ABSTRACT
The chapter considers the early days of the Middle English period and the impact of the 1066 Norman invasion. It describes how, over the next few centuries, English saw a massive influx of French words, with French being used by the upper classes, as well as in many social and administrative settings - in the courts, the Church and some areas of education. The chapter shows how, with the use of English relegated to the lower classes, considerable simplification took place in the language’s morphology. The chapter tracks these changes through the work of the twentieth-century American scholar Samuel Moore, who studied the morphological changes in Middle English in some detail. Reasons for the changes are also suggested.
