Editing Middle English (section)

{{Short description|English language from the 12th to 15th centuries}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Middle English
| nativename       = {{lang|enm|Englisch}}<br />{{lang|enm|English}}<br />{{lang|enm|Inglis}}
| region           = [[England]] (except for west [[Cornwall]]), some localities in the eastern fringe of [[Wales]], south east [[Scotland]] and Scottish [[burgh]]s, to some extent [[Ireland]]
| era              = developed into [[Early Modern English]], and [[Fingallian]] and [[Yola language|Yola]] in [[Ireland]] by the 15th century
| image            = Chaucer-canterburytales-miller.jpg
| imagescale       = 1
| imagecaption     = A page from [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'', published in the late 14th century
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4             = [[Ingvaeonic languages|North Sea Germanic]]
| fam5             = [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]]
| fam6             = [[Anglic languages|Anglic]]
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old English]]
| iso2             = enm
| iso3             = enm
| glotto           = midd1317
| glottorefname    = Middle English
| iso6             = meng
| notice           = IPA
|script=Latin
}}

'''Middle English''' (abbreviated to '''ME'''<ref>Simon Horobin, ''Introduction to Middle English'', Edinburgh 2016, s. 1.1.</ref>) is a form of the [[English language]] that was spoken after the [[Norman Conquest]] of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the [[Old English]] period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the [[University of Valencia]] states the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fuster-Márquez |first1=Miguel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQLBqKjxuvAC |title=A Practical Introduction to the History of English |last2=Calvo García de Leonardo |first2=Juan José |publisher=Universitat de València |year=2011 |isbn=9788437083216 |location=[València] |page=21 |access-date=19 December 2017}}</ref> This stage of the development of the English language roughly coincided with the [[High Middle Ages|High]] and [[Late Middle Ages]].

Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and [[orthography]]. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English literary variety broke down and writing in English became fragmented and localized and was, for the most part, being improvised.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Horobin |first1=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDBF5TJZHzQC&dq=middle+english&pg=PP9 |title=An Introduction to Middle English |last2=Smith |first2=Jeremy |date=2002 |publisher=Oup USA |isbn=978-0-19-521950-0 |access-date=2023-12-01}}</ref> By the end of the period (about 1470), and aided by the [[movable type|invention of the printing press]] by [[Johannes Gutenberg]] in 1439, a standard based on the London dialects (Chancery Standard) had become established. This largely formed the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by [[Early Modern English]], which lasted until about 1650. [[Scots language|Scots]] developed concurrently from a variant of the [[Northumbrian dialect]] (prevalent in northern England and spoken in southeast [[Scotland]]).

During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became simplified or disappeared altogether. Noun, adjective, and verb [[inflection]]s were simplified by the reduction (and eventual elimination) of most [[grammatical case]] distinctions. Middle English also saw considerable adoption of [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] vocabulary, especially in the areas of politics, law, the arts, and religion, as well as poetic and emotive diction. Conventional English vocabulary remained primarily Germanic in its sources, with [[Old Norse]] influences becoming more apparent. Significant changes in pronunciation took place, particularly involving long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the [[Great Vowel Shift]].

Little survives of early [[Middle English literature]], due in part to Norman domination and the prestige that came with writing in French rather than English. During the 14th century, a new style of literature emerged with the works of writers including [[John Wycliffe]] and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], whose ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'' remains the most studied and read work of the period.{{refn|The name "tales of Canterbury" appears within the surviving texts of Chaucer's work.<ref>{{cite journal|author= Carlson, David. |title= The Chronology of Lydgate's Chaucer References |journal= [[The Chaucer Review]] |volume=38 |issue=3 |year=2004 |pages=246–254 |doi=10.1353/cr.2004.0003 |citeseerx= 10.1.1.691.7778 |s2cid= 162332574 }}</ref>}}