ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the rather turbulent events of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — demographic developments, the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, the Peasants' Revolt, and Wars of the Roses — with special regard to their influence on the language. It highlights a number of linguistically important developments — the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, the rise of London speech and Chancery English, and the introduction of the printing press. The chapter explores grammar and vocabulary change and the functional expansion of the emerging standard, including the increasing importance of authored literature. It provides textual examples from Wycliffe, Paston, Bokenham, Chaucer, Barbour, Caxton, Trevisa, and Blind Harry to give the flavor of Middle English and illustrate its social, functional, and regional variation. The introduction of printing to Europe was a revolutionary development which had wide-reaching and long-lasting effects.
