![]() There are a couple exceptions worth looking at, though: The word order is the same, and if you translated each word in Canterbury Tales individually into its modern equivalent, it would pretty much entirely work. GrammarĬompared to the grammatical differences between Old and Middle English, Middle and Modern are nearly identical. While you can certainly tell it’s not Modern English, there are a lot of recognizable words, and you can probably at least get the gist of what Chaucer is trying to say. The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, Take, for instance, the opening eight lines of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, arguably the most famous work in Middle English: Unlike Old English, Middle English is roughly intelligible to a modern-day English speaker, though it may be a little bit of a struggle. The Biggest Differences Between Middle and Modern English Again, this wasn’t exactly a quick process, but it allowed for a single variety of English to be spread much further and wider than it ever had before. For the first time, books could be produced (relatively) quickly, which allowed for standardization. While there are a number of factors, one of the biggest was the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, and its subsequent introduction to England by William Caxton. ![]() The end of Middle English and start of Modern English - more specifically Early Modern English - is usually placed in the mid- to late-15th century. Other changes occurred just because it is language’s nature to change, particularly when there are no standardized spellings or pronunciations. French words continued to pour into English, though less so as time passed and French control decreased. The language continued to be in flux for centuries as political power ebbed and flowed in the British Isles. The evolution from Middle to Modern is a lot more hazy. These changes didn’t happen overnight, so the start of the Middle English period is usually pinned more toward the middle of the 12th century. While the majority of the most common English words are descended directly from Old English, roughly 30 percent originated from French. Plus, a whole host of new vocabulary was added. With the Normans bringing an earlier version of French into what is today England, there was a more seismic shift in language.įor one thing, the grammar was altered, becoming much closer to the English of today. The Roman Empire also contributed some Latin terms to the language. Old English had already gone through some changes because of outsiders Vikings had brought Old Norse to the British Isles in the first millennium CE. ![]() ![]() While, as mentioned, there’s no sharp line dividing Old English and Middle English, there is one event that many people point to as a useful boundary: the Norman Invasion of 1066. By many measures, Old English’s grammar is closer to German than it is to Modern English. Old English was a Germanic language spoken in the British Isles. Let’s take a look at when the transformation from one to the other happened, and what distinguishes the two versions of English. Even harder to parse is Middle English and Modern English, which still have clear differences but are much closer in grammar and vocabulary. While it’s obvious that Old English and Modern English are distinct - today’s English speakers have no chance of understanding Old English without studying it - these changes took place over centuries. Language is evolving constantly, which can make it difficult to demarcate specific eras.
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