Historical Background. The Scandinavian Conquest
The Scandinavian Conquest
The Scandinavian conquest of England was a great military and political event, which
also influenced the English language. It began in the 8th century. In the late 9th century the
Scandinavians had occupied the whole of English territory north of the Thames. In 878 king
Alfred made peace with the invaders. The territory occupied by the Scandinavians was to
remain in their power. The Scandinavians, in their turn, recognized supremacy of the king of
England. The northern and eastern parts of England were most thickly settled by
Scandinavians.
In the late 10th century war in England was resumed, and the whole country fell to the
invaders. Scandinavian power in England lasted until 1042, when it was overthrown, and
the power of the OE nobility was restored under king Edward the Confessor.
The Scandinavian conquest had far-reaching consequences for the English language.
The Scandinavian dialects spoken by the invaders belonged to the North Germanic
languages and their phonetic and grammatical structure was similar to that of OE. This close
relationship between English and Scandinavian dialects made mutual understanding without
translation quite possible. On the other hand, mass settlement of Scandinavians in Northern
and Eastern England gave their language a great influence in these regions. The result was a
blending of Scandinavian and English dialects. Influence of Scandinavian dialects made
itself felt in two spheres: vocabulary and morphology.
The Norman Conquest
The Norman conquest of England began in 1066. It proved to be a turning-point in
English history and had a considerable influence on the English language. In the 9th
century they began inroads on the northern coast of France and occupied the territory on
both shores of the Seine estuary. During the century and a half between the Norman'
settlement in France and their invasion of England they had undergone a powerful influence
of French culture.
In 1066 king Edward the Confessor died. William, Duke of Normandy, who had long
claimed the English throne, assembled an army, landed in England, and routed the English
troops under king Harold near Hastings on October 14, 1066. In the course of a few years,
putting down revolts, the Normans became masters of England. The ruling class of Anglo-
Saxon nobility vanished almost completely. This nobility was replaced by Norman barons,
who spoke French. All posts in the church were given to persons of French culture.
Frenchmen arrived in England in great numbers. This influx lasted for about two centuries.
During these centuries the ruling language was French. It was the language of the court, the
government, the courts of law, and the church.
The Norman conquest put an end to the dominating position of the West Saxon literary
language. In the 12th and 13th centuries all English dialects were on an equal footing and
independent of each other.
Under such circumstances, with two languages spoken in the country, they were bound
to struggle with each other, and also to influence each other. This process lasted for three
centuries - the 12th, 13th, and 14th. Its results were twofold: (1) the struggle for supremacy
between French and English ended in favour of English, but (2) the English language
emerged from this struggle in a considerably changed condition: its vocabulary was
enriched by a great number of French words, while its grammatical structure underwent
material changes. Only in the 15th century did French finally disappear from English social
life.
ME Dialects. Rise of the London Dialect
The regional ME dialects had developed from OE ones. There were the following
groups:
Southern group included the South-Western dialects. It was a continuation of the OE
Saxon dialects. .
Kentish dialect was a direct descendant of the OE Kentish dialect.
Midland dialects corresponding to the OE Mercian dialects, were divided into West
Midland, East Midland, South-East Midland.
Northern dialects had developed from OE Northumbrian. In Early ME the Northern
dialects included several provincial dialects: the Yorkshire, the Lancashire and also what
later became known as Scottish.
A special position among the dialects belonged to the dialect of London, which after
the Norman conquest became the capital of England. Towards the end of the 14th century
London dialect became influential in other parts of the country. This was due to the growth
of its importance as an economic and political centre. The London dialect, which became
the base of the national English language, was a complex formation, reflecting various
influences connected with the social and political life of the period. It contained, alongside
East Midland, also South-Eastern and partly South-Western elements.
Some scholars ascribe a very great role in the formation of the national language to
Chaucer. They suppose that Chaucer had for the first time united various elements and laid
the foundations of the national language.
The London dialect of those centuries is represented by several important documents:
Henry Ill's Proclamation of 1258, poems by Adam Davy, the works of Geoffrey Chaucer,
John Gower and John Wycliffe.
ME Written Records
Approximate dating | Group of 'Dialects | ||||
KENTISH | SOUTH WESTERN | LONDON | MIDLAND | NORTHERN | |
12th century | The Peterborough Chronicle | ||||
13th century | Kentish Sermons; Poema Morale (?) * | Layamon's Brut; King Horn (?); The Owl and the Nightingale | Proclamation of Hen- ry III (?) | Ormulum; Havelok the Dane; Trinity Homilies | The Prose Rule of St Benedict |
14th century | Dan Michael's Asen- bite of Inwit ("Prick of Con- science") | Robert of Glouces- ter, a versified Chronicle; Higden, translation of Trevisa's Po- lychronicon (?) | Romances of Chivalry (Richard Coeur de Lion and others); Wyclif's works; Langland, Piers the Plowman; Chaucer's works; Gower's works | Adam Davy's poems; Romances of Chivalry (Arthur and Merlin, Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, and others) | J. B arbour, Bruce (Scot- tish); Richard Rolle of Ham- pole; The Prick of Con- science |
Principal Middle English Written Records
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