中古英語(英語:Middle English)是指英格蘭王國在中世紀中後期——即從公元1066年諾曼征服英格蘭開始到1489年都鐸王朝建立結束期間的金雀花王朝時期——所通用的英語變種。這個時期的英語和中世紀早期盎格魯-撒克遜時期的古英語相比,在讀音、拼寫、詞彙和語法方面都產生了較大的變化,一大部分古英語詞彙被淘汰,轉而吸收了羅曼語系中法語(諾曼語)和拉丁語的很多詞彙和短語。
此條目需要補充更多來源。 (2022年11月25日) |
語法
中古英語的語法在形態變化方面發生了簡化。名詞逐漸失去了古英語複雜的數和格的變化,簡化成了單數和複數兩種形式,複數以詞尾-s表示。形容詞則簡化成了沒有任何變化的詞類。
詞在句子中的關係不再通過性、數、格的變化來表示,而是由詞在句子中的位置來表示。
發音
相對於語法上的諸多改變,中古英文在發音上,比起古英文卻沒有太大的變化,仍舊是近似德語的發音方式。
詞彙
中古英語吸收了大量法語的詞彙,數目有幾千之多。此外,中古英語還吸收了拉丁語、佛蘭芒語、荷蘭語、低地德語的一些詞彙。同時,大量古英語的詞彙由於不再使用而被淘汰。
中古英語文選
下文載自《坎特伯雷故事集》(Tales of Caunterbury),喬叟著,14世紀
中古英語原文 | 現代英語直譯[1] |
---|---|
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote | When [that] April with his showers sweet |
The droȝte of March hath perced to the roote | The drought of March has pierced to the root |
And bathed every veyne in swich licour, | And bathed every vein in such liquor, |
Of which vertu engendred is the flour; | Of which virtue engendered is the flower; |
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth | When Zephyrus eeked with his sweet breath |
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth | Inspired has in every holt and heath, |
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne | The tender crops; and the young sun |
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, | Has in the Ram his half-course run, |
And smale foweles maken melodye, | And small fowls make melody, |
That slepen al the nyght with open ye | That sleep all the night with open eye |
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); | (So pricks them Nature in their courages); |
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages | Then folk long to go on pilgrimages |
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes | And palmers [for] to seek strange strands |
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; | To far-off hallows, couth in sundry lands; |
And specially from every shires ende | And, especially, from every shire's end |
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, | Of England, to Canterbury they went, |
The hooly blisful martir for to seke | The holy blissful martyr [for] to seek, |
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke. | That them has helped, when [that] they were sick. |
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