The Evolution of the English Language: From Old English to Middle English
10. The Benedictine Reform The flourishing state of the church unfortunately did not continue uninterrupted. One cause of the decline is to be attributed to the Danes, who at the end of the 8th century began their ravages upon the country. Lindisfarne and Jarrow, Bede’s monastery, were burnt in the years 793 and 794. In the 9th century, churches and monasteries were in ruins both in Northumbria and Mercia. By the 10th century, the decline had affected the church gravely. In the religious houses, discipline became careless, services were neglected, monasteries were occupied by groups of priests (some of them married), giving place to immorality. Education was neglected as well and learning decayed. In response to this, King Alfred changed the situation by restoring churches and founding monasteries. He fought for 20 years to spread education and foster learning. It all added to the labor of some other prominent figures of the moment, such as King Edgar, who helped to the revival of monasticism in England. The true conception of the monastic life was inseparable from the observance of the Benedictine Rule. As the first step in the reform, the secular clergy were turned out of the monasteries and their places filled with monks devoted to the vow of chastity, obedience and poverty. Moreover, a number of important monasteries were re-created in England. Also, one of the objects of special concern in this work of rehabilitation was the improvement of education – the establishment of schools and the encouragement of learning among the monks of the clergy. In this way, by the end of the 10th century, the island was once again much related to monasticism.
11. The Scandinavian Influence: The Viking Age Near the end of the Old English period, English underwent a third foreign influence, the result of the contact with another important language, the Scandinavian. For some centuries, the Scandinavians had remained quietly in their northern home. But, in the 8th century they began a series of attacks upon all the lands adjacent to the North Sea and the Baltic. Their activities ended up in conquest in the beginning of the 11th century, when Cnut, king of Denmark, obtained the throne of England, conquered Norway and ruled the greater part of the Scandinavian world. The daring seas rovers to whom these unusual achievements were due are commonly known as Vikings, and the period of their activity, extending from the middle of the 8th century to the beginning of the 11th, is popularly known as the Viking Age. It was to their attacks upon settlements and their ultimate conquest of England that the Scandinavian influence upon Old English was due.
12. Scandinavian Place-Names Among the most notable evidences of the extensive Scandinavian settlement in England is the large number of places that bear Scandinavian names. When we find more than 600 places like Grimsby, Whitby, Derby, Rugby and Thoresby, with names ending in -by, nearly all of them in the district occupied by the Danes, we have a striking evidence of the number of Danes who settled in England. For these names all contain the Danish word -by, meaning “farm” or “town”, a word that is also seen in our word by-law (town law). Some 300 names like Althorp, Bishopsthorpe, Gawthorpe, and Linthorpe contain the Scandinavian word thorp, meaning “village”. An almost equal number contain the word thwaite, meaning “an isolated piece of land”, such as Applethwaite, Braithwaite, Cowperthwaite, Langthwaite, Satterthwaite. About 100 places bear names ending in toft, meaning a “piece of ground, a messuage”, like Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft, Lowestoft, Nortoft.
13. French Influence on the Vocabulary French influence on the English language is much more noticeable in vocabulary. A good many English words found their way into the French spoken in England, but their number was not so large as that of the French words introduced into English. In fact, there is nothing comparable to it in the previous or subsequent history of language. Two stages can be observed regarding the introduction of words, with the year 1250 as the approximate diving line. The borrowings on the first stage (before 1250) differ from the ones occurred in the second stage in being much less numerous (roughly 900 words). Many of them came from the contact of the lower classes with the French-speaking nobility (baron, noble, dame, servant, messenger, feast, minstrel, juggler and largess). In the second stage (after 1250), the conditions under which French words had been making their way into English were supplemented by the fact that those who had been accustomed to speak French turned increasingly to the use of English. Consequently, the upper classes carried over into the English language an astonishing number of common French words. In changing from French to English, they transferred much of their governmental and administrative vocabulary, their ecclesiastical, legal and military terms, their familiar words of fashion, food and social life, as well as the vocabulary of art, learning and medicine. Governmental and Administrative words: government, govern, administer, crown, state, empire, realm, reign, royal, authority, majesty, tyrant, usurp, oppress, court, council, parliament, tax, record, assembly // office, chancellor, treasurer, marshal, governor, minister, warden, mayor, constable, coroner, crier, viscount, councilor, castellan and chamberlain.Ecclesiastical words: religion, theology, sermon, homily, sacrament, baptism, communion, confession, penance, prayer, clergy, clerk, cardinal, pastor, vicar, novice, friar, crucifix, incense, convent, hermitage, sanctuary, creator, savior, trinity, virgin, saint, miracle, divine, preach, pray, adore, confess, sacrifice, temptation, immortality, salvation, piety and mercy.Law: justice, equity, judgment, crime, plea, suit, defendant, judge, advocate, bill, petition, complaint, jury, juror, evidence, proof, verdict, sentence, decree, award, fine, punishment, prison, pillory, plead, accuse, blame, arrest, warrant, assign, condemn, convict, assault, fraud, perjury, adultery, executor and legacy.Army and Navy: army, navy, peace, enemy, arms, battle, combat, siege, defense, ambush, stratagem, retreat, soldier, guard, spy, captain, lieutenant, sergeant, lance, banner, mail, archer, portcullis, barbican and moat.Fashion, Meals and Social Life: fashion, dress, habit, gown, cape, coat, collar, veil, petticoat, lace, embroidery, button, plume, boots, luxury, fur, blue, brown, scarlet, saffron, jewel, ornament, ivory, ruby, turquoise, diamond, pearl // dinner, supper, feast, collation, mess, appetite, taste, viand, sustenance, mackerel, sturgeon, salmon, sardine, oyster, beef, mutton, pork, bacon, sausage, pigeon, toast, biscuit, cream, sugar, olives, lettuce, orange, lemon, cherry // curtain, couch, chair, cushion, screen, lamp, lantern, chandelier, blanket, towel, basin, wardrobe, closet, pantry, garner, dance, melody, music, chess, conversation.Art, Learning, Medicine: art, painting, sculpture, music, beauty, color, figure, image, tone, cathedral, palace, mansion, chamber, ceiling, chimney, pinnacle, porch, choir, column, pillar, base // poet, rime, prose, romance, story, lay, chronicle, tragedy, prologue, preface, title, volume, chapter, paper, pen, study, logic, grammar, geometry, noun, clause, gender // chirurgy, physician, surgeon, malady, debility, pain, ague, leper, paralytic, plague, pestilence, anatomy, stomach, pulse, remedy, ointment, balm, pellet, arsenic, sulphur, alkali, poison.
14. Anglo-Norman and Central French The French words introduced into English as a result of the Norman Conquest often present an appearance quite different from that which they have in Modern French. This is due, first of all, to subsequent developments that have taken place in the two languages. Thus, the OF feste passed into Middle English as feste, whence it has become feast in the Modern English, while in French the s disappeared before other consonants at the end of the 12th century. The same difference appears in forest>forêt, hostel>hotel, beast>bête, and many other words. However, the difference is not always fully revealed by the spelling but is apparent in pronunciation. Thus, the English words judge and chant preserve the early French pronunciation of jand ch, which was softened in French in the 13th century to [ž] and [š] as in the Modern French juge and chant. Therefore, we may recognize charge, change, chamber, chase, chair, chimney, just, jewel, journey or majesty. A similar case is that of words like police and ravine, where we pronounce the i in the French manner. A second cause of difference between English words and their French counterparts is the fact that the Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French dialect spoken in England differed from the language of Paris (Central French) in numerous respects. In Anglo-Norman the initial ca- was often retained, whereas it became cha-, chie-in Central French. For example, our word caitiff represents the Anglo-Norman caitif, whereas the Central French form was chaitif. In the same way are explained words like carriage, carry, case (box), cauldron, carrion and so forth. We may take another peculiarity of Anglo-Norman that appears in English: Central French showed an early avoidance of the w- sound, both separately and in combination with other consonants, but the dialects of northern and northeastern France, showed less hostility to this sound, and therefore is found in Anglo-Norman. And so we have English wicket representing the old Norman French wiket, which became in the Paris dialect guichet, the form that it has in Modern French. In the same way waste was in Central French guaster or gaster. Other examples are wasp, warrant, reward, wardrobe, wait, warden, wage or warren. In the combination qu- Central French likewise dropped the labial element while it was retained for a time in Anglo-Norman. For this reason we say quit, quarter, quality, question or require, all with the sound of [kw], where French has a simple [k] (quitter, quartier, qualité). The vowels also developed differently at times: in Old French, the diphthong ui was originally accented on the first element (úi), and this accentuation was retained in Anglo-Norman and the i disappeared, leaving a simple u [y]. In Middle English, this [y] became [u] or [iu], written u, ui, ew and so forth, hence the English word fruit.
15. Prefixes and Suffixes in the Middle English PeriodPrefixes: many of the Old English prefixes gradually lost their vitality and their ability to enter into new combinations. The Old English prefix for- was often used to intensify the meaning of a verb or to add the idea of something destructive or prejudicial. Thus, we find forhang (put death by hanging) or forcleave (cut to pieces). However, none of these formations lived long, and the prefix is now entirely obsolete. The only verbs in which it occurs in Modern English are forbear, forbid, forget, forgive or forsake. The prefix to- has disappeared even more completely and there is no trace of the prefix in current use. With-, meaning against, gave a few new words in Middle English, such as withdraw, which survives up to present day English, but other such as withgo have disappeared. Some prefixes which are still productive today, like over- and under-, fell into comparative disuse for a time after the Norman Conquest. Most compounds of over- that are not of Old English origin have arisen in the modern period. The prefix on- (now un-), which was used to reverse the action of a verb as in undo, unfold and unwind, and which in Middle English gave us unfasten, uncover and unwrap, seems to owe such life as it still enjoys to association with the negative prefix un-. The productive power which these formative elements once enjoyed has in many cases been transferred to prefixes like counter-, dis-, re-, trans- and others of Latin origin.Suffixes: a similar decline to the prefixes is observable in the formative power of certain suffixes that were widely used in Old English. 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 survives only in wedlock, and -red only in hatred and kindred. The ending -dom was used in Old English to form abstract nouns from other nouns (kingdom, martyrdom) and from adjectives (freedom, wisdom). In Middle English, there are some new formations such as in dukedom, thralldom, falsedom or richdom, these two last did not prove to be permanent, and the suffix is now dead. When used today is for the most part employed in half serious coinages, such as fandom or stardom. The endings -hood and -ship have had a similar history (manhood, womanhood, likelihood, boyhood, girlhood, hardihood) and many of the Old English abstracts in -ship were lost (yet we have kept friendship, worship or hardship)
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