British English of the Middle Ages.

1. Introduction　

Do you know the history of English in the middle Ages? The Ages started in 1150 and finished in the 1500.　In the Middle Ages, English came from Denmark with different words, spelling and pronunciation. According to Latin Influence on English (wikipedia, 2011), however “a significant portion of the English comes from Romance and Latinate sources. Estimates of native words (derived from Old English) range from 20%–33%, with the rest made up of foreign borrowings .” That is the origin of Old English itself is Germanic, the origins of many English words can be traced back to Latin as ample. This report will try to find references to compare English in the Middle Ages with Modern English.
Old English came from the invading Germanic tribes. According to the Oxford English Dictionary “about half of Modern English words have Old English roots. Strong and water, for example, derive from Old English.” Old English was spoken until around 1100.
English in the middle age is very different from modern English in both pronunciation and vocabulary. Modern English has much more words phrases than English in middle age. Lots of new words begin invented everyday and become popular very quickly. While some old words in traditional English was extinct that even native English speakers couldn’t tell its meaning.
English in the Middle Ages was seldom influenced by other languages, except French and German. By contrast, Modern English is much more influenced by other languages. It has been globalized and influenced by nearly all the languages around the world.
This report will especially focus on the names of animals. The sources of research I will use are The Oxford English Dictionary online from Oxford University Press located in London, UK. I will compare animals names from French, Latin and German. This will produce results in line with my research. My report consists of five parts, a brief introduction, influence of French on Middle English (1100-1400), research of OED search animal vocabulary, Conclusion and Bibliography.

2 Influence of French on Middle English




In 1066, William, the Duke of Normandy of France invaded and conquered England entirely. The invasion affected England deeply especially in language. Because of that, English was changed into French-speaking and added many new words from French. Many of them were kept to present English.

3. Animal Vocabulary from French and German
In English many animals are expressed with two words—a noun from latin or french and an adjective from French or Latin. For example, use Italia’s cames from Germanic, and anguine (meaning snake-like) 1657 from Latin.


These words came from Latin or Germanic , This list was taken from Freeborn, D. (1992). This list shows us some English nouns and adjectives for animals coming from Latin or German. The left column are some nouns and the right columns are some adjective words.
The old English was affected by old German deeply during 9-12 century, earlier than the Norman conquest of England in 1066, so the nouns are almost all before 1066, and come from Germanic. The old German was used in Western coast of Europe and some places of Denmark. Those two languages influenced each other at that time. As seen in the left half of the table, Many English nouns came from Germanic and keeps till today. HOW MANY FROM DUTCH, FRENCH, OTHER LANGUAGES? WHEN DID THEY COME? WHAT EXAMPLES ARE AFTER 1066?
On the other hand, the animal adjectives mostly come from Latin or French (Anglo Norman) WHEN DID THEY COME?

4. Conclusion　
Old English is very different from modern English. The vocabulary in Modern English has more words and phrases than that of English from the middle ages. A lot of new words, often slang, are invented everyday and they become popular very quickly.
English is a Germanic language, which has grammar and lots of vocabulary from Proto-Germanic. However, a meaningful part of the spoken language comes from Romance and Latinate sources. Estimates of native words (those of Germanic origin) range from 20%–33% with the rest made up of foreign borrowings .
A large number of those borrowed words come directly from Latin, like formic in 1792 or through one of the Romance languages, particularly Anglo-Norman and French　例文を出して. These were transferred into Latin and then into English. Only one example came from Middle Dutch ( ). The influence of Latin in English, therefore, is shown in the nature of the words and the expressions used by English people. This is because mainly have their roots from Latin words.
Modern English has many more word and phrases than English in middle age. Lots of new words begin invented every day and become popular very quickly. On the other word some old words in traditional English became extinct so even native English speakers couldn’t tell their todays. English in the Middle Ages was seldom influenced by other languages, except French and German. By contrast, Modern English is much more influenced by other languages. It has been globalized and influenced by nearly all the languages around the words.


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