Medieval English

Norman-French or Anglo-French, the language of the ruling class in medieval history of English, was the variety of the Northern dialect of French, spoken predominantly by Norman French-speaking noblemen and their descendants in Britain.

Some scholars (David Crystal, Seth Lerer) admit that the Norman Conquest had major effects on the English language but at the same time they claim that English was changing long before the conquest and continued to change throughout the British Isles despite the influence of the French-speaking Normans.

Traditionally linguists look for written evidence showing a level of literacy high enough to record sounds and forms that they can find many signs of ongoing changes. Both David Crystal and Seth Lerer assert that the Middle English period has a much richer documentation than Old English[15, p.2].

An illustrative example of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle proved this. The Chronicle  did not stop in 1066. In one manuscript scholars find entries continuing for nearly a century after the Norman Conquest. This is the Peterborough Chronicle, so called because it was first copied in the Benedictine monastery at Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. It was copied in 1121, and updated to that year, and various scribes kept it going until1131. No further additions were then made for twenty-three years. The Peterborough Chronicle entries up to and including 1131 were written in Old English, in the West Saxon literary standard; but the later entries are sufficiently different in spelling, grammar, and vocabulary that they have to be considered an early example of Middle English. Also, the final continuation of the Peterborough Chronicle is of special interest because of the way its style can be directly compared with an analogues sample of Late West Saxon of only twenty-five years before. Nowhere else is the transition between Old and Middle English so visible. And one of the most notable features—the Peterborough Chronicle as a whole has very few new French loanwords (about 30).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is not a single text, but a compilation from several sources which differ in date and place of origin. It takes the form of a year-by-year diary, with some years warranting extensive comment, some a bare line or two, and many nothing at all. Most ancient European chronicles were kept in Latin[3, p.44].

There are seven surviving chronicle manuscripts, six of which are completely in Old English, the seventh partly in Latin. The scholars have given each text a distinguishing letter name, but they are commonly known by the name of their source location or that of an early owner. Doubtless it is worth mentioning S. Lerer's commentary concerning the language change in the Peterborough Chronicle. Each Chronicle entry is the set of events of a given year, and each one begins with a phrase meaning in this year. Let's consider the following examples:

1083 on þÍsum geare - The endings “-um” and “-e” signal a dative masculine singular. This is classic Old English.

1117

on þÍson geare - The “-um” ending has been replaced with “-on”

The adjectival ending seems to have been replaced with an indiscriminate vowel plus an indiscriminate nasal (“-m” or “-n”). This may be the scribe's attempt to preserve a grammatical ending or to preserve the sound of speech.

1135

on þÍs geare -The adjectival ending of this has been lost, but the “-e” at the end of geare still signals a dative. Concord in grammatical gender is obviously gone by this time.

1154

on þÍs gear - The endings have completely disappeared. We are no longer in the world of inflected Old English.

As we see, in such a way blocks of text highlight the manners in which the English language was changing during the transitional period right after theNorman Conquest.

S. Lerer's idea that “Medieval England was a trilingual culture” can be supported by The Harley Lyrics, a collection of literature written probably in the 1330s in Hertfordshire, which gives us clear evidence of writers and readers being, in a broad sense, trilingual. One poem in the manuscript  ends with this quatrain:

Scripsi hec carmina in tabulis;

Mon ostel es en mi la ville de Paris;

May y sugge namore, so wel me is;

Ʒef hi deƷe for loue of hire, duel hit ys.

I have written these verses on my tablets;

My dwelling is in the middle of the city of Paris;

Let me say no more, so things are fine;

But if I die for love of her, it would be a pity.

The first line here is in Latin, the second is in French, and the third and the fourth are both in Middle English. This poem shows us the brilliance of medieval trilingual culture, to be found in the stratifications of languages.

So we may conclude that the English, or rather the Anglo-Normal literature of the 11th-13th cc. reflected the complicated linguistic situation quite faithfully: church literature was in Latin, chivalric poetry was for the most part in French while folklore continued to develop in Anglo-Saxon. Thus without losing its native basis, with the help of few writers of genius, and profiting by the situation, the English language of the 14th c. was transforming from the language of common people into a general, unifying language for all the strata of English society )[11, p.52].

Among the authors who contributed much in the progress of literary tradition in Medieval England are worth mentioning John Wyclif (1320-1384), William Langland (1332-1400 appr.), John Gower (1325-1408), an anonymous poet created an elegy for a daughter lost “The Pearl”, and another created a chivalric romance in verse “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” of the King Arthur cycle. English literature was flourishing gradually in the 14th c., reflecting the culmination of the medieval genres and promoting the way to the Renaissance.

Apart from changes in pronunciation, the most striking characteristic of this process is the influence of Scandinavian in the Danelaw, which led to the division of the Midland dialects (the former Mercian dialects) into the East and West Midlands dialect areas.

Among many other features, the Scandinavian influence can be seen in the use of the plural 3rd person personal pronoun they, which was first used in the North and East Midlands and then spread to the other dialects from there.

 

 

2.2 English, French and Latin Interplay in forming the Medieval Language.

A new era of multilingualism and multidialectism dawned in the Middle Ages. As a result of the Norman invasion, England became a nation in which Latin, French, and English coexisted. Educated people were trilingual as a matter of course. English would have been their mother-tongue. They would have learned Latin as the required language of the Church, the Roman Classics, most scholarship, and some politico-legal matters. And they would have found French essential both for routine administrative communication within Britain and in order to be considered fashionable throughout Western European society[13, p.49].

The Origin of The Normans and their influence on English language and culture.

The origin of the Normans is hidden in their very name: Nor(se)man. The Normans came to France in the 9th century. They were Norwegian Vikings who raided the French territory when sailing up the Seine. In 911 their king, Rollo, forced the French king to cede French territory.

As a consequence, Rollo became the independent ruler of Normandy. By 1000 Normandy became one of the most powerful and successful regions in Western Europe. In the process, the Normans adopted the language, religion, and customs of the surrounding French population.

What consequences did the Norman invasion have for the English population? It is uncontroversial that the Normans did not civilize the Anglo-Saxon population. The Anglo-Saxons had a highly developed culture: they had an extraordinary literature and crafted beautiful jewellery, they were christianized, and profited from a well-developed and well-functioning economy. The same is true for the Vikings who mixed with them in the North and East of England. Therefore, the Norman Conquest was not a mission of civilization.

Very simply, the Normans brought power with them: the Normans were morepowerful politically and ecclesiastically.

At the time of the Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were politically weak due to internal quarrels. Since many of the Anglo-Saxon nobility were wiped out at Hastings, the English ruling class was replaced by Norman noblemen. The Normans imported the feudal system and lordship by taking the key positions in the state and church. These positions correspond to the high ranks of power in the medieval social order, which was defined by the three-estates of nobility, clergy, and peasants. Since the grammar schools also lay in the hands of the church in the Middle Ages, the Normans also controlled education. In a nutshell, they established the new upper-class.

Material tokens of Norman power are still conspicuously present in today’s England.

The Normans built around 1000 castles, among them the White Tower of London.

Evidence of Norman ecclesiastical power is visible in the many impressive cathedrals usually constructed in Romanesque style[14, p.19].

In addition, the Normans also imported their national symbols. The three golden lions in the coat of arms of England are derived from the symbol of the kingdom of Normandy.

But, the Normans also brought their language – Norman French.

The Norman Conquest influenced the linguistic landscape of England decisively. The following statement in the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester from around 1300 illustrates this nicely:

Thus came, lo, England into Normandy's hand: and the Normans then knew how to speak only their own language, and spoke French as they did at home, and also had their children taught it, so that noblemen of this land, that come of their stock, all keep to the same speech that they received from them; for unless a man knows French, people make little account of him. But low men keep to English, and to their own language still. I think that in the whole world there are no countries that do not keep their own language, except England alone. But people know well that it is good to master both, because the more a man knows the more honoured he is.

So the chronicle indicates that the Norman upper-classes, first and foremost, spoke French – Norman French to be precise - and they taught this language to their children. French was the prestigious H-language. English, however, was the language of the lower classes – the vernacular. But, English was spoken by the majority of the population of England.

The chronicler bemoans this situation as being unique in the world: any nation should stick to its own language – in this case English. However, he nevertheless regards it as a virtue to speak both languages. Clearly, to learn French was the only way possible to climb up the social ladder.

Another important question is the writing of that time. Obviously, the advent of Norman French did not determine the use of Old English dialects. Conservative forms of English were still in use until about 1150. For instance, the archbishopric of Canterbury was fairly resistant to linguistic changes[8, p.30].

The move from Old to Middle English was not a drastic but a gradual development. Nevertheless, there is a recognizable gap in the transition from the Old English to the Middle English text corpus. This is the consequence of the political changes after the Norman Conquest. Written English was basically non-existent for about 100-150 years.

Writing, being an upper-class and church issue, was dominated by the Norman French ruling class. As we have seen, this class used French or Latin and not English. As a consequence, the West Saxon written standard was replaced by French and Latin texts. Literature in English only started to be written again from about 1150 onwards.

Due to the absence of a written standard for English, this literature is highly dialectal. Middle English writers used a dialectal pronunciation-based spelling. The development of the national language was greatly promoted by the work of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), an outstanding poet, “father of English Poetry” as many historians style him. Chaucer's best-known work The Canterbury Tales is the variety of the written language which has been carefully crafted. It contains many variations in word order and frequent literary allusions. Chaucer has managed to capture so vividly the intriguing characters, and to reflect so naturally the colloquial features of their speech. And it is acknowledged by many scholars that no other author, except Chaucer, who would have better supported for the view that there is an underlying correspondence between the natural rhythm of English poetry and that of English everyday conversation.

The famous opening 18-line sentence of the General Prologue to “The Canterbury Tales” shows us how Chaucer makes meaning out of the linguistic resources of his time and place.

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,

And smale foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open ye

(Spriketh hem nature in hir corages),

Than longen folkto goon on pilgrimages,

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende

Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke,

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

When it happens that April, with his

sweet showers, has pierced the drought

of March to the root, and bathed every

vein in that fluid from whose power the

flower is given birth; when Zephyr also,

with his sweet breath, has inspired the

tender crops in every wood and heather,

and the young sun has run half of this

course through the sign of the Ram, and

little birds make melody who sleep all

night with their eyes open (so Nature

stimulates them in their hearts), then

people desire to go on pilgrimages, and

professional pilgrims desire to seek

strange shores; and they wend their way,

especially, from the end of every country

in England to Canterbury, in order to

seek the holy, blissful martyr who had

helped them when they were sick.

These lines juxtapose new words of French and Latin origin with roots and forms of Old English or Anglo-Saxon origin. We see French, for example, in perced, veyne, licour, and flour. The word vertu comes from Latin vir, meaning man; here, we interpret it as power. Combined with engendred, we get a sense of the power of regeneration in the spring. Summing up we may conclude that French words mostly reflected culture, whilst English ones mainly depicted nature and landscape. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400, the "Father of English Poetry" was the greatest narrative poet of Middle Ages. He made a distinct advance in literature, in most of his poems Chaucer used the heroic couplet, a verse having five accents with the lines rhyming in pairs. Chaucer's greatest work is The Canterbury Tales, becoming a herald of the Renaissance. Geoffrey Chaucer's realistic approach and humanitarian atmosphere, his whole-hearted optimism and folk spirit make his The Canterbury Tales immortal. It is a splendid picture of the 14th c. England. It is a marvelous trilingual picture of the history of the English language of his time, its trilingualism being presented together in a profound synthesis of nature (English), culture (French), and religion (Latin)[11, p.43].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSIONS

Over the past few decades, historians have signfincantly broadened their outlook on the past.

 The growth of social, cultural, and economic history brought categories such as class, gender, race, culture, and quantitative analyses into the mainstream of historical work. Optimists credit new approaches with historians’ richer understanding of the past, pessimists blame them for the fragmentation of the historical profession, but none would deny that they are the driving force behind much recent productive historical work, not least because they spur the incorporation of approaches from other social sciences.

 

As language is studied from many viewpoints, the perspectives of linguists, literary

 scholars, ethnographers, and so on are relevant to its role in history. This holds especially

 true for the Middle Ages.

 

In the given investiagtion we are looking at the interplay of three languages during this period: English, French and Latin. The Latin language was the most powerful cultural symbol in Western Europe perhaps until

 the 19th century.20 In the period under consideration, Latin played a variety of roles. Most

 international secular written communication and all clerical communication was in Latin.

 

Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin was an effective spoken lingua franca for clergy and

 educated laymen. Regional pronunciation differences and modern vocabulary deficits only

 became endemic in the 15th century, if not later. Most of all, the history of Latin in this

 period shows how it became increasingly a tool of power for church and secular elites over

 those who originally spoke it.

 

Postconquest England is the most well-known medieval bilingual society. Anglo-Norman

 (the insular dialect of French)/English bilingualism helped define life in England into the

 seventeenth century. At first, Anglo-Norman was the language of the ruling Norman nobility,

 serving both to distinguish them from the English and restrict access to certain professions,

 like Frankish in Gaul. Most English-speakers never knew French, but quickly realized its

 function: “from soon after the conquest there are indications that monolingual speakers

 perceive their ignorance of French to be a factor in their subordination.” Yet Anglo-Norman relatively quickly became like Latin, a language which anyone had to learn for

 certain societal advances, but no one spoke natively. W. Rothwell has shown that the

 numerous idiosyncrasies of thirteeen century English guides for learning Anglo-Norman

 are best understood as intended for adult learners with some non-native Anglo-Norman

 experience.

So, in the given investigation we have spoken about the historical background which led to the tringual nature of the language, then we have discussed the cultur of that time.

In the second Chapter the dialects of English language were analyzed and also on the basis of political/religious documents and the piece of that time literature we have seen the interplay of these three languages.

Thus the aim of the course paper outlined in the Introduction has been reached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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