treated as one phoneme with two allophones.
OE (c) corresponded either {k} or {tf} : (cool)= cĕlan ,
(skin)=cynn and
(shoose)= cĕosan
OEneve used {c} for {s} sound.
Morphology / Was fully inflected with five grammatical cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative and Instrumental (very rare). / There was a reduction in inflectional system. The grammatical relations that were expressed in OE by the dative and locative cases are replaced in Early Modern English with contractions with prepositions. This replacement is incomplete. / The OE genitive (-es) is know used in many words which known as possessive: the form dog' is for ''of the dog''
Most of the other cases endings
disappear in Middle English.
Syntax / OE sentence structure and word order had similarities to Modern English. / Word order became more important, because of the loss of inflections.
OE used 3types of word order SVO, VSO and SOV / SOV structure became more dominant. / SVO structure is dominant.
The NP (Noun Phrase) structure is similar to that of Modern English system of demonstrative adjectives: se=( the &that)
Ϸes= (this). / Inflections were replaced by complex system of tenses that used primary auxiliaries (be, have, do) and model verb ( shall, will)
There were two tense systems present & past with different forms for indicative & subjective. / Future tense with shall and will was established during ME.
Perfect tense and passive were used more frequently during this period.
Continuous tense and present participle also appeared in ME.
Vocabulary / OE depended mainly on its own resources ( PIE & Germanic) languages, not on borrowing from other languages. / Norman French come into use as a language of polite discourse and literature. / Many new words and phrases have entered the language, as a result of
a-The British's contact with many people from around the world
b-The Renaissance of classical learning
c-The Two processes of broadening and narrowing of meaning from the OE
The influence of Celtic language on English had been small, and appeared in the name of some cities: London & Leeds. / French influence was not strong during 11th & 12thc , there was a flood of loan words such as: Title of Ranks: baron, prince
Administration: Council, government
Law:
Judge, punish
Religion:
Virgin, clergy
Art & Fashion:
Romance, color, paint / Broadening of meaning:
The change of form holyday as a religious feast to the very general break from world called a holiday
Another example is the modern English word dog, it is used in a general sense to refer to all breeds, but in OE (docga) was only used for one particular breed.
Loan words of OE were Scandinavian (Vikings, Old Norse) such as: leg, skin & sky. / The language of the peasants remained English: sheep, cow and swan while. The French was spoken by the upper class: mutton, beef and pork. / . / The narrowing process:
As the OE word mete, once used for any kind of food, in Modern English it is used restrictedly to only some specific types.
Few words were borrowed from Latin and Greek Christianity such as: martyr, priest, and church…etc. Moreover, it was the language of education & diplomacy.
Verbs / Strong verb remained the person distinction in the indicative singular: ic helpe = ( I help)
Þū hilpst ( you help)
Hĕ/ hĕo, hit hilpÞ = ( he, she, it helps)
But in plural form it made no person distinction such as: wĕ, gĕ, hie helpaÞ = ( we, you, they help), / The first person singular of the verb in the present tense ends in (e): (ich here)= I hear / The most obvious change is the loss of a large number of inflectional affixes from many parts of speech. Verbs take different inflectional forms according to their grammatical function in the sentence.
The second person ends in(est): (Ϸou spekest )= (thou skeakest) / There are two forms of verbs: Strong: Form their past or participle tenses by changing their stems.
Break: broke, broken
Undertake: undertook, undertaken
Week form: : Form their past or participle tenses by adding suffixes to their stems.
eg play: played, played
wash: washed, washed
Third person ends in (eϷ) (he comeϷ)= (he cometh/ he comes)
Past tense: weak forms were formed by adding( ede) or (te)
Strong verbs formed their past tense by changing their stem vowel: (biden=bound)
Nouns / OE assigned gender to all nouns e.g: sĕo sunne = ( the sun) was feminine
Sĕ mōna = ( the moon) was masculine. / ME remains only two distinct noun ending patterns from the more complex system of inflection in OE. / StrongSingular
Nominative& Accusative:
engel
Genative:
engles
Dative:
engle / Plural
engles
engle(ne)
engle(s) / WeakSingular
Nominative& Accusative:
name
Genative:
name
Dative:
name / Plural
namen
namen
namen / 1-The strong –(e)s plural form has survived into MO
2- The weak –(e)n form is now rare in the standard language, eg: oxen, children.
Dialects / Had four main dialects: West-Saxon, Kentish, Mercian and Northumbian. Each of these dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the Island. / There were six dialects of ME: Northumbian which was divided into Scottish & Northern, West Midland, East Midland, South Eastern and Southern. / Modern English has a large number of spoken in diverse countries throughout the world. This includes: American English, British English, Indo-Pakistani English, New Zealand English, South African English,…etc.
English has become a standard language as a result of the invention of the printing

History of English - The OE Period

History of English - The Sound System of OE

History of English - OE Morphology

History of English - The ME Period

History of English - The Sound System of ME

History of English - ME Syntax

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