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Varieties of English > Middle English > Flashcards

Middle English Flashcards

1
Q

Period of Middle English

A

c.1100 - c.1500

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2
Q

What were the major languages in Middle English?

A

French
Latin
English

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3
Q

When was English recognised as a language in Parliament?

A

1362

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4
Q

Who was the first English speaking king after 1066?

A

Henry IV

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5
Q

11th Century Latin: What was it used for?

A

Legal documents, church, education and literature

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6
Q

11th Century English: What was it used for?

A

Common, spoken dialects

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7
Q

11th Century Norman French: What was it used for?

A

Court & aristocracy; army; administration & official documents; but also church & education

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8
Q

12th Century English: What did it not have?

A

No written standard

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9
Q

13th Century English: How had it changed?

A

Used in court as a first and second language

Some literary texts and official documents

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10
Q

13th Century French: How had it changed?

A

Court and aristocracy learnt Central French (no longer Norman)

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11
Q

14th Century English: How had it changed?

A

Was now recognised for legal documents and education (after 1349)

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12
Q

14th Century Central/Parisian French: How had it changed?

A

Diminished presence in court

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13
Q

When did the English written standard emerge?

A

15th Century

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14
Q

How did French influence the English language post-conquest?

A

Introduced c.10,000 words, 75% survived

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15
Q

What is top-down transmission of words?

A

When words are originally used by the aristocracy and are adopted by the lower classes

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16
Q

What is down-top transmission of words?

A

When words are originally used by the lower classes and are then adopted by the aristocracy

17
Q

What is a doublet?

A

Double borrowings that have been borrowed at different periods which are not felt to be identical in form and content

18
Q

What influence did French have on word formation?

A

Derivational morphing

19
Q

Which graphemes were used in Middle English?

A

Ash, wynn, yogh, thorn and eth

20
Q

How did the inflections of English change throughout the Middle Ages?

A

Weakened inflections - loss and weakening of stressed syllables
Simplification of inflectional system

21
Q

What is an analytic language?

A

A language that conveys relations between words in sentences primarily by means of function words and word order rather than using inflections to express word functions in the sentence

22
Q

What is a synthetic language?

A

A language that conveys relations between words in sentences primarily by means of inflections rather than function words and word order

23
Q

What are Periphrastic Constructions?

A

Linguistic elements that express grammatical meanings by one or more free morphemes instead of inflection or derivation

24
Q

What is Standardisation?

A

A process in which a standard language develops that can serve more than just local needs. It normally involves a reduction of variation in spelling, grammar and pronunciation.

25
Q

What are the stages of standardisation?

A

selection, diffusion, elaboration, codification and prescription.

26
Q

What is a substrate?

A

A less socially prestigious linguistic variety that has influenced the structure or use of a more dominant variety within a community.

27
Q

What is a superstrate?

A

A more socially prestigious linguistic variety which has influenced the structure or use of a less prestigious variety. It is especially the result of social, economical and political dominance of the speakers of one language over another culture.

28
Q

What were the Middle English dialect areas?

A

Northern, Scots, East Midlands, West Midlands, South West and Kent

29
Q

When did the Standardisation process of English begin?

A

14th Century

30
Q

Who were in charge of the diffusion of the standard?

A

Chancery - Texts from London sent all over the country

31
Q

Who was William Caxton?

A

Introduced the printing press to Britain in 1476

Varieties of English (14 decks)

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