The Evolution of English Prefixes

During the early Middle English period, many loanwords from Latin and French were borrowed into English.  Very often, those loanwords came in with prefixes and suffixes that were new to the English language. Many of those new affixes appear for the first time in the Ancrene Wisse.  In this episode, we explore the decline of Old English prefixes and the rise of continental prefixes in the early Middle English period.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 104