Linguistic Contact and Its Impact on Middle English
Linguistic Contact and Its Impact on Middle English
Linguistic contact is one of the main causes of linguistic change. In the case of early Middle English, contact with French produced changes on every possible linguistic level (e.g., phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon).
The Influence of French on Middle English
To understand the effects of French influence, let’s look at the four key linguistic levels.
As background, when King Edward the Confessor died in 1066, his son was proclaimed the new king of England. However, his reign was short-lived. William the Conqueror, leader of the Normans, was proclaimed king in 1066. During his reign, significant changes occurred in the English language.
Morphology
Firstly, in morphology, many strong verbs disappeared, and weak verbs became more common. The comparative degree of adjectives was expressed with the -er ending and the superlative form with the -est ending. However, the French preferred to use more plus the adjective for the comparative and most plus the adjective for the superlative.
Phonology
On the other hand, in phonology, the French language introduced new diphthongs and created new ones. For example, the diphthong ‘ei’ was maintained, the diphthongs ‘oi’ and ‘ui’ were inserted, and the diphthong ‘eau’ was shortened to ‘eu’.
Lexicon
Finally, regarding the lexicon, the English language borrowed a lot of French vocabulary. French contributed much of its governmental and administrative vocabulary, as well as words related to fashion, food, and the social sphere. Examples include words like noble, justice, collar, veil, cushion, and beef.
In short, contact with French had a huge influence on the Middle English language.
The Emergence of Written English
Due to various social and linguistic reasons, French remained the written language of England well after the Norman period. Only after the middle of the 14th century did a significant number of documents written in English begin to appear.
Consequences of the Lack of a Written Standard
However, since the written tradition of Old English had been lost and the language had changed significantly, English writers lacked a standard written variety. This lack of standardization had several textual consequences, which modern linguists can use to describe medieval English texts.
During the Norman period, French was the dominant language, but the Hundred Years’ War and a surge in English patriotism led to a resurgence of English in the 14th century, primarily in its oral form.
At the end of the 14th century, the Black Death increased the importance of the laboring class, leading to the widespread adoption of the English language. By the beginning of the 15th century, English was used in law courts and schools.
However, English was not yet standardized. Its writings were full of dialectal, sociolectal, and idiolectal features, with few established spelling rules.
Finally, the standardization of English was a long process, with figures like Chaucer playing a significant role. Chaucer retained some Latin and French rules and contributed to the enrichment of the English language.
Intertwined Linguistic Levels
The Interconnectedness of Linguistic Levels
Even though languages are typically described in terms of linguistic levels (phonology, morphology, and syntax), diachronic linguistics demonstrates that these levels are deeply intertwined. Changes on one level can have short- and long-term consequences on the others.
The Evolution of English: A Case Study
The evolution from Old English to Middle and Early Modern English exemplifies this interconnectedness.
Morphological Changes and Their Impact
During the evolution from Old English to Modern English, significant changes occurred, particularly in morphology. The reduction of grammatical morphemes affected verbs and adjectives.
Firstly, many strong verbs became weak. The past tense of weak verbs was formed by adding the ending -ed, leading to the development of three different allomorphs: /d/, /t/, and /ed/ (e.g., moved, talked, hated).
On the other hand, the plural morpheme -az became a universal rule, except for fossilized adjectives from Old English (e.g., men, children, feet). Voiceless fricatives became voiced when the plural form was added (e.g., knife, knives).
To sum up, these morphological changes contributed to the preference for the SVO word order in Modern English, replacing the SOV order of Middle English, and the increased use of periphrastic expressions to indicate tense and mood (e.g., would, shall, will).
The Development of Auxiliary DO
The Evolution of Auxiliary DO
Linguistic change is typically a slow and progressive phenomenon, especially in syntax. The development of auxiliary DO illustrates how new linguistic forms gradually spread among speakers.
The Rise and Fall of DO in Declarative Sentences
Firstly, English speakers used the auxiliary DO as a marker of person and number in affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences (e.g., She does play). All persons used the form DO, except for the third-person singular, which used DOES.
However, this tendency decreased in declarative sentences as English speakers began to add the ending -s to the main verb in the third-person singular.
Although both rules coexisted, the new rule for declarative sentences eventually led to the elimination of auxiliary DO in these contexts.
This example demonstrates how linguistic changes can gradually reshape a language over time.