Therefore, what will be discussed in this paper are the major contributions Chaucer added to the English language in regards to the style he wrote in, dialect, pronunciation, spelling and grammar, borrowing of romance words, his influence as an English poet, and revolutionizing literary genres that not only depicted who Chaucer was and what he did for English in his time, but also had a lasting effect on future contemporaries and his literature would become timeless
Before examining Chaucer's language in detail, it will be useful to consider the development of London English during this period. It wasn't until the very end of the Middle English period that the written language became standardized (Thrupp, 16). As a result of this lack of a written standard language, the late Middle English period is characterized by the huge degree of dialectal variation, which is reflected in the written record (Baugh, 80). Chaucer himself drew attention to this in Troilus and Criseyde (Book V, ll 1793-4):.
And for ther is so gret diversite.
In Englissh and in writyng of oure tonge.
It was Chaucer that would set out to make English standard.
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The extent of this written variation may be exemplified by a consideration of the large number of different spellings of the common word "such- recorded by the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. The word was seen spelled, "swich-, "swech-, "soch-, "sych-, "slkyke- "sik-, and other ways that wouldn't even be recognizable by the modern reader (Baugh, 19). During the second half of the fourteenth century the functions of the vernacular changed and English began to be used as the language of government and administration, and for literary purposes. As a result of the general expansion of English there was an increased need for a standardized written variety of Middle English, which could be understood over a wide geographical area. The emergence of a written standard language was focused on the London dialect during the fourteenth century (Thrupp, 16).