The differences between Middle and Modern English

Finuala Dowling

So suddenly in Middle English
we start to sound like ourselves.
          Why did they call their language
          “Middle English”?, queries Stacey.
No, we called it that, we name
everything for our convenience.

Now, after 1066, we -- gradually --
lost inflections, word endings,
like the -ed in “She loved Sushi”.
           Oh I do too, says Annaelle, sushi is
           my best.
                      Good I say, now: in the days of
Alfred, we had a lot more. Not sushi,
no.
Aren’t you cold? Aimee asks Chris,
who is proudly showing his new tattoo.

Today, our poor bare nouns and poorly
dressed verbs are committed to SVO.
Subject Verb Object. “I love Sushi”, not
“Sushi loved I” . “I loved the man” not
“The man I loved” – that’s a fragment,
a mere noun phrase, which we are not
doing today, the full sentence of which
would be, say “The man I loved left me”,
where “loved” is weak, but “left” is strong,
going tightly into the past by itself.
Leave-left. Weep - wept.

                               You will also notice
that Chaucer’s pronouns are closer
to ours.   A pronoun is a word that stands
in for you when you are not around.
  We all need pronouns. Persons
are singular or plural. He loved her;
She loved him. Singular. Sadly,
they were divorced. Plural.
           Ag shame says Stacey, who?
No, no it’s just an example.
                                Sorry says Stacey.

Moving on, then, the French of course,
brought thousands of words – “beef” for “cow”,
“judgement” for “doom” and “desire” for “wish”.
          They’re not the same says Aimee,
          “desire” and “wish”.
Quite right, I say, and in the shadow
and the shortfall of this subtle difference
– desire and wish – lies our English.

From Doo-Wop Girls of the Universe. Penguin: 2006

LitNet: 31 January 2006

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