The Vocabulary of Chaucer

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The Vocabulary of Chaucer

• By Colin FitzGerald
• February 19, 2007

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The Making of a Vocabulary

• What a vocabulary is and how it forms.
• A vocabulary is a set of words known to a
  specific person or entity and understood in a
  particular language. (e.g. Chaucer and his
  Middle English vocabulary)
• A vocabulary forms over a persons lifespan.
  Vocabularies, like people, evolve with time as
  new words are born and old words die. Most words
  however, simply change with the times.

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Lexicon and Syntax

• What are lexical words and syntax?
• Lexical words are the actual content words of any
  given piece of writing and syntax pertains to the
  way in which the lexical, and to some extent, the
  function words are arranged.
• Chaucers syntax is reflective of the general
  changes in Middle English syntax. The loss of
  grammatical gender and the deterioration of
  inflectional endings were significant changes.

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Loan Words

• What are loan words?
• Loan words are words taken directly from other
  languages and incorporated as such into a
  particular language with little to no translation
  during the borrowing process.
• Chaucer borrowed thousands of words, most of
  which coming from neighboring French and other
  Romance (Italic) languages including Spanish and
  Italian.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• How large was Chaucers vocabulary?
• Many English scholars have estimated Chaucers
  vocabulary to be around 12,000 words, or about
  one-third the size of Shakespeares vocabulary.
• In addition, statistics show that over 6200 words
  (52 of Chaucers 12,000 word vocabulary) are
  considered borrowed from Romance languages alone.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Loan words in Chaucers vocabulary
• In The Parsons Tale, Chaucer employs the word
  fruyt (fruit), and in The Second Nuns Tale, he
  uses the word peple (people). Both words were
  borrowed from French.
• Middle English saw a great deal of interaction
  and mixing with French primarily as a result of
  the Norman Invasion of England by William the
  Conqueror in the year 1066.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• What is Middle English?
• The term given by linguistics experts to the
  diverse forms of the English language spoken in
  England between the year 1066 and the middle
  fifteenth century.
• Unlike Old English, which tended to be spoken
  rather than written, Middle English benefited
  greatly from the advent of better technologies
  including the printing press.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• How diverse was Chaucers vocabulary?
• Chaucers vocabulary is considered by many
  English scholars to be a mixed dialect, which
  stemmed from the static Central Midlands dialect
  and the dynamic London dialect.
• The London dialect comprised the state of the
  English language in London during the latter half
  of the fourteenth century. It became the version
  of English later used by Parliament.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Effects of the Central Midlands dialect
• From this dialect, Chaucer gained a slew of loan
  words. The Scandinavian influences in this region
  had a profound impact on his vocabulary. (200
  words from Old Norse)
• These Scandinavian lexical borrowings became more
  commonplace in Chaucers writing as his writing
  became more complex, rhythmic, and systematized.
  

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Effects of variation in Chaucers English
• In Chaucers poem entitled Troilus and Criseyde,
  he states, And for ther is so gret diversiteIn
  Englissh and in writyng of oure tonge (Book V,
  lines 1793-4).
• Chaucer was also known to spell the word such
  at least five different ways(e.g. swich,
  swech, soch, sych, schch) These
  variations surely constitute diversity!

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Effects of loan words in Chaucers English
• Loan words, particularly French loan words, were
  seen as being more elegant and sophisticated than
  words taken from Old English dialects a
  stylistic presupposition.
• This stylistic presupposition of Chaucers was
  probably a result of the fact that he spoke and
  wrote French while working as a squire in the
  Courts of Kings Edward III and Richard II.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Morphological effects in Chaucers English
• Many words in Chaucers vocabulary contain
  evidence of the relinquishment of numerous
  grammatical inflections commonly associated with
  Old English words.
• This loss of grammatical inflections is symbolic
  of the greater transition that occurred between
  Old English and Middle English over the course of
  just five centuries.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Phonological effects in Chaucers English
• Consonants in Chaucers vocabulary were treated
  relatively the same way as they are in Modern
  English. Consonant clusters however were treated
  very differently.
• Examples of such consonant clusters include kn
  as in knyf, ng as in yonge, wh as in whan,
  and gn as in gnoff. These words all contain
  Chaucerian consonant clusters.

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Chaucers Vocabulary

• Chaucer coined over 2000 words in the English
  Language.
• List of random nouns coined by Chaucer
• Absence the state of being absent
• Bribery the act of larceny or robbery
• Cadence the rhythmic flow of sounds
• Delicacy the quality of being delicate
• Governance the action of governing

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Works Consulted

• Burnley, David, A Guide to Chaucers Language
  (Norman, OK University of Oklahoma Press, 1983).
• Cannon, Christopher, The Making of Chaucers
  English A Study of Words (New York, NY
  Cambridge University Press, 1998).
• Elliot, Ralph W.V., Chaucers English (London,
  UK Andre Deutsch, 1974).
• Horobin, Simon, The Language of the Chaucer
  Tradition (Cambridge, UK D.S. Brewer, 2003).
• Sandved, Arthur O., Introduction to Chaucerian
  English (Cambridge, UK D.S. Brewer, 1985).