Solution For All Chapters – English Class 11
Middle English
Exercises
Q1. Write T for true and F for false statements:
a) The year 1066 AD marks he end of the Old English and the beginning of the Middle English.
b) Modern English has evolved from the West Midland dialect.
c) The early literature of Middle English is chiefly secular in nature.
d) The second half of the fourteenth century is known as the period of great individual writers.
Answer –
(a) – False
Explanation – The year 1066 marks the end of Old English, but Middle English didn’t begin immediately. There was a transitional period, and most scholars say Middle English lasted from 1150 to 1500.
(b) – True
Explanation – Modern English has evolved from the East Midland dialect, not West Midland.
(c) – False
Explanation – The early literature of Middle English is exclusively religious in nature, not chiefly secular.
(d) – True
Explanation – The second half of the fourteenth century is known as the period of great individual writers, such as Chaucer, Gower, and Langland.
Q2. Answer these questions very briefly:
1. What is meant by the Great Vowel Shift?
Answer – The Great Vowel Shift refers to a major phonological change in the English language, specifically in the pronunciation of long vowels. This shift began around AD 1400 and was fully established by the end of the Middle English period. It marks one of the key distinctions between Middle English and Modern English.
During this shift, the pronunciation of long vowels in English underwent significant changes, which set the stage for the language we recognize today. While the consonant system remained relatively unchanged from Middle to Modern English, the vowel system experienced dramatic alterations, particularly in the long vowels. Short vowels, on the other hand, remained largely the same.
2. When did it take place?
Answer – The Middle English period took place from AD 1150 to AD 1500. It began after a transitional phase following the end of the Old English period in AD 1066. This period is marked by two significant events:
i) The introduction of printing technology by William Caxton in AD 1476.
ii) The Great Vowel Shift, a series of changes in the pronunciation of long vowels that started around AD 1400 and was fully established by the end of the Middle English period.
Middle English was characterized by the existence of several dialects, and the East Midland dialect eventually became the foundation for Modern English. The period also saw significant linguistic influences from French and Latin, contributing many words to English vocabulary.
3. Name the dialects of the Middle English.
Answer – The dialects of Middle English are:
i) Northern: Also known as Northumbrian, this dialect was spoken in the northern parts of England.
ii) Southern: Also known as West-Saxon, this dialect was spoken in the southern parts of England.
iii) East Midland: This dialect emerged from the Mercian dialect and was spoken in the eastern midlands of England. Modern English has evolved from this dialect.
iv) West Midland: This dialect also emerged from the Mercian dialect and was spoken in the western midlands of England.
v) Kentish: This dialect was spoken in the county of Kent and remains largely unchanged to this day.
These dialects existed in both spoken and written forms, and there was no single literary standard for Middle English.
4. How many words (approx) were brought over from the French during the 13th and the 14th century? What percentage of these words is in use today?
Answer – Approximate number of French words brought over during the 13th and 14th centuries: 10,000
Percentage of these words still in use today: Almost 75% (around 7,500 words)
5. What made English from a highly inflectional language into an analytic one?
Answer – English transitioned from a highly inflectional language to an analytic one primarily due to changes during the Middle English period. These changes included:
i) Phonetic Changes: The pronunciation of word endings that indicated number, gender, case, and tense became altered, losing their distinctiveness and effectiveness. This led to the decline of inflections, or the endings of words that indicated these grammatical features.
ii) Loss of Inflections: The majority of Old English noun, verb, and adjective endings disappeared. This loss of inflections meant that grammatical relationships, which were previously indicated by these word endings, had to be shown in other ways.
iii) Fixed Word Order: With the reduction in the use of inflections, English began to rely more on a fixed word order to convey meaning and grammatical relationships. This shift played a significant role in transforming English into an analytic language, where the order of words in a sentence is crucial to understanding its meaning.
These changes collectively simplified the structure of English and marked its evolution from a language with complex inflectional endings to one where word order became the primary means of conveying grammatical relationships.
6. Name four notable writers of the Middle English.
Answer – Four notable writers of the Middle English period:
i) Geoffrey Chaucer: Known for works like “The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales” and “The Canterbury Tales”.
ii) John Gower: Known for works like “Meditantis”, “Vox Clamantis”, and “Confessio Amantis”.
iii) William Langland: Known for his work “Piers the Plowman”.
iv) John Wyclif: Known for his translation of the Bible into Middle English.
These writers are considered some of the most important figures of the Middle English period, and their works provide valuable insights into the language, literature, and culture of that time.
7. Whose works are the major sources of information about Middle English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation?
Answer – The major sources of information about Middle English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. His writings, particularly The Canterbury Tales, provide extensive insights into the language and culture of medieval England.
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