Middle English Literature

The English Language
Four principal dialects existed in late medieval England in addition to the
western and northern Welsh and Scots. Latin was still the dominant institu-
tional language and French was commonly spoken among the nobility and
others. Gradually throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, how-
ever, written English would become the language of many kinds of records,
replacing Latin and French. This complex linguistic situation, somewhat
exacerbated by Lollardy, caused both anxious and playful reflection on the
part of writers (see “Censorship,” p. 242).
For information on Ranulf Higden and John Trevisa, see “The English
and England,” p. 50. The following selection precedes the passage on the
English and England, and may be read in relation to that discussion. Here
again we see Trevisa glossing Higden’s ideas.
Primary documents and further reading
Berndt, R. (1972) “The Period of the Final Decline of French in Medieval England
(Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries).” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und
Amerikanistik 20: 341–69.
7
goods.
The English Language
259

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260
Textualities
Blake, N. F. (ed.) (1973) Caxton’s Own Prose. London: Deutsch.
Clanchy, M. T. (1993) From Memory to Written Record, England 1066–1307. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Ellis, R. (1994) “Introduction.” In R. Ellis and R. Evans (eds.) The Medieval Trans-
lator 4. Binghamton: State University of New York Press.
Fisher, J. H. (1977) “Chancery and the Emergence of Standard Written English in
the Fifteenth Century.” Speculum 52: 870–99.
Fisher, J. H., M. Richardson, and J. L. Fisher (eds.) (1984) An Anthology of Chancery
English. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Orme, N. (1973) English Schools in the Middle Ages. London: Methuen.
Somerset, F. (1998) Clerical Discourse and Lay Audience in Late Medieval England.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waldron, R. (1988) “John Trevisa and the Use of English.” Proceedings of the
British Academy 74: 171–202.
Wogan-Browne, J., N. Watson, A. Taylor, and R. Evans (eds.) (1999) The Idea of
the Vernacular: An Anthology of Middle English Literary Theory, 1280–1520. Univer-
sity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Ranulf Higden. St. John’s College, Cambridge, MS 204. In C. Babington and J. R. Lumby
(eds.) (1869) Polychronicon, vol. 2, trans. J. Trevisa. London, 157–63.
Language: English (Southwestern)
Manuscript date: ca. 1400
De incolarum linguis. Capitulum quinquagesimum nonum.
1
[Ranulf says:] As it is i-knowe how meny manere peple beeth in this ilond,
there beeth also so many dyvers longages and tonges; notheles, Walsche
men and Scottes, that beeth nought i-medled with other naciouns, holdeth
wel nyh hir firste longage and speche but if the Scottes that were somtyme
confederat and wonede with the Pictes drawe
2
somwhat after hir speche,
but the Flemmynges that woneth in the weste side of Wales haveth i-left her
straunge speche and speketh Saxonliche i-now. Also Englische men, they
hadde from the bygynnynge thre manere speche – northerne, sowtherne,
and middel speche in the myddel of the lond – as they come of thre manere
peple of Germania; notheles, by comyxtioun and mellynge,
3
first with Danes
and afterward with Normans, in meny the contray longage is apayred,
and som useth straunge wlafferynge, chiterynge, harrynge, and garrynge
1
Concerning the language of the inhabitants. Chapter Fifty.
2
follow.
3
mixing.

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grisbayting.
4
This apayrynge of the burthe of the tunge is bycause of tweie
thinges: oon is for children in scole, agenst the usage and manere of alle
othere naciouns, beeth compelled for to leve hire owne langage and for to
construe hir lessouns and here thynges in Frensche, and so they haveth seth
the Normans come first in to Engelond. Also, gentil men children beeth
i-taught to speke Frensche from the tyme that they beeth i-rokked in here
cradel, and kunneth speke and playe with a childes broche, and uplondisshe
men wil likne hym self to gentil men and fondeth with greet besynesse for
to speke Frensce for to be i-tolde of.
Trevisa: This mannere was moche i-used to for firste deth
5
and is siththe
sumdel i-chaunged, for John Cornwaile, a maister of grammer,
6
chaunged
the lore in gramer scole and construccioun of Frensche in to Englische, and
Richard Pencriche lerned the manere techynge of hym and of othere men
of Pencrich so that now, the yere of oure Lorde a thowsand, thre hundred,
and foure score and fyve, and of the secounde Kyng Richard after the con-
quest nyne, in alle the gramere scoles of Engelond, children leveth Frensche
and construeth and lerneth an Englische, and haveth therby avauntage
in oon side and disavauntage in another side: here avauntage is that they
lerneth her gramer in lasse tyme than children wer i-woned to doo; dis-
avauntage is that now children of gramer scole conneth na more Frensche
than can hir lift heele, and that is harme for hem and they schulle passe the
see and travaille in straunge landes and in many other places. Also, gentil men
haveth now moche i-left for to teche here childen Frensche.
Ranulf says: Hit semeth a greet wonder how Englische, that is the burthe
tonge of Englisshe men and her owne langage and tonge, is so dyverse
of sown in this oon ilond, and the langage of Normandie is comlynge
7
of
another londe and hath oon manere soun among alle men that speketh hit
aright in Engelond.
Trevisa: Nevertheles, there is as many dyvers manere Frensche in the
reem of Fraunce as is dyvers manere Englische in the reem of Engelond.
Ranulf says: Also, of the forsaide Saxon tonge that is i-deled athre
8
and
is abide scarsliche with fewe yplondisshe men, is greet wonder, for men of
the Est with men of the West, as it were undir the same partie of hevene,
acordeth more in sownynge of speche than men of the North with men of
4
stammering, twittering, snarling, gnashing and grinding of teeth.
5
the pestilence.
6
Fl. 1344–9 in Oxford.
7
an import.
8
divided in three.
The English Language
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262
Textualities
the South; therfore, it is that Mercii, that beeth men of myddel Engelond,
as it were parteners of the endes, understondeth bettre the side langages,
northerne and southerne, than northerne and southerne understondeth
either other. Willelmus de Pontificibus, libro tertio.
9
Al the longage of the
Northhumbres, and specialliche at York, is so scharp, slitting,
10
and frotynge
11
and unschape, that we southerne men may that longage unnethe understonde.
I trowe that that is bycause that they beeth nyh to straunge men and
naciouns that speketh strongliche, and also bycause that the kynges of
Engelond woneth alwey fer from that cuntrey, for they beeth more i-torned
to the south contray and, if they gooth to the north contray, they gooth
with greet help and strengthe. The cause why they beeth more in the south
contrey than in the North is for hit may be better corne
12
londe, more
peple, more noble citees, and more profitable havenes.