Middel Englissh
Middel Englissh was the mene forme of Englissh bitwixe Old and Modern Englissh, duryng neigh the twelfthe and the fifthetenthe centuries.
Middel Englissh wax after the Norman Conquest in the yeer of oure Lord ten hundred sixty and sixe, thurgh which the Normans, that speken Frenssh, bicamen the newe lordes, whil the pore folk yet spaken Old Englissh. Middel Englissh was for sothe maked to brygge this gappe, with the ekinge of manye Frenssh loon-wordes, and the sounes and gramere of Englissh weren y-chaunged thurgh the Normans influence.
Hit is to wite that whil folk spaken this tunge, thei writen it noght, but chosen to writen in Frensh or Latyn (thogh men writen in Middel English), and evene thenne noght alle men spaken Middel English neither, for the kinges court spak Frensh al-out.
That was til the Hundred Yeres Werre brak out in the fourtenthe age, and thanne ech man in Engelond bigan to hate the Frenssh, and so bigonne to write in Middel Englissh; and Parlement and courtes of lawe bigonne to usen Middel Englissh in stede of Frenssh and Latyn in the yeer of oure Lord MCCCLXII. This was also aboute the tyme that Geoffrey Chaucer, which is holden the fader of Englissh lettrure, floured.
In the fifteneth hundred-yeer, whan William Caxton broughte the printyng presse into Engelond, the Englissh tonge was maked stable, and Middel Englissh turned into Early Modern Englissh; whil in Scotland, the Scottissh speche wex out of the Northumbrian tunge.