Although the change from one to another may not have been marked evident at first, and although it may have taken several decades to properly set its roots, Middle English changed drastically from Old English – from its spelling and sentence formation to the way that words were sounded and inflected.
When it comes to the vocabulary of the language, Old English had many borrowed words from the Germanic influence, a few of which have survived into Modern English – such as ‘gold’ or ‘good’. However, Old English made use of a lot of compound words which did not survive, such as ‘bōchard’ meaning (bookhoard) library, and ‘nīfara’ meaning (newfarer) stranger. By the end of the development of Middle English, much of these compounds were lost, and it is estimated that about 80% of the language had changed due to the French and Latin influences taking place. For example, a lot of words that were concerned with the body and sexual organs or sexual acts were replaced with Roman words. Roman words also formed the basis of language related to ritual and religion, words that now survive as ‘abbot’ or ‘chalice’.
It is also interesting to note that Old English assigned a gender to words in an arbitrary fashion, something which did not really survive the beginning of Middle English. Another interesting, and crucial, thing to note is the change in letters used in spelling. While some retained their form, even in Modern English in the IPA format, most of them went unused after Middle English took over.
Grammar changed drastically from one to the other. In Old English, there was a more prominent emphasis on inflection in nouns, and the language was more dependent on declensions rather than on word order. There were significant word classes that have survived, to an extent, to this day, but maybe not to the intensity or exact meaning as in Old English. There were five grammar cases – nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and instrumental; two grammatical numbers – singular and plural; three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine and neuter. Verbs were either strong or weak, weak verbs being those that had an ending added to them, and strong verbs being those that had a change in vowel when being conjugated. One of the most significant changes related to syntax was the sentence order. In Old English, the main clause worked on a verb second order, and the subordinate clause with a verb final order. This would later cause confusion in Middle English, and this would be dropped altogether in favour of more declensions and less inflections. This, of course, has travelled on to the present day, with the current use of the standard SVO sentence structure.
When it comes to Middle English, marked changes came about in the grammar. Nouns ended in either –s or –es, or –n or –en. The possessive would also end in –s or –es, but the apostrophe was not yet used in this case. Infinitive verbs ended in either an –n or an –en, and this ending could also be used in the plural form of the verb.
The –n and –en ending was also used to signify the past participle; the –ƿ or –eƿ was used to signify the present; the letters –t, -d, or –ed were used to speak about the past. When putting a verb in the negative, ‘ne’ or ‘nat’ was used on either side of the verb, depending on the word.
Therefore, the very obvious changes that can be seen in the changes from Old to Middle English are as follows:
- Vocabulary in Old English came mostly from Germanic roots, while Middle English vocabulary borrowed from French and from Latin.
- A large portion of vocabulary in Old English was related to compounding of words, most of which do not exist anymore, and ceased to exist around the ending of Middle English.
- The system of gendering words in Old English – masculine, feminine, and neuter – fell out of use around the Middle English period.
- The spelling of Middle English is much more closely related to the present day use of English, rather than to Old English spelling. In fact, it is much easier to read Middle English than it is to read its ancestor.
- Old English was more dependent on declensions in the language, whereas a structured word order started to be adapted in Middle English.
- While there are weak and strong verbs found in both variations of the language, in Middle English, this was more regularized.
- Nouns became marked in Middle English, where before in Old English this was not needed.
Bibliography
Baker, P. S. (no date) The Electronic Introduction to Old English. Available at: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/ (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
Kleinman, S. (2009) About Middle English Grammar. Available at: http://www.csun.edu/~sk36711/WWW/Common%20Files/megrammar.pdf (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
Middle English Morphology (no date) Available at: http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/MENounMorphology.htm (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
Old English Spelling and Pronunciation 1 (no date) Available at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/engl401/lessons/pronunc1.htm (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
Old English Spelling and Pronunciation 2 (no date) Available at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/uofc/eduweb/engl401/lessons/pronunc2.htm (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
Pyles, T. and Algeo, J. (1993) The origins and development of the English language. New York: Heinle & Heinle Publishers Inc.,U.S.
Slocum, J. and Lehmann, W. P. (2014) Old English Online. Available at: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/engol-0-X.html (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
nativlang.com (no date) Learn Middle English online – a brief grammar of Chaucer’s English (Basic Middle English lessons). Available at: http://www.nativlang.com/middle-english/middle-english-grammar.php (Accessed: 16 May 2015)
Of Scripted Shadows and Painted Words 