Literature 2 MIDDLE ENGLISH (1066-1500)
Scenario
A new language
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Word bite meet meat mate out boot boat
Middle English is the name given to the different forms of English spoken after the Norman invasion of 1066 until the end of the 15th century. Middle English developed as a contamination of Old English dialects and Norman French. For much of the early Medieval period, Norman-French continued to be the language of the court and the aristocracy, Latin was used by the clergy and scholars while most of the population still spoke Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), the language of the pre-Conquest period. Gradually the three languages mixed together, and by the end of the XIV century a new language, Middle English, had developed. It retained inflectional verb endings from Old English, but its rich vocabulary contained The Great Vowel Shift many words from Norman-French and from Latin, alongside those Vowel pronunciation of Anglo-Saxon origin. Late Middle English Modern English before the GVS after the GVS Later, in the space of the 150 years or so between Chaucer and /iː/ /aɪ/ Shakespeare, English became simplified. At some time in this period /eː/ the so-called Great Vowel Shift occurred: the pronunciation of vowel /iː/ /ɛː/ sounds in English began to differ from other European languages. /aː/ /eɪ/ Meanwhile the printing press had been developed by Johannes /uː/ /aʊ/ Gutenberg in 1470, and the first English printer William Caxton was /oː/ /uː/ issuing books by 1476. /ɔː/ /oʊ/
New literary forms
New schemes of rhyme and metre were borrowed from continental literary forms. The Normans brought in metrical romances (tales in verse dealing with love, chivalry and religion) and a new form of lyric poetry focused on nature and joyous themes, like in The Cuckoo Song (ca. 1260), one of the most popular lyrics. Middle English
Modern English
Sumer is icumen in – Luhde, sing cuccu! Groweth sed and bloweth med And springth the wde nu Sing! cuccu, nu. Sing cuccu!
Summer has arrived –
Ballads
Sing loud, cuckoo! Grows seed and blows mead And blossoms the wood now. Sing cuckoo!
The ballad (→ p. 532) is probably the simplest form of Modern English poetry. Ballads were anonymous and spontaneous oral poems accompanied by music and dance that had been handed down from generation to generation since Anglo-Saxon times. Their themes were religion, love, supernatural events (ghosts, magic, superstition) or famous people of the time, and they had a recreational function but no moralising intent. Since they originated from and were directed at illiterate people, the stories were simple, direct and full of repetitions.
▲ The manuscript of The Cuckoo Song.
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1 From the origins to the end of the Middle Ages EUROPASS © Casa Editrice G. Principato SpA
