The position of French in the XII-XIII centuries. The London dialect in late

dialect in late ME. Written records in the different dialects.
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студенты группы Л/б-18-1-1(о) Мазуркевич Л.А, Книгина А.А

centuries the ruling language in England was French.
It was

the language of the court, the government, the courts of law
and the church. The English language was reduced to a lower social
sphere: the main mass of peasantry and towns people. The relation
between French and English was, thus, different from that between
Scandinavian and English:
French was the language of the ruling class.

the English language. Thus, for instance,
Robert of Gloucester says in

his Chonicle (late
13th century):

‘Thus came England under Normandy’s power.
and the Normans could not speak any language
but their own, and spoke French as they did at
home, and taught their children so. So the noblemen
of this land, who came from their blood, stick to the
same language they brought from home. For unless
a man speaks French, people think little of him; but
low man stick yet to English and to their own language.
I believe there are in all world no countries which do no
stick to their own language except England alone’

(died in 1364)in his Polychronicon,
Written in Latin, translated in English

in 1387 by John Trevisa:

‘This spoiling of the mother tongue is because of two things: One is, for children at school, against
the usage and manner of all other nations, are completed to abandon their own language and to construe their lessons and their subjects in French, and have done so since the Normans first came into England. Also gentlemen’s children are taught to speak French from the time they are rocked in their cradle and can speak and play with a child’s toy’

of the West Saxon literary language. In the 12th and

13th centuries all English dialects were on an equal footing and independent of each other. In some of them, especially in the North, Scandinavian influence on the vocabulary became more pronounced.

Under such circumstances, with two languages spoken in the country, they were bound to struggle with each other. This process lasted for three centuries – the 12th ,13th and 14th . Its results were twofold:

The struggle for supremacy between French and English ended in favour of English.
The English language emerged from this struggle in a considerably changed condition: its vocabulary was enriched by a great number of French words, while its grammatical structure underwent material changes.

different dialects.
In the period following the Norman conquest the same

dialects continue to develop which existed in OE. But according to a tradition now firmly established, they are given new names. The Northumbrian dialect is now called Nothern , Mercian is called Midland, and West Saxon and Kentish are united under the name of Southern.

The Midland dialect is subdivided into West Midland and East Midland.
The dialect of London combines East Midland and Southern features.

Michel, Ayenbite of Inwit (“Remorse of Conscience”), a religious treaty,

translated from the French (1340).
William of Shoreham, Poems (14th century).
Poema Morale (anonymous, early 13th century).

Southern dialects

from an Anglo-Norman poem by Wace, early 13th century. Southern

dialect with Midland admixtures).
Ancren Riwle (“Statute for Nuns”), early 13th century, probably adaptation of a Midland original.
Robert of Gloucester, Rhymed Cronicle (ab. 1300).
John Trevisa, translation of the monk Ranulphus Hidgen’s Latin Polychronicon. (1387)

century).
William of Palerne (romance, early 13th century)
Sir Gavayne and the

Green Knight and other poems by the same anonymous author (latter half of the 14th century).

century)
Orm, Ormulum (religious poem, early 13th century)
Robert Mannyng of Brunne,

Hadlyng Synne (“Manual of Sins”)
Genesis and Exodus (13th century)
Debate of Body and Soul (13th century)
Peterborough Chronicle (sequel to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for the years 1132-1154)

3

English since the conquest
Adam Davy, Poems (early 14th century)
Works by

Chauser and Gower
Richard Role de Hampole, The Prick of Conscience (religious poem, the former half of 14th century)
Towneley Plays (14th century)
York Plays (the former half of 15th century)

G.Chauser

Scotland, ab. 1375)
James I, The Kinhis Quhair (“The King’s Book”),

collection of poems, early 15th century)