Middle English

E2049

West Germanic language variety historical language stage stage of the English language

Middle English is the historical stage of the English language spoken and written roughly between the late 11th and late 15th centuries, exemplified by works like Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales."

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All labels observed (17)

Label	Occurrences
Middle English canonical	213
Middle English literature	12
Middle English period	6
Northern Middle English	2
Northwest Midlands Middle English	2
Chancery English	1
Chaucerian English	1
Early Middle English	1
East Midlands Middle English	1
Kentish Middle English	1
Late Middle English	1
Middle English dialects	1
Middle English dream vision	1
Middle English poetry	1
Middle English studies	1
Southern Middle English	1
West Midlands Middle English	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10358 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Middle English
Context triple: [English, hasAncestor, Middle English]

A. English
English is a widely spoken West Germanic language that serves as a global lingua franca in education, business, science, and international communication.
B. Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland, historically spoken in the Highlands and Islands and closely related to Irish and Manx.
C. Norman
Norman is a masculine given name of English origin that became widely used in the English-speaking world.
D. Magna Carta
Magna Carta is a landmark 1215 English charter that limited royal power and established foundational principles of rule of law and individual rights that shaped later constitutional traditions.
E. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is a multi-volume historical narrative by Winston Churchill that surveys the political and cultural development of Britain and its English-speaking offshoots from ancient times to the 20th century.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Middle English
Target entity description: Middle English is the historical stage of the English language spoken and written roughly between the late 11th and late 15th centuries, exemplified by works like Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales."

A. Old Irish
Old Irish is the earliest recorded form of the Goidelic Celtic languages, historically spoken in Ireland and parts of Scotland between roughly the 6th and 10th centuries.
B. English
English is a widely spoken West Germanic language that serves as a global lingua franca in education, business, science, and international communication.
C. Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland, historically spoken in the Highlands and Islands and closely related to Irish and Manx.
D. Norman
Norman is a masculine given name of English origin that became widely used in the English-speaking world.
E. Magna Carta
Magna Carta is a landmark 1215 English charter that limited royal power and established foundational principles of rule of law and individual rights that shaped later constitutional traditions.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (50)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	West Germanic language variety ⓘ historical language stage ⓘ stage of the English language ⓘ
developedFrom	Old English ⓘ
endTime	late 15th century ⓘ
follows	Old English ⓘ
hasDialect	Middle English self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: East Midlands Middle English Middle English self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Kentish Middle English Middle English self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Northern Middle English Middle English self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Southern Middle English Middle English self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: West Midlands Middle English
hasFeature	development of periphrastic verb forms ⓘ emergence of do-support in some constructions ⓘ extensive borrowing of French vocabulary ⓘ gradual reduction of grammatical gender ⓘ great dialectal variation ⓘ increased use of fixed word order ⓘ loss of most Old English inflectional endings ⓘ use of thorn and yogh in early orthography ⓘ
hasNotableAuthor	Geoffrey Chaucer ⓘ John Gower ⓘ The Gawain Poet ⓘ Thomas Malory ⓘ William Langland ⓘ
hasNotableWork	Ancrene Wisse ⓘ Piers Plowman ⓘ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ⓘ Geoffrey Chaucer ⓘ surface form: The Canterbury Tales The Owl and the Nightingale ⓘ
influencedBy	Anglo-Norman ⓘ Latin ⓘ Normans ⓘ surface form: Norman French Norse ⓘ surface form: Old Norse
languageFamily	Germanic languages ⓘ Indo-European languages ⓘ West Germanic languages ⓘ
precedes	Early Modern period ⓘ surface form: Early Modern English
spokenIn	England ⓘ Ireland ⓘ parts of Scotland ⓘ parts of Wales ⓘ
standardizationCenter	London, England ⓘ surface form: London
standardizationInfluence	Middle English self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Chancery English
startTime	late 11th century ⓘ
underwent	Great Vowel Shift (late phase) ⓘ
usedFor	administration ⓘ legal documents ⓘ literature ⓘ religious texts ⓘ
writingSystem	Latin alphabet ⓘ