MIDDLE ENGLISH PHONETICS AND ORTHOGRAPHY.



 

  1. Middle English alphabet.
  2. Changes in vowel phonemes.
  3. Changes in consonant phonemes.
  4. Changes in the spelling system.
  5. Types of Middle English Literary Documents.

Original ME text:

FROM CHAUCER'S PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES.

(East Midland dialect, ab 1387 – 1400)

           Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London about 1340. At seventeen Chaucer was a court page, two years later he became a soldier, took part in the campaigns of Artois and Picardy. He held various positions at court in the king's service when he rose to the rank of Esquire was sent on diplomatic mission to France, Flanders and Italy.

           In 1386 he was returned to Parliament as a knight of the shire of Kent. He died in 1400. His life was active and his employments different. He mingled and had dealings with different people. Nothing is known of the poet's formal studies, but he had a good deal of knowledge of bookkeeping, civil law, philosophy and astronomy, he handled French, Italian and Latin competently. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the part he played as creator of English versification. The alliterative verse, still practised in English, had little attraction for Chaucer and he turned to the more refine and gracious poetry of France. He used a new line in verse, unknown to England before. Although Chaucer's culture was French, like that of all English gentlemen of the fourteenth century, and he translated from French and borrowed generosity from Italian, he did not allow himself to be tempted either by Latin or by French. He wrote in his own London dialect, which was rapidly growing into a standard language. However, he used a few words in his poems, which show the development of South – Eastern rather than East Midland dialects (e < OE y). This is most probably due to his early connections with Kent. In Chaucer's age the English language was still divided by dialects. Each had its own literature, but the dialect of East Midlands was perhaps the poorest, the most completely disinherited of literature. Thus when Chaucer began to write in London English he found it very poor and left it so rich that English poetry had but very little to add to it. He expressed in English the poetic beauty which he felt in the best French verses.

           Chaucer's masterpiece is the Canterbury Tales designed about 1387. It is an unfinished collection of stories told by the pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. The main Prologue is especially interesting for it presents a vivid picture of contemporary life and describes the company. A party of twenty-nine pilgrims is assembled at the Tabard Inn in Southward. They are about to travel to Canterbury. Chaucer draws a striking portrait of each of them. The knight, the parson, the prioress and all the rest are drawn in a few perfect lines. To shorten their way the pilgrims agree to tell stories. Their tales are admirable, the poet uses the tales to characterize the tellers. The persons are varied, chosen from all walks of life. The group is a picture in miniature of England of the fourteenth century.

 

                 THE CONTERBURY TALES

1. Whan that Ap^rill with his3 shoures soote1

The droughte1 of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour2,

Of which vertu2 engendred is the flour,

5.  Whan Zephirus4 eek with his swete breeth

Inspiredhath in every holt and he eth

the tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne6

hath in the Ram5 his halve cours y – ronne

And smale foweles maken melodye.

10. That slepen al the nyght with open ye

 - So priketh hem nature in here corages –

 thanne longen folk togoon on pilgrimages,

 And palmers for to seken strauge strondes7

 to ferne halwes8, couthe in sundry londes;

15. And specially, from every shires ende

of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende.

The hooly, blisful martir10 for to seke.

that hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke;

Bifil that in that season on a day.

Modernized Version

1. When in April the sweet flowers fall

And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all

The veins are bathed in liquor of such power

As brings about the engendering of the flower,

      5. When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath

           Exhales an air in every grove and heath

           Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun

           His half – course in the sign of the Ram has run,

           And the small fowl are making melody

    10. That sleep away the night with open eye

           (So nature picks them and their heart engages)

           Then people long to go on pilgrimages

           And palmers long to seek the stranger strands

           Of far – off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,

     15. And specially, from every shire's end

            In England, down to Canterbury they wend

            To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick

             To give his help to them when they were sick.

             It happened in that season that one day.

Comments

1. In speech the final – e was dead or dying in Chaucer's time, but it continued to be used in verse. Hence in reading Chaucer's verse you have to pronounce many of the final – e sounds of words, but not all. The final – e is not pronounced if it occurs before a vowel or before            an "h". It is often dropped after an unstressed syllable and in two – syllable unstressed words (were – wer, hire – hir). Otherwise the final – e usually pronounced. In the following passage we have marked all the cases where to our opinion – e should be dropped:

    With hym ther was his sone, a yong Squier.

    A lovyere, and a lusty bacheler.

    With lokkes cruller, as they were leyd in presse.

2. When the French words were first borrowed into English they retained a French pronunciation but gradually they were adopted to the English speech habits. The words of more than two or three syllables kept their original stress longer. In Chaucer's poetry the pronunciation of such fluctuates, they may be stressed one way or the other. Here is the pronunciation of some French loanwords you meet in the text as they must have sounded in Chaucer's days: licour [li-kúr], nature [natiúr], corages [kurá:djas], specially [śpeciali], seson [sezo].

3. his – neuter gender, modern English – its.

4. Zephirus – (Greek) the west wind known as the messenger of spring.

5. Ram – The Ram, or Aries, one of the zodiacal constellations, and the zodiacal sigh entered by the sun on 21 March.

6. The younger sonne – the sun runs one half course in the sign of the Ram in March, and the second half course in April.

7. Strange strondes – foreign lands.

8. Ferne halwes – distant shrines.

9. They wende – present plural of wendan, modern – they go.

10. The holy blisful martir – refers to Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. He opposed the king's measures against the privileges of the church and was slain in Canterbury by the king's knights. He met his death with splendid in his own cathedral. His shire became the most famous in Christendom. Thomas à Becket was canonized in 1173 and his festival is observed on 7 July.

Table of phonetic analysis.

Words as used in the text   O.E form   Notes, analysis M.E form translation
1 shoures   2 bathed   3 sonne   4 foweles   5 nyght   6 seken   7 they   8 come   9 all   10 ryde   11. oure scur   baðode   sunne   fuzol   night   secan     cumin   eall   rīdan   ūre shoures s < sk   bathed |a| >|a:| in an open syllable sonner |u| replaced by |o| before the sticked letters   foweles |u|+|u|=|u:|   nyght |yt| > |i:| |i:| > |ai| (G.V.Sh.)   seken |c| replaced   they |θ| - initially   come |u| replaced by |o| before sticked letters     all |a| developed from |æa| due to the monophthongization of O.E diphthongs   ryde, i replaced by y   our ū replaced by ou shower     bath   sun   fowl   night   see they θ >ð come     all   ride   our

Seminar No 5 

NEW ENGLISH PERIOD.


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