Middle English Period.

The main linguistic characteristics

The Middle English period lasted from 1100 to 1500. In each period of
development, the English language was most influenced by a certain foreign
language. If in the Old English period it was Scandinavian, in Early Modern
English it was Latin, then in the Middle English period French became such a
language. Middle English is characterized by certain linguistic features in such
sections of learning as: morphology, orthography, pronunciation and lexis.
Firstly, grammar characteristics. Middle English is a period of greatest
grammatical change. At that time, most forms for the declension of a significant
number of nouns were reduced to two forms, one with -s for the plural and genitive
singular and one without it for other singular uses. Also, during this period, the
number of cases decreased, only the nominative and genitive remained. The ending
-es was used for most nouns. This can be illustrated by the example of a masculine
noun which in the Old English period had the following endings mūð, mūðes,
mūðe, mūð in the singular and mūðas, mūða and mūðum, mūðas in the plural were
shortened to three: mūð, mūðes and mūðe. Another important change in grammar
was the loss of the grammatical gender. Such a change was formed as a result of
the combination of unstressed vowels a, o, u with e, which eventually became [ǝ].
In addition, it was influenced by the fact that in Old English times, people for
psychological reasons began to indicate the gender of words with the help of
pronouns and the fact that most nouns had the same plural ending, which made it
impossible to determine the gender by the ending. Therefore, prepositions have
become especially important. The most important change in verbs during this
period was the disappearance of strong verbs, which were replaced by weak ones.
Some verbs, however, still have two forms, such as hang-hung-hanged.
Secondly, spelling characteristics. The French language has greatly
influenced the spelling of Middle English words. One of the most important
changes in the spelling of this time is that thorn – þ – and ð – were replaced by the
digraph th, which kept the same sound meaning: [Ө] and [ð], for example þreat –
thræt. Also, the rune "wynn" (Ƿ ƿ) was replaced by w. Moreover, new digraphs
appeared during this period, namely sh replaces Old English sc, for example sculan
– schulen; qu replaces cw – cwene – queen; gh replaces h – riht – right; ch replaces
c – cild – child; wh replaces hw – hwæt – what; c replaces s, to illustrate cynn –
kin, kyn, also ou replaces u – hūs – hous. In addition, the digraph gg, which was
used to write the pronunciation of the sound [ǰ], replaced Old English cg in middle
and final positions, for example ecg – egge.
 Thirdly, changes in pronunciation. The pronunciation of Middle English
letters is characterized by the fact that they are pronounced as they are written.
This is quite different from modern English, where a single letter can represent
several monotones and even diphthongs. In particular, this change in pronunciation
occurred due to The Great Vowel Shifts that began during the Middle English
period. Moreover, all consonants and vowels in the word had to be pronounced.
Probably the most noticeable characteristic of pronunciation is the lengthening and
shortening of vowels. Vowels were lengthened before such consonant sequences as
mb, nd, ld, rd and rð), for example felda – feeld. Short a, e and o were lengthened
when they were in open syllables, this can be seen in words such as macien –
māke. Vowels were shortened, provided they were in closed syllables before two
or more consonants, such as cēpte – cepte. Also in unstressed syllables, like
wisdom – wisdom or when they were in a syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables – sūðerne – suðerne.
Fourthly, changes in vocabulary. The dictionary of the Middle English
language was significantly enriched with French words, about ten thousand new
words appeared. Since French was the language of government and spoken by the
upper class of society, many words were added to areas such as government and
administration, jurisprudence, military affairs, fashion, food, arts, education and
medicine. Examples of such borrowings are mutton, reign, royal, authority, court,
priory, hermitage, punishment, prison, enemy, arms, battle, cloak, coat, grape,
orange, lemon. In addition, an interesting situation is the use of Old English words
for the name of animals, and French words for the name of their meat, for example
cow – beef, deer – venison.
So, the Middle English period is important for the development of the
English language. To a large extent, different levels of the language were
influenced by French. Such changes as the loss of the grammatical gender, the
decrease in the number of cases, the appearance of new monothongs and
diphthongs, lengthening and shortening of vowels, as well as new words, can be
observed in the modern language as well.
References:
1. Algeo, John. “The Origins and Development of the English Language”:
Sixth Edition
2. Baugh, Albert Croll and Thomas Cable. “A History of the English
Language”: Fifth Edition
3. https://distedu.ukma.edu.ua/mod/icontent/view.php?id=55204
4. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/cb45/files/lengthening-
shortening2_0_0.pdf