More handpicked essays just for you.
The influence of the Norman conquest on English
Short note on Geoffrey Chaucer
The influence of Norman Conquest on the english language
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The final shift towards their evolution, and the big culture bomb, started with the Norman invasion of Britain; this battle caused an influx of culture into a mainly homogenous society. It started in 1066 when William the Conqueror won at the Battle of Hastings (Delahoyde 1), took the British crown by force, and brought French language and its influence into the quaint British countryside (McIntyre 12). This French influence gave the final shove and created the next step towards a modern language; it provided a stepping-stone into becoming a more advanced society with a more advanced language. Without the French, there would be no evolution from Old English to Middle English. The differences between Old English and Middle English were drastic …show more content…
Geoffey Chaucer lived from 1343-1400, and during that time wrote multiple works (Smith 7). Chaucer’s language soon became the new standard for writing, for which it differed from Modern English by the pronunciation of long vowels (Weiner 1). “For example, Middle English’s “long e” in Chaucer’s “sheep” had the value of the Latin “e”, which sounded like the Modern English’s “Shape”” (Weiner 1). And while his writing poses multiple similarities to the English spoken today, it still provides enough difference to see the change with the years in between. Without his work, many linguists would not have a clear understanding of how the linguistics shifts within Middle English itself …show more content…
The duration of Early Modern English took place during the English Renaissance, and hence the amazing evolutions that occurred within it (Myers 166). After the Renaissance came the Age of Reason, and it is during this time that the language becomes recognizable to today (Smith 9). The most common example of Early Modern English is the fact that Shakespeare wrote in it, and it poses the most similarities to Modern day; the language moved from a synthetic one to a more analytical one, and relied less on inflectional endings and more with word order to convey information (Durkin 1). Early Modern English is the premise for the ever-evolving language that millions speak
Boardman, Phillip C. "Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)." Enduring Legacies: Ancient and Medieval Cultures. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson Custom Pub., 2000. 430-54. Print.
Since it’s been a predominant topic of our discussion, let us talk about the infamous English language. We can be sure that it has painstakingly progressed throughout generations of reevaluation and modernization, and has thus become what it is today. It has gone in several directions to try and mesh with the various epochs of language, from the Shakespearean era to the common English slang we use now, we can all agree that English is a language that has been transcending and will continue to transcend into many
Herman, John P. and John J. Burke, Jr., ed. Signs and Symbols in Chaucer's Poetry. University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1981.
The Middle English period is characterised by the difference in grammar and vocabulary. The term Middle English describes the stage in the progression of the English language between 1100 and 1500. However, critics differ with regards to the actual time in which the Middle English period began and ended. The Middle English period falls between
Smith, Jeremy J. “The Use of English: Language Contact, Dialect Variation, and Written Standardization During the Middle English Period”. English in Its Social Contexts. Eds. Charles T. Scott, Tim William Machan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 47–68.
Tatlock, John S.P., and Arthur G. Kennedy. A Concordance to the Complete Work of Geoffrey Chaucer. Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1963.
In Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson argues the importance of preserving language. Other dialects had a produced their own dictionaries, such as the French and Italians. Various writers of the eighteenth century were alarmed at the fact that there was no standard for the English language, since there was no standard it could easily become extinct. Johnson explored many points, such as how and why languages change as well as how many words are formed.
As its name suggests, Middle English is the language that was spoken in the country of England around the 12th to 15th centuries. Middle English became the prominent language in England near the end of the 11th century shortly after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066. Unlike England's preceding language, Old English, Middle English evolved into much more of a written language. There were many writers and educated English scholars who worked to translate Old English texts into the new Middle English language. There were also writers, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, who used the Middle English language to write new works which employed new and creative literary techniques. One such work, The Canterbury Tales, is a work that has been recognized as having an extreme significance on the development of the Middle English language. This work is argued to be the greatest literary contribution to the Middle English language and is credited with popularizing the language among literary scholars. However, despite its historical influence on the Middle English language, the significance of the work is less seen today because of the evolution of Modern English. As a result, it is important to investigate the origins of this work and in so doing, make an effort to realize the overall importance of reading the text in its original Middle English language.
how the English language has changed in the many years from then until now. The
As you can see, there are many differences and similarities between these distinctive periods in literary history. The Anglo-Saxon period was the time of heroism. The Medieval period was the time of chivalry and courtly love. The Renaissance period was the time of a rebirth and humanism. Lastly, the seventeenth century was a time of the Puritans and the Cavaliers. Each period revolved a new topic, theme and writing style. However, no matter what differences our literature goes through, we always go back into our roots and pull out our beginnings and use them efficiently. The English language has surely evolved through each stage of time and it will continue to grow to new heights because of its predominant history.
Bibliography GRADDOL, D., LEITH, D., and SWANN, J., (eds) (1996) English: history, diversity and change, Routledge in association with The Open University (course book) University College of London Phonetics department website (www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/queen2.htm) entered on 23/3/03
It is important to note that during this renaissance period it was predominantly only lexical changes that occurred, the great grammatical development in English language had occurred before the renaissance, of course grammatical developments also occurred after this period too right up to recent times. The reason for these lexical changes, I will look at in greater detail later. So when we look at linguistic development during the period c 1550-1700 we generally only look at the addition of new words.
The Norman invasion of 1066 AD began a period of two centuries in which French was the official language of England, resulting in the introduction of many words with French or Latin roots, such as 'baron', 'justice' and 'government' (Beal, J. 2012, p. 64). English was first used in Parliament in 1362 AD and gradually displaced French (Appendix I, in Seargea...
It was this Chancery standard, the normal language for all official written communication by the time Caxton set up his Printing Press in West-minster (1476), which became the direct ancestor of Modern Standard English. As a result of these developments, the use of regional dialects in writing receded more and more in the course of the fifteenth century until, in the Early Modern English period, writing came to be exclusively done in the standard literary language. The language of Chaucer's late fourteenth century and of the fifteenth were often described as Late Middle English. It could as well be called Early Modern English. Ich and I ran side by side in Chaucer's language, and the distinction between ye and you was still that of nominative versus accusative.
Orthographical differences form the height of difference between the medieval English (Chaucer’s south east midland dialect) and modern English. (Duc – Duke; Wysdom – Wisdom). They in turn produce difference in the sound value, by removing what is authentically original. i.e., the pronunciation that imbibed in it the old eloquence (affected by French speaking English noblemen) that pleased the ear. The significant phoneme lost being the [x] as in bach, lock (Scottish English). Nevill’s translation does not have the richness of schwa used extensively in the original work of Chaucer.