Middle English (1100–1500)

The Middle English (ME) period represents the most dramatic transformation in the history of the English language. In roughly four centuries, English changed from a heavily inflected, largely Germanic language into something recognisably closer to the modern tongue. The driving forces were political upheaval (the Norman Conquest), sustained contact with French, the gradual decline of inflections, and — at the very end of the period — the invention of printing. This lesson explores these changes and their causes in the detail required for A-Level analysis.

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The Norman Conquest and Its Linguistic Consequences

The Norman Conquest (1066) was the single most significant external event in the history of the English language, introducing French as the language of power and triggering centuries of lexical borrowing.

When William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the immediate effect on the English language was not lexical but sociolinguistic. A French-speaking ruling class replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy. For roughly 200 years, the language of the court, law, government, and the Church hierarchy was Anglo-Norman French (a dialect of Old French). Latin remained the language of the Church and scholarship.