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
B
