3 Middle English

Front 1

When was the Middle English period?

Back 1

From the early 12th century to late 15th century

Front 2

A synthetic language vs. an analytic language

Back 2

In synthetic language, greater flexibility in word order is possible. In analytic language, word order is more fixed.

Front 3

Inflections are..

Back 3

usually endings attached to words (sometimes they can change the form of a word in other ways) and they signal different functions of word within sentences

Front 4

Why did English become more SVO-like, why did it move towards analytic languages?

Back 4

It is because of massive loss of inflections.

Front 5

The simplification of Old English grammar was already under way before 1066. Why?

Back 5

1) an inflectional system dependent on sound-distinctions between vowels in unstressed syllables is inherently vulnerable.

2) Contact between English and Norse! Not English and French, as one I might assume.

Front 6

When did the Vikings first attack England?

Back 6

Late in the 8th century

Front 7

By ___ most of east and northern England was under the control of the 'Danes'

Back 7

AD 870

Front 8

What what the eastern half of the country called after the Vikings were confined there?

Back 8

Danelaw

Front 9

The Middle English ushered in ____ and ______

Back 9

lexical changes and new spelling conventions

Front 10

A significant number of new words were drawn from three sources:

Back 10

1) Norse (Also significant changes in grammar)
2) Latin (The British Celts, Norman Scribes)
3) French (Over 10,000 French words were adopted)