Middle English

Dialects

Caxton & Printing

Emergence of a Standard

Middle English Dialects

Studying Middle English Dialects

Linguistic Atlas of Late Middle English (1350-1450)• late time period means lots of texts• according to the atlas, almost any Middle English

written before 1430 considered “dialectal” by definition

• Some regions have more written documents than others

• Northern/North Midland English: very few sources before 1350

• Southern England: lots of material from 14th century on

Dot Maps• Dot maps show where in an area (county,

region, etc.) a certain spelling/pronunciation is used

• Each dot map displays the distribution of the set of forms specified in the map’s caption

• Places where each form has been found represented by black dots

• 3 dot sizes: large, medium, small (reflecting how dominant the particular form is in the given place)

• Lots of statistical variation

ME Dialects: The Basics (heavily generalized!)

NorthernMuch Norse settlement, reconquest by English in early 10th

century - all-Norse settlements learned English quickly, badly

Rapid development, decay of inflectionsÞey, þem, þeir (with y for þ, and spelling variants)Bot fals anticristes he sall yaim call(cf. Southern hy, hem, her)Verbs in -es, not -eþ (sing.), -en (plur.)He loves, þey lovenPresent participle in -ande, -ende(goande, not going)Brut (historical poem)

ME Dialects: The Basics (cont’d)

East and West Midlands-en in plural verbsThey lovenÞey, hem, here in 3rd pers. pluralHe shal hem calleÞei lyuen in falce trouþeWest MidlandSir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Piers

PlowmanEast MidlandGeoffrey Chaucer, John Gower

ME Dialects: The Basics (cont’d)

SouthernPersistence of ʒHe schal saye thanne ryʒt to cristene manHeo/ho for sheHy, hem, here in 3rd person plur.Voicing of fricativesFor > vorSeggen pronounced /zɛǰən/-eþ in most verbs (sg./plur.)The Owl and the Nightingale (allegorical poem)Ancrene Riwle (rule for anchoresses)

ME Dialects: The Basics (cont’d)

Kentish (Southeastern)Similar to Southern, with some vowel

differencesHy,hem, here in 3rd person plur.Voiced fricatives (vor)No major literary texts

Rise of London Standard (14th-15th centuries)

• written standard, spoken variation, but not complete variation (like today)

• But in the real world, variation in both written and spoken language

• East Midland dialect gradually merged with London

Reasons for Rise of London Standard

(i) Midland dialects: middle position between North and SouthSouthern dialect very conservative (slow to change), Northern very radical (quick to change) – Midlands in between - workable compromise

(ii)East Midlands: largest, most populous area – fertile, prosperous agricultural area - larger, wealthier population - politically important throughout the Middle Ages and afterwards

(iii)Influence of Oxford and Cambridge (14th century): role of monasteries decreasing, two universities rapidly developing – Cambridge, at least, would support East Midlands dialect

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

(iv) role of Chaucer - popular in his day, popular throughout 15th century

• but, slightly more conservative/ Southern than London dialect

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

(v) role of London as capital city

• political and commercial center of England

• seat of royal court, law courts, social and intellectual activity

• true in other languages: Parisian French, Castilian Spanish (Madrid)

• much movement of people into and out of the city: government officials go out on business, others go to London on business

• local speeches mixed together to form a new combination – visitors take away the influence of London speech - standard spreads

• began as a Southern dialect, ended up more or less East Midlands

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

(vi) Chancery (government writing office)

• by c. 1450, had developed a consistent variety of London English

• language of official use, influenced other writing

Reasons for Rise of London Standard (cont’d)

(vii) Caxton & Printing

• first printer in English

• “I was born & lerned myn Englissh in Kente in the Weeld, where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude Englissh as is in ony place of Englond.”

Caxton/Printing (cont’d)

• Merchant/diplomat• learned printing on the

Continent• introduced the press

into England c. 1476, near Westminster Abbey

• printed Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, Malory, translated bestsellers from France and Burgundy

Caxton’s Spellings

• not easy for a writer and printer in 15th century to choose a version of English that would be acceptable to all readers

• Caxton describes difficulties when he printed English for the first time - he found he had used ‘strange terms’

• (see printed handout)• for commercial reasons, he used the

spelling of the London/East Midlands dialect

Caxton and Standardization

• For commercial reasons, Caxton and other printers settled for London English - privileging a dialect

• Used some foreign typesetters - confused by English spelling (silent -e or not? Often line length) - see handout

• Dutch influence: ghost, ghesse (guess)• Caxton modernized orthography: eliminated ʒ, þ, ð• Eventually, printing helped to fix the language on the

page - sometimes forced a consensus, accounting for some oddities of English spelling:

right, riht, rite, richt

Effects of Print

• printing made books available at a relatively low price - increased demand for books and literacy, especially among middle and lower classes

• In general, the middle classes didn’t have a classical education - wanted books in English rather than Latin or French

• To make Greek and Latin classics available to people who only knew English, they were translated into English

• translations led to the introduction of thousands of loanwords from Latin and Greek into English

Effects of Translation

• 15th c. - lots of translations, “half-chewed Latin”

Hale sterne superne! Hale, in eterne stars on highIn God’s sight to schyne!Lucerne in derne, for to discerne lampBe glory and grace devyne;Hodiern, modern, sempitern.

Present,current,eternalWilliam Dunbar (ca. 1460-1520), Hymn to the Blessed Virgin

Rise of London Standard

• Printed books made London English current and durable

• By 16th c. (EMnE), London English was prescribed:

• Ye shall therefore take the usuall speach of the Court, and that of London and the shires lying about London with lx. myles, and not much above.

Anon. (attributed to Puttenham) The Arte of English Poesie

(1589)• Complete uniformity never attained, even in

vocabulary (let alone accent) - dialects even today