Dubria, Ana Joy C.

BSE-E1A
March 18, 2019
After the discussion, the students will be able to:
Define the Middle English, Old English, and Modern
English
 Differentiate the Old English, Middle English, and
Modern English
 Identify the language change occurred during these
stages
Old English
The language of the Anglo
Saxon people was rich in
words related to farming.
They also introduced
pronouns, prepositions,
auxiliary verbs and
everyday words. It was an
inflected language(the
meaning of words changed
according to their
declensions).
Old English is the earliest historical form of the English language,
which was spoken in England and some parts of Scotland during the
early Middle Ages. It was brought to England by the Anglo-Saxon settlers
during the 5th century. It was used in Britain from 400s through the
1100s.
Old English has four main dialectal forms: Northumbrian, Kentish,
Mercian, and West Saxon. Its closest relatives are Old Saxon and Old
Frisian. The grammar of Old English is somewhat similar to modern
German. The word order is much freer, but nouns, pronouns, adjectives
and verbs have many inflectional forms and endings. Like any other old
language, it is very different from its modern version; therefore,
speakers of Modern English find it very difficult to understand it without
study. Old English vocabulary mostly contained Germanic words; most
of these words do not exist in the Modern English vocabulary as these
words were later replaced by Latin and French words.
The earliest Old English inscriptions used a runic system, but this was
replaced by a version of the Latin alphabet from about the 9th century.
The earliest written work in Old English dates back to the 7th century.
Old English vocabulary mostly
contained Germanic words; most
of these words do not exist in the
Modern English vocabulary as
these words were later replaced
by Latin and French words. Words
with Latin origins such as
cleric, abbot, nun, hymn, temple,
silk, purple, beet, lentil, pear,
radish, doe, oyster, cannon, ark,
alter, and alms entered into the
English vocabulary during the later
Old English period.
Old English
Some of the most important
surviving works of Old
English literature are
Beowulf, an epic poem; the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a
record of early English
history; and Caedmon
Hymn, a Christian religious
poem. There are also
number of prose works.
Poetry is considered the
heart of Old English
literature.
 Middle English
At the beginning of the 13th century
French was the language of the
enemy and English regained
importance also because it was
spoken by the merchants and
craftsmen who formed the
emerging middle class. The English
from being an inflective language
became analytic(the meaning in a
sentence was given by word order
and not by form).
 Middle English
Chaucer who came from the East
Midlands wrote in English marking the
birth of it as a national language. The
French kings who ruled England at that
time spoke no, or very little English and
only some of them, as for example
Henry II understood it but did not speak
it.
Middle English refers to a collection of the varieties of English that
replaced Old English after the Norman quest (1066). Middle English
developed out of late Old English, but there are drastic changes in
grammar, pronunciation, and spelling between these two versions.
Many Old English grammatical features were simplified; for examples,
noun, verb, and adjective inflections were simplified in Modern
English so as the reduction of many grammatical cases. The dative
and instrumental cases of Old English were replaced by with
prepositional constructions in Early Middle English.
Everyday vocabulary mostly remained Germanic, but areas such as
law, politics, religion and arts saw an adoption of Norman French
vocabulary. Although the writing customs varied widely during this
period, a standard based on the London dialect became established
aided by the invention of the printing press. This standard is the
foundation of Modern English spelling. Therefore, Modern English
speakers can understand Middle English better than Old English.
Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer are notable writers who wrote in
Middle English.
 Modern English
In spite of all this the language of the
government was still French. A turning
point went when in 1415, King Henry V
used English in his official documents.
English became the language of the
kings and gradually the one of the
institutional life. A major change in the
pronunciation of vowels marked the
transition from Middle English to
Modern English during 15th and 16th
centuries. This change was termed the
Great Vowel Shift.
Modern English
In the early part of the Modern English period, the
vocabulary was enlarged by borrowings from the
other languages. The revival of interest in Latin and
Greek during the Renaissance brought new words
into English from those languages. Other words were
introduced by English travellers and merchants after
their return from journeys of the continent.
Modern English
William Shakespeare incorporated a wide vocabulary
reflecting the new geographical and cultural horizons of
the Renaissance.
In the late 17th century and during the 18th century, certain
important grammatical changes occurred and the formal
rules of English grammar were established during that
period.
The Modern English is the language that we speak today.
Conclusion