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What is the most significant poem in forms very like the Old English alliterative, four-stress lines during the Middle English Period?
What is the most significant poem in forms very like the Old English alliterative, four-stress lines during the Middle English Period?
- Beowulf
- Piers Plowman (correct)
- The Canterbury Tales
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
During the Middle English Period, which language largely replaced English in ordinary literary composition?
During the Middle English Period, which language largely replaced English in ordinary literary composition?
- French (correct)
- Spanish
- Latin
- German
What role did Latin maintain during the Middle English Period?
What role did Latin maintain during the Middle English Period?
- Language of poetry
- Language of learned works (correct)
- Language of everyday communication
- Language of religious texts
By the 14th century, what had English acquired, leading to the characteristic it still possesses of freely taking into the native stock numbers of foreign words?
By the 14th century, what had English acquired, leading to the characteristic it still possesses of freely taking into the native stock numbers of foreign words?
What did the Middle English language lose by the 14th century?
What did the Middle English language lose by the 14th century?
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Study Notes
Significant Poem in Middle English
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is considered the most significant poem in Middle English that uses alliterative, four-stress lines, similar to Old English poetry.
Language Shift in Middle English
- French largely replaced English in ordinary literary composition during the Middle English Period.
Latin's Influence
- Latin continued to be the language of learning, scholarship, and religion during the Middle English Period.
English Acquires New Words
- By the 14th century, English acquired a "great capacity for borrowing" from other languages, notably French, Latin, and Greek. This led to the characteristic of freely incorporating foreign words into its lexicon.
Loss of Inflections
- The Middle English language lost many of its inflections by the 14th century. This led to a simpler grammatical structure and eased the process of acquiring English as a second language.
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