I had to recite this way back in 1977 at Hutchinson High School during my Senior English Class. It was a requirement to pass the course. I can still do it! My english teacher taught us to say it a little more sing-song-y that this fellow does it, but the pronounciations are mighty close.
It seems too strongly modern German in its pronuciations (I understood it better in German than English); rather I would think it would have a much stronger French element of pronunciation.
@watsinvrwallet, @mariiwhat, i see what you're saying, it would include celtic and english and all of that, but that means saying 'british' refering to a language makes no sense, for example, it would be like saying, "they spoke german english chinese"
If you like this, check out my music video of the Prologue. If you search for The Canterbury Tales - General Prologue - "Whan that Aprille" it should come up. It might help you learn the first 18 lines!
i understand that this is hard to understand (even for me) but it would have been compleetly normal if you lived in chaucer's time, just be greatful it's not in old english
Middle English was still very Germanic, even after over 300 years of French influence. The clergy spoke Latin, the court and the nobility spoke French and everyone else spoke Anglo-Saxon (which gradually evolved into the English of Shakespeare and the King James Bible and through the Great Vowel Change of the late 18th century when the English we know now appeared). English is rapidly changing again and it will be interesting to see what it turns into this time.
Remember that not all poetry is like most contemporary poetry. In old English, poetry might consist of subject-verb word placement. And what about haiku?
@Stumbleine0016 Even Early Modern English did (Shakespeare pronounced a rolled R). The alveolar R of today's English didn't arrive from France via Germany and the Netherlands until the end of the 17th century.
Hm... the pronunciation is quite different from the way I learned it. But given all people have is guesses and models, no one really knows how it really sounded like. When are you guys memorizing this? My dad taught me a long time ago - the way he said it was so beautiful I had to learn it. Well, I guess I have a head start in the future, that is unless my English teacher is going to be piggish about pronunciation.
Thank the lord this is online ! i need to know this by tomorrow because my teacher really thought we would waste our Thanksgiving break trying to memorize this ! FUCK -___-
Combining this with the Great Vowel Shift and the adding of inkhorn terms, the English language has almost completely changed. It is indeed a natural process, but it has resulted in English having some rather wacky spelling, and a loss of intelligibility with its closest relatives (Frisian, Dutch, Low German).
@NASk8er4778 but how do you know they have stayed the same? We assume that is how it is pronounced based on how language has changed as well as regional pronunciations that still use the words, but how could anyone possibly know that those regions haven't changed the pronunciation? I'm not arguing that it's not a close approximation, but saying that we still pronounce it the same way is a little ignorant when there is absolutely no way to know
I agree. According to wikipedia there were at least 5 different versions of middle English that evolved depending on where you were from on the island of Great Britain; northern, midland, southeastern, southern and southwestern. I would sincerely doubt we Scots are using quite the same pronunciation as Chaucer used.
@pooptickler1337 disagree all you want, it's a dead language that has never been heard being spoken by a native tongue, the simple fact is that *nobody* knows how to pronounce it, we can just make an educated guess
@hXc232 not entirely, some dialects in Scotland do stay more or less faithful to these pronunciations. It's a shame that our language as a whole has drifted away from this though.
@NASk8er4778 i don't think it's a shame... it's natural and inevitable that languages change and evolve the way they do. it's not necessarily good or bad. it's just the way it is. just another fact of life like the continents shifting with their plates, or evolution (if you prescribe to that theory, that is).
@phr4nk3rd00d13 Indeed, through what is called "language drift", English seems to have had a tendency to drift towards normalization of word forms. Examples being the death of thou, the loss of -n in the infinitive/plural forms, and the dropping of y- as a past participle.
@baceace it comes from middle English as aye, and old Norse before that as ey, meaning ever (as in forever or always). This meaning is still commonly used in Scotland. It was probably just used as an expression of agreement from there, though another theory is that it comes from middle English a ye, meaning oh yes, but the first one is the more commonly accepted etymology
@LovesmeAnorca95 It's Middle English, before it had undergone change in the Great Vowel Shift which has affected the pronunciation of Modern English. You should have a look at even older English, or Anglo-Saxon, such as Beowolf which is very different indeed!
@LovesmeAnorca95 LOL. Well, you probably already gathered this, but just thought I'd note that this video spells the words the way they are meant to be pronounced and not necessarily how they are spelled, although there are a number of spellings that do look strange in the original. English is basically a hodgepodge of a whack of other languages anyway, so in a way it's not that surprising that there are pronunciations that sound Gaelic, German and French in this clip.
Is AYE middle English for YES? or does anyone know where Aye comes from? I say Aye more than yes but not sure why its not used all over the country hm..
@WolfBlade13179 I think he meant British-English as in the dialect of English spoken in Great Britain (which is incorrect to say anyway because Britain is made up of many countries that each have different dialects. There is no such thing as a "British" accent. There are English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish accents. And even those countries have huge accent variation when you travel a few miles.)
One of the most disturbing sexual allusions ever (according to Dr. Eliot Engel) April was considered a very masculine month and May was a Feminine one,
is the prounuciation accurate? if you go search for the canterbury tales prologue middle english, every video will have slightly different pronunciation for some words. so i don't know which one is the most correct.
@Yperanthropoidsx It's all an approximation, since there's no recordings of Middle English native speakers. However, based on vowel shifts and other changes in pronunciation, we can make a guess.
English is my native tongue and i speak four languages fluently. Still, I could only understand a few words of this. Its so bizarre to me that this was how ppl spoke so long ago
English is my native tongue and i speak four languages fluently. Still, I could only understand a few words of this. Its so bizarre to me that this was how ppl spoke so long ago
@scrantoncity1 your class isn't the only class that does this, the world is bigger than just your little town; thousands of classes do this thing every year
I have to know the first 12 lines for a school project so I'm just gonna play this over and over again in my sleep and when I wake up I'll know it!! I might have forgotten this english but old english seems more fun anyway!!
I love how all the most ignorant comments on here stamp out the intelligent ones.
Seriously people? Are you really that stupid? If you shut your damn trap about it sounding nothing like English you might actually hear some similarities and then you might open Google and look up the origin of the English Language on any reputable site. English is Germanic. LA DER.
@FALLoFHalcyon Yeah, the text isn't spelled accurately according the the original by any stretch of the imagination, and it doesn't seem to be an accurate phonetic portrayal either.
I can kind off understand a few phrases. There are a lot of words that, though different from modern English, are close enough to guess when they are said aloud.
@ALBIONTYKE In fact, more than Norwegian, and especially Chaucer's or what would be Chancery English, was closer to Dutch. In fact Old English and both Dutch and Frisian were really close. By the time of the Tales, a lot of French had entered English, but still retained a lot of its Germanic sound.
I wouldn´t call American accent bland, I have to say I don´t like the sound of it but that´s just my personal feeling, no need to say it worsens the language as a whole. Anyway, Danes shouldn´t talk too much about someone -ing up the sound of their language, just see what they´ve done to their sounds "g", "d" and "r" particularly and try to compare them with the probable pronunciation of old Norse. I think u r going to be amused ;)
@LibertyLuvr1969 Your missing my point completely :) It is the Americanization of Europe through Hollywood, McDonalds and all your other crap companies that I am opposing. Fuck and shit are everyday words in danish today because of Hollywood. I do not approve.
What's interesting is that most of the words are unintelligible, but the sentence structure looks like English and there is a scattering of words that are still used today.
@yurismir1 Funny that you bothered looking at my page to see where I'm from, but yes Danish is crap too, just not as much as English. It is not change that worsens a language, it is certain changes. Simplification, Romanization, Globalization and Americanization. All evils of all that is good in languages. If languages were going the opposite way, then I'd love change.
@kubahxc mate, you wouldn't unerstand Shakespear's english anymore than a german understands dutch, let alone the "modern english" from 500 years ago. people speak something different now.
@VictorSobakus "mate", I do understand Shakespeare's English. What exactly are you talking about? Does the usage of such words like "thou" and "thee" confuse you? There's a difference and that's a fact, but most of the rules still apply. Do you see any translation's of Shakespeare's works to the English that you are referring to? No, it's called "Modern English" by linguists so stop being a smartass.
i'm an english major in college and we don't start touching this kind of stuff until junior year. why don't they just focus on teaching kids how to read and write? pretty sad how many people come out of college not being able to do those basic things... probably because they spent high school learning middle english so they could "study" beowulf and canterbury tales, like they're little scholars or something...
Drewgt & Sweech are the finest words in the whole poem. Need a translation, si vous plait.
The point: is there a word, “ablaegung” in Aenglisc which is akin to “ablaecung” meaning something like, “death & parlor”? the only difference is a more elaborate definition. Found both in my dick-tionary but lost sight of the former. Perhaps I’m better off asking on another board? Had to blurt.
This sounds a little bit like Dutch. ;)
sdjnwhyNZ 2 days ago
That was an excellent reading! I loved the rhythm. I've never heard it recited so elegantly and with such feeling. Well done!
bhnnad 2 days ago
I had to recite this way back in 1977 at Hutchinson High School during my Senior English Class. It was a requirement to pass the course. I can still do it! My english teacher taught us to say it a little more sing-song-y that this fellow does it, but the pronounciations are mighty close.
dblair1258 2 days ago
I'm screwed..This is British Literature?? Are we ever gonna use this in RL?
ThePuppydog17 3 days ago
fuck and i am taking not one, but two chaucer classes :(
dblockknox 4 days ago
I'm pretty sure my english teacher has no idea what the fuck this means and has just learned about it from google.
lily3girl 4 days ago
Sounds like Shrek
hiitsmegoog 1 week ago
It seems too strongly modern German in its pronuciations (I understood it better in German than English); rather I would think it would have a much stronger French element of pronunciation.
AaronCherr 1 week ago
@watsinvrwallet, @mariiwhat, i see what you're saying, it would include celtic and english and all of that, but that means saying 'british' refering to a language makes no sense, for example, it would be like saying, "they spoke german english chinese"
WolfBlade13179 1 week ago
fuck....
95sam 1 week ago
If you like this, check out my music video of the Prologue. If you search for The Canterbury Tales - General Prologue - "Whan that Aprille" it should come up. It might help you learn the first 18 lines!
tedmesserschmidt 1 week ago
i understand that this is hard to understand (even for me) but it would have been compleetly normal if you lived in chaucer's time, just be greatful it's not in old english
SilverAssassin1347 3 weeks ago
This is Middle English, people!)
AeternaPraesens 1 month ago
I think I can understand this if I didn't take an arrow to the knee.
0815521576 1 month ago
..tea kettle, then she, SHAT ON A TURTLE!
TheAlx46 1 month ago 6
I had to read this in Middle English at university. It was kind of fun.
HollyJeanD 1 month ago
Middle English was still very Germanic, even after over 300 years of French influence. The clergy spoke Latin, the court and the nobility spoke French and everyone else spoke Anglo-Saxon (which gradually evolved into the English of Shakespeare and the King James Bible and through the Great Vowel Change of the late 18th century when the English we know now appeared). English is rapidly changing again and it will be interesting to see what it turns into this time.
Sunflowers159 1 month ago
@Sunflowers159 I hop it duzzent luk liek dis
4ingP 1 month ago
i came here after reading dawkins "The magic of reality"
Dathinkingman 1 month ago
Remember that not all poetry is like most contemporary poetry. In old English, poetry might consist of subject-verb word placement. And what about haiku?
I think that it's pretty the way it is.
FarToMidland 1 month ago
shinga dinga dargen
jamesbell404 1 month ago
Ugh...this is a poem...it should like one.
hwantx 1 month ago
This is terrible.
hwantx 1 month ago
Unnecessary gap in speech between some of the lines.
lolatyoulol 1 month ago
Beautiful !
zapspace 1 month ago
Wait, so Middle Englished used to roll its R's?
Stumbleine0016 1 month ago
@Stumbleine0016 Even Early Modern English did (Shakespeare pronounced a rolled R). The alveolar R of today's English didn't arrive from France via Germany and the Netherlands until the end of the 17th century.
yCeti 1 month ago
It sounds germen XD
BlackenUp 1 month ago
I like how it says, "so one MIGHT learn it."
yoshih9 1 month ago
seven times a memory.....6 more to go
holysmokes11000 1 month ago
an hour later...about half way done memorizing it. could b worse
RaNdOmNUb011 1 month ago
fuck :(
Jane062910 1 month ago
what half the comments say >.> ("im fucked)
RaNdOmNUb011 1 month ago
Hm... the pronunciation is quite different from the way I learned it. But given all people have is guesses and models, no one really knows how it really sounded like. When are you guys memorizing this? My dad taught me a long time ago - the way he said it was so beautiful I had to learn it. Well, I guess I have a head start in the future, that is unless my English teacher is going to be piggish about pronunciation.
Thanks.
ValosTaonas 1 month ago
What kind of language is this? Stupid humans
2011DreamerBoy 1 month ago
Because when I grow up, I have to know this
TheFTWDrummer 2 months ago
Turkey break wasted trying to memorize this for extra credit-_____-
jmo922 2 months ago 2
I love how many english teachers are out there!
TheKuuSusi 2 months ago
i'm screwed. i have to know this by tomorrow, and i've only memorized to line 6.
lulu890ish 2 months ago
Thank the lord this is online ! i need to know this by tomorrow because my teacher really thought we would waste our Thanksgiving break trying to memorize this ! FUCK -___-
lokizbaby100 2 months ago 2
mother fucker
TheShanellis 2 months ago
I'm fucked.
dodg1123 2 months ago
fml
Mad4softball 2 months ago
Combining this with the Great Vowel Shift and the adding of inkhorn terms, the English language has almost completely changed. It is indeed a natural process, but it has resulted in English having some rather wacky spelling, and a loss of intelligibility with its closest relatives (Frisian, Dutch, Low German).
NASk8er4778 2 months ago
@NASk8er4778 but how do you know they have stayed the same? We assume that is how it is pronounced based on how language has changed as well as regional pronunciations that still use the words, but how could anyone possibly know that those regions haven't changed the pronunciation? I'm not arguing that it's not a close approximation, but saying that we still pronounce it the same way is a little ignorant when there is absolutely no way to know
hXc232 2 months ago
@hXc232 you're right, but linguists can reconstruct languages pretty damn well. not 100% surely, but 99.999%...
phr4nk3rd00d13 2 months ago
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MarvellousMuffin 2 months ago
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@hXc232
I agree. According to wikipedia there were at least 5 different versions of middle English that evolved depending on where you were from on the island of Great Britain; northern, midland, southeastern, southern and southwestern. I would sincerely doubt we Scots are using quite the same pronunciation as Chaucer used.
MarvellousMuffin 2 months ago
I think my teacher is torturing me
thestetiger 2 months ago 3
Comment removed
thestetiger 2 months ago
Remember to practice hard Mrs. Stack's students
startell87 2 months ago
@pooptickler1337 disagree all you want, it's a dead language that has never been heard being spoken by a native tongue, the simple fact is that *nobody* knows how to pronounce it, we can just make an educated guess
hXc232 2 months ago
@hXc232 not entirely, some dialects in Scotland do stay more or less faithful to these pronunciations. It's a shame that our language as a whole has drifted away from this though.
NASk8er4778 2 months ago
@NASk8er4778 i don't think it's a shame... it's natural and inevitable that languages change and evolve the way they do. it's not necessarily good or bad. it's just the way it is. just another fact of life like the continents shifting with their plates, or evolution (if you prescribe to that theory, that is).
phr4nk3rd00d13 2 months ago
@phr4nk3rd00d13 Indeed, through what is called "language drift", English seems to have had a tendency to drift towards normalization of word forms. Examples being the death of thou, the loss of -n in the infinitive/plural forms, and the dropping of y- as a past participle.
NASk8er4778 2 months ago
@baceace it comes from middle English as aye, and old Norse before that as ey, meaning ever (as in forever or always). This meaning is still commonly used in Scotland. It was probably just used as an expression of agreement from there, though another theory is that it comes from middle English a ye, meaning oh yes, but the first one is the more commonly accepted etymology
hXc232 2 months ago
Fucked english students, unite!
eKuL1995 2 months ago 2
Just fantastic!
MichaelCole 2 months ago
why the FUCK is my english teacher so gay...
ddddddaniel5901 2 months ago
I disagree with the pronunciation, but it sounded nice.
pooptickler1337 2 months ago
i refuse to believe this is english
LovesmeAnorca95 2 months ago 22
@LovesmeAnorca95 It's Middle English, before it had undergone change in the Great Vowel Shift which has affected the pronunciation of Modern English. You should have a look at even older English, or Anglo-Saxon, such as Beowolf which is very different indeed!
GaeilgeSpraoi 2 months ago
@LovesmeAnorca95 LOL. Well, you probably already gathered this, but just thought I'd note that this video spells the words the way they are meant to be pronounced and not necessarily how they are spelled, although there are a number of spellings that do look strange in the original. English is basically a hodgepodge of a whack of other languages anyway, so in a way it's not that surprising that there are pronunciations that sound Gaelic, German and French in this clip.
allpossibleworlds 3 weeks ago
@LovesmeAnorca95 Think of it like this; if u had 2 do it in old engilsh, u'd might as well learn it in Japanese.
iwatchvidswiththis 2 weeks ago 2
I'm so glad that im not the only one struggling with this
MrDialxxx 2 months ago
@CMlaneLV No I'm not 10, I was just quoting how Dr. Engel Put it...
zachxblast 2 months ago
i memorized the first 2 lines and did a victory dance :)
DreamingInReverse 2 months ago
i remembered the first 4 lines in replaying this 10 times... BEAST!
LGsnair 2 months ago
THIS IS FREAKING HARD....
hogwartsismydrug 2 months ago
Is AYE middle English for YES? or does anyone know where Aye comes from? I say Aye more than yes but not sure why its not used all over the country hm..
baceace 2 months ago
i'm fucked.
bubblicious235 2 months ago 115
@bubblicious235 Im fucked as well. its 11:05 pm and idk shit -__-
lokizbaby100 2 months ago
Hey! "Specialy"!
I know that word lol
CMLaneLV 3 months ago
Wow,this is nice. Its like the language its like a mixture of different languages in Europe(like British Eng and German)
vincetheworldly537 3 months ago
@vincetheworldly537 umm, english and british are the same thing....
WolfBlade13179 1 week ago
@WolfBlade13179 no english comes from england and britsh comes from all of britan ?
watsinyrwallet 1 week ago
@WolfBlade13179 I think he meant British-English as in the dialect of English spoken in Great Britain (which is incorrect to say anyway because Britain is made up of many countries that each have different dialects. There is no such thing as a "British" accent. There are English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish accents. And even those countries have huge accent variation when you travel a few miles.)
mariiwhat 1 week ago
When was this language spoken?
DarthPetrit 3 months ago 3
@DarthPetrit Late 11th-late 15th centuries.
lasaboteuse 3 months ago
@DarthPetrit Middle Ages England, around the 1200s-1400s as I understand
SporkTsar 2 months ago
@DarthPetrit 1400s
icantfindanamex86 2 months ago
the fuck is this
axlis123 3 months ago
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@axlis123 shut the fuck up asshole
Atu7UP 3 months ago
One of the most disturbing sexual allusions ever (according to Dr. Eliot Engel) April was considered a very masculine month and May was a Feminine one,
In short April "Showers" brought....may "flowers"
zachxblast 3 months ago
@zachxblast disturbing?
what are you 10?
CMLaneLV 3 months ago
is the prounuciation accurate? if you go search for the canterbury tales prologue middle english, every video will have slightly different pronunciation for some words. so i don't know which one is the most correct.
Yperanthropoidsx 3 months ago
@Yperanthropoidsx It's all an approximation, since there's no recordings of Middle English native speakers. However, based on vowel shifts and other changes in pronunciation, we can make a guess.
lasaboteuse 3 months ago
this really helped me out i have to learn this for my senior english class! O_o
myssmyleka 3 months ago
how can i download this on to my ipod?
sjaems1234 3 months ago
aaaah i love middle English!! I started studying this two weeks ago, and this really helps to train the pronunciation :) thanks!!
Miriamel23 3 months ago
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@desiree01sj haha, same here but we had to memorize 12 lines for a pass of fail grade, passed it.
youngsoldier93 3 months ago
im trying to learn this by tomorrow but its so hard! >.< i only know pieces of it
desiree01sj 4 months ago 38
@desiree01sj
GIRL MRS. FIELDS IS OUT OF HER MIND!!!
21howudoin 3 months ago
@desiree01sj You're teacher is an idiot.
TheBoychenko 2 months ago
I wish we still spoke like this. Better yet, like the Anglo-Saxons!!
SubjectAlpha100 4 months ago
???
yamokoko 4 months ago
what the hell?
IlIl00 4 months ago
press 9 rapidly. He's sinking!
RunningWithRum 4 months ago
this i so welsh its unbelievable!
ellastead123 4 months ago
English is my native tongue and i speak four languages fluently. Still, I could only understand a few words of this. Its so bizarre to me that this was how ppl spoke so long ago
TheEmpowered787 4 months ago
@TheEmpowered787 thanks for that insight.
phlarrdboi 4 months ago
English is my native tongue and i speak four languages fluently. Still, I could only understand a few words of this. Its so bizarre to me that this was how ppl spoke so long ago
TheEmpowered787 4 months ago
@TheEmpowered787 You'd be amazed. For all we know, english could be totally different like 200 years from now.
ironmadion55 3 months ago
Comment removed
scrantoncity1 4 months ago
@scrantoncity1 your class isn't the only class that does this, the world is bigger than just your little town; thousands of classes do this thing every year
CheapAssNoob 4 months ago
Sounds basically like broad yorkshire.
GreenFont 4 months ago
FUUUUUU Mrs. C
davidthecomp 4 months ago
sounds like welsh
Alexasdfghjkl99 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I know how to read this... but I pronounce it differently...
Nathanbmajor7 4 months ago
Thanks for uploading this, but why do you spell the words this way? It's wrong and not at all helpful, I think.
teainthesahara 4 months ago
@teainthesahara Its helpful for pronouncing the words correctly...
TheLycaNinja 4 months ago
Ahhhhh my English teacher is making us pronounce everything in here correctly tomorrow
112yourface 4 months ago
have to memorize the first 18 lines of this for tomorrow... 8 lines down, 10 to go!!
pearller14 4 months ago
is there any way ican down load this for my ipod for class i have to memorize this for the end of term
sjaems1234 4 months ago
@Hofsteder I've read that Frisian and English were supposed to be mutually intelligible until quite recently
Minchandre 4 months ago
I have to know the first 12 lines for a school project so I'm just gonna play this over and over again in my sleep and when I wake up I'll know it!! I might have forgotten this english but old english seems more fun anyway!!
UnderoathLambofgod 4 months ago
Thank you so much for the upload, buddy, I have to recite this by memory and this helped me a lot. Thank!
Allyalpha 4 months ago
@Allyalpha haha, i have to recite this by memory as well... i probably have you in my class
avail447 4 months ago
@avail447 I have to memorize the first 12 lines by this friday lol im screwed =P
UnderoathLambofgod 4 months ago
I love how all the most ignorant comments on here stamp out the intelligent ones.
Seriously people? Are you really that stupid? If you shut your damn trap about it sounding nothing like English you might actually hear some similarities and then you might open Google and look up the origin of the English Language on any reputable site. English is Germanic. LA DER.
midnightthecat1 4 months ago
Absolutely AWESOME!!
1862Metallica 4 months ago
@dusckshroom
I assume that is beyond my literary scope, care to explain por favor?
hereawhile 4 months ago
The text is absolutely atrocious. Not correct at all. Guys, use your Google-fu on this one.
FALLoFHalcyon 4 months ago
@FALLoFHalcyon Yeah, the text isn't spelled accurately according the the original by any stretch of the imagination, and it doesn't seem to be an accurate phonetic portrayal either.
duckshroom 4 months ago
that accent is just complicating things.
Rachulie 5 months ago
Dude line two isnt in iambic pentameter o.O 11 syllables
hereawhile 5 months ago
@hereawhile Iambic pentameter, feminine ending
duckshroom 4 months ago
i remember when my class had to recite this whole thing for a grade in english.
nagako18 5 months ago
I traveled to En-ga-lond once. It was awesome.
BlaggerDagger 5 months ago
What recording is this? If there is a full reading of Canterbury Tales by this man I will buy it IMMEDIATELY
Vexli 5 months ago
Lol yea American accent varies according where you are. Of course we also have Ebonics which I'm sorry to say is a true bastardized version lol
FreonRose 5 months ago
This is so cool. I took a course on nothing but the Canterbury Tales and we had to learn how to read Middle English. I was never very good at it haha
nayners 5 months ago
I can kind off understand a few phrases. There are a lot of words that, though different from modern English, are close enough to guess when they are said aloud.
cheesetothepower 6 months ago 6
medieval english is awesome!!!!! i loveth thy englishe
MrProsperousguardian 6 months ago
Sounds Norwegian in tone & certainly closer to northern English than standard southern English today.
ALBIONTYKE 6 months ago
@ALBIONTYKE In fact, more than Norwegian, and especially Chaucer's or what would be Chancery English, was closer to Dutch. In fact Old English and both Dutch and Frisian were really close. By the time of the Tales, a lot of French had entered English, but still retained a lot of its Germanic sound.
TheFactoryOfLight 5 months ago
@LibertyLuvr1969
I wouldn´t call American accent bland, I have to say I don´t like the sound of it but that´s just my personal feeling, no need to say it worsens the language as a whole. Anyway, Danes shouldn´t talk too much about someone -ing up the sound of their language, just see what they´ve done to their sounds "g", "d" and "r" particularly and try to compare them with the probable pronunciation of old Norse. I think u r going to be amused ;)
StromyCZ 6 months ago
@StromyCZ my french friend said american accents are up & down, unlike british accents & the language of french lol
so i guess theyre not bland to her!
ItsEmmalicious 6 months ago
@LibertyLuvr1969 Your missing my point completely :) It is the Americanization of Europe through Hollywood, McDonalds and all your other crap companies that I am opposing. Fuck and shit are everyday words in danish today because of Hollywood. I do not approve.
NorthStarAritharo 6 months ago
What's interesting is that most of the words are unintelligible, but the sentence structure looks like English and there is a scattering of words that are still used today.
niuchemist 6 months ago
So cool
neilrulz24 6 months ago
This guy has the best voice for this. Please add more of the Canterbury tales with this guy.
BiffHendersonofJi 6 months ago
I still remember this.....I had to recite it too
KingB2K8 7 months ago
I had to memorize this in my English class
BrianPurge 7 months ago 2
So that's what it sounds like out loud.
lasaboteuse 7 months ago
@Hofsteder That's right, words like 'church' (tjerk in Frisian).
zapspace 7 months ago
This sounds like a scandinavian language
josevanreyes 7 months ago
@Hofsteder, linguists are confident that Frisian is the most closely related to English of all Germanic tongues.
jolcom 7 months ago
@Hofsteder Thankyou i keep saying that some words in english/frisian are still the same like chicken egg etc
white1whidow 7 months ago
Sounds like an old Scandinavian-dialect comedian!
RaananVolesPianist 7 months ago
This video is a good introduction to what Middle English sounds like. I like that the words are showing as they are being read.
jcann123456 7 months ago
Makes english sound germanic, unlike the crap it is today.
NorthStarAritharo 7 months ago
@NorthStarAritharo
nocachu 7 months ago
@NorthStarAritharo If by "crap" you mean it has changed, like Danish and every other language on the planet, then, yes, it's total crap.
yurismir1 6 months ago
@yurismir1 Funny that you bothered looking at my page to see where I'm from, but yes Danish is crap too, just not as much as English. It is not change that worsens a language, it is certain changes. Simplification, Romanization, Globalization and Americanization. All evils of all that is good in languages. If languages were going the opposite way, then I'd love change.
NorthStarAritharo 6 months ago
hoi
elinexlovee 7 months ago
=[ someone telephoning from an indian call center again. Thats what it sounds like.
white1whidow 7 months ago
So THIS is is what English sounds like to Chinese people.
genkiniko 7 months ago 66
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@genkiniko sounds like swedish to me
ChenJunHung 4 months ago
this is just so cool to me.
megnoggle 8 months ago
I can almost understand this, it sounds more like Dutch to me (my mother tongue) than English.
SSTTEEAALLTTHH 8 months ago
@SSTTEEAALLTTHH Well the Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes and The Netherlands was one of the main areas they came from.
canis77 8 months ago
@SSTTEEAALLTTHH That's because English is a branch of the Germanic languages.
midnightthecat1 4 months ago
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This sort of sounds like John Cleese's voice... I love Chaucer!!!
earynraevynclaw 8 months ago
This sort of sounds like John Cleese's voice
earynraevynclaw 8 months ago
Sound as Scottish
guzodan 8 months ago
Can't understand a shit. It sounds like one of the Scandinavian languages xD
MEEHOWtv 8 months ago
I had an exam about this:
- 445 A.D Anglo-Saxon invasion, runic writing etc.
-800-1100 (1066) Old English, Christianity comes from Ireland, they have some writings
-1066-1450 William the Conquer invades, Middle English, similarity to todays English 1/3, the French dominate the language
-1500, Modern English, yes my friends the language that millions of people speak today is about 500 years old.
kubahxc 8 months ago 2
@kubahxc mate, you wouldn't unerstand Shakespear's english anymore than a german understands dutch, let alone the "modern english" from 500 years ago. people speak something different now.
VictorSobakus 7 months ago
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kubahxc 7 months ago
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@VictorSobakus "mate", I do understand Shakespeare's English. What exactly are you talking about? Does the usage of such words like "thou" and "thee" confuse you? There's a difference and that's a fact, but most of the rules still apply. Do you see any translation's of Shakespeare's works to the English that you are referring to? No, it's called "Modern English" by linguists so stop being a smartass.
kubahxc 7 months ago
Sad to say it, but this is a lot closer to the English that II learned than some of these comments are. LOL
ngiyaxolisa 8 months ago 3
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Sounds so interesting to my ears. :)
hunner80 8 months ago
@GummiBear331 I could not agree with you more. I have to memorize this and it stinks, it's impossible to memorize.
kittykat5594 8 months ago
@Antifaschist99 Thanks, what do you mean it is odd?
kittykat5594 8 months ago
great, the same voice (accent) i've heard in the Age of Empires II,
antek250000 8 months ago 2
i'm an english major in college and we don't start touching this kind of stuff until junior year. why don't they just focus on teaching kids how to read and write? pretty sad how many people come out of college not being able to do those basic things... probably because they spent high school learning middle english so they could "study" beowulf and canterbury tales, like they're little scholars or something...
somnus71 8 months ago
@somnus71 beowulf was written in old english
stealth1692 8 months ago
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666caimbirdofhell 8 months ago
@666caimbirdofhell Aenglisc,” I really love that term. Glossy.
Drewgt & Sweech are the finest words in the whole poem. Need a translation, si vous plait.
The point: is there a word, “ablaegung” in Aenglisc which is akin to “ablaecung” meaning something like, “death & parlor”? the only difference is a more elaborate definition. Found both in my dick-tionary but lost sight of the former. Perhaps I’m better off asking on another board? Had to blurt.
666caimbirdofhell 8 months ago