Middle English

===14th century===
From around the early [[14th century]], there was significant migration into [[London]], particularly from the counties of the [[East Midlands]], and a new [[prestige (sociolinguistics)|prestige]] London dialect began to develop, based chiefly on the speech of the East Midlands but also influenced by that of other regions.<ref name="Wright">{{cite encyclopedia |author= Wright, L. |title=About the evolution of Standard English |encyclopedia= Studies in English Language and Literature |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2012 |page=99ff |isbn=978-1138006935}}</ref> The writing of this period, however, continues to reflect a variety of regional forms of English. The {{lang|enm|[[Ayenbite of Inwyt]]}}, a translation of a French confessional prose work, completed in 1340, is written in a [[Kentish dialect]]. The best known writer of Middle English, [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], wrote in the second half of the 14th century in the emerging London dialect, although he also portrays some of his characters as speaking in northern dialects, as in the "[[Reeve's Tale]]".

In the English-speaking areas of lowland [[Scotland]], an independent standard was developing, based on the [[Northumbrian dialect]]. This would develop into what came to be known as the [[Scots language]].

A large number of terms for abstract concepts were adopted directly from [[medieval Latin|scholastic philosophical Latin]] (rather than via French). Examples are "absolute", "act", "demonstration", and "probable".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Franklin |first1=James |author-link1=James Franklin (philosopher) |date=1983 |title=Mental furniture from the philosophers |url=http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/mental.pdf |journal=Et Cetera |volume=40 |issue= |pages=177–191 |doi= |access-date=29 June 2021}}</ref>

{{anchor|Chancery Standard}}