A History of English Language

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A history of the english language 144 English literary achievement in the Middle Ages. The period from 1350 to 1400 has been called the Period of Great Individual Writers. The chief name is that of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400), the greatest English poet before Shakespeare. Not to mention his delightful minor poems, he is the author of a long narrative poem telling the story of the unhappy love of Troilus and Criseyde and, most famous of his works, the Canterbury Tales, which, besides giving us in the general prologue a matchless portrait gallery of contemporary types, constitutes in the variety of the tales a veritable anthology of medieval literature. To this period belong William Langland, the reputed author of along social allegory, Piers Plowman (1362–1387); John Wycliffe (d. 1384), putative translator of the Bible and author of a large and influential body of controversial prose; and the unknown poet who wrote not only the finest of the Middle English romances, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but three allegorical and religious poems of great beauty, including Pearl. Any one of these men would have made the later fourteenth century an outstanding period in Middle English literature. Together they constitute a striking proof of the secure position the English language had attained. The fifteenth century is sometimes known as the Imitative Period because so much of the poetry then written was written in emulation of Chaucer. It is also spoken of as a Transition Period, because it covers a large part of the interval between the age of Chaucer and the age of Shakespeare. The period has been unjustly neglected. Writers like Lydgate, Hoccleve, Skelton, and Hawes are not negligible, though admittedly overshadowed by some of their great predecessors, and at the end of the century we have the prose of Malory and Caxton. In the north the Scottish Chaucerians, particularly Henryson, Dunbar, Gawin Douglas, and Lindsay, produced significant work. These authors carry on the tradition of English as a literary medium into the Renaissance. Thus, Middle English literature follows and throws interesting light on the fortunes of the English language. BIBLIOGRAPHY F.M.Powicke’s The Loss of Normandy, 1189–1204 (Manchester, 1913) offers a good point of departure for the study of conditions affecting the position of English in the latter part of our period. The same author’s The Thirteenth Century (2nd ed., Ox-ford, 1962) may also be consulted. The influx of foreigners in the thirteenth century is treated in François Mugnier, Les Savoyards en Angleterre au XIII e siècle (Chambéry, France, 1890). The reaction against them is well represented by Oliver H.Richardson, The National Movement in the Reign of Henry III and Its Culmination in the Barons’ War (New York, 1897), which may be supplemented by John R.Maddicott’s Simon De Montfort (Cambridge, UK, 1994). On the whole, the best discussion of the Black Death is Philip Ziegler’s The Black Death (London, 1969). For estimates of the mortality, see John Hatcher, Plague, Population, and the English Economy, 1348–1530 (London, 1977). Walter of Bibbesworth’s treatise is edited by William Rothwell (London, 1990). W.H.Stevenson does much to make John Cornwall a real person in “The Introduction of English as the Vehicle of Instruction in English Schools,” Furnivall Miscellany (Oxford, 1901), pp. 421–29. On individual points the works cited in the footnotes to the chapter should be consulted. Other articles bearing on the relation of French and English include: M.Dominica Legge, “Anglo-Norman and the Historian,” History, N.S., 26 (1941), 163–75; George E.Woodbine, “The Language of English Law,” Speculum, 18 (1943), 395−436, parts of which must be used with caution; R.M. Wilson, “English and French in England 1100–1300,” History,
The reestablishment of english, 1200-1500 145 N.S., 28 (1943), 37–60; and a series of studies by Rolf Berndt, “The Linguistic Situation in England from the Norman Conquest to the Loss of Normandy (1066–1204),” Philologica Pragensia, 8 (1965), 145–63; “The Period of the Final Decline of French in Medieval England (Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries),” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 20 (1972), 341–69; and “Reflections on the Development of Social Varieties of English in the Late(r) Middle English and Early Modern English Period,” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 34 (1986), 235–49. See also two essays by William Rothwell, “Lexical Borrowing in a Medieval Context,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 63 (1980–1981), 118– 43, and “Stratford atte Bowe and Paris,” Mod. Lang. Rev., 80 (1985), 39–54, as well as the essays by Rothwell cited in §§ 92, 99, and 101, and by lan Short in the Bibliography for Chapter 5.
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A History of the English Language F
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A History of the English Language F
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Contents Preface viii 1 English Pre
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Preface Before the present author e
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PHONETIC SYMBOLS [a] in father [a]
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1 English Present and Future 1. The
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English present and future 3 4. The
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English present and future 5 increa
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English present and future 7 French
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English present and future 9 learne
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English present and future 11 words
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English present and future 13 our t
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English present and future 15 World
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The Indo-European family of languag
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Old english 39 extended beyond a pr
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Old english 41 hundred towns, with
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Old english 43 whom almost certainl
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Old english 45 36. The Names “Eng
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Old english 47 39. The Dialects of
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Old english 49 fæger (fair), or s
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Old english 51 present the inflecti
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Old english 53 While the ordinary m
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Old english 55 The origin of the de
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Old english 57
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Old english 59 ‘proudly’, and t
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Old english 61 a saddle, the shield
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Old english 63 people. The literatu
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Old english 65 history of the rest
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4 Foreign Influences on Old English
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Foreign influences on old english 6
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Page 105 and 106: Foreign influences on old english 9
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Page 159 and 160: Middle english 147 and adjective ma
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Page 165 and 166: Middle english 153 mations has been
Page 167 and 168: Middle english 155 the reality of M
Page 169 and 170: Middle english 157 the French words
Page 171 and 172: Middle english 159 brandish, vanqui
Page 173 and 174: Middle english 161 all the words in
Page 175 and 176: Middle english 163 whether found in
Page 177 and 178: Middle english 165 English vocabula
Page 179 and 180: Middle english 167 English word occ
Page 181 and 182: Middle english 169 French: forcover
Page 183 and 184: Middle english 171 142. Latin Borro
Page 185 and 186: Middle english 173 far this affecta
Page 187 and 188: Middle english 175 native populatio
Page 189 and 190: Middle english 177 the Middle Engli
Page 191 and 192: Middle english 179 148. The Rise of
Page 193 and 194: Middle english 181 the precise form
Page 195 and 196: Middle english 183 leef or tweyne,
Page 197 and 198: Middle english 185 phonology and mo
Page 199 and 200: 8 The Renaissance, 1500-1650 152. C
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 195 That
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 197 cent
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 199 I la
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 201 expr
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 203 they
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 205 your
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 207 160.
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 209 anac
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 211 word
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 213 seve
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 215 of t
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 217 rein
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 219 heap
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 221 occu
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 223 Such
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 227 sugg
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 229 It m
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 231 spea
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 235 good
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 237 Sixt
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The appeal to authority, 1650-1800
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10 The Nineteenth Century and After
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The nineteenth century and after 28
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11 The English Language in America
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The english language in america 333
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APPENDIX A Specimens of the Middle
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Appendix A 389 East Midland The Bes
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Appendix A 391 down to the ground a
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Appendix A 393 Ac ich alle blisse m
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Appendix A 395 Characteristic of th
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Appendix A 397 Of Engelond, to Caun
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APPENDIX B English Spelling The fol
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Appendix B 401 straunge wordes as l
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Appendix B 403 more he tooke God so
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Appendix B 405 words, whose Etymolo
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Index 407 Alabama, 354 Albanian bra
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Index 409 Bacon, Francis, 261 Bacon
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Brakelond, Jocelyn de, 122, 124 Bra
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Index 413 Chamberlain, John, 209, 4
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Index 415 words from, 303 Dalby, D.
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Index 417 East Africa, English lang
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Index 419 Flügel, Ewald, 286 Folio
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Index 421 Goodenough, Ward H., 40 G
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Hill, A.A., 402 Hill, David, 72-73
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Index 425 Jackson, Kenneth, 72 Jaes
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Index 427 Lance, Donald M., 407 Lan
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Index 429 Lycian, 26 Lydgate, John,
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Index 431 Milton, John, 183, 224, 2
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Index 433 Nunnally, Thomas, 407 Nyn
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Peterborough Chronicle, 166 Peterho
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Index 437 Quirk, Randolph, 56, 316
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St. Mary’s Abbey, York, 147 Sallu
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Index 441 Society of Antiquaries, 2
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Index 443 Scandinavian, influence o
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Index 445 Verb-adverb combinations,
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Index 447 Woodbine, George E., 157
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A History of English Language

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