Middle EnglishIf you were to travel back in time to the tenth century, you probably wouldn't be able to understand a sentence that anyone said to you. They'd be speaking Old English. Talking to a tenth-century Englishman, you'd probably only be able to understand a few words like “a” or “the”. Only about one-sixth of today's English words have an Old Englishroot,with the rest having foreign influences.Gradually Old English turned into the Middle English that Chaucer wrote in — but still the official language of England was French! It was only in 1362, during Chaucer's lifetime, that English was used at the opening ofParliamentfor the first time. During the same year a law called the “Statute of Pleading” was passed, making English the official language in Parliament. In 1399, King Henry IV became the first king of England after the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English.English was still a language of low status— especially when it came to writing poetry. During the 14th century, the Italians and French were creative. Great poets like Dante were writing in totally new ways. But English had no such great writers. This was where Chaucer made a difference. He took the language of the man in the street and turned it into many famous works, such as The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer proved poetry written in English could be every bit as good as books in French.Of course, the English language has continued to change since Chaucer's day. For example, Shakespeare's English is quite different from Chaucer's. And it is still changing now. Until just a few years ago, “C U L8R” (see you later) was just a set of letters and numbers, but now most people know what it means!1.What happened during Chaucer's lifetime?