Question

Write a paragraph of at least 100 words that explains how a standardized form of English emerged during the fourteenth century.

Answer 1

In the fourteenth century, England was invaded by many countries and this changes their native tongue drastically. And the importance of Midlanders and Northerners in the London City Government made the English language to be of common speech to the court and the neighboring countries.

Answer 2

The common people spoke one language, and the aristocrats another, was due to the Norman Invasion in 1066.  By this time, English had replaced French as the language of instruction in the elementary schools.  Chaucer was of the gentle classes and he clearly spoke French from an early age and probably first wrote poems in French, the language of the courts in which he served first as a page in the court of the Countess of Ulster and then as squire in the courts of Prince Lionel and Kings Edward III and Richard II.  By the later fourteenth century a demand for English had developed, and literary works in English were wanted not because their audience had no French but because they preferred English. John Gower wrote works in Latin, French, and English, the latter, his Confessio Amantis, written at the request of King Richard himself.