Grammatical system of Middle english

                                    THE GRAMMATICAL SYSTEM OF THE MIDDLE ENGLISH

Before the Norman Conquest, people were taught to write a form of Old English that was more

archaic than the form they actually spoke. We’re in the same position today. We’re taught to

write ‘write’, even though we no longer pronounce the w and the e, and our pronunciation of the

i is no longer the original pronunciation, which was more like the i in ‘machine’. 

 

After the Norman Conquest, when French became the language of the elite, most of the literate

class were no longer taught to read and write in English. Although there were some attempts to

continue an English literary tradition, it is clear that few writers could reproduce or even

completely understand Old English, especially as time wore on. Instead, they tended to represent

their own spoken language—early Middle English—often in unsystematic ways.

 

Without schooling in written English, early Middle English writers wrote in their own local

dialects, so that the modern reader who becomes familiar with one text must learn another

system to read a text from a different part of the country. Although the fourteenth-century

London dialect of Geoffrey Chaucer begins to resemble modern English, many of his

contemporaries, such as the poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, continued to write in local

dialects. This, combined with the archaic meanings of words and older grammatical forms, can

make Middle English a challenge for today’s student. For the most part, however, these problems

are overcome through practice and memorisation of vocabulary. In general, most diligent

students begin to read with good fluency within five to six weeks.

GRAMMER

Nouns

Nouns in Middle English do not reflect the complex three-gender system of Old English. They change to reflect singular and plural number, typically by adding -s (dayes and nightes days and nights) or -n (namen, yën names, eyes).                                                                                                                                                                                                              The possessive (genitive) case adds -s to nouns in the singular (nominative day versus possessive daies day's). Some nouns in -r and -s take no possessive ending (the father sone, Mars ire the father's son, Mars' anger).

The dative case (used with some prepositions) traditionally added endings to the Anglo Saxon noun. In Middle English, these are mostly gone or reduced to a neutral shwa (like the "e" in "angel"). For example, in the dative on myn lif on my life, the noun looks the same as the plain (nominative case) form of the noun in myn lif my life. Certain popular "dative expressions" (fixed idiomatic expressions) retain the old dative case, such as on lyfe alive or with childe with child.

The article the occurs alongside the noun in the same situations as in Modern English: the father. The article an is shortened to a, especially before a consonant: an father or a father.

Verbs

 The infinitive form (e.g. ‘to go’, ‘to sleep’, ‘to sing’) ends in –n or –en: e.g. goon, slepen, singen.

In later texts, the –n may disappear.

 The –n or –en ending can also indicate a plural form of the verb: e.g. they goon, they slepen, they

singen. In the past tense, the ending may be –n, -en, or –ed.

The –n or –en can also be a past participle (like Modern English eaten). In this case the word will

generally be preceded by a form of have or be, or else it will function as an adjective describing a

noun.

 The ending –ю or –eю (-eth in modern spelling) indicates the present tense. In can also indicate an

imperative (command) addressed to more than one person.

 The past tense is generally indicated, as in modern English, with an ending containing –t, -d, or –

ed. Verbs of this type have similar past participle forms (see point 3 above). The past tense and

past participle may also be indicated by a change in the root vowel of the word, as in Modern

English sing, sang, sung. Middle English possessed more verbs of this ‘irregular’ type than

Modern English does, and some Modern English verbs of the ‘regular’ type were ‘irregular’ in

Middle English, e.g. holp ‘helped’. 

 Modern English expressions like ‘if he be’, ‘let him be’, or ‘may he be’, which suggest

hypothetical or desirable situations, are indicated by the subjunctive form of the verb, which ends

in –e, or –en in the plural. Examples: God yelde yow ‘may God reward you’, if God yelde yow ‘if

God rewards you’. 

 Verbs are made negative by the use of the words ne and nat on either side of the verb. Either one

or both words may be present to indicate the negative.

Pronouns

 Middle English pronouns are most easily understood by means of a broad historical overview.

The tables below give only some common spellings, the actual number of spellings to be found

in Middle English texts is much larger. In using the tables below, keep in mind that there is

considerable overlap between the different periods.

Old English  Early Middle English  Late Middle English  Early Modern English

Ic                             ich                        I                                    I

юu                         юou                      thou                              thou

he                           he                         he                               he

heo                         he, heo, ha           she                             she

hit                           hit                         hit                               it

we                           we                        we                               we

ge                           ye, you                  ye, you                       you, ye

hi                             hi, heo, ha            they                          they

Notes:

 •  The ‘thou’ form is used to refer to one person, whereas the ‘ye/you’ form refers to more

than one person. However, Middle English adopted to some extent the French tu/vous

distinction, in which the singular tu is used by those of higher social status to address

those of lower social status, and the plural vous is used in formal address or by those of

lower social status to address those of higher social status. This convention appears

irregularly in Middle English texts. You will have to decide if it is present and has some

implications for the interpretation of the text.

•  It can be very difficult to distinguish the words for ‘he’, ‘she’, and ‘they’ in early Middle

English, since they all look pretty much the same. You need to judge by context. The

forms for ‘she’ and ‘they’ given above are not a complete list of all the possible variant

spellings.

 For the object of a verb or preposition

Old English  Early Middle English  Late Middle English  Early Modern English

me                me                                me                                 me

юe                юe                                 thee                              thee

hine, him  him                               him                                him

hire               hir(e)                            hir(e)                              her

hit, him     hit                                 hit                                     it

us                us                                  us                                     us

eow            you                                you                                  you

hi, him        hem                             them                                them

 •  In early texts ‘thee’ pronoun is spelt юe, which can look like the definite article ‘the’ or

the relative pronoun meaning ‘that’, ‘which’, or ‘who’. Make sure that you judge from

context which word you have.

•  The word for ‘her’ can look like the word for ‘their’ (see below).

 For possessive pronouns:

 Old English  Early Middle English  Late Middle English  Early Modern English

min                min(e)                          my, mine                    my, mine

юin                 юin(e)                           thy, thine                   thy, thine

his                  his                                  his                                his

hire                hir(e)                              hir(e)                         her

his                  his                                  his                              his, its

ure                 ure, oure                       oure                         our

eower           your(e)                         your(e)                  your

hira                 hire                               hire                              their

•  Over time, the words for ‘my’ and ‘thy’ increasingly lose the –n when the following word

•  begins with a consonant.

•  The possessive of it (present-day its) is his, right up to the time of Shakespeare.

•  In early texts the word for ‘their’, hir(e), can look like the word for ‘her’ (see above).

The Middle English Adjective

Adjectives in Middle English work much the same way as they do in Modern English. These descriptive words come before the noun they modify: yong sone young son. There is a Germanic twist, though. As in German and Icelandic, Middle English differentiates between strong and weak adjectives.

Strong adjectives stand on their own before a noun, like the yong in yong sone. They often do not have a final -e (schwa sound).

Weak adjectives come between the article the, the demonstratives (this, that, these, those) or a possessive (his, Annes his, Anne's) and the modified noun. Such adjectives have a final -e (schwa): the yonge man and his sweete breeth the young man and his sweet breath.

With plural nouns, it's far easier: adjectives generally take -e, weak or strong (yonge sones, the yonge children young sons, the young children).

The Middle English Adverb

Adverbs in Middle English tend to end in -e or -ly/-liche. For example, Chaucer uses brighte brightly and seurely surely.

Middle English Sentence Structure

For the most part, Middle English syntax (or sentence structure) is similar to Modern English. The default, or basic, word order is Subject-Verb-Object. Still, you will find that word order is somewhat less rigid than in the current tongue, specifically:

 

The object and even the "rest of sentence" (adjuncts, prepositional phrases) may precede the verb: Whan he his papir soghte when he sought his paper.

In helping verb constructions (comparable to will buy or can go), the helping verb and the main verb may be split by the object and even the rest of the sentence: His maister shal it in his shoppe abye his master will buy it in his shop.

One of the commonest examples of reversed word order is found alongside quotations: quod he he said or quod I I said.

The famous first lines of the Canterbury Tales have the auxiliary and main verb after the object but before the adjunct: Whan that Aprille...the droghte of March hath perced to the roote When April...has pierced the drought of March to the root.

Negation. Typically, negative sentences use the post-verbal negative particle nat: I may nat ete I may not eat. The preverbal ne also occurs frequently: ne make the... don't make yourself.... The use of the "double negative" is common enough to attract attention, since double negatives are booed and touted as ungrammatical in the modern standard language: For I ne ken nat finde a man...that wolde chaunge his youthe for myn age For I [ne] cannot find a man...that would trade his youth for my age. Lastly, the basic interjection no (the opposite of yis yes) remains the same: "No," quod I "No," I said.

Questions. Subject and verb inversion is the commonest way of forming a question. An inverted word order places the subject after the main verb in Middle English, just as in the modern examples can you? or what is that? (rather than you can or that is). Questions with do and don't hadn't developed yet: eteth he does he eat? (and NOT "doth he eten"). There are examples of thou suffixed to the verb as -tow: Why lyvestow so longe in so greet age why do you live.... General question words tend to look and work like their modern counterparts: And whi nat?