A History of English Language

Middle english 185
phonology and morphology down to the early fourteenth century. M.K.Pope’s From Latin to
Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman (2nd ed., Manchester, 1952)
contains a chapter on the special developments in England. Skeat’s two lists in the Trans. of the
Philological Soc., 1880–1881 and 1888–1890, offer a convenient collection of French words
used in England.
The loss of native words is treated in a series of monographs, such as Emil Hemken, Das
Aussterben alter Substantiva im Verlaufe der englischen Sprachgeschichte (Kiel, Germany,
1906). Similar treatments are those of Oberdörffer on the adjective (Kiel, 1908), Offe on the
verb (Kiel, 1908), Rotzoll on diminutives (Heidelberg, 1909), and the more general dissertations
of Fr.Teichert, Über das Aussterben alter Wörter im Verlaufe der englischen Sprachgeschichte
(Kiel, 1912), and Kurt Jaeschke, Beiträge zur Frage des Wortschwundes im Englischen
(Breslau, 1931); and Xavier Dekeyser and Luc Pauwels, “The Demise of the Old English
Heritage and Lexical Innovation in Middle English,” Leuvense Bijdragen, 79 (1990), 1–23. The
curtailment of prefix and suffix derivatives can be seen in such studies as T.P.Harrison, The
Separable Prefixes in Anglo-Saxon (Baltimore, MD, 1892), and the studies of individual
prefixes in Old English such as bi by Lenze (Kiel, 1909), for(e) by Siemerling (Kiel, 1909),
on(d) by Lüngen (Kiel, 1911), wið(er) by Hohenstein (Kiel, 1912), and ofer by Röhling
(Heidelberg, 1914). Full titles of all these works can be found in Kennedy’s Bibliography.
The Latin borrowings in Middle English and the affectation of aureate terms are treated in the
works of Dellit and Mendenhall mentioned in the footnotes to § 142 and § 143. The important
references for the influence of the Low Countries are given in the footnote to § 145.
The major study of Middle English dialects is by Angus Mclntosh, M.L.Samuels, and Michael
Benskin with the assistance of Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson, A Linguistic Atlas of Late
Mediaeval English (4 vols., Aberdeen, 1986). During the preparation of the Atlas several
important essays on the principles of Middle English dialectology were published by Mclntosh
and by Samuels and have been reprinted in Middle English Dialectology: Essays on Some
Principles and Problems, ed. Margaret Laing (Aberdeen, 1989). There are individual studies of
particular dialect features and dialect areas, including the works of Wyld, Ekwall, Serjeantson,
and others. A more extensive monograph is Gillis Kristensson, A Survey of Middle English
Dialects 1290–1350: The Six Northern Counties and Lincolnshire (Lund, Sweden, 1967; Lund
Stud. in English, vol. 35), with a useful bibliography covering the whole of England. On
Chaucer’s English, see David Burnley, The Language of Chaucer (London, 1983); Arthur
O.Sandved, Introduction to Chaucerian English (Cambridge, UK, 1985), and Christopher
Cannon, The Making of Chaucer’s English: A Study of Words (Cambridge, UK, 1998).
Structural changes in the verb phrase during Chaucer’s period are examined by Ans van
Kemenade, Syntactic Case and Morphological Case in the History of English (Dordrecht,
Netherlands, 1987) and by Elly van Gelderen, The Rise of Functional Categories (Amsterdam,
1993). A good overview of Middle English syntax is Olga Fischer’s chapter, “Syntax,” in The
Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume II: 1066–1476, ed. Norman Blake
(Cambridge, UK, 1992), pp. 207−408.
On the rise of Standard English the fundamental work is L.Morsbach, Ueber den Ursprung der
neuenglischen Schriftsprache (Heilbronn, Germany, 1888), which may be supplemented by
H.M.Flasdieck, Forschungen zur Frülhzeit der neuenglischen Schriftsprache (2 parts, Halle,
Germany, 1922). Contributing elements are discussed by R.E.Zachrisson, “Notes on the Essex
Dialect and the Origin of Vulgar London Speech,” Englische Studien, 59 (1925), 346–60; Agnes
Peitz, Der Einfluss des nördlichen Dialektes im Mittelenglischen auf die entstehende
Hochsprache (Bonn, 1933); and H.C.Wyld, “South-Eastern and South-East Midland Dialects in
Middle English,” Essays and Studies, 6 (1920), 112–45. The characteristics of the London
dialect are treated by B.A.Mackenzie, The Early London Dialect (Oxford, 1928), to which may
be added two articles by P.H.Reaney, “On Certain Phonological Features of the Dialect of
London in the Twelfth Century,” Englische Studien, 59 (1925), 321–45, and “The Dialect of
London in the Thirteenth Century,” ibid., 61 (1926), 9–23. A later period is treated in Hans