The Norman Conquest and its tremendous linguistic impact on the English language is widely acknowledged among scholars and triggered a substantial body of literature. The great influx of French loanwords into the lexis of Middle English not only led to a profound restructuring of the lexicon, but also deeply affected the English morphology and patterns of derivation (Kastovsky 1994), as well as the English syntax to some extent (Smith 2012; Haeberli 2010). However, few studies have focused on a detailed analysis of these loans. Most researchers chose to focus on the quantitative aspects of the period of extensive lexical borrowing in Middle English, without dedicating much attention to the way and the extent to which French loanwords actually integrated and interacted with native vocabulary. This study thus sought to examine some excerpts of Middle English texts in more detail with the aim of getting closer to understanding whether these borrowings were already fully integrated in Middle English by the time these texts were written, whether this integration was determined by internal or external factors, and whether the process itself was abrupt or rather continuous.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Gallacher, P. J. (ed.) (1997). The Cloud of Unknowing. University of Rochester: The Robbins Library Digital Projects (Teams Middle English texts). https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/gallacher-cloud-of-unknowing.
Hasenfratz, R. (ed.) (2000). Ancrene Wisse: Part Three. University of Rochester: The Robbins Library Digital Projects (Teams Middle English texts). https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/hasenfrantz-ancrene-wisse-part-three.
Thompson, A. B. (ed.) (2008). Homily 20, Third Sunday in Lent. From the Northern Homily Cycle. University of Rochester: The Robbins Library Digital Projects (Teams Middle English texts). https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/thompson-northern-homily-cycle-homily-20-third-sunday-in-lent.
MED: Middle English Dictionary. 2001. University of Michigan. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/.
OED: Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. www.oed.com.
Online Etymology Dictionary. www.etymonline.com.
Arnovick, L.K. (2012). “Middle English: Literary Language”, in: Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (eds.). English Historical Linguistics Volume 1. Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34/1. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 551–575.
Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (2012). English historical linguistics: an international handbook. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Chambers, R. W. (1957). On the continuity of English prose from Alfred to More and his school. London: Oxford university press.
Clark, C. (1966). “Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group: a lexical divergence”, in: Neophilologus 50, 117–124.
Ciszek, E. (2004). “On Some French Elements in Early Middle English Word Derivation”, in: Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 40, 111–119.
Dalton-Puffer, C. (1996). The French influence on Middle English morphology: a corpus-based study of derivation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Dekeyser, X. (1986). “Romance loans in Middle English: A re-assessment”, in: Kastovsky, D. & Szwedel, A. (eds.). Linguistics Across Historical and Geographical Boundaries: in Honour of Jacek Fisiak. Volume I: Linguistic Theory and Historical Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter, 253–265.
Durkin, P. (2009). The Oxford Guide to Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Durkin, P. (2014). Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English. Oxford University Press.
Görlach, M. (1986). “Middle English – a creole?”, in: Kastovsky, D. & Szwedel, A. (eds.). Linguistics Across Historical and Geographical Boundaries: in Honour of Jacek Fisiak. Volume I: Linguistic Theory and Historical Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter, 329–344.
Gunn, Cate (2008). Ancrene Wisse: From Pastoral Literature to Vernacular Spirituality, Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Haeberli, E. (2010). “Investigating Anglo-Norman Influence on Late Middle English Syntax”, in: Ingham, R., The Anglo-Norman Language and Its Context. York: York Medieval Press. 143–163.
Ingham, R. (2018). “The diffusion of higher-status lexis in medieval England: The role of the clergy”, in: English Language & Linguistics 22, 207–224.
Kastovsky, D. (1994). “Historical English word-formation: from a monostratal to a polystratal system”, in: Bacchielli, R. (ed.). Historical English Word-formation: Papers Read at the Sixth National Conference of the History of English. Urbino: QuattroVenti. 17–31.
Lerer, S. (2007). Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language. Columbia University Press.
Millett, B. (2009). Ancrene Wisse: Guide for anchoresses: a translation based on Cambridge,Corpus Christi College, MS 402. Exeter: University of Exeter press.
McConchie, R. W. (2006). “Disseisin: the lexeme and the legal fact in Early Middle English”, in: Gotti, M., Dossena, M., & Dury, R. (eds), English historical linguistics 2006: selected papers from the fourteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam, 203–216.
Nielsen, H. Frede. (1998). The continental backgrounds of English and its insular development until 1154. Odense: Odense university press.
Nielsen, H. Frede. (2005). From dialect to standard: English in England, 1154–1776. Odense: Odense university press.
Rissanen, M., Ihalainen, O., Nevalainen, T., Taavitsainen I. (1992). History of Englishes: new methods and interpretations in historical linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Roost, J. (2014). Hybrid formations in Early Middle English (Unpublished master dissertation). University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Schaefer, U. (2012). “Middle English: Standardization”, in: Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (eds.). English Historical Linguistics Volume 1. Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34/1. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 519–533.
Schendl, H. (2012). “Middle English: Language Contact”, in: Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (eds.). English Historical Linguistics Volume 1. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34/1). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 505–518.
Smith, J. J. (2012). Middle English: Syntax. In Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (eds.). English Historical Linguistics Volume 1. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34/1). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 435–450.
Sylvester, L. (2020). “The Role of Multilingualism in the Emergence of a Technical Register in the Middle English Period” in: Wright, L. (ed.), The Multilingual Origins of Standard English. Berlin: De Gruyter, 365–380.
Timofeeva, O. (2018a). “Survival and loss of Old English religious vocabulary between 1150 and 1350”, in: English Language and Linguistics, 22(2), 225–247.
Timofeeva, O. (2018b). “Mid ðare soðe luue ðe is icleped karite: Pastoral care and lexical innovation in the thirteenth century”, in: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (SELIM), 23, 55–85.
Trips, C. & Stein, A. (2006). ”Was Old French -able borrowable? A diachronic study of word formation processes due to language contact”, in: Gotti, M., Dossena, M., & Dury, R. (eds), English historical linguistics 2006: selected papers from the fourteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam. 217–240.
Trotter, D. A. (2003). “The Anglo-French Lexis of Ancrene Wisse: a Re-evaluation”, in: Wada, Y. (ed.) A Companion to Ancrene Wisse. Cambridge. 83–101.
Trotter, D. A. (2012). “Middle English in Contact: Middle English Creolization”, in: Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (eds), English Historical Linguistics Volume 2. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34/1). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1781–1793.
Welna, J. (2012). “Middle English: Morphology”, in: Bergs, A., & Brinton, L. J. (eds.). English Historical Linguistics Volume 1. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 34/1). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 415–434.
Zbierska-Sawala, A. (1989). “On the Status of French Derivational Suffixes in Early Middle English”, in: Studia Anglia Posnaniensia 22. 91–99.
Zettersten, A. (1965). Studies in the dialect and vocabulary of the Ancrene Riwle. Lund: Gleerup.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 114 | 114 | 7 |
Full Text Views | 6 | 6 | 2 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 12 | 12 | 1 |
The Norman Conquest and its tremendous linguistic impact on the English language is widely acknowledged among scholars and triggered a substantial body of literature. The great influx of French loanwords into the lexis of Middle English not only led to a profound restructuring of the lexicon, but also deeply affected the English morphology and patterns of derivation (Kastovsky 1994), as well as the English syntax to some extent (Smith 2012; Haeberli 2010). However, few studies have focused on a detailed analysis of these loans. Most researchers chose to focus on the quantitative aspects of the period of extensive lexical borrowing in Middle English, without dedicating much attention to the way and the extent to which French loanwords actually integrated and interacted with native vocabulary. This study thus sought to examine some excerpts of Middle English texts in more detail with the aim of getting closer to understanding whether these borrowings were already fully integrated in Middle English by the time these texts were written, whether this integration was determined by internal or external factors, and whether the process itself was abrupt or rather continuous.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 114 | 114 | 7 |
Full Text Views | 6 | 6 | 2 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 12 | 12 | 1 |