Who knows Middle English?

English[edit]. Etymology[edit]. From Middle English knowen (“known”), from Old English cnāwen (“known, recognised, perceived”), past participle of cnāwan (“to know, recognise, perceive”). More at know. Verb[edit]. knowen. (archaic) past participle of know. read more

Middle English (ME) is collectively the varieties of the English language spoken after the Norman Conquest (1066) until the late 15th century; scholarly opinion varies but the Oxford English Dictionary specifies the period of 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. read more

Middle English is the language used by Chaucer, so readable by all of us who studied his works at school (English Lit was a compulsory O-level when I was that age, don’t know if that’s still the case). read more

The dialects of Middle English are usually divided into three large groups: (1) Southern (subdivided into Southeastern, or Kentish, and Southwestern), chiefly in the counties south of the River Thames; (2) Midland (corresponding roughly to the Mercian dialect area of Old English times) in the area from the Thames to southern South Yorkshire and northern Lancashire; and (3) Northern, in the Scottish Lowlands, Northumberland, Cumbria, Durham, northern Lancashire, and most of Yorkshire. read more