Old VS Middle English
The extract below consists of two translations from the Gospel of St Luke. The one on the left is from the Anglo-Saxon (Wessex) text (c. 1000) and is in Old English. The one on the right is from John Wycliffe’s Bible (c. 1380) and is in late fourteenth-century Middle English. Literal English translations are provided for each passage. A literal translation is a word-for-word translation and reflects the OE or ME word order. For this assignment you should write an essay of about 1200 to 1800 words in which you discuss the differences and similarities between Old and Middle English.

Special requirements
Your essay should:

1) Place the Old English extract in its historical context, commenting briefly on the

origins of Old English and the influence of Latin and Old Norse on the language

2) Use the extracts to point out differences and similarities between Old English and

Middle English under the headings of SPELLING and VOCABULARY

INFLECTIONS and SYNTAX.

3) Draw some conclusions about the nature of the changes that have occurred from Old

English to Middle English (using your information from question 2) and give reasons

for the changes. This should include a discussion of influences from any other

languages such as Old French on Middle English vocabulary