Middle english period (mar 16, 1066 – jun 30, 1450)
Description:
-Middle English developed from the late old English, and saw changes to its grammar, vocabulary, orthography and pronunciation. the changes in grammar changed the English language from a highly inflected language to an extremely analytic one, and those in vocabulary involved the loss of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin.During the Middle english writing conventions varied widely. About 10000 French word were added to the English language. the reason why there were many french words in english is that french was the language of the royal court and in the law, and french became the language of the novels, nobilty and kings of england for more than 300 years, so english becomes the language of the lower classes (peasants and slaves).
Authors write literature in French, not English. For all practical purposes English was no longer a written language.
-The Canterbury Tales is written by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. it is a collection
of 24 stories that runs over 17000 lines and written in middle english. the Tales gave a realistic picture of the society, often with a touch of satire and humor. The canterbury tales is presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of thirty people who come from all layers of society and travel together as pilgrims from London to Canterbury (england) to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. So to waste and kill the time while the travel to canterbury, they told stories to each other. The first part of Canterbury tales called for wife of bath and it is the best known of The Canterbury tales , because it provides insight into the role of women in the late middle ages.
-William the conqueror was the first Norman King of England. During the middle english period there were many Social and cultural changes and even changes in language and literature. People became more intereested about literary genres. including chivalric, romance, religious songs, folk ballads, drama, morality and miracle plays.
Added to timeline:
Date:
mar 16, 1066
jun 30, 1450
~ 384 years
