 The beginning of the Middle English period coincides with the Battle of Hastings, the key event in the Norman conquest of England on the 14th of October in 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, after the battle known as William the Conqueror, defeated the English under King Harold II. William made London the new capital and was crowned King William I at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1066. The details of these events can be found in our e-lecture, The Old English Period. Linguistically, the Middle English period is defined as from 1100 to 1500 after Christ. This e-lecture provides an overview of the Middle English period in particular about the main phases of Middle English, the main historical, technological and political achievements, the central literary works of that time, and the main linguistic properties of Middle English. So, let's start. The Norman invasion brought massive changes to England's political and social structures and it had an enormous impact on the English language. Historically, and concerning the situation of the English language, the Middle English period can be subdivided into three phases. The first phase saw a decline of English. In the second phase, English was sort of resurrected and we can label it as the Ascent of English. And the third phase, well, is associated with the triumph of the English language over the French language. Now, as I said, Middle English is generally defined as from 1100 to 1500 after Christ. Let us look at the three phases of Middle English in more detail and focus on the status of English in conjunction with the central developments of that time. After the Norman conquest, England's social and political structures underwent dramatic changes such as an almost complete replacement of the English aristocracy by a Norman aristocracy. Over and above the political and social aspects, the conquest had an enormous impact on the English language. After 1100, the English language largely lost its status and became the language of the lower classes for over 200 years. Especially among the nobility in literature, law and in official documentation, it essentially disappeared as a written language. Among the clergy, English was replaced by Latin. And the ruling classes, well, they spoke French. In addition to that, the use of French was reinforced by the fact that many of the new aristocracy had extensive holdings in France. Imagine, what would happen to your mother tongue if it was no longer the official language in your country? Would it survive? Probably not. So it is really a miracle that English came back after having had the status of an unofficial language for about 200 years. Never forget that. The year 1204 marks the turning point when King John, nicknamed John Lackland, lost his English possessions in France, leading to a gradual decline of French as an official language in England. John was born on Christmas Eve of 1167. He was the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Because he was the fourth child, no land was given to him and so he earned the nickname Lackland. In 1204, he lost all of his Normandy possessions except the Channel Islands. This loss of English possession in France made French a less important language in England. And so with this loss, the second phase began and with this loss of Normandy came a considerable decline of interest in French and an increased interest in English. Another factor leading to the ascent of English was the growing communication among English speakers of various regions. This intercourse led to a smoothing out of the most striking dialectal differences and to the beginnings of a new standard of English based on the London dialect. By the 13th and 14th centuries, even the children of the English nobility no longer learned French as their native language. English had become the new medium of instruction. Although French remained the official language of England well into the 14th century, two events of that time sealed its fate. The first was the Black Death. Between 1348 and 1351, one third of the people in England died of the Black Death leading to an enormous labour shortage and an increase of the prestige of English which was the language of the working class. Another event was the Hundred Years War. Now this series of wars led to a loss of all continental holdings without which the English no longer had important reasons for learning and using French. So these were the phases and this is what really happened to the language. Due to Latin and French influences, a new language had evolved by the mid of the 14th century. Middle English was clearly Germanic at its core but it had an extensive romance vocabulary. In fact, two periods of French influence on Middle English can be distinguished. Here they are. The first period is referred to as the Anglo-Norman French influence up to the late 12th century. And the second one is then an influence coming from central French from the 13th century onwards until the end of the 15th century. The adoption of words from two different kinds of French accounts for differences in the pronunciation of French long words. In Middle English, the structural complexity of old English, case system syntax and so on, had disappeared. The most significant development was phonological. The levelling of unstressed vowels led to a reduction of inflectional distinctions and thereby caused changes in the morphology and syntax of the English language. The many linguistic developments which identify the Middle English period are most evident in the poetry and prose of the second half of the 14th century. There are several surviving prose texts, especially on religious themes, notably the first complete translation of the Bible into English by John Wycliffe. Apart for his religious achievements, Wycliffe is chiefly remembered and honored for his role in Bible translating. In the early 1380s, he led the movement for a translation of the Bible into English and two complete translations. One much more idiomatic than the other were made at his instigation. How much of the translation he did himself, if any, remains totally uncertain. Among the best known poetic creations of the 14th century is a poem by William Rangland. His great work, Piers Plowman, or more precisely, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, is an allegorical poem in unrhymed alliterative verse, regarded as the greatest Middle English poem prior to Geoffrey Chaucer. It is both a social satire and a vision of simple Christian life. The universally recognized pinnacle of poetic achievement in Middle English, however, are the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, who was probably born in 1342, but historians are uncertain about his exact date of birth. As a member of the King's household in the 1360s, he was sent on numerous diplomatic missions throughout Europe, especially to Genoa, Florence and Milan. Chaucer died in 1400. He was the most respected poet of his time making great contributions to the literary language by inventing the so-called high style characterized mainly by a heavy use of romance. That is Latin and French borrowings. His most famous work is the collection of the Canterbury Tales between 1387 and 1400, in which 30 pilgrims from all layers of 14th century English society tell stories to each other to pass the time while travelling to Canterbury, Cathedral and back, thus providing a wealth of information about medieval attitudes and society and about contemporary linguistic structure and style. The end of the Middle English period is marked by several historical incidents where the first two had an enormous impact on the development of English. The introduction of the printing press to England in 1476 by William Caxton led to a spread of English. Apart from making books available to a wide public, Caxton is credited with standardizing the English language, that is, a sort of alignment of regional dialects through printing. This facilitated the expansion of English vocabulary, the regularization of inflection and syntax and the creation of a more and more widening gap between the spoken and the written word. The second event is the beginning of colonization from 1500 onwards after the discovery of America in 1492, which eventually led to a global spread of the English language. And last but not least, it's Henry VIII, who was inaugurated in 1509 and eventually cut the links between Rome and the English Church. So by 1500, English began to obtain a new position from a regional European language to a global system of communication. Let us summarize. We saw that the English language underwent a dramatic development during the Middle English period. First, it was almost condemned to extinction by the dominance of French, but later, when the French dominions on the continent were lost, it became popular again. Last but not least by the influence of literary works such as the ones by Chaucer or Wycliffe. But what about the linguistic aspects? Well, Old English, the predecessor, was clearly Germanic in character with many properties taken over from continental Germanic. Middle English, by contrast, changed to a language where many typical Germanic aspects were lost and romance, that is, French properties, came in. Most obviously in the vocabulary. These and other linguistic aspects cannot be discussed in this e-lecture. So please join me again in one of our e-lectures on the linguistic properties of Middle English, ranging from phonology to syntax.