Module 2 Old English, Middle English, &

Early Modern English

Wow! The previous module was such a roller-coaster ride, but

a fun one, right? Now that we know the roots of the English
language, let’s head down to a more specific account of the
language by learning the Old English.

Please watch this TED Ed video for a gist of what you’re going to
learn throughout the module.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIzFz9T5rhI

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How was watching the video? The English language has become
more interesting, right? Now, take a good hold to what you have
just learned and we will go into details about the mighty English
language.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

 characterize English language during the Old English,

Middle English, and Early Modern English periods;
 recount the beginnings of the English language;
 understood the influence of foreign languages in the
linguistic changes of English; and
 trace the origin of some words of the Old English, Middle
English, and Early Modern English.

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 Old English

Get Ready

A big discussion on Old English will come from Bede’s work,

Ecclesiastical History of the English People. His work started with a
discussion on a geographical survey of the island in Britain with five
languages spoken there, namely: English, British, Irish, Pictish, and
Latin. Among these five, Latin was no one’s native tongue, but it was a
common language among the educated elite of Western Europe. These
educated elite comprised of churchmen like monks and priests, such as
Bede himself. Latin, then, was considered as a literary and scholarly
language, although written English began to expand in the 9 th century.
Dominating this period is King Alfred of Wessex.

Try reading the

following transcript. Do
you understand what it
says? This is an
example of a transcript
written in Old English.
Isn’t it amazing to see
the linguistic changes
from this (Old English)
to the English that we
know today? Let us
learn more about Old
English. Please read on.

Source: https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/old-english

25
 Study

The Germanic Invaders

Bede’s account became the defining narrative of the arrival of the

Germanic invaders, namely: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes.

Jutes settled in and

around Kent; the Saxons in

Wessex, Sussex, and Essex; and

the Angles in East Anglia,

Mercia, and Northumbria.

The Germanic invaders

were not Christians, while the

British that they conquered

were. Christianity remained

active in some parts of Britain

that the Anglo-Saxons did not

conquer such as Wales, Source:

https://novoscriptorium.com/2019/03/01/si
Cornwall, and Ireland. gnificance-of-the-germanic-invasions/

26
 There are two significant events which mark the beginning of

Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England:

 In the 560s, an Irish monk named Columba established a monastic

settlement in Iona.
 In 597, Augustine, a Roman monk, led a mission to Kent where they
were welcomed by King Aethelberht who was later on baptized as
Christian along with 10,000 more Anglo-Saxons.

England was consisted of separate kingdoms known as heptarchy.

These 7 kingdoms were: 1) Kent; 2) Essex; 3) Sussex; 4) Wessex; 5) East
Anglia; 6) Mercia; and 7) Northumbria. These seven kingdoms also
represent the four regional dialects of Old English: Northumbrian,
Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon. These will be discussed further later.

Bede’s work also included Caedmon’s story. Caedmon is an Anglo-

Saxon lay peasant who was given “God’s gift” of creating Christian poems
called Caedmon’s Hymn in the
vernacular through a dream.

Before Caedmon, Old English

verse was practised through oral
traditions using formulaic
phrases and traditional subjects
which were non-Christians. After
the traditional verses were
adapted to Christian themes,
these verses which were purely
oral were passed to one that is
written down. These written
forms have scribal features such
as the absence of punctuation
Source:
https://wvupressonline.com/node/34?
and a solitary capitalized letter.
page=2
27
The scribes were the ones who wrote out the poem in three long lines
stretching from margin to margin. So, the way the scribes wrote the
poems were not the same as how we expect poems to look such as poems
with word breaks, line breaks, and punctuation. Take a look at the
sample OE poem written in 14th century

Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Library_MS_Harley_913_fol.3
r.jpg

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 Spelling conventions were still developing at that time. The Anglo-
Saxons used the runic alphabet called futhorc, Christianity brought with
it [the futhorc) the Latin alphabet as well as other writing technologies.
Some sounds/letters in Old English did not have equivalents in the Latin
alphabet and this became a problem whenever they write these traditional
verses. For example, Latin had no separate letter for the consonant /w/;
hence /u/ was allowed to be used. So, /u/ has double duty as a vowel
/u/ and consonant /w/.

uurk --- translation: work (the first u represents /w/)

The following are examples of the improvised sounds they used

because of the challenge on writing and transcribing verses. The column
on the left represents the sounds present in the traditional oral verses but
without equivalent letter in the Latin alphabet; the column on the right
side show the improvised sounds.

Sound from the oral verses Improvised sound

/w/ /u/
/θ/ /th/
/ſ/ /sc/
/Þ/ /ð/

Around the year 900, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History was translated

from Latin into Old English through a program sponsored by King Alfred.

Bell Rings!

Wow! You’ve read this far! Before we proceed, take some break
first and get back all refreshed. 

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Mercia and the Vikings

There is little account of the dominance of Mercian kings because so

few records about them survived. Some of these surviving accounts were
from the Mercian
scholars whom
King Alfred
recruited. It was
stated in their
account that during
the Mercian
political dominance,
Vikings’ raids and
attacks were
widespread. In 789,
Source: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-first-viking-
a local official of invasion-of-england-this-month-in-catholic-history
West Saxon
assumed people in the three ships that landed near Portland to be
traders, taking them to the king’s residence. It was a terrible mistake
because they were Vikings from Norway who killed the king and his men
on the spot. This was not the end of raids done by Vikings, because a
series of attacks happened after such account.

The raids were first “smash and grab”, but transgressed these raids
have worsened so much so that the Vikings had large army. By the time
Alfred came to the throne in 871, the wikings had control over all England
except for part of Wessex. But after victories in the battles, King Alfred
was able to won back Wessex and expanded it. The most significant
victory of King Alfred was when he defeated the invading viking army and
as part of terms of surrender, its leader Guthrum agreed to be baptized as
Christian. After ten years, Alfred and Guthrum signed a treaty that
recognized boundary from places of England. After 9th century, as the

30
vikings and their descendant settles, “their native speech began to
influence the local dialects with far-reaching results in the later history of
the English language” (p. 161).

Do this

Now, let us see how Old English was structured then. Find a text
written in Old English and describe your chosen text through answering
the following guide questions. Make sure to submit your chosen text in
Old English along with your answer on this module.

1. What type of text is it? Describe the text structure.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

2. I bet some of the words in your chosen text may look gibberish to you.
Can you list down at least five words and your guesses of its
definition/translation to the English language we know and use today?
Justify your definition or translation.

OE Word Definition/Translation Justification

3. When was the text written? What do you think is the text all about?
How is it related to the historical period it was written?

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__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Middle English

32
 Get Ready

If Old English sounds gibberish to you, Middle English sounds

quite unusual too. Bit, Middle English texts’ grammar and vocabulary
feels very much closer to Modern English, perhaps because Middle
English was a transition period from Old English Modern English. In
fact many texts in the 14th century where phrases and words look just
like archaic versions that were “modernized”. Before we dive into the
pool of Middle English, let us first listen to this song Hello by Adele in
Middle English version. Tip: try to get a copy of the song lyrics and
compare the words used in Middle English. Have fun! 

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnjGU5TezT4

Study

33
 Following the Norman Conquest, England was a country with
three main languages: Latin, Norman French/Anglo Norman, and
English being the least prestigious language of the three. English

Norman Conquest, Illustrated

Photo from: https://thelanguagenerds.com/why-wasnt-english-
replaced-by-french-during-the-norman-conquest/

coexisted with Latin before as the language of the church. Although

Normans represented a small proportion of the population, their
language became one of the most well-known because those in
position of power are the Normans. French terms began to permeate
English when Norman lords married English ladies and employed
English bailiffs.

Latin was continued to be used as the language even of Norman

documents until mid-13th century when French became common for
official documents, and until 15th century when English made regular
appearance in the official records. Latin was learned and studied in
the schools and Universities in England. Most of those who became
proficient in Latin were those with clerical education and most of
them were men.

Those who could read and who could afford to own manuscripts
were likely to choose those that were written in languages that had
status which are Latin and French. However, in the late 13 th century,
some preferred English and found French as a language that is hard
to learn. From this period on, while Latin and French were still

34
understood and enjoyed widely, English texts started to become
numerous.

Late Middle English was a period of remarkable changes in the

English language. This period was also a time when more people were
conscious of their language that was changing. The biggest leap of
linguistic change is the stirrings of the Great Vowel Shift, a termed
coined by Otto Jespersen.

Bell Rings!

Okay, before we discuss out the Great Vowel Shift, it’s time to take
some break, try stretching for a bit, drinking water, or anything
your heart desires. Come back all refreshed. 

What is the Great Vowel Shift (GVS)?

Hi, there again! I think you are now ready meeting the Greet
Vowel Shift (GVS). Well, GVS is not a person, but this has definitely
changed how people pronounce some English words. Okay, here we
go, read on!

GVS was a sound change which was believed to have started

during the Middle English period. This caused the long vowels of
English to shift upwards, that is, a vowel that was used to be
pronounced in one place in the mouth would be pronounced in a
different place. Here are some examples of words which were affected
by the GVS.

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NOTE: A date for a sync class to explain this will be scheduled. Please
wait for your professor’s heads up.

The GVS did not happen overnight. It was believed that the
changes happened in stages and “affected vowels at different rates in
different parts of the country, and took over 200 years to complete,"
(David Crystal, The Stories of English. Overlook, 2004).

The GVS affected English sounds and spelling. During the Middle
English period, words used known and established spellings
regardless of the changes in the vowel sounds. So, for example, the
word “goose” had two Os to indicate a long /o/ sound, /o:/.
However, during the GVS period, the vowel sound shifted to /u/, thus
goose, moose, and food had mismatched spelling and pronunciation.

You can read more on:

https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/vowels.html

36
 Do this

Whoaaa! Congrats! You finished the second lesson of the

module! Now, before we advance to the last lesson of this module,
let us see how much you’ve learned in this lesson. If you need a bit
of a break, please do so; but if you think you’re ready, read on!

We’ll call this activity as “Dear Classmate Letter.” As the

activity name suggests, you will write a letter to a classmate.
Assume that this classmate was not able to understand the lesson.
Write a letter which explains what the lesson is all about. The
letter should be in one paragraph of 3-5 sentences only.

A rubric for this is appended at the last page. Remember,

plagiarized work will be marked as ZERO. Write on your own
words. Feel free to use an extra sheet if the space provided does
not suffice.

Dear Classmate (you may also provide any names),

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

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 ___________________________________________________________

Early Modern English

Get Ready

Try transcribing the following text written in Modern English.

This text is from Otwell Johnson, a London wool merchant, who gives
his brother an eyewitness account of the public excution of Katherine
Howard, the 5th wife of King Henry VIII and was executed because of
adultery charges.

And for newes from hens, knowe ye that even according to

my writing on Sonday last, I se the Quene and the Lady
Betcheford [sic] suffer within the Tower the day following,
whos sowles be with God, for thay made the moost godly and
Christyan’s end that ever was hard tell of (I thinke) sins the
worlde’s creation, uttering thayer lyvely faeth in the blode of
Christe onely, with wonderfull pacience and constancye to the
death.

What do you think of the sample text written in Modern English? I

guess we all think the same; the sample text in Modern English is
much easier to read than the previous examples written in Old
English or Middle English. What do you think?

In this module, we will describe the Early Modern English

language. A big chunk of the discussion is taken from Nevalainen
from Momma and Matto (2008).

38
 Study

English widened its scope in the Early Modern period. The number
of English speakers the population in England increased in the late
15th century and the year 1660. English vocabulary also expanded.
The first monolingual dictionary called A Table Alphabeticall compiled
by Robert Cawdrey was
published in 1604 to explain
difficult English words.
Shakespeare and his
contemporary writers were
responsible for adding
hundreds of English words. A
more thorough discussion of
the history of English
dictionaries will be provided in
a separate module.

In the late Middle Ages,

England had been trilingual
(French, Latin, and English).
English, though, came to be
used as the language of
documents, education, and
others during the Renaissance
period. Among all domains,
religion was one where the
use of English expanded in A Table Alphabeticall, Robert Cawdrey
the 16 century. In the Middle
th

Ages, Latin was the language

of the Church. An English translation of the Bible, which based on
the Latin Vulgate instituted by John Wycliff, was not authorized by
the Church. The first complete English translation of the Bible from
the original Hebrew was based on the work of William Tyndale, who
had translated the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament.

39
 One of the fields where there was a significant word formation is
the language of science. There were varieties of process which
specialists at that time used. The following are the three most
common processes:

1. Borrowing

- This was a very common process whereby a new word was

adopted from another language (e.g. French and Latin). Some
examples of these English medical words borrowed from other
languages are: fracture, indigestion, inflammation, tension, membrane,
tendon, extremities, etc. You can find the meaning of these in your
dictionary and see their word origin (e.g. fracture comes from the Latin
term fractura.)

2. Compounding

- Compound words consist of two independent words, such as

oliphant sickness or elephantiasis.

3. Affixation

- This is a process by which a prefix or a suffix is added to an

already existing word, as in misdeed (mis- + deed, “impotence”),
grinders (grind + -er, “molars”). The –ing ending was also common (e.g.
fainting, vomiting).

The process of borrowing words from the classical languages such

as Latin gave rise to a heated debate known as the Inkhorn
Controversy (inkhorn ‘inkwell,’ with reference to bookishness). Some
people believed that excessive borrowing of words from other
languages should stop and that people should rely on native sources
of vocabulary (some are obsolete and dialectal) in order to be more
understandable to the uneducated. Remember that by then only very
few people could access classical education and the vast majority of
the ordinary English people were not literate in the 16th century

40
 Bell Rings!

That was quite an interesting read, don’t you think so? Now, try to
catch some rest and please be back once you’re ready. Enjoy! 

I hope you enjoyed your break. Now, let us get back to studying!

Previously, we learned that English people used different processes

in forming or re-forming words, especially in the field of science.
However, this was debated by many people then (Inkhorn
Controversy), because too many words were unintelligible to many
uneducated people. Despite the controversy, more new words, which
were adapted from Latin, French, and other European languages,
came into writing, especially for particular fields such as, theology,
science, and literary language. For teaching purposes, some books
appended wordlists and dictionaries were created such as, the A
Table Alphabeticall by Robert Cawdrey.

This major upsurge of new yet borrowed English words caused

another debate. Many people noticed that even printers and
professional writers did not have standard spelling system. So, people
spelled words as they liked it. Also, people believed that “spelling and
pronunciation [of English words] had drifted too far apart”
(Nevalainen, 2008, p. 214) such as letters that did not match how
words are pronounced. For example:

the letter g in the word eight

the letter o in the word people

Can you name English words today which bear the same confusion
before? How about debt? Comb? Both are pronounced with a silent
/b/, right? Why is this so? You may check your dictionaries and look
for these two words and see from which language they’re borrowed
from causing them to be spelled and pronounced differently.
Fascinating!

41
 When did English start to establish a standard language? It started
in 1650 when printed words were written uniformly. There was
already an imposed convention on spelling in manuscripts to be
published.

Do this

Remember the text written in Middle English language in

page 38? Read it once again. Choose five words and look for its word
origin. Follow the format of the following example:

Word: newes

Translation: news

Word Origin:

(Old French) noveles (Medieval Latin) nova ‘new things’

(late Middle English) news

Suggested Readings

Horobin, S. & Smith, J. (2002). An Introduction to Middle

English. NY: Oxford University Press.

Momma, H. & Matto, M. (2008). A companion to the history of the

English language. Blackwell Pyblishing Ltd.

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Rubric for Letter Writing in Activity 2:

1.0-1.25 1.5-1.75 2.0-2.5 2.75-3.0

Criteria
Excellent Good Fair Poor
The response is very The response refers The response refers The response does not
specify the task;
specific to the task; to the task; major to an unspecified confusion on connection
all essential details points are made, task; answer does not to prompt and answer.
Reflection learned through the but not well clearly respond.
lesson and chunks of addressed.
the lesson are well
addressed
The summary is very The summary The summary does Does not summarize
specific to the lesson includes most of the not include many key the lesson's main
Summary and clearly addresses key points of the points of the lesson idea.
the main ideas of the lesson.
lesson.
Paragraphs and Most of the Structure was Poorly organized.
complete sentences sentences were in unclear. Complete Thoughts were
were used. Answer is complete sentences. sentences were used disjointed. Used
Organization concise and to the some of the time. less than the
point. Wrote answers minimum number
within the required of sentences.
number of sentences.

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