Middle English

Middle English
the English language of the period c1150-c1475. Abbr.: ME
[1830-40]

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Vernacular spoken and written in England с 1100–1500, the descendant of Old English and the ancestor of Modern English.

It can be divided into three periods: Early, Central, and Late. The Central period was marked by the borrowing of many Anglo-Norman words and the rise of the London dialect, used by such poets as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer in a 14th-century flowering of English literature. The dialects of Middle English are usually divided into four groups: Southern, East Midland, West Midland, and Northern.

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