From old English to modern English

How and why has English changed over time?

In this brief introduction to the subject, I will show how we can look at the history of a
language internally the pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and written appearance of
the language; the motivations for change arising from the structure of the language itself.
I will structure my discussion around the conventional division of the history of English into
three main periods: Old, Middle and Modern English.
The Old English (OE) period can be regarded as starting around AD 450, with the arrival of
West Germanic settlers (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) in southern Britain. They brought with
them dialects closely related to the continental language varieties which would produce
modern German, Dutch and Frisian.

An example of Old English text can be seen in the

Start of Anglo-Saxon epic poem

Beowulf (manuscript c.1000 AD)

Norse influence may also have contributed to an important grammatical change, which
mainly occurred in English between the 11th and 14th centuries, and which marked the
transition to Middle English (ME) (conventionally dated c.1100-1500).
The borrowed words came to signify only the meat of these animals, mainly eaten by
wealthier French speakers, whereas the words inherited from OE came to refer only to the
living animals. An example of Middle English text can be seen in the

start of Chaucers

Canterbury Tales (manuscript early 15 century)

th

Modern English (ModE) can be regarded externally as starting with the introduction of
printing. Caxtons selection of an East Midlands/London variety of English for the first printed
books at the end of the 15th century contributed to the development of a standardised
variety of the language, with fixed spelling and punctuation conventions and accepted
vocabulary and grammatical forms.
These changes were not reflected in ModE spelling, already largely fixed by standardisation,
adding to the disparity between pronunciation and writing which differentiates English today
from most other European languages.
An example of early Modern English can be seen in the

Shakespearean Sonnet 145.

Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf

ws on burgum
lof lodcyning

longe rge

folcum gefrage
aldor of earde-hah Healfdene

--fder ellor hwearf

o t him eft onwc
hold enden lifde

gamol ond grouw

am fower bearn
in worold wcun

Bowulf Scyldinga

glde Scyldingas
forgermed

weoroda raswan:

Heorogr ond Hrgr

hrde ic t rse
Heao-Scilfingas

ond Hlga til

ws Onelan cwn
healsgebedda.

ws Hrgre

herespd gyfen

wges weormynd

t him his winemgas

georne hrdon

o t so geogo gewox

magodriht micel

GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

WORD
AS USED
IN THE
TEXT
lof

Leod
cyning

ANALYSIS, NOTES

Explanations and
Ethymology

VARIATION
OF MODERN
ENGLISH

Adj. str., masc. or fem., Nom.

case
Old English leof "dear,
valued, beloved, pleasant;"
also as a noun, "a beloved
person, friend," from ProtoGermanic *leubo
Noun, Nom. case, sing.
Old English cyning "king,
ruler," from ProtoGermanic *kuninggaz , Old
Saxon and Old High

As an adverb, "dearly,
willingly" from c.1250.

Beloved

In Old English, used for

names of chiefs of Anglian
and Saxon tribes or clans,
then of the states they
founded. Also extended to

King of the
people

longe

rage

gefrage

fder

hwearf

hah

lifde

German kuning.

British and Danish chiefs

they fought.

Adv., positive
Old English lang "long," from
Proto-Germanic langgaz .

The Germanic words are

perhaps from
PIE *dlonghos- from
root *del- "long."

Noun, Acc. case, sing.

late 13c., "long but indefinite
period in human history,"
from Vulgar
Latin*aetaticum ..
Adj., str. declension, Nom.
case, masc. or neut.
from Anglo-French famous,
Old French fameus ,from
Latin famosus "much talked
of, renowned".
Noun, masc., r-stem, sing.
Old English fder "father,
male ancestor," from ProtoGermanic *fader
Verb, Past Indicative, 3rd
person,
(ge)hweorfan inf., sing., str.,
Class III
Wharf - late Old
English hwearf "shore, bank
where ships can tie up,"
earlier "dam, embankment,"
from ProtoGermanic *hwarfaz;
Str. adj., Nom. case, masc.
sing., Acc. case, neut., sing.
Old
English heh (Anglian), heah (
West Saxon) "of great height,
lofty, tall, exalted, highclass," from ProtoGermanic *haukhaz
Libban inf., weak verb,
Class III, Past Indicative, 1st
person, sing., or 3rd person,
sing.

The adverb is from Old

English lange, longe, from
the adjective.
Meaning "time something
has lived, particular
length or stage of life" is
from early 14c. Used
especially for "old age"
since early 14c.
A native word for this
was Old English namcu,
literally "name-known."

long

Age, time ,
period

Famed,
famous

father

related to Old
English hwearfian "to
turn," perhaps in a sense
implying "busy activity,"
from PIE root *kwerp- "to
turn, revolve"

Turn,
change, go

Spelling with gh represents a final

guttural sound in the
original word, lost since
14c.

High,deep,
great

from ProtoGermanic*liben. From PIE

root *leip- "to remain,
continue"

Lived, live
(Past Simple)

glde

Adj., str. declension, Acc.

case, pl. masc.
Old English gld "bright,
shining, joyous," from ProtoGermanic *glada-

fower

Cardinal numeral (as noun),

pl., Nom. Acc. Dat. case

raswan

Weak noun, masc., pl., Nom.

case, sing. Dat. case

from PIE *ghel- "to

shine," with derivatives
referring to bright
materials and gold. The
modern sense is much
weakened.
from ProtoGermanic *fedwor-, from
PIE *kwetwer- "four".

Glad, bright

four

Leader, ruler

Notes
Etymology
All words are native, except famous - from Anglo-French famous, Old French fameus. A

native word for this was Old English namcu, literally "name-known; age - from Old
French aage. Most of the words come from the roots of the common IE layer andhave parallels
outside the Germanic groups,eg:
OE lof - love

Old High German liubi German Liebe

OE longe long

Old Frisian and Old Saxon lang

Old English heh (Anglian), heah (West Saxon) high Old English lifian live

Old Saxon hoh, Old Norse har

Old Frisian libba, German leben

Specifically Germanic words are: wesan, cyning, libban, feower.

Specifically English formations is: hwearf
Word structure and word-formation. Most words are simple eigher originally or after the
loss of stem suffixes eg. t, eft, worold, wcun, so
Derived words are: cyn-ing from theroot kun plus the suffix ing, lit. coming from a tribe,
clan
Heard-e adv. from the adj. heard with the help of e adverb-building suffix
Compound word is:
Winemgas from winemg, weak masculine. dear kinsman, pl. made up from wine and mg

Comments

Words can move from one part of speech to another in Old

English as they can in Modern English: often the same word can
function as a conjunction or an adverb, for example, or as a
pronoun or an adjective.
The noun may be inflected (endings supplied or its form
altered) to mark its number (singular or plural) or case (in
Modern English, subjective/objective or possessivebut there
are more cases in Old English).
in worold wcun

weoroda raswan:

raswan - Weak noun, masc., pl., Nom. case, sing. Dat. Case

In both Old and Modern English, the infinitive is the form that
dictionaries use as the headword for verb entries. But in Old
English it has its own endings that distinguish it from the
present forms. It is in origin a noun built on the verbal root.
Hweorfan - inf., sing., str., Class III Libban inf., weak verb, Class III, -

fder ellor hwearf

hold enden lifde

In Old English and all the Germanic languages, the past

participle retained its adjectival function
In Indo-European languages generally, the adjective is inflected
to agree with the grammatical characteristics (gender, case
and number) of the noun it is modifying. In Old English the
adjective has different endings depending on the gender, case
and number of the noun it is modifying.
Glde - Adj., str. declension, Acc. case, pl. masc. -

glde Scyldingas

PHONETIC ANALYSIS

WORD FROM THE TEXT

burgum

bearn

1. Ealdor
Aldor
2. Ealdor

ANALYSIS
Pl. infl. of noun um, burg,
burh
ME burrh, burch, burw
(Cons. Shift, Grimms
Law, gh >y (g)
Barn, ME barn, bern (< prt.
Of beran) (u-o-umlaut,
a>ea by the inf. of a)
ME aldor <eald+or <al ro
(a> >ea>e)

NE
WORDS
Fortified place, town,
borough, burg

Child
Barn (Shakspeare)
Prince, lord
Elder
Grow up, age, life

fronting>
breaking>monopht.
verb
>d from OG (gram. Changes
Verners Law)

earde

ME erd
= aru<eart, e<ea breaking,

Land, earth

>d>th

eft

folcum

fder

ME eft, efte
(<aftiz, v. ftan, of ),
a>>e - fronting
Pl. infl. of noun um, folc,
ME folk, follc, volk, folke
c>k pr-on change
ME fder, feder, fader, fader,

Again, afterwards

People, nation, men

father

vader, fadir (<faer< IE patr)

a> fronting or palatalisation

> d> th

fower

glde

ME four, fowr, fowwre

Fe(h)wur loss of medial
(h), e>eo - breaking
ME gled (<gla o<gladho)
>a palatal., >d

hwearf

Hwalbo<hwalb=v. hwelf,
arch
a>ea- breaking, l>r

Four, fourth

Smooth, glad, shining,

bright
Concave, turn, change,
lead

Notes
The phonological changes among selected words are: consonant shifts according to
Grimms and Verners Law, eg.
aldor <eald+or <al - ro >d, burg, burh- burrh, burch, burw gh >y (g),
vowel shifts:breaking, palatalisation, u-o-umlaut, eg.
Hwearf - hwalbo<hwalb=v. hwelf
glde gled

a>ea- breaking, l>r

>a

fower
bearn - barn, bern

e>eo
a>ea by the inf. of a

Comments
Specific pronunciation differences or changes from Old English and its Closest
Relatives according to Robinson
/c/ : as [t] before or after original vowels /i/ and /e/ (before umlaut) as [k]
elsewhere
/g/ : as [g] when doubled /gg/ or when preceded by /n/ as in /ng/ as [j] before the
front vowels /i/ and /e/, after /i/ and /e/ when syllable final as [] elsewhere
/sc/ : Robinson states [] and makes no mention of [sk] as a pronunciation for this
letter
/f/ : as [v] between voiced sounds as [f] elsewhere /s/ : as [z] between voiced
sounds as [s] elsewhere
/h/ : as [h] initially and before vowels as [c] nally and between consonants
/x/ : Robinson states this is pronounced as [xs], not [ks] as stated by the image
above
/u/ : /u/ occasionally appears instead of /w/ and thus has the pronunciation [w]

Umlaut Umlaut is vowel harmony. It is a common occurrence in Germanic

languages and makes vowels in one part of a word conform in place of
articulation to a vowel in a later syllable of the word.

monophthongization of/i/: WG /stin/ /stn/

Voicing voicing is the distinguishing feature between sounds with

otherwise similar features such as place and manner of articulation).

fronting of//: WG/ltn/ /l:tn/

Breaking monophthong broken up into to vowel movement diphthong In

Old English

Chaucers Canterbury Tales

The Khyghts Tale

T he Canterbury Tales was one of the first books printed in England. Its story depicts
the intricacies and social customs of the Anglo-Saxon middles ages and its language
is fascinating, if not daring for its time. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is one of the
greatest works of Literature in the English world. This dictionary of terms of
Chaucer's main literary work "Canterbury Tales" is an excellent resource for all
those interested in this amazing piece of work from the Middle Ages. It presents a
exhaustive compilation of words used in the book and their equivalent in modernday English.

The Knight's Portrait

THE KNIGHT

A knyght ther was, and that a worthy

man,
That fro the tyme that he first bigan
To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and
curteisie.
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
And therto hadde he riden, no man
ferre,
As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,
And evere honoured for his
worthynesse.
At alisaundre he was whan it was
wonne.
Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord
bigonne
Aboven alle nacions in pruce;
In lettow hadde he reysed and in ruce,
No cristen man so ofte of his degree.
In gernade at the seege eek hadde he be

A knight there was, and he a worthy

man,
Who, from the moment that he first
began
To ride about the world, loved chivalry,
Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy.
Full worthy was he in his liege-lord's
war,
And therein had he ridden (none more
far)
As well in Christendom as heathenesse,
And honoured everywhere for
worthiness.
At Alexandria, he, when it was won;
Full oft the table's roster he'd begun
Above all nations' knights in Prussia.
In Latvia raided he, and Russia,
No christened man so oft of his degree.
In far Granada at the siege was he
Of Algeciras, and in Belmarie.

Of algezir, and riden in belmarye.

At lyeys was he and at satalye,
Whan they were wonne; and in the
grete see

At Ayas was he and at Satalye

When they were won; and on the
Middle Sea
At many a noble meeting chanced to be.
Of mortal battles he had fought fifteen,
And he'd fought for our faith at
Tramissene
Three times in lists, and each time slain

Word from the text

Analysis and etymology

ME variation

tyme

Old English getimian "to

happen, befall,"
from time (n.). Meaning "to
appoint a time" (of an
action, etc.) GVS
tyme>time(tim)>time
(taim)
Old English triew (West
Saxon), treow (Mercian)
"faith, faithfulness, fidelity,
loyalty; veracity, quality of
being true; pledge,
covenant," from triewe,
treowe "faithful"
Old English habban "to
own, possess; be subject
to, experience," from
Proto-Germanic *haben.
Not related to
Latin habere, despite
similarity in form and
sense; the Latin cognate
is capere "seize." Old
English second person
singular present hfst,
third person singular
present hf > Middle
English hast, hath, while
Old English -bb- became v- in have. The past
participle had developed
from Old English gehfd.
fusion of Old
English winnan "to labor,

time

trouthe

hadde

wonne

truth

had

won

foughten

toil, struggle for, work at,

strive, fight,"
and gewinnan "to gain or
succeed by struggling,
conquer, obtain," both
from ProtoGermanic *winn(w)an "to
seek to gain" from
PIE wen- (1) "desire, strive
for"
Old English feohtan "to
fight" (class III strong verb;
past tense feaht, past
participle fohten), from
Proto-Germanic *fehtan,
from PIE *pek- (2) "to
pluck out" (wool or hair),
apparently with a notion of
"pulling roughly"

fought

Notes
All words are native except chivalrie, curteisie, algezir. Most of the words come from the roots
of the common IE layer andhave parallels outside the Germanic groups,eg:
foughten Old English feohtan, rom Proto-Germanic *fehtan,
wonne

fusion of Old English winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winn(w)an

Word structure and word-formation. Most words are simple eigher originally or after the
loss of stem suffixes, eg. Tyme, trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.
Derived words are: worthynesse worthy ness-e, honour-ed, hethe-ness-e,
In this passage are no compound words. As we can see, the spelling of all proper nouns such as
cristendom, alisaundre, lettow, ruce were not capitalized.
Phonological changes. The main change was the Great Vowel Shift, represented by the noun
tyme, from tim<time (ti:m)< tyme <time(taim).
Short and lond vowels
Caas<case, blak<black

COMMENTS
Chaucer's English falls between the trickier Germanic endings of Old AngloSaxon and the later Great Vowel Shift. There are many similarities to Modern
English, especially when it comes to consonants. In other words, it should be
easy for you to learn the basics.

Middle English spelling was in a period of transition. If you traveled around England in
1300 and asked five literate people to spell a word, they might have given you five
different spellings. Geoffrey Chaucer made a rough attempt to standardize spelling, but
even he spells the same word various ways in his works.

Most consonant sounds act like English. Since consonants in most words are
nearly identical to their Modern English counterparts, let's focus on the
differences.

/th/ and /f/ are voiceless like in "thing" and "fish". They are only voiced
(like "this" and "of") between two vowels:

ferne, fowles, forward, oft VS. fyfe, ofer, efer

that, thoghte, thonder VS. bathen, sothe, fother

/gh/ or /h/ represent the 'hard h' sound in German "a ch" or Scottish "loch"
between /a/, /o/, /u/ and a consonant. They represent the 'soft h' of German
"ich" or English "heehee!" between /e/ or /i/ and a consonant:

night, ih VS. ynogh, oght, draught

/wh/ represents the sound of "h" + "w"

whanne, what, who VS. wende, wo, wissen

/ng/ sound like "finger", not like the simple velar 'n' of "singing":
fingeres

/s/ sounds like "seem", unless it's between two vowels, then it's like
"please":

seyde, sothe VS. cosin

/r/ is typically "trilled", like Spanish "r" (but not "rr").

rood, ferne

/k/ is pronounced in word initial /kn/:

knight (or kniht)

Vowels are a bit trickier, but here are a few rules to get you pronouncing Middle
English vowels in no time. Note that long vowels come before a single
consonant or on their own at the end of a word. Short vowels, on the other
hand, are found before two consonants or before a single consonant at the end
of a word. Any vowel written double (aa, ee, oo, uu) is long.

In older inscriptions, documents, works and texts (nearer to Old English),

you may find vowels with a macron (a bar) written above (like nme). The
macron simply tells you that the vowel is long, and follows the pronunciation
guides above for long vowels.

Pronouns in Middle English look much the same as their Modern English
counterparts, with a few exceptions:

The first person singular ("I") is variously spelled i, ich, ih, and is found
capitalized as I from 1250. The objective (accusative and dative case) form is
the same as Modern English: me. The possessive form myn, min may occur
without the -n, but takes a final -e when used with plural nouns.
The second person singular is thou (older thu). The objective (accusative
and dative case) form is thee. The possessive thyn is sometimes written
without the -n, but takes a final -e when used with a plural noun.
He, him, his appear virtually unchanged. She may also be spelt sche, but
we find hire rather than her and hir instead of hers. The third person singular
neuter (it, also found in the older form hit) relates to the possessive
his (not its!): ...Aprille with his shoures soote ...April, with its showers
sweet.
The first person plural we, us, and oure are easy to understand. In older
texts, expect to find ure instead ofoure.
The second person plural ("all of you") is ye, but we find you as an object
and possessive case your.
The third person plural ("they") has they as a subject, but hem instead
of them and hir for their.

Verbs are a bit more complicated in Middle English, but only somewhat so. In
other words, the phrase she singeth is used for she sings, I singe for I sing,
etc. Notice that the plural forms all end in -en. Infinitives also end in -en, like to
singen rather than to sing.

When we talk about the past tense, we distinguish between strong verbs
(like singen) and weak verbs (likebathen). This is because preterite
indicative verbs (actions that happened in the past) change their root
vowel and add fewer endings if they're strong, or add -d- or -t- and take
more endings if they're weak:

Nouns in Middle English do not reflect the complex three-gender system of Old
English. They change to reflect singular and plural number, typically by adding -s
(dayes and nightes days and nights) or -n (namen, ynnames, eyes).
Adjectives in Middle English work much the same way as they do in Modern
English. These descriptive words come before the noun they modify: yong
sone young son. There is a Germanic twist, though. As in German and
Icelandic, Middle English differentiates between strong and weak adjectives.

Strong adjectives stand on their own before a noun, like the yong in yong
sone. They often do not have a final -e (schwa sound).
Weak adjectives come between the article the, the demonstratives (this,
that, these, those) or a possessive (his, Annes his, Anne's) and the
modified noun. Such adjectives have a final -e (schwa): the yonge man
and his sweete breeth the young man and his sweet breath.
With plural nouns, it's far easier: adjectives generally take -e, weak or
strong (yonge sones, the yonge childrenyoung sons, the young
children).

Shakespeare
Sonnet 145

The 1609 version

Those lips that Love's own hand did make,

Thoe lips that Loues owne hand did make,

Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate',

Breath'd forth the ound that aid I hate,

To me that languished for her sake:

To me that languiht for her ake:

But when she saw my woeful state,

But when he aw my wofull tate,

Straight in her heart did mercy come,

Straight in her heart did mercie come,

Chiding that tongue that ever sweet

Chiding that tongue that euer weet,

Was used in giving gentle doom;

Was vde in giuing gentle dome:

And taught it thus anew to greet;

And tought it thus a new to greete:

'I hate' she altered with an end,

I hate he alterd with an end,

That followed it as gentle day,

That follow'd it as gentle day,

Doth follow night, who like a fiend

Doth follow night who like a fiend

From heaven to hell is flown away.

From heauen to hell is flowne away.

'I hate', from hate away she threw,

I hate, from hate away he threw,

And saved my life, saying 'not you'.

And au'd my life aying not you.

This is the only sonnet of the 154 which is not written in the usual iambic pentameter (verses of
five feet consisting of a short followed by a long syllable) but of the more jerky iambic
tetrameter, or octosyllabic verse, which is thought to be more appropriate for epigrammatic and

comic verse. It is a sonnet that is not highly regarded, being thought of as rather trivial, and most
commentators would prefer to discard it.
Shakespeare could have familiarized himself at this early stage with the sonnet tradition and its
language and ideas. In 1582 he was only 18 years old, had just contracted what was probably a
shotgun marriage with Anne Hathaway, was still living in Stratford, knew little of London and
the literary set, and yet (we are asked to believe) was able to write a poem which anticipated the
language of Sidney's Astrophel and Stella by at least nine years.
If the puns are insisted upon, it is always possible that Shakespeare sent off this sonnet to his
wife when he was writing the other ones, to assure her that all was well. The other sonnets were
hardly such as to promote marital concord, and one wonders how she might have responded to
their publication in 1609. The pun of line 14 'Anne saved my life' could equally apply to the dark
lady, if her name was Anne.

Shakespeare's Grammar
Shakespeare played a very influential role in standardizing English grammar. He revived the use of
suffixes in the grammar, which were hardly used in his time. Furthermore, his writing depicted the
rules that would be followed later in the English language. Also, Shakespeares spellings have been
changed, but his grammar has not been changed to date.

Usage Shifts

One part of speech is often substituted for another; this is most

frequent with nouns and verbs. Eg.

In the dark backward and abysm of time.

That may repeat and history his loss.
Adjectives don't always mean what they seem to say; active and
passive forms are sometimes interchangeable, as are those that signify
cause or effect. Eg.

Wherever in your sightless (= invisible) substances.

There's something in 't
That is deceivable (= deceptive).
Oppressed with two weak (= weakening) evils
Pronouns have irregular inflections; often the

nominative case (he, she, who) is used instead of

the objective case (him, her, whom). Eg.
And he (= him) my husband best of all affects.

Verbs don't always agree with their subjects; most

frequently a singular verb is used with a plural
subject. Eg.
Three parts of him
Is ours already.
Double-negatives are often used for emphasis of a
point. Eg.
You may deny that you were not the mean
Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment
[i.e., deny that you were the mean].
There is a high frequency of using "more" and
"most" before words ending in -er or -est. eg.
And his more braver daughter could control thee.

COMMENTS ON SONNETS
Shakespeare's complex sentence structures and use of now obsolete words lead many people
to think they are reading Old or Middle English. In fact, Shakespeare's works are written in Early
Modern English. Once you see a text of Old or Middle English you'll really appreciate how easy
Shakespeare is to understand (well, relatively speaking).

Any period in the history of the English language can be studied from the point of view of how it
was pronounced at the time. Old English,Chaucer and so on. In relation to Shakespeare, were
talking about the sound system, or phonology, that was in use in a period called early modern
English, and in the period specifically around about the year 1600. Now, its a period during
which pronunciation was changing very, very rapidly, so there isnt just one kind of OP, theres
an OP that evolves throughout the period. For example, early on in the period, people are
pronouncing the word musician, as musisian, Later in the period, it had evolved into musician. And, of course, later still, it became musician.
How do we know that that was original pronunciation?
Poetry is also extremely helpful in this regard because you know where the
intonation is automatically.
The Great Vowel Shift gives clues. Before the GVS, English vowels used the Latin
alphabet. So they were pronounced differently, especially the long vowels.
However, of great importance is The Ormulun. Orm, who wrote the Ormulun,
actually noted that he hated people who misprounounced English. So he spelling
many words phonetically. This gives us many clues and is probably one of the most
significant linguistic pieces in the history of the English language.
So, in short, the answer lies in earlier poetry, Ormulun, knowledge of the Great
Vowel Shift, and later poetry and phonetic dictionaries.

Conclusion

At the end of our analysis we can conclude, that during the whole period of language
development all aspects of language have changed, and we cannot say exactly at which
period starts this or that processand began the next. The periodisation of the development
of language is conventional and artificial. Nethertheless, it is obvious that grammar,
phonology and vocabulary have changed by the influence of regional dialects, historical
events, and significant inventions.
The OE period is called a period of full endings, i.e a large amount of inflections in
morphological structure existed. Through the ME period the most endings were lost, i.e.the
simplification of the words occurred. And during the period of Normalisation the fixing
pronounciation and standardization of vocabulary took place.
Beowulf was written in runic inscriptions, the symbols of which are now used in transcription
of MoE words. Chaucer works during the Late ME period, his literary language was based on
London dialect, known as classical ME.
In the present day, English is used in many parts of the world, as a first, second or foreign
language, having been carried from its country of origin by former colonial and imperial
activity, the slave trade, and recently, economic, cultural and educational prestige.
It continues to change at all linguistic levels, in both standard and non-standard varieties, in
response to external influences (e.g. modern communications technologies; contact with
other world languages) and pressures internal to the language system (e.g. the continuing
impulse towards an efficient, symmetrical sound-system; the avoidance of grammatical
ambiguity).
We need not fear or resist such change, though many people do, since the processes
operating now are comparable to those which have operated throughout the observable and
reconstructable history of English, and indeed of all other languages.