The Middle English Development of Vocabulary

 

Vocabulary developed in the ME period both by internal processes and by borrowing words and word-building morphemes from other languages.

In the sphere of internal development we may note such factors as deriving new words by means of affixation (e.g. brotherhood), and development of meaning in accordance with developments in social life: for example, the OE substantive cniht, which meant boy, servant, acquired in ME (spelt knight) the meaning ‘ knight’; the OE word sellan ‘give’ had its meaning narrowed to ‘sell’, that is ‘give for money’.

 

Svandinavian Influence

A considerable part of the vocabulary was common to English and to Scandinavian dialects. In many words the root was the same, while endings were different. For example,

OE	Scandinavian
Do:m (judgement, sentence) Fisc Sunu Herte Ti:ma	Do:mr   Fiskr Sunr Hiorta Ti:me

Another part of Scandinavian vocabulary did not correspond to English. It is in this sphere that Scandinavian dialects influenced English. This influence covered a considerable semantic field, including both political terms and everyday words. For example, lagu – law; wrang – wrong, hu:sbonda – husband, sister, casten –cast, ta:ken –take, fe:ologa – fellow, etc.

Even the 3^rd person plural personal pronoun was taken over from Scandinavian into English. The Scandinavian pronoun þeir penetrated into English and, superseding the OE pronoun hi:e, became ME they. Similarly, the genitive of the Scandinavian pronoun þeirra, superseded the native hira and became ME their, and the dative þeim superseded the native him and became ME them. This process was prepared by the OE forms of the demonstrative pronoun þæs, þæm, þa: etc.

In ME documents we sometimes find the preposition at preceding the infinitive, as in Scandinavian. The only trace of this usage is the substantive aso (at do).

Among Scandinavian loan words there were military terms but they did not survive, and were in their turn superceded by French words.

Scandinavian elements became part of many georgraphical names. For example, by –village (Whitby, Derby), toft – grassy spot (Langtoft), beck – rivelet (Troutbeck); ness – cape (Inverness) etc.

In the regions inhabited by Scandinavians, where the two languages were mixed, there occurred blending of entire lexical layers. In many cases a Scandinavian word differed from its English counterpart only in small details. When two such variants met, they might easily blend. It is there sometimes impossible to decide what actually happened: whether the English word was superseded by the Scandinavian or whether the phonetic structure of the English words changed under Scandinavian influence. For example, the OE word ʒ iefan corresponded to the Scandinavian gefa. In late ME, that is in the 15^th century, we find the word give. This velar g could not result from phonetic development of palatal ʒ. Its only source could be the Scandinavian variant. We may suppose that the English word as a whole was superceded by the Scandinavian or that it was changed under Scandinavian influence. The same refers to OE ʒietan (receive), Scandinavian geta and ME getan. Compare also the words for sister: OE swesto r, Scandinavian syst ir, and ME sister.

 

French Influence

 

Penetration of French loan words into English did not start immediately after the Norman Conquest. It only started in the 12^th century, and reached its climax in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

After the conquest French was introduced as the language of the law courts, debates in Parliament (1265). Under such circumstances considerable layers of the population became bilingual. This bilinguism created preconditions for a mass entry of French words into the English language. (At the same time the opposite process took place: English words were adopted in the Anglo-Norman language).

Many words adopted at this time denoted things and notions connected with the life of the Norman aristocracy. Alongside these, everyday words penetrated into English, which denoted ideas already having names in English. As a result of borrowing, pairs of synonyms would arise, and a struggle between the synonyms would ensue. The outcome of the struggle would be different in different cases. There were three main possibilities:

1. The struggle ends in favour of the French word; its native English synonym disappears.

2. It is the native word that gets the upper hand; the French word, after existing in English for some times, disappears.

3. Both words survive, but a difference in meaning develops between them, which may be either semantic or stylistic. The table below illustrates these examples.

French loan words

Sphere	example
Government, the court, jurisdiction	Prince, baron, noble,government, royal, court, justice, judge, sentence (but: king, queen survived)
Army and military life	Were, army, regiment,castle, banner, siege, victory, defeat
Religion and church	Religion, saint, frere, preyen,sermon,conscience, chapel
Town professions	Bocher, peinter, tailor (country professions Anglo-saxon: miller, shoemaker, shepherd, smith)
Art notions:	Art, colour, figure, image, column, ornament
Amusements:	Plesir, leysir, ese, feste, dinner, soper, rosten
Words not connected with any sphere:	Air, place, river, large, change, etc.

 

When both the native word and the French word were preserved in English, there arose a differentiation of their meanings (ox –beef, calf – veal, sheep – mutton, pig – pork).

Another type of differentiation may be found in the pair of synonyms: beginnen – commencen. The native word beginnen has stayed on as a colloquial word, while the French commencen is an official term and is mainly used in documents.In other examples, work –labour, life – existence, etc. the native word acquired a more concrete meaning, while the French one is more abstract.

In some cases French words superceded the most everyday words: river (instead of OE ēa).

Sometimes the intruding French word forced its native synonym into a different semantic sphere of meaning. For instance, the OE haerfest (autumn) was superseded by the French word autumn, but survived in English with the meaning of ‘harvest’

French words penetrating into English were of different origin: from Latin, from Greek through Latin, from Celtic, from Germanic dialects.

The degree to which French words penetrated into English depended on two factors: on the geographical region and on the social layer addressed by the document.The farther North, the fewer French words; the closer to the lower strata of society, the fewer French words.

French derivational suffixes

Suffixes and prefixes	Words	Suffixes, prefixes	Words
-ance, -ence	Ignorance, entrance	-ment	Government, treatment
-ess	Princess, countess	-et	cabinet
-age	Carriage, marriage	-e	Employee
-ard	Coward, bastard	-al	Refusal, arrival
-able, -ible	Flexible,legible	Dis-, des-	Disappoint, disagree
		En-	Encase, encircle