An Elementary Middle English Grammar/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
§ 1. Middle English embraces that period of the English language which extends from about 1100 to 1500. The division of a language into fixed periods must of necessity be more or less arbitrary. What are given as the characteristics of one period have generally had their beginnings in the previous period, and it is impossible to say with perfect accuracy when one period begins and another ends. In fact many of the vowel-changes which are generally described as having taken place in early ME. did in reality take place in late OE., although early ME. writers often continued to use the traditional OE. spelling long after the sound-changes had taken place; this applies especially to æ̆, ȳ̆, ē̆a, ē̆o. And just as it is impossible to fix the precise date at which one period of a language ends and another begins, so also it is not possible to do more than to fix approximately the date at which any particular sound-change took place, because in most languages, and more especially in English, the change in orthography has not kept pace with the change in sound.
§ 2. For practical purposes Middle English may be conveniently divided into three sub-periods:— (a) Early ME. extending from about 1100 to 1250. (b) Ordinary ME. extending from about 1250 to 1400. And (c) late ME. extending from about 1400 to 1500. (a) Early ME. 1100-1250. The chief characteristics of this sub-period are:— The preservation in a great measure of the traditional OE. system of orthography, and the beginnings of the influence of Anglo-Norman orthography. The change of æ to a (§ 43), ā to ǭ in the dialects south of the Humber (§ 51), the lengthening of a, e, o in open syllables of dissyllabic words (§ 77), the formation of a large number of new diphthongs of the -i and -u type (§§ 104, 105), the weakening of unaccented a, o, u to e (§ 134), the preservation for the most part of unaccented final -e (§ 139). The breaking up of the OE. inflexional system, especially that of the declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. The preservation of greater remnants of the OE. declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns in the South than in the North and the Midlands. Grammatical gender was almost entirely lost in nouns (§ 314). Few Anglo-Norman loanwords found their way into the dialects of the South, still fewer into those of the Midlands, and hardly any at all into those of the north Midlands, and of the North.
(b) Ordinary ME. 1250-1400. The chief characteristics of this sub-period are: —The gradual formation of extensive literary dialect centres; and in the fourteenth century, especially in the second half, the beginnings of a standard ME. which, excluding Scotland, became fully developed in the fifteenth century. The great influence of Anglo-Norman orthography upon the written language (§§ 7-21). Unaccented final -e had practically ceased to be pronounced in all the dialects. The limitation of the inflexion of nouns and adjectives chiefly to one main type in the North and the Midlands, and in the South to two main types — the strong with the inflexions of the old a-declension, and the weak. The introduction of a large number of Anglo-Norman words into all the dialects, even into those of the North.
(c) Late ME. 1400-1500. In this sub-period we can observe the gradual disappearance of the local dialect element from the literature of the period through the spread and influence of the London literary language. The close approximation of the system of inflexions to that of New English. The gradual cleavage between the Scottish and the northern dialects of England.
§ 3. In the present state of our knowledge it is not possible to give more than a rough-and-ready classification of the ME. dialects, because we are unable to fix the exact boundaries where one dialect ends and another begins. Nor shall we ever be able to remedy this defect until we possess a comprehensive atlas of the modern dialects such as has been produced by France and Germany of their dialects. An atlas of this kind would enable English scholars to fix the dialect boundaries far more accurately than is possible at present, and to show conclusively that there was no such thing as a uniform northern, north Midland, east Midland, west Midland, or south Midland dialect in the ME. period, but that within each principal division there were many sub-dialects each possessing clearly defined phonological peculiarities.
§ 4. ME. is usually divided into three large groups of dialects:—
1. The Northern Group, including the dialects of the Lowlands of Scotland, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmorland, the whole of Yorkshire except the south, and north Lancashire. Roughly speaking, the Humber and the Ouse formed the southern boundary, while the Pennine Chain determined its limits to the West.
2. The Midland Group, including the dialects of south Yorkshire, the whole of Lancashire except the north, the counties to the west of the Pennine Chain, the East Anglian counties, and the whole of the Midland area. It corresponded roughly to the Old Mercian and East Anglian areas. The Thames formed the southern boundary of this extensive group of dialects. This group is generally further subdivided into the north Midland, east Midland, west Midland, and south Midland dialects.
3. The Southern Group, including the dialects of the counties south of the Thames, Gloucestershire, and parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. This group is often further subdivided into the south Eastern dialects, also sometimes called Kentish or the Kentish group of dialects, and the south Western dialects.
§ 5. So far as is possible in an elementary grammar we have endeavoured to exhibit the phonological and morphological features of each of the various groups of dialects without attaching too great importance to any one of them. And with this end in view considerable use has been made of the modern dialects, as they undoubtedly help to throw light upon many debatable points of ME. phonology which can never be satisfactorily settled in any other manner.