1. Who used London dialect in his literary works?

1.     Who used London dialect in his literary works?

2.     What was characteristic feature of the Middle English?

Middle English marks the middle period between Old English and Modern English. There came changes in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. In fact there were French loan words also. The considerable number of old loan words had already entered into the speech of the people.

But it was after the Norman Conquest that Scandinavian loan words happened to be recorded in writing. The inflections were weakening. It is, however, true that process of weakening the inflectional endings was helped and accelerated by the Norman Conquest

An important result of this Norman Conquest was the introduction of a large number of French words which are the bulk of English Vocabulary. Another result of the Norman Conquest was that the French scribes were given the task of writing in English.

These scribes didn't know the traditional spellings. Thus, the phonetic character of English spelling in the Old English was lost. With the weakening of the Old English inflectional endings, the grammar of the Middle English period had become simplified.

Thus in its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of the words, Middle English was quite different from Old English.

The Middle English period had witnessed the changes in the language of the period. There was a gradual decay and ultimate loss of the inflectional endings of the Old English. While the Old English had varied endings for the plurals, Middle English reduced them all to s or es.

The only exceptions were the irregular plurals which were few in number as in Modern English. Another significant feature of Middle English vocabulary was that the definite article as well as the adjectives were not declined. By the 14th century all English nouns came to be divided into masculine, feminine and neuter gender.

moval of ambiguities -

Contact with the French resulted in the introduction of French usages in English. English now borrowed from French the device of forming the comparative and superlative degrees. The pronouns in Old English underwent many changes during the Middle English period. The ambiguities were removed by replacing the native pronouns by Scandinavian ones. These Scandinavian pronouns had become generally accepted by the 14th century.

Reason for the growth of Middle English -

It is known that Chaucer would write like Langland, Gower and Wycliffe in the dialect familiar to him. Moreover, Chaucer and Wycliffe were followed by a school of imitators not only in Britain but also in Scotland.

Caxton's printing press accelerated the pace of its development. In the Tudor times, the Bible and the Prayer Book written in the dialect of Chaucer and Wycliffe afforded force and momentum to the growth of English.

Conclusion -

It is true that complete uniformity was not yet attained. The process of standardization was not only set afoot by it but also got greatly quickened resulting in a fair standard of uniformity.

 2.  The flourishing of literature, which marks the second half of the 14th c., apart from its cultural significance, testifies to the complete reestablishment of English as the language of writing. Some authors wrote in their local dialect from outside London, but most of them used the Lon­don dialect, or forms of the language combining London and provincial traits. Towards the end of the century the London dialect had become the principal type of language used in literature, a sort of literary "pat­tern" to be imitated by provincial authors.

The literary texts of the late 14th c. preserved in numerous manu­scripts, belong to a variety of genres. Translation continued, but origi­nal compositions were produced in abundance; poetry was more prolific than prose. This period of literary florescence is known as the "age of Chaucer", the greatest name in English literature before Shakespeare. Other writers are referred to as "Chaucer's contemporaries".

 One of the prominent authors of the time was John de Trevisa of Cornwall. In 1387 he completed the translation of seven books on world history — POLYCHRONICON by R. Higden — from Latin into the South-Western dialect of English. Among other information it contains some curious remarks about languages used in England: "Trevisa: ... gentle men have now left to teach (i. e. "stopped teaching") their children French... Higden: It seems a great wonder how Englishmen and their own language and tongue is so diverse in sound in this one island and the language of Normandy coming from another land has one manner of sound among all men that speak it right in England... men of the East with men of the West, as it were, under the same part of heaven, accord more in the sound of their speech than men of the North with men of the South."

Of greatest linguistic consequence was the activity of John Wyclif (1324—1384), the forerunner of the English Reformation. His most im­portant contribution to English prose was his (and his pupils') transla­tion of the BIBLE completed in 1384. He also wrote pamphlete protest­ing against the corruption of the Church. Wyclif's BIBLE was copied in manuscript and read by many people all over the country. Written in the London dialect, it played an important role in spreading this form of English.

compositions were produced in abundance; poetry was more prolific than prose. This period of literary florescence is known as the "age of Chaucer", the greatest name in English literature before Shakespeare. Other writers are referred to as "Chaucer's contemporaries".

One of the prominent authors of the time was John de Trevisa of Cornwall. In 1387 he completed the translation of seven books on world history — POLYCHRONICON by R. Higden — from Latin into the South-Western dialect of English. Among other information it contains some curious remarks about languages used in England: "Trevisa: ... gentle men have now left to teach (i. e. "stopped teaching") their children French... Higden: It seems a great wonder how Englishmen and their own language and tongue is so diverse in sound in this one island and the language of Normandy coming from another land has one manner of sound among all men that speak it right in England... men of the East with men of the West, as it were, under the same part of heaven, accord more in the sound of their speech than men of the North with men of the South."

Of greatest linguistic consequence was the activity of John Wyclif (1324—1384), the forerunner of the English Reformation. His most im­portant contribution to English prose was his (and his pupils') transla­tion of the BIBLE completed in 1384. He also wrote pamphlete protest­ing against the corruption of the Church. Wyclif's BIBLE was copied in manuscript and read by many people all over the country. Written in the London dialect, it played an important role in spreading this form of English.