The year 1066 marks an abrupt break in the way the English
language developed. This is the year French-speaking
The period when the Norman conquest exercised the most influence on English is normally given as 1100–1450, and the English of this period is known as Middle English (usually abbreviated as ME). The period of English subsequent to that is known as Modern English (usually abbreviated as MnE).
1. French spelling
Those who wrote English were now trained in the writing of French and Latin, and French spelling conventions began to creep into the way English was spelt:
2. Latin spelling
As the scribes were also trained in Latin, this also had an effect on ME spelling.
· <æ> replaced with <a> (þæt à that; fæder à fader)
3. Consonant doubling
A monk called Orm (sometimes given as Ormin) in the 12th century wanted to teach the Christian faith in English, and wrote verses to be read aloud and he wanted to have a system that would distinguish short and long vowels.
For example, using today’s English, we talk about
The OE equivalents of these were not distinguished. What Orm introduced was consonant letter doubling to mark short vowel
sounds. In OE, a doubled consonant letter meant that it had to be pronounced
twice, or at least lengthened. (Think of the difference between the Chinese
provinces of Yunan v.
Subsequently, vowel doubling (eg fool) was also used to indicate long vowel sounds.
4. The etymological principle for spelling
The ME period marks a period of increased borrowing of vocabulary, especially from French, but from the 15th century onwards there were increased borrowings from Latin and Greek. Previous to this spelling closely reflected pronunciation (the phonological principle); however, these new borrowings were seldom pronounced and were borrowed largely as written words rather than spoken ones. Naturally, the easiest way of doing this is to keep as close to the spelling in the original language as possible.
Look at the spelling of the borrowed words across different periods (the spelling in the original languages are in red within brackets).
Latin: bin (> OE binn > L benna), cheese (> OE cese > L caseus), fork (> OE forca > L furca), line (> OE line > L linea), pan (> OE panne > L patina), purse (> OE purs > L bursa), Saturday (> OE Sæternes dæg > L Saturni dies), wall (> OE wall > L vallum), wine (> OE win > L vinum)
Latin: angel (> OE engel > L angelus),
cap (> OE cæppa
> L cappa),
crisp (> OE crisp > L crispus), lobster
(> OE lopustre
> L lacusta),
master (> OE mægester
> L magister), palm (> OE
Norse: law (lagu), outlaw (utlagi), their (ðeirra), wrong (wrangr)
Old French: castle (castel), crown (coroune), tower (tor/tur)
Old Northern French: saint (saint), council (cuncile), clerk (clerc), justice (justice), peace (pais), charity (charité), paradise (paradis)
Old Norse: sister (systir), die (deyja), thrust (ðrysta), wing (vængir)
Old French: lamp (lampe), religion (religiun), catch (cachier), poor (poure), chapter (chapitre), devotion (devocion), heresy (heresie), lesson (lecon), messenger (messagier), proof (preuve), state (estat), warden (wardein), change (changer), marshal (mareschal), supper (soper), mutton (moton), porch (porche), taste (taster), cathedral (cathédral), dinner (dîner), madam (ma dame), roast (rostir)
Old Norse: birth (byrðir), get (geta), same (same), skin (skinn), sky (sky), rotten (rotinn), window (vindauga), anger (angr), leg (leggr)
French: chamber (chambre), depose (déposer), gender (gendre), novice (novisse), raisin (reisin), vinegar (vynegre), marvel (merveille), chase (chacier), boot (bote), bacon (bacon), petition (peticiun), sober (sobre), advocate (avocat), embellish (embellissir) paper (papir), convert (convertir), plague (plage), spaniel (espaignol), sanctity (saintité)
Old Norse: dirt (drit), lift (lypta), sly (slægr), weak (veikr), flat (flatr), gap (gap), gasp (geispa)
Latin: discuss (discutere), reprehend (reprehendere), temporal (temporalis), rosary (rosarium), equal (aequalis)
French: loyalty (loialté), assembly (asemblee), guard (garde), manoeuvre (manuvrer), resonance (resonance)
Latin: ulcer (ulcer), distract (distractem), adjacent (adjacere), subjugate (subjugare), polite (politus), frustrate (frustra), exhibite (exhibere), legitimate (legitimatus)
Low German: hawker (hoker), wagon (wagen)
Latin: legal (legalis), genius (genius), dexterity (dexteritas), area (area), peninsula (peninsula), orbit (orbita)
French: chamois (chamois), grotesque (crotesque), vase (vase)
Latin: medium (medium), insane (insanus), ignoramus (ignoramus), rostrum (rostrum), sinus (sinus), radius (radius)
Italian: sonnet (sonetto),
madonna (madonna), motto (motto), violin (violino),
Spanish: iguana (iguana),
Negro (negro), alligator (al lagarto), mosquito (mosquito),
maize (maiz), bravado (bravada)
French: dessert (dessert), invalid (invalide)
Latin: premium (praemium), equilibrium (aequilibrium), specimen (specimen), apparatus (apparare), veto (veto), atmosphere (atmosphaera), crux (crux), focus (focus), datum/data (data)
Italian: portico (portico),
volcano (volcano), balcony (balcone), manifesto (manifesto),
opera (opera), trill (trillo)
Spanish: llama (llama), tomato (tomate), desperado (desperado)
Arabic: zero (> Fr. zéro > Ar. çifr), sofa (> Fr. sofa > Ar. soffah), imam (imam), Koran (quran)
French: naïve (naîve),
chandelier (chandelier), ballet (ballet), aide-de-camp (aide-de-camp),
tête-à-tête (tête-à-tête), ménage (ménage), salon (salon)
Latin: stamen (stamen),
desideratum (desideratum), pendulum (pendulum), rabies (rabere),
minimum (minimum), quota (quota), stimulus (stimulus),
lens (lens), status (status)
Italian: regatta (regatta),
vista (vista), umbrella (ombrella), sonata (sonata),
broccoli (broccoli)
Spanish: siesta (siesta), barbecue (barbacoa), matador (matador), banana (banana)
French: reservoir (réservoir),
débris (débris), chute (chute), etiquette (etiquette),
dénouement (dénouement), brochure (brochure), passé (passé),
nuance (nuance), plateau (plateau)
Latin: nucleus (nucleus), maximum (maximum), edit (editus)
Italian: portfolio (porto
folio), tempo (tempo), soprano
(soprano), influenza (influenza), dilettante (dilettante), finale (finale)
Spanish: flotilla (flotilla),
cigar (cigarro), albino (albino), bolero (bolero)
Loan-words 1800–1899
French: café (café),
élite (élite), lingerie (lingerie), menu (menu),
communiqué (communiqué), foyer (foyer), risqué (risqué),
massage (massage), chauffeur (chauffeur)
Italian: alto (alto),
studio (studio), replica (replica), intermezzo (intermezzo),
mafia (mafia), diva (diva)
Spanish: ranch (rancho),
rodeo (rodeo), canyon (cañon), tango (tango)
German: schnapps (schnapps),
kindergarten (kindergarten), delicatessen
(dellikatessen), seminar (seminar)
Hindi/Urdu: yoga (yoga),
charpoy (charpai), khaki (khak), thug (thag),
dhobi (dhobi)
Japanese: tofu (tofu),
sushi (sushi), kamikaze (kamikaze)
Chinese: kow-tow (Mand. ke tou)
Loan-words 1900–1999 (all as spelt in the original languages, unless indicated)
French: limousine, déja vu, haute couture,
camouflage, collage
Italian: ciao, al dente, pizza, paparazzo
Spanish: macho
German: blitz (blitzkreig)
Hindi/Urdu: samosa, biryani, tikka
Japanese: bonsai (bonsai),
shiatsu (shiatsu)
Chinese: shih-tzu (Mand. shizi gou), mahjong (Mand. ma-xiang), dim sum (Cant. dim sam), wok (Cant. wok)
People became so concerned with etymology in the 15th century that words that were borrowed earlier were given ‘silent’ consonants to make them look like the Latin words that they were derived from. Words like dette, doute, receite and samon (the earlier spellings) were remodelled as debt, doubt, receipt and salmon (> Latin debitum, dubitare, recepta and salmon).
5. Dictionaries, printing and standardisation
At this time (around 1500), the range of spellings for each word was phenomenal. This was unpoliced in about the same way that today, there’s a wide range of English accents. They were certainly more relaxed about spelling, and Shakespeare is said to have signed his name using a range of spellings!
Consider how honour, father and silly have been spelt (as given in the OED, listed alphabetically):
|
Old English |
– |
fæder, fædyr, feder |
– |
|
12th century |
– |
fader, fæder, feder |
– |
|
13th century |
onur, honour, honur, honure |
fader, faderr, fadre, fæder,
feder, feader, vader, væder, veder |
– |
|
14th century |
onour, onoure, onur, honour, honoure, honowre, honur, honure |
fader, fadir, fadire, fadre, fadur,
fadure, fadyr, faþer, vader |
– |
|
15th century |
onnere, honnour, honnoure,
honor, honour, honowre |
fader, fadir, fadire, fadur, fadure,
fadyr |
syly |
|
16th century |
onnere, honnor, honnour, honnoure, honor, honour, honowre, |
fader, father |
cillie, silie, sillie, silly,
sillye, sylie, sylly, syllye |
|
17th century |
honor, honour |
father |
sillie, silly,
sillye, sylly |
|
18th century |
honor, honour |
father |
silly |
|
19th century |
honor, honour |
father |
silly |
|
20th century |
honor, honour |
father |
silly |
Look up the OED for more spellings (remember, they use the abbreviations: OE = Old English, around 450 to 1100; ME = Middle English, around 1100 to 1450; 16 = 16th century; 17 = 17th century, etc.; a dash following the number means ‘and subsequent centuries’, therefore ‘18 –’ means 18th century onwards’.
This seems to reveal that a multiplicity of spellings was tolerated in the 17th century and earlier. The spelling that wins out could very well be one that was there at the beginning (like honour) or a relatively late new-comer (like father).
The sense of the need for standardisation seems to have prompted the move towards a much less flexible spelling system today. This was greatly aided by the printing of dictionaries (such as that by Dr Johnson), the publication of spelling rules by individuals who wanted to reform and regularise English orthography (such as Richard Mulcaster and Edmund Coote), and the invention of the printing press for relatively cheap production of large numbers of books (as opposed to each one being copied out laboriously by hand as it was earlier). (This topic will be discussed further under Standardisation.)
For example, the final <e> was added in a rather haphazard fashion earlier. It was Mulcaster who proposed the use of the ‘silent’ <e> (also known as the magic ‘e’ to schoolchildren) to indicate a preceding long vowel sound, such as in tame, time, tome and tune. The rule was not followed consistently, though, and we are still left with the spellings have, done and gone.
6. Inherent conservatism in spelling
What should be apparent from the earlier discussion is that English spelling was standardised a number of centuries ago, so that by and large, we have a spelling that is almost unchanged from the 17th century onwards. Earlier, changes were motivated by (a) changes in pronunciation, and (b) changes in the spelling conventions (some French and Latin conventions were adopted). But English pronunciation has changed since the 17th century, so that the spellings of English words reflect not today’s pronunciations but an earlier pronunciation.
This would account for a number of ‘silent’ letters in our spelling today: knight, know, write, calm, farm (for non-rhotic speakers) – historically, all the underlined letters were pronounced.
This would also account for why there are a number of homophones (different words pronounced the same way) in English today – these might also have different spellings that reflect the fact that they were historically also differentiated in terms of pronunciation. Think of words like meet v. meat and rite v. right v. write v. wright.
There have been a number of proposals for spelling reform (you can examine the website of the Simplified Spelling Society), but this looks pretty unlikely because:
When you’re ready to take the quiz based on this topic, go to the LumiNUS and click on ‘Quiz’ on the left, and then on ‘Writing’.