Daniel Paul O'Donnell Personal Repository
Published March 16, 2025 | Version Delivered
Lesson Open

Middle English 2 Morphology and Syntax

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Lethbridge

Description

  • What happened to the inflectional system between OE and end of ME

    • Loss of endings

    • Primacy of WO over endings

  • Remember that evidence is lagging indicator

    • OE MSS are very conservative

      • Rarely show things we know were happening

        • Vunstr > ə

        • ON vocab

    • ME MSS are relatively innovative

      • Scribes have to adapt French spelling to English language

  • Result is that change looks faster and more sweeping than it actually was

Files

3901-wk9 Middle English 2.pdf

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