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Language
Middle English
The English of Chaucer and Wycliffe — post-Norman, pre-printing.
- Family
- West Germanic (Indo-European)
- Script
- Latin alphabet
- Era
- c. 1150 – 1500 CE
Character
Middle English emerged after the Norman Conquest fused Old English with Norman French vocabulary. Spelling was not standardized, grammar was in flux, and dialects varied sharply from region to region.
What it does well
- Vast French- and Latin-derived vocabulary made technical translation from the Vulgate feasible.
- Wycliffe's translation established English biblical idiom that Tyndale later refined.
Translation challenges
- Non-standard spelling and inflection make Middle English hard for modern readers.
- Wycliffite translations were made from the Vulgate, so they inherit Latin's distance from the original languages.
Notes
The Wycliffe Bible (1382–1395) is the first complete English Bible and the reason 'Lollard' entered the English vocabulary.
Documents in Middle English
Manuscripts
No catalogued manuscripts.
Versions
English translations
No catalogued translations.