<html>
<font size=4>Now, this is information that no serious student of the
history of English can afford to ignore!<br>
<br>
Sali.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=3>At 04:13 PM 2/26/2001 -0500, Herb Stahlke
wrote:<br>
>It might be worth noting here that the history of English does
not<br>
>permit a direct line of descent from the West Saxon of Alfred
and<br>
>the Anglo-Saxon kings down through Middle English to Modern<br>
>English. The centers of power were already switching to the
east<br>
>when the Normans arrived. West Saxon was still the
literary<br>
>language, but Mercian, the dialect of the
London-Oxford-Cambridge<br>
>area was growing in importance. Mercian and West Saxon had
been<br>
>diverging, by the time of the Normans, for better than half a<br>
>millennium, and an early Middle English text like the mid-12th
c.<br>
>Peterborough Chronicle already shows much of the loss of<br>
>inflection that characterizes ME. What happened after the
Normans<br>
>was a rapid cessation of West Saxon writing and a near total<br>
>cessation of English writing. The writing that appears a
century<br>
>and more after the Normans reflects some French influence but
much<br>
>more the rise of Mercian. The rapid demise of Norman French
in<br>
>England and the rise in influence of the London area resulted in
a<br>
>fairly abrupt shift in power from one English dialect to
another<br>
>rather than a creolization of Old English into Middle English.<br>
><br>
>Herb Stahlke<br>
><br>
</font><br>
<font color="#800000">**********************************************************<br>
Salikoko S.
Mufwene
</font><font color="#800080">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu<br>
</font><font color="#800000">University of
Chicago
</font><font color="#800080">773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924<br>
</font><font color="#800000">Department of Linguistics<br>
1010 East 59th Street<br>
Chicago, IL 60637<br>
</font><font color="#000000"><a href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html" eudora="autourl">http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html</a><br>
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