Seminar 4 – Middle EnglishThe Lexicon: Middle English Loans A. Loanwords. The Norman Conquest changed the entire fabric of the English vocabulary, partly through the thousands of French loanwords that resulted directly from the Conquest and partly because English thereafter became permanently receptive to loanwords from virtually any source. Today it is difficult to write even a paragraph without using at least a few loanwords. On a separate piece of paper, rewrite the following paragraph using only native English words. In your dictionary, these will have O.E. or A-S (and perhaps also Germanic) listed as their ultimate source. To save time in looking up etymologies, treat all personal pronouns, the conjunctions and, but and or, all parts of the verbs to be and to have and all prepositions of four or fewer letters as native words (even though this is not quite accurate because, they, them, their, are from Old Norse). If a word is affixed, look up the base, for example, for the word unsuccessfully, look up success. Leave all proper nouns as they are in the passage. Whenever your dictionary lists the direct source of one of the words in the passage as a language other than English, look the word up in the OED, note the date of its fist recorded appearance in English, and enter the word and the date on the appropriate line. By the eleventh century, the English and the Norse has achieved an uneasy peace, and the Norse settlers were becoming assimilated into English society. But in 1066, another invasion occurred that was to have a great effect on the history of English. Taking advantage of a somewhat dubious claim to the throne of England, William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) successfully invaded and then took over England. William and most of his followers were racially Germanic, but their ancestors had abandoned their original language for French when they settled in Normandy during the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. Hence, the language brought to England by William was French. French became the official language of the court, law, and of administration for the next 350 years. However, there were many more English people than French people in England, and the conquered English continued to speak their native language. Many natives surely learned to speak French, but the French also had to learn English in order to be able to speak to their English servants. The English spoken and written from about 1100 (i.e., shortly after the Conquest) until about 1500 is called Middle English. French Loanwords ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ 1 and sealed eall ðæt he ahte. and for ioye of it he goth. ða eode he. B. and solde alle thingis that he hadde. seeking good maragrytis. Look each of them in the OED and note the latest citation given there for each in the meaning intended in the OE text. 1000 Heofona rice is gelic gehydum gold-horde on ðam æcere. Anglo-Saxon Gospels. ðone behyt se man ðe hine fint. Eft is heofenarice gelic ðam mangere. and for his blysse gæþ. he wente. For example. the language of the King James Bible was old-fashioned by the time it first appeared in 1611. hidith. words are also sometimes replaced because of the stylistic preferences of the translators). and bieth the ilk feeld.Latin Loanwords ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ Old Norse Loanwords ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ 1. Comment on the date of entry into English of the words from French. 2 . 5. 1389 The kyngdame of heuenes is lijk to tresour hid in a feeld. and sellith alle thingis that hath. Consequently. of course. and sylþeall ðæt he ah. ðe sohte ðæt gode meregrot. Đa he funde ðætan deorwyrðe meregrot. and bohte ðæt meregrot. we can at least suspect that the words used in the earlier translation were no longer suitable (though. c. and gebigþ ðone æcer. Latin and Old Norse. Lost Vocabulary Biblical translations tend to be highly conservative in their language. Eftsones the kyngdam of heuenes is lic to a man merchaunt. Which words did you find it most difficult to replace with native equivalents? 2. How do the Norse loans differ from the French and Latin loans? Suggest reasons for this difference. the whiche a man that fyndth. the same is true of much of the language of the Revised Standard Version of 1952. partly because of the religious nature of the texts and partly because of translators’ awareness of previous translations. How does your “translation’ differ from the original passage? 3. Sothely oo preciouse margarite founden. The following excerpts are from a late OE and a ME translation of Matthew 13:44-46. The following words from the Anglo-Saxon version have been replaced in the Wycliffite version. when we find lexical replacements from one translation to a later one. Wycliffite Gospels. 4. and bouƷte it. What type of semantic shift in meaning of mangere (monger) was already taking place by the time of the Wycliffite text? 11. What type of semantic shift has bliss undergone that makes it suitable in this context today? 3 . If the word was used in its meaning here in OE. What are the sources of the newly appearing words in the Wycliffite passage? 10. The following words from the Wycliffite version replace the words listed in 5 above. Which of the replaced words from the Anglo-Saxon passage are totally lost in (all meanings) today? 9. What is the first citation in the OED for acre in the meaning of a definite measure of land? How might this have affected the decision of the translators of the Wycliffite version to use the word field instead? 8. Both the King James Bible (1611) and the Revised Standard Version (1952) use the word joy in Matthew 13:44.rice ___________________________________________________ gold-horde (gold-hoard) ___________________________________________________ æcere (acre) ___________________________________________________ blysse (bliss) ___________________________________________________ ah (owe) ___________________________________________________ mangere (monger) ___________________________________________________ deorwyrðe ___________________________________________________ eode (look under go) ___________________________________________________ 6. kyngdame ___________________________________________________ tesour ___________________________________________________ feeld ___________________________________________________ ioye ___________________________________________________ hath ___________________________________________________ marchaunt ___________________________________________________ preciouse ___________________________________________________ wente ___________________________________________________ 7. Check the origin and first citation in English of each in the OED. simply write OE.