中古英语

中古英语
中古英语
Middle English
区域	英格兰、苏格兰
语言灭亡	在16世纪发展至近代英语和苏格兰语
语系	印欧语系日耳曼语族西日耳曼语支盎格鲁-弗里西语古英语中古英语; ; ; ; ;
语言代码
ISO 639-2	enm
ISO 639-3	enm
ISO 639-6	meng

中古英语（英语：Middle English）是指英格兰王国在中世纪中后期——即从公元1066年诺曼征服英格兰开始到1489年都铎王朝建立结束期间的金雀花王朝时期——所通用的英语变种。这个时期的英语和中世纪早期盎格鲁-撒克逊时期的古英语相比，在读音、拼写、词汇和语法方面都产生了较大的变化，一大部分古英语词汇被淘汰，转而吸收了罗曼语系中法语（诺曼语）和拉丁语的很多词汇和短语。

语法

中古英语的语法在形态变化方面发生了简化。名词逐渐失去了古英语复杂的数和格的变化，简化成了单数和复数两种形式，复数以词尾-s表示。形容词则简化成了没有任何变化的词类。

词在句子中的关系不再通过性、数、格的变化来表示，而是由词在句子中的位置来表示。

相对于语法上的诸多改变，中古英文在发音上，比起古英文却没有太大的变化，仍旧是近似德语的发音方式。

中古英语吸收了大量法语的词汇，数目有几千之多。此外，中古英语还吸收了拉丁语、佛兰芒语、荷兰语、低地德语的一些词汇。同时，大量古英语的词汇由于不再使用而被淘汰。

下文载自《坎特伯雷故事集》（The Canterbury Tales），乔叟著，14世纪

**First 18 lines of the General Prologue**
中古英语原文	现代英语直译^[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.

^ This Wikipedia translation closely mirrors the translation found here: Canterbury Tales (selected). Translated by Vincent Foster Hopper revised. Barron's Educational Series. 1970: 2 [2019-06-08]. ISBN 9780812000399. （原始内容存档于2020-10-18）.