There is no such thing as 'The Middle English Language'. However, what does exist is the term 'Middle English' used to signify the language spoken and written in England from 1100 to 1500. The linguistic data which have come down to us show a kind of usage which is clearly distinct from Old English (700-1100) and Early Modern English (1500-1700). On the other hand, these data do not provide a homogeneous system of grammar and usage. Probably, the most significant feature of Middle English is its large amount of variation on every level of linguistic investigation. There are striking distinctions of regional varieties, there is no standardised system of writing or pronunciation, and grammatical structures are not yet fixed into rigid patterns. Nevertheless, there are some traits which most Middle English texts have in common, such as:

• the pronunciation is quite near to the spelling system, all consonants are pronounced and the vowels still have their 'continental' values (e.g. 'what' = /wat/ and 'I' = /i:/ and not /ai/),
• in comparison to OE the inflectional systems of nouns and verbs are largely reduced  (e.g. unified article 'the' and natural gender),
• there are a great number of loan-words from French and Latin and new English words  formed on the basis of Latin and French roots (e.g. pretermynable or jolinesse).
• in many cases the spelling is not consistent and old graphemes such as þ, ð, æ are still used.

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