Читать книгу A Book of Middle English - J. A. Burrow - Страница 14

The absence of a nationally recognized standard of written English in the period unfortunately presents readers of Middle English literature with problems of linguistic diversity much greater than those encountered in the reading of post‐medieval texts – or indeed Old English ones. Geoffrey Chaucer complained of the ‘gret diversité / In Englissh and in writyng of oure tonge’ (Troilus 5.1793–4). This complaint makes a necessary distinction, between ‘Englissh’ and the ‘writyng’ of it. Any language spoken by many people for any length of time will naturally exhibit ‘gret diversité’: usage will vary from place to place, time to time, occupation to occupation, individual to individual. The function of a fixed written standard is to mask such variations in so far as they interfere with communication across barriers of place, time, etc. It is the absence of such a generally accepted standard in Middle English which leads to the ‘gret diversité in writyng of oure tonge’ observed by Chaucer.