Middle English Period

 Middle English Dialects



Norman French, a northern dialect of France, spoken by the invaders, developed into Anglo-Norman in England. For sometime English and Norman French were used side by side, the latter enjoying social prestige and gradually the two mingled, giving rise to what is called Middle English. Middle English had a variety of dialects, more numerous and divergent than those of OE. 
  1. Northern (corresponding to OE Northumbrian). This includes the dialects of countries north of the Humber and the lowlands of Scotland.
  2. The Midland group (corresponding to OE Mercian). This includes the dialects of the vast central area, north of the Thames and south of the Humber. This group can be sub-divided into East Midland, West Midland, South Midland, North Midland and Central Midland. it is the East Midland dialect (EMD) which later emerged as the standard language of the period, for the following reasons. It was the dialect in which Geoffrey Chaucer, the most important writer of the period wrote and thereby the dialect attained literary status . William Caxton, who introduced the printing press, used this dialect which gave it great popularity and wide circulation.
  3. The Southern group (corresponding to the areas of West Saxon and Kentish of OE. This group includes the countries south of the Thames. It is further sub-divided into South Eastern (or Kentish) and South Western (or West Saxon).
Middle English Vocabulary

During the ME period English came under the strong influence of the French language.

The French influence on English Vocabulary

The French influence brought in not only grammatical and orthographic changes, but considerable vocabulary changes also. This is not surprising as French was for many years the official language of the court and was used in the Parliament, law courts and schools. The existence of English and French side by side for sometime gave rise to synonyms. one from the native tongue and the other from Norman French which gradually became differentiated in meaning. For instance, wed and marry. The former is native and originally meant 'to take a pledge' and the latter from French means 'to become a husband'. This probably reflects the simple homely wedding of the Saxons as against the formality of marriage among the rich French nobles. A similar distinction exists between pairs like, child and infant, kingly and royal, and meal and repast. Many terms relating to food and cooking have come from French. It is interesting to note that the names of animals were English, but when they were killed and served on the table, they took on French names. Thus, ox, cow, calf, sheep, goat, deer, and pig were all English, but beef, veal, mutton, venison and pork were all French. Many words relating to culinary arts were French borrowings, probably because of the superiority of the French cuisine. For example, words like sauce, soup, toast, sausage, jelly, and pastry. The native word breakfast still remains, but the more luxurious meals, dimmer, supper and feast were French. A.C. Baugh has rightly remarked "It is melancholy to think what the English dinner table would have been like had there been no Norman Conquest". 

The Normans introduced into English words relating to the feudal system. Examples are prince, peer, duke, baron, castle etc. In fact, the now common villain is French villein which originally meant a labourer.

The Modern English legal system owes a number of words to French. The word law is Scandinavian, but the greater part of the English legal vocabulary has come from French. Eg: court, judge, panel, attorney, arrest etc., and many of the phrases with the adjective placed after the noun as in, proof demonstrative, attorney general, heir-apparent etc. are all from French.

A large number of words relating to religion such as religion, cathedral, salvation, cardinal, parish etc., have come from French. Abstract qualities like grace and charity and words like discipline, save, blame etc., were at first ecclesiastical words but now belong to the common vocabulary.

Nearly all the terms relating to chivalry and the luxury trades of the time are French. Thus, we get the jeweller and the draper from French since such occupations were unknown in England and none of them had much to do with the lives of the ordinary people.

The older occupations, those of the cook, the miller and the shoemaker had native English names, may be because they were well established in England and performed by the natives. The word carpenter, though one of the basic professions, is French probably as the Saxon craftsman was not a skilled artisan in the eyes of the Normans. Similarly the shoemaker continued to cater for the general public, but the luxury for the nobility were made by the cordwainer. 

A number of astrological terms were also introduced from French. Many of these terms later obtained wider application. For eg., influence, zenith, disaster, the adjectives jovial, mercurial, saturnine etc. The names of the months of the year have come from Latin through French.

Most of the words associated with medieval scholarship were of French origin. Eg: mercy, pity, humility. Sometimes the native word and its equivalent in the learned vocabulary existed side by side as in love and charity. Infidel  and miscreant were both originally French words meaning ''unbeliever'' and took on a contemptuous colouring when applied to the Turks during the Crusades. Other words of Eastern origin which came into English, during this period are alchemy, elephant, algebra, crocodile, panther etc.

Among the sciences, medicine has brought in the largest number of early French words still in common use, among them being the words medicine, physician, surgeon, leper, plague, etc.

The French set the standard in fashion and dress and a great many words relating to these have come from French. Eg: lace, frock, petticoat, pleat, apparel, veil etc. Names of colours such as vermilion, blue, brown, and scarlet are French. The names of precious stones, like topaz, garnet, emerald, ruby, pearl, crystal etc. are French.

Many words relating to fine arts were introduced into English. Examples are letters, poetry (originally Latin), art, ballad, comedy, melody etc. Words relating to sculpture and architecture are tower, pillar, vault, castle, aisle etc.

We find a number of hybrid words in English coined by adding French suffixes to native stems or by adding OE suffixes to French stems:

English stem            French suffix
Break                             -age               Breakage
Short                              -age               Shortage
God                                -ess               Goddess
Love                               -able              Loveable
Bear                               -able               Bearable
Colour                           -less                Colourless
Court                             -ship               Courtship
Noble                            -est                 Noblest

It was during the ME period that the practice of using surnames was first adopted by the English. Surnames were originally names to distinguish one man from another, which in course of time, became family names. Surnames were derived from various sources such as personal features eg., Longfellow, Goodfellow, Longman etc., occupations eg., Smith, Baker, Cook etc., exact translations of French names eg., French Fortinbras became English Armstrong, place names eg., Field, Bridges, Hill, geneological eg. Johnson (son of John), Robinson (son of Robin) etc.


Prepared by:
Dr. Susan Mathew
Dept. of English

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