Middle+English+Translations

When William the Conqueror and the Normans came to power after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, he brought with him a new gentry. The Normans spoke French, and brought the influence of that language to English. At first there was a linguistic class division where the government and the upper class spoke French while the rank and file still spoke English. By 1399 Henry IV became the first king since Ethelred the Unready to speak English as a native language. English became dominant again, but had been altered by the French influence. There was a gradual change in dialect from the Old English West Saxon to the East Midlands. This was due to the need for more standard English for record keeping in London, and the creation of Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the fourteenth century. By the fifteenth century started to become standardized with one dialect as an anchor, paving the way for Early Modern English.

While there were some Middle English glosses created from Latin Bible texts during this period, the major contribution was by John Wycliffe, who created the first full translation of the Bible.

Middle English Glosses John Wycliffe