History of the English language

History of the English language, 158-171

In addition, to the increase in foreign borrowings, one must recognize that many words dropped out of the language. The alliterative revival of the fourteenth century produced many new poems in the alliterative metre, but many of the old words associated this metre failed to survive. Literary style was provided with words borrowed from French and latin, rather than through the retention of an archaic vocabulary found in the old alliterative composition. However, an important addition to the vocabulary was the ability to exploit functional shift, that process whereby one part of speech could be used as another. This possibility exist mainly for lexical words. With the fall of inflection it was possible to tell from its from alone wheter a word was a noun, adjective, verb or adverb. It was the word order that indicated the function of a word, and so it became possible to exploit this possibility by using words from one part of speech in a different function. It was particulary common to use nouns as verbs. In the fourteenth century such nouns as “chill, fellow, hammer, spire” accur for the first time as verbs.
The fourteenth century is the first in which differences in register begin to be significant in literary works. However, the interpretation of the different level which words have at this time is difficult. Few writers make explicit comments on register. Yet the import of so many words of French and Latin origin would necessarily create a difference between a high style which used the resources of this foreign vocabulary, and a low style which relied on more common words. This difference is still with us today. The evidence to confirm this development is lacking though the loss of a word like “lemman” may indicate that this process was not uncommon. In some cases the English and the French or Latin words would develop differences i9n meaning which were in part the result of a difference in register.
It was becoming more common for particular groups of writers to develop their vocabulary, and at the end of this period this can be traced particularly in the writings of the Wycliffites or Lollards, though one need not assume that is was a trait restricted to them. The use of a Latine vocabulary for such writings rather than using an anglo-saxon vocabulary would set them apart from normal writing, and the use of individual “terms” from the register was no doubt intended to creat stylistic echoes and connotation which the receptive reader should pick up. It was becoming much more possible in English to create different levels of language in writing, informal style and different levels of normal writing were now available to be exploited by the thoughtful writer. Naturally, this was not something that all writers could yet manage.
In word formation the changes which we noted in the last chapter continue. Prefixs continue to fall out of the language, though some survive and others, as we have noted, are borrowed from French.
French and Latinate suffixes become common as a result of the many borrowings from those language. These changes are particularly evident in literary works, especially poetry, where borrowing was encouraged to give the style of the work a higher tone. It is not possible to say how far this tendency percolated through to the spoken language, but it seems improbable that it was very significant at this stage.
The introduction of French words had created variation in the traditional Germanic stress pattern which preferred the stress on the first vowel, unless it was a prefix. In French stress was variable and often fell on the final. In English poem the metre indicates that this stress pattern was transferred into English at least for words of French origin.
The noticeable feature of the vocabulary is the large number of words of French origin, there are few words from Latin or Old Norse, though zephirus comes from Latin rather than French and roote probably has an Old Norse form.
Towards the end of the fourteenth century there were many indications that attitudes to English were changing and it was being recognized as the main language for the century. There was an explosion in literary composition. Although much of this was concentrated in the London area where Chaucer and Gower worked, there was alliterative poetry in the north-west. Of which the most famous work was “sir Gawain and the green knight, and Langland started his “piers plowman” near the malvem hills, though he later moved to London. This may be the result of the growing importance of London in cultural matters. There were a large of manuscripts of the works by Chaucer and Gower compared with those from other parts of the country, this is a matter to which we will return in the next chapter. In other spheres Trevisa noted that teaching in English in schools. Which he claimed had been introduced by John of Cornwall in the middle of the fourteenth century, was by the time he was writing in 1385 regular in all grammar schools in England. In 1362 the Statude of pleading confirmed that English should be the language of the law courts, and in that same year parliament was opened in English for the first time.
What could be achieved in this matter is illustrated by the numerous manuscripts which were copied by the Wycliffites or Lollards. They show development of standardized varieties in the fourteenth century in a manner that prepared the way for that variety which was to become the eventual basis of the new standard. Professor Samuel has studied this development in the greatest detail and he suggests that the Lollard standardized variety of English has the best claim toi be the first literary standard after the period of French and Latin domination. This standardized variety was not invented by the Lollards though they had most influence in spreading it. It was based on the spoken dialects of the Central Midlands, especially the counties of Northampton shire, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire, though it was also adopted in several surrounding counties such as Leicestershire, where St Mary’s abbey at Leicester was an important centre for its dissemination. It may be recognized through certain spelling such as sich ‘such’, mych’much’, ony’any’. It survived in some areas until well into the fifteenth century and it was used by Reginald Pecock and his copyists in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, even though Pecock, a welshman by birth, was bishop of Chichester. It is suggested by Samuel that this standardized variety may have been copied as far away as Devon, and that makes its use by Pecock less surprising. Its dissemination by the Lollards was accompanied by their own special vocabulary which has been noted earlier, though it may be that the link of this variety with heresy was one reason which led to its demise. This variety was labeled by Professor Samuels as type 1 and that is how it is referred to today.
Type 1 is distinguished from his type 2 and 3 which were other standardized varieties which overlap with it, but which did not have the same geographical distribution. Type 2 is found in a group of fourteenth century manuscript which are probably all from greater London area. Type 3 is also a London-based standard. It is particularly associated with the best manuscripts of Chaucer and the slightly later poet Hoccleve who worked as a scribe in the Chancery.
Although the amount of writing found in type 3 and its association with Chaucer with Chaucer and Hoccleve make it the variety most familiar to modern readers, there is nothing to suggest that it became a literary standard. The various manuscript of Chaucer and Gower exhibit considerable differences, and although Chaucer himself may have written in type 3, his influence was not apparently very deep. It was 4 which was to produce the standard language and that type is the Chancery standard that is closely associated with the flood of document issuing from the Chancery from about 1430 onward. A consideration of this type belongs to our next chapter, which deals with the establishment of the new standard English.