After the Norman conquest, the English language developed differently in different parts of the country, as language always does when there is little communication between areas. People from one dialect area would have varying amounts of difficulty understanding people from other areas. There were six main English dialects and of course more Scots ones and the whole picture is complex.

Here are a few lines in a South West Midland dialect from the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, in the early C14th, speaking of an issue that still finds its way into the news today, in one form or another: (The lines are loosely translated in bold).

Þus com lo engelond in-to normandies hond   Lo, thus came England into Normandy's hand     & þe normans ne couþe speke þo bote hor owe speche     And the Normans could only speak their own language     & speke French as hii dude athom, & hor children dude also teche     And speak French as they did at home and had their children taught (French)     So þat heiemen of þis lond, þat of hor blod come     So that nobles of this land, that come of their blood,     Holdeþ alle þulke speche þat hii of hom nome;     Retain all the same language that they of them received (learned)     Vor bote a man conne frenss me telþ of him lute,     Since unless a man knows French he is thought little of     Ac lowe men holdeþ to engliss & to hor owe speche ßute.     But humble men hold to English and to their own language yet.

Whether or not this opinion is true, the use of language was enough of an issue to write about. Looking through the passage, notice

	The þ symbol for 'th' continues. What else reminds you of the language of Beowulf, 3 centuries earlier?
	There is no word for 'they', 'them', 'their' etc. - just 'he' and 'him' (ME hii', 'hor', hom)
	There are still plenty of inflections. Can you list them?
	Notice the rhymes too.

In other parts of the country other dialects had different words and usages. A standard version of English only took firm root with Caxton and the printing press, after the death of Chaucer. Caxton began printing in Westminster, London and used the dialect of that area - and of Chaucer.