ABSTRACT
Until relatively recently the study of Middle French has been somewhat neglected. Viewed as an era of linguistic instability paralleling the political upheavals of the age and as a period of transition between the heyday of Old French and the stability and fixity of Modern French, there has been, moreover, considerable uncertainty and debate as to its temporal limits. Using a number of different external or internal linguistic criteria for its dating, commentators have suggested as its terminus a quo a range of dates between the middle of the thirteenth century and the end of the fourteenth century, and as its terminus ad quem dates ranging from the last quarter of the fifteenth century right up to the first third of the seventeenth century. Here we have chosen to take the beginning of the fourteenth century as our starting point since we witness in the texts from then on a number of features which, taken together, differentiate them from those of the previous era: phonologically, we may note, for example, the reduction of diphthongs and the loss of hiatus or the dropping of [ǝ] in certain contexts; as regards morphosyntax, the final elimination of the two-case system, analogical reworkings in the verb system, important changes in the personal pronoun and demonstrative systems and the increased use of SV word order; and lexically, a (re)latinization of the vocabulary. This is a period marked by wars, epidemics and social and political upheavals. We have also considered that, while the sixteenth century has much in common with the usage of the previous two centuries, it is sufficiently different to merit separate treatment, not least since French spreads rapidly to new domains during the Renaissance.
