136 The History of English

aspects to their thesis. However, as we have seen, the high degree of inconsistencies and inaccuracies put forward in their paper greatly undermined their position. To paraphrase the authors, ultimately, it perhaps made ‘little sense even to pose the question at all’ (Bailey and Maroldt, 1977: 23).

4.6Study Questions

1.In Section 4.4.1 we saw that c typically represented [ ] before front vowels in ME. There are, however, cases in which its value is [s], as in ME citee ‘city’, ceptre ‘sceptre’, cessyd ‘ceased’, ‘ended’. What is the reason for such exceptions?

2.What are the origins of the modern demonstrative pronouns this, that, these and those? A good dictionary with etymological sources will be useful here.

3.The following passages (i) and (ii) are taken from two varieties of fourteenthcentury ME.

(i)Chaucer The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (fourteenth century; London (East Midlands dialect)) A povre widwe, somedeel stape in age

Was whilom dwellynge in a narwe cotage Biside a grove, stondynge in a dale.

This widwe, of which I telle yow my tale, Syn thilke day that she was last a wyf, In pacience ladde a ful symple lyf.

For litel was hir catel and hir rente.

By housbondrie of swich as God hire sente She foond hirself and eek hir doghtren two. Thre large sowes hadde she, and namo,

Three keen, and eek a sheep that highte Malle. Ful sooty was hire bour and eek her halle,

In which she eet ful many a sklendre meel. Of poynaunt sauce hir neded never a deel.

(ii)Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (fourteenth century (Northern))

Wel gay wat is gome	gered in grene
& e here of his hed	of his hors swete
Fayre fannand fax	vmbefoldes his schulderes
A much berd as a busk	ouer his brest henges
at wyth his hi lich here	at of his hed reches
Wat euesed al vmbetorne	abof his elbowes,
at half his armes er-vnder	were halched in e wyse
Of kynge capados	at closes his swyre.
e mane of at mayn hors	much to hit lyke
Wel cresped & cemmed	wych knottes ful mony
Folden in wyth fildore	aboute e fayre grene,
Ay a herle of e here,	an o er of golde;
e tayl & his toppyng	twynnen of a sute
& bounden bo e wyth a bande	of a bry t grene,
dubbed wyth ful dere stone ,	as e dok lasted;

	Middle English, 1100–1500 137
Sy en rawen wyth a wong,	a warle-knot alofte,
er mony belle ful bry t	of brende golde rungen
Such a fole upon folde,	ne freke at hym rydes,
Wat neuer sene in at sale	wyth sy t er at tyme
With y e.

Using a good ME glossary (such as Davis (1979) for Chaucer and that included in Burrow and Turville-Petre (1996) for the Gawain extract), answer the following questions:

a.What present participle inflections are used in each text?

b.What present indicative inflections are used in text (ii)?

c.How are plurals marked in each text?

d.What is, or are, the source(s) of loanwords in both texts? Does one text contain more borrowings from one source than the other? If so, why might this be?

4. The following is an excerpt from a ME lyric Alisoun. Using Section 4.4, discuss the features that characterize the language at this period (make use of a glossary):

Bitweene Merch and Averil,

When spray biginneth to springe,

The litel fowl hath hire wil

On hire leod to singe.

Ich libbe in love-longinge

For semlokest of alle thinge.

Heo may me blisse bringe:

Ich am in hire baundoun.

An hendy hap ich habbe yhent,

Ichoot from hevene it is me sent:

From alle wommen my love is lent,

And light on Alisoun.

5. The following short excerpts (i) and (ii) are taken from two translations of the Bible (St Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 26, verses 69–71). With reference to Section 3.4 and Section 4.4, compare the two, noting the linguistic changes that have occurred:

(i)Old English (c. 1050)

(69)Petrus so lice sæt ute on am cafertune. a com to hym an eowen 7 cwæ . 7 u wære myd am galileiscan hælende. (70) 7 he wy soc beforan eallum 7 cwæ . nat ic hwæt u segst. (71) a he ut eode of ære dura. a geseh hyne o er ynen. 7 sædeam e ar wæron. 7 es wæs myd am nazareniscan hælende.

Note: ‘7’ ‘and’

(ii)Middle English (1375)

(69)And Petir sat with outen in the halle; and a damysel cam to hym, and seide, Thou were with Jhesu of Galilee. (70) And he denyede bifor alle men, and seide, Y woot not what thou seist. (71) And whanne he ede out at the ate, another damysel say hym, and seide to hem that weren there, And this was with Jhesu of Nazareth.

138 The History of English

Notes

1.The label Anglo-Norman is here used to describe the victors of the Conquest who settled in England. Note that it is used, like Anglo-Saxon (see Chapter 3, Section 3.2), as a generic label for the different ethnic groups involved in the Norman invasion.

2.Schendl’s (1997) investigation of skilled code-switching between Latin, English and French in sermons, religious prose texts, legal and medical texts, and business accounts, as well as in more literary productions such as macaronic (mixed) poems and drama, is of interest here.

3.Normandy was first taken by Philip Augustus of France in 1204. John tried to reclaim it in 1214 at the Battle of Bouvines but was unsuccessful.

4.Mufwene (2001) notes that Thomason has revised this.

5.See Chaudenson (2001: Chapter 3); Singh (2000: Chapter 2) for more detailed discussion.

6.The original theory of monogenesis postulated that the Atlantic creoles derived from a fifteenth-century proto-pidgin spoken on the West African coast. This West African Pidgin Portuguese (WAPP) allegedly combined ‘African syntax’ with a Portuguese lexicon. It was assumed that WAPP was learnt by slaves awaiting transportation in West Africa and taken by them to the Atlantic colonies. WAPP was then relexified in accordance with the dominant superstratal language in each environment. Thus, in British territories, the Portuguese lexicon of WAPP was exchanged for English, in French territories for French, and so on.

7.See also DeGraff (2001) for an interesting discussion of morphological processes in Haitian French Creole.

5Early Modern English, 1500–1700

5.1 Introduction

In Chapter 4 we mentioned that the Middle English period is often characterized as one of extensive social and linguistic change. As we have seen, this was undoubtedly true, but it was also a period in which many socio-political and very generally sociolinguistic ideologies and frameworks remained relatively untouched. For instance, although the fourteenth century had seen the collapse of the old feudal system and its replacement by one which carried, for certain sectors of the society, more potential for entrepreneurship and economic gain, a stratified class system remained firmly in place. Despite the upheavals and replacements at the upper echelons of the Church and State that had followed the Norman Conquest, as well as the disputes that periodically erupted between the two, these entities remained anchored in a mutually beneficial relationship that had existed for centuries. English had regained its position as an important written language, but was still secondary in status to Latin, which continued to serve as the medium of scholarship and of the all-powerful Catholic Church. Smith (1984: 16) therefore states that a contemporary ‘perceptive observer’ would very likely have assumed that the new, sixteenth century would simply see a continuation of this status quo.

What Smith’s observer could not have foreseen was how, within a relatively short space of time, the medieval fabric of England would begin to be ripped apart and reshaped into a more modern form. The years approximately between 1500 and 1700 (Early Modern) in particular would see significant social, political, religious and indeed linguistic change as a result of various factors; the most important of which included increasing hostility to the established church, a growing sense of national identity and advances in technology. While some of these elements were not in themselves new or unprecedented, their combined effect was dramatic. The Catholic Church, for example, would continue to face anticlerical feeling but for the first time in its history, would see this grow into a reforming zeal through the widespread, and therefore damaging, dissemination of printed heretical literature to an increasingly literate populace. It would also engage in a dispute with the crown – again, not an unprecedented event in its history – but one which, this time, would not end in ‘compromise and conciliation’ but instead in a ‘clear rejection of papal authority and the creation of an English nation state’ (ibid.: 17). In addition, part of the tensions between English Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, as well as between the English