CLASSES 5-6 MIDDLE ENGLISH
Outer/ External history
1 What events led to the Norman Conquest? What were its immediate linguistic consequences?
2 What was the position of English under the Norman rule? What were the languages used at that time? By whom?
3 Why didn’t English die out? Discuss the political as well as social reasons for the survival of English.
4 What were the Middle English dialects? What were the reasons for shifting the predominance of the East Midlands dialect over the West Saxon?
Language
5 What were the important changes in the structure of the language? (word order, inflections, tendency for verbs)
6 How did spelling change (the use of runes, diagraphs, allographs)
7 Which forms were still different from those used in Present Day English? (inflections, negation)
8 Describe the process of borrowing in ME. From which languages? What areas of meaning did the loanwords cover? What was the origin of triple synonyms? What were etymological doublets, French calques, Anglo-French mixtures? (word formation)
9 What were the sound changes in the period known as Middle English? (levelling of vowels, consonant changes, split of fricatives, Great Vowel Shift)
Literature:
What are the main sources of information about the language of Middle English period?
What pieces of literature do you associate with the Middle English period? What were the new topics, literary genres? (romance, legends, debates, lyric, satire – tales, drama – mystery and morality plays) How did the rhyme change? What was the first translation of the Bible into English?
Sumer Is Icumen In (lyric)
Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing, cuccu!
Groweth sed and bloweth med
And springth the wude nu.
Sing, cuccu!
Canterbury Tales:
Ther was alo a Nunne, a Prioresse,
That of hir smyling was ful simple and coy;
Hire gretteste ooth was but by seinte Loy,
And she was cleped madame Eglentyne.
Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne,
Entuned in hit nose ful seemly.
And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly
After the skole of Stratford-atte-Bowe,
For Frenssh of Parys was to hyre unknowe.
At mete wel y-taught was she with-alle,
She leet no morsel from her lippes falle.
Ne wette hir fyngres in hir sauce depe.
Wel koude she carie a morsel and wel kepe
That no drope ne fille upon hire breste;
In courtesie was set ful muchel hir leste.
NKJO_BYD_ANG