Talk:Middle English

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The Third Letter of the English Alphabet

Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion

In Old English, the third letter was probably called “chee.” Does anyone know how “chee” became “cee”? Cbsteffen (talk) 04:45, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

IIRC, in the ME period ⟨c⟩ was more or less reassigned from /tʃ/ (the "ch sound") to /ts/, which mirrors changes in orthographic Norms (ha!) taking place in French at that same time. During the 13th century, this /ts/ sound got de-affricated to just /s/; this sound shift likewise affected both languages. Remsense ‥ 诉 06:16, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Poor grammar, unclear meaning

Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Not quite sure what this means, besides being ungrammatical (3rd graf under “History, - Transition from Old English,” last sentence :

“This dramatic changes that happened on English contributes with the acceptance of the hypothesis that Old Norse had a more profound impact on Middle and Modern English development than any other language.”.^[1]^[2]^[3] Lawrence Kootnikoff (talk) 05:33, 1 February 2025 (UTC)Reply

References

↑ Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-521-40179-1.
↑ McCrum, Robert (1987). The Story of English. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 70–71.
↑ Birth of a Language. BBC. 27 December 2014. Event occurs at 35:00–37:20 – via YouTube.

Clarification re "continental influence"

Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Can someone add clarification re Under continental influence, the letters ⟨k⟩, ⟨q⟩, and ⟨z⟩, which had not normally been used by Old English scribes, came to be commonly used in the writing of Middle English.? I know that "q" and "z" came in along with vocabulary from French and Latin, but "k" was natively present in neither, and it isn't clear by what channel "k"-possessing languages on the continent would have influenced English writing during that era. Largoplazo (talk) 13:56, 21 February 2025 (UTC)Reply

Ligature or just an abbreviation?

Latest comment: 8 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Can anyone provide the requested citation at Talk:Ligature_(writing)#Middle_English_section? (Concerns ⟨þͤ⟩, is it formally a ligature of ⟨þ⟩ and ⟨e⟩ or just a scribal abbreviation?). Or indeed a citation that, despite appearances, its status as a ligature (typography) has been rejected? 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 10:38, 17 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

[1] Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-521-40179-1.

[:1-2] McCrum, Robert (1987). The Story of English. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 70–71.

[3] Birth of a Language. BBC. 27 December 2014. Event occurs at 35:00–37:20 – via YouTube.

[1]

[2]

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Talk:Middle English

The Third Letter of the English Alphabet

Poor grammar, unclear meaning

Clarification re "continental influence"

Ligature or just an abbreviation?