The presented article is devoted to the historical formation and the development of the Standard English language in Middle English. It gives an overview of the existing dialects during that period as well as historical events and their influence on the development of Standard English.
Keywords: the formation of the Standard English language, dialectal divergence, the Middle English period, East Midland dialect, the establishment of National Language.
Представленная статья посвящена историческому формированию и развитию стандартного английского языка в среднеанглийский период в Англии. Представлен обзор диалектов, существовавших в изучаемый период, так же рассматриваются исторические события и их влияние на развитие английского языка.
Ключевые слова: формирование национального языка, диалектическое многообразие, среднеанглийский период, восточно-центральный диалект, становление национального языка.
The establishment of the national language was a very important process which took place during the gradual victory of the English language in its struggle with French in the Middle English period. Dialectal divergences of speech had been deepened and multiplied by feudalism. The enormous variety of Middle English in the different parts of the country was the most essential characteristic of the language during that period. «We get the impression of dialects which, as it were, dovetail one into the other, and each of which is, so to speak, shot and diversified by characteristics from other spoken in adjacent areas. The 'pure' dialect is hardly found, and even those texts which are regarded as exhibiting such 'purity' frequently present apparently incongruous features, while the great majority show a more or less variegated character, and represent in fact border dialects, types of speech belonging, evidently, to intermediate areas, lying between others of slightly different linguistic complexion and partaking the characteristics of the surrounding dialects» [1, 86], said the outstanding historian and the author of «A Short History of English» H. C. Wyld. The greatest poet of Medieval England Geoffrey Chauser called «the father of English poetry» was worried by the great variety of English and feared his work would be spoiled by dialectal forms used by copyists. He wrote: «And as there is such great variation in English and in writing our language, I pray God that no one will copy you wrongly, my book, or spoil your metre through fault of language. And wherever you are read or else sung, I beseech God that you may be understood» [3, 90].
Local dialects which were developed during Old English period continued evolving in Middle English. Native people proceeded speaking English both in the countryside and in towns. The main Old English dialects functioned in the Middle English period and their territories were maintained. In consequence of the disappearance of the kingdoms they were named by, the Middle English dialects are named according to the characteristic of their geographical location. In Middle English four main dialects are generally distinguished: Northern (from the Old English Northumbrian dialect), East Midland (from the Old English Mercian dialect), West Midland (from the Old English Mercian dialect) and Southern (from the West Saxon and Kentish dialects). Emerging within the boarders of smaller feudal tenures, Scottish, Northern and some other dialects were developed on the basis of the Northumbrian dialect. Thus, former Northumbrian is called the Northern dialect now. It was formed on the base of the middle and the southern Northumbrian subdialects and spread to the north form the mouth of the Humber River to the boarders of the Scottish dialect. Mercian is called the Midland dialect due to its location stretching to the north from Thames to the Humber river mouth. It consisted of several dialects. Both coming from the Old English Mercian, East Midland and the West Midland dialects were mostly used. The Southern originated from the West Saxon and the Kentish dialects. Only Kentish dialect preserved its name as Kent county continued its existence on the place of the former Kingdom of the Kentish which today referred to as the Kingdom of Kent. As for the Scottish dialect, it was formed on the basis of the northern part of the Northumbrian dialect and was spread to the north from the Tweed river in the lowland Scotland. Owing to the establishment of an independent state of Scotland in X1V-XV centuries, the Scottish dialect, which gradually developed into the Scottish language, became the literary language of Scotland.
During the Middle English period the Midland dialect was divided into two ones, that is West Midland and East Midland. In the course of time East Midland became the leading dialect and this fact is rather essential because there was no such tendency in Old English. Probably the reason is that only scarce written artifacts of Mercian exist. In the Medieval feudal society the dialects were equal in their usage. However, the English language was not the only language written and spoken after the Norman Conquest. It took place in 1066 and must be regarded as one of a revolutionary factor in the English language evolution. However, it has mainly influenced the vocabulary. The levelling of inflexions and the sound changes occurred during the Middle English period had begun much earlier and would certainly have taken place even if the Norman Conquest had not happen. It only accelerated the process which had started in the Late Old English. The greatest part of the English nobility was had been wiped out and for several generations after the conquest the important positions and the great estates were mostly in Norman hands. Class interests made the remnants of the English ruling class learn French, and for about two hundred years after the conquest, French remained the language of the Court and the feudal aristocracy in England. Almost all judges were Normans and did not know English, so the French language was used as the language of the law courts. The spheres of literature, education and science were shared with French and Latin. Nevertheless, more than 90 per cent of the population, who were peasants, continued to speak English and only the tradesmen and some of the craftsmen, who were the minority, were bilingual. Economical, political and social conditions, existing in England in X11-X111 centuries, played their role to help London to become the largest economical and cultural centre of the state. Being fast developing region due to the traffic ways which connected northern English districts with the central ones and trading and craft locus, London started attracting people from different parts of the country. The rapid economic development and relations between various parts of the state claimed the necessity and possibility to establish a national language which should be understood by everyone all over the country, besides, this national language should be above all the dialects. Different dialects were regrouped round the most prestigious dialect owing to extensive commercial intercourse, cultural and political reasons. The London dialect absorbed different dialects` traits. However, the East Midland dialect became the basis of the national language, particularly the London dialect.
The manuscripts of Middle English period have been presented in a much greater number than the manuscripts of Old English. Particularly it refers to the X1V and XV centuries. That time parchment was replaced by paper, which was rather cheaper in usage. Moreover, quickly growing quantity of educational institutions assumed an ever increasing relevancy of manuscripts. However, the French and Latin languages were used for the majority of texts. The spelling of the texts was greatly influenced by dialectal peculiarities and these two languages. The representation of the approximate pronunciation was a tendency of the old methods of spelling and Old English texts were rather conservative when they were copied in the X11 and the first part of X111 centuries. However, some characteristic forms of the dialects or certain modernized forms were introduced in the course of X111 century. Due to the inconsistence of these innovations, the results were sometimes often rather misleading and confusing.
The evolution of London English all along the Middle English period was analysed by a notable English philologist and lexicographer Henry Cecil Kennedy Wyld and he reaches the following conclusion: «We found that London English was, in its earlier phases, of a definitely Southern type, and more particularly of a central, rather than an East Southern type. We witnessed the gradual appearance of more and more East Midland elements, and of some South Eastern, or Kentish, peculiarities. The East Midland elements gain ground mare and more, sometimes being used alongside of the corresponding Southern elements, sometimes exclusively, instead of the latter. By the end of the 14 th century we found that London speech had become predominantly East Midland in character, and that the purely Central Southern elements were very greatly reduced, though still in excess of what they are in Standard or Written English at the present time... There we leave London English then, at the end of the fourteenth century, rapidly approaching to our own speech so far as the general character of the dialect elements is concerned, which make it up»... [1, 56].
Owing to the multiplicity of speech in London certain dialect ways of pronunciations were preserved in Standard English. The certain words were borrowed from the North raid (a variant of road in inroad ), laird (“lord”), uncouth , bairn , hale (“whole”) and cairn . Such words like merry, hemlock, bury, fledge, knell and left which is the antonym of the word right changed the short East Midland [i] for Kentish [e]. In the Southern dialect may be found such words like wuts for oats and wuk for oak , so that the unexpected initial sound of ones and one is not a surprise. Nowadays in standard speech we also can find other survived Southern forms, they are vixen , vane , vent , vat . However, the regular East Midland forms would be fixen , fane , fent , fat . Moreover, from the west Midland dialect came the sound of the stressed vowel in the words mongrel , among , monger .
The development of trade, the extension of education and the growing number of schools maintained the amplification of Standard English. Chaucer was the most prominent poet of pre-Shakespearean time, besides, he was a native London dweller. Such works of his as «Canter-bury Tales», «A Legend of Good Women» and some more were rewritten and distributed all over the country. Probably, it promoted, to a certain extent, a written form of the London dialect. However, there is a tendency to exaggerate the part played by Chauser in the formation of Standard English, especially by some language historians. The point is that English had already won the struggle with the French (Norman) language when Chaucer started writing his works. Not smaller, but probably a bigger role was played by John Wycliffe (1320–1384), the author of the medieval manuscript literature, especially the Bible`s translation from Latin into English. His aim was lo let Christians to understand the Gospel in their mother tong. He made it possible to encounter the Bible not only in oral versions in Latin, but to study it in the vernacular. His translation of the Bible was spread all over the state among various social levels, that is craftsmen, merchants and minor clergy. Subsequently Wycliffe`s translation of the Bible was banned, but before the prohibition it had already been known in all parts of England. It is considered as the most common text in the period of Middle English.
The introduction of printing by William Caxton in 1476 was the most essential contribution to the spread of Standard English. Being a learned man, he worked as a copyist in the service of the duchess Margaret of Burgundy, the Fourth sister of Edward in Flanders. He had lived for thirty years in Flanders and a printing press was brought by him to England when he came back. So, he was the first English printer. The first work printed by him was «The Tales of Troy» and in its preface he emphasized that this very book had been started printing in one day and also finished in the same day. Caxton, in his numerous translations and in all printed texts, started to use London English and this tendency was proceeded by his successors. The fact that the most provincial documents referring to the second half of XV century contain much less dialectal elements than the documents of previous period proves the fast passed Standard English spread. In XV1 century the great number of dialectal differences of vocabulary matters existed and some of them were even presented in cultivated speech despite the fact that London English had already been well established. Moreover, the certain writers used a large number of unassimilated Latin and French words, so it became a problem for the authors to please the great majority of readers by the language, because of the difficulty in choosing their words.
However, Caxton`s printing production helped to overwhelm the difficulties at that time. The printed works showed attained flexibility and simplicity as well as standardization of that time language. The products of his printing press were easily distributed in all parts of England and it became possible for people living all over the state to get acquainted with the grammatical forms and the vocabulary of East Midland English which had eventually become the Standard English language.
References:
- H. C. Wyld «A Short History of English» (London, 1951)
- Baugh, A.C. — A History of the English Language (London, 1965)
- Iarovici, E. — A History of the English Language (Bucharest, 1973)
- Robertson, S. — The development of Modern English (New Jersey, 1958)
- Middle English-an overview // Oxford English Dictionary. — [Electronic resource] Access Mode: https://public.oed.com/blog/middle-english-an-overview/
- The Norman Conquest 1066 // The Big Russian Ensyclopedia. — [Electronic resource] URL: https://bigenc.ru/military_science/text/2671781/
