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Middle English |
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Middle EnglishVernacular spoken and written in England c. 1100–1500, the descendant of Old English and the ancestor of Modern English. It can be divided into three periods: Early, Central, and Late. The Central period was marked by the borrowing of many Anglo-Norman words and the rise of the London dialect, used by such poets as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer in a 14th-century flowering of English literature. The dialects of Middle English are usually divided into four groups: Southern, East Midland, West Midland, and Northern. Middle English the English language from about 1100 to about 1450: main dialects are Kentish, Southwestern (West Saxon), East Midland (which replaced West Saxon as the chief literary form and developed into Modern English), West Midland, and Northern (from which the Scots of Lowland Scotland and other modern dialects developed) How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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Many of them walked away from the course being able to recite in Middle English the opening to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Delay would obscure this main linking function; repetition by separating off the last word-group and making it self-sufficient would have a similar effect" which he notes "can be plainly observed in the decadent alliterative verse of Middle English where this rule is often broken" ("Translating" 67, 67n). This comes from the Middle English and has been the accepteddefinition for centuries. |
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