2. Inner history
The Middle English period was a time of unprecedentedly rapid development of the language. For the first three centuries English was only a spoken language, and as such had no norm and could develop without any restrain. All the elements of the language changed fundamentally.
2.1. Phonetics
The stress is dynamic and fixed in the native words. But in the borrowed French words the stress was on the last syllable:
licour [li'ku:r], nature [na'tu:r], etc.
New consonant sounds developed in native words.
The resonance of the consonant does not depend so much on the position of the consonant, and voiced consonants can appear not only in intervocal, but also in initial and other positions.
Vowels in unstressed position were reduced:
Old English Middle English
3. the English and the Scandinavians had similar culture, habits, customs,
traditions; the French and the English — different;
that is why the assimilation of the French words could not proceed so quickly and intensively as that of Scandinavian.
The principal means of enriching vocabulary were thus outer means, i.e. - -
borrowings.
A,O > E
These sounds were in the end of the word, and it neutralised the difference between the suffixes — the main grammar means.
Vowels under stress underwent mainly quantitative changes. In Middle English we observe a rhythmic tendency, the aim of which is to obliterate overlong
/
and overshort sequences. The tendency is to have in the word one long vowel + one consonant or one short vowel + two consonants.
2.2. Grammar
The grammar gradually but very quickly changed fundamentally. : the old ENGLISH was a synthetic language , the middle at the end of Period: analytical language. The principal grammatical means of Old English were preserved but were no longer principal. At the end of the Middle English period the anatytical mean, which began developing in the middle English are predominant:
analytical verb forms;
the use of the prepositions for grammatical purposes.
A fixed word order began to develop
2.3. Word stock
In the middle English it underwent fundamental changes and became almost new/ if in old english the word stock was almost completely native in the middle English there were many borrowings the principal sources of them were:
Scandinavian (those who came at the end of old period 500 words take, give, sky, wrong, ect)
French ( Normans conquerors) over 3500 words ( government, army, battle) the number of French words is greater all the Scandinavian word common an colloquial every day indispensable entered in every core of the language and their influence is very great.
The Scandinavian borrowings are intensive and French and French extencive
Scandinavian+ English = very common similar linguistically ( bouth Germanic) English and French different ( German and Roman groups)
English and Scandinavian similar socially nations frmed upper class English and French – different class- English speaking class- the lower class
English_and Scandinavians has the similar culture, habits, customs,traditions,and French are different
That’s why French assimilation could not proceed so quickly and intensively as that Scandinavians the principal means of enriching vocabulary were thus outer means – borrowings