Learning Middle English

teaching people a couple of middle english tips

Category:

Education

Tags:

• middle
• english
• animation
• swim
• team

[Liveluloide]

The audio SUCKS!

[inkstersco]

Scherrt ond swete, I it like.

[Itsasecret581]

I feel fully confident in my Middle English speaking abilites now,

[Halfbloodalchemist]

your hotdog looks like a possessed penis....

[Kazenokakera]

This reminded me of south park.

Also you pronounced "pronunciation" incorrectly.

[MVillani1985]

@resurgam44 Thanks for the listings of the books and website, I'll definitely be sure to check them out. Something I heard about King Arthur is that the English originally hated him, as he was some Celtic king of legend that fought off the Anglo-Saxons but as time passed, he slowly became said to have been of English heritage. This is best seen in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale where the character mentions how old the Arthurian legends are already by that time, the 1300s.

[resurgam44]

@MVillani1985

Also, 'The Owl and the Nightingale' is an early 13th century piece that is funny, provocative, and poetically complex for its time.

For a start, look here: h t t p:// q u o d.lib.u m i ch.edu/m/mec/.

Right now, I'm doing a study on Layamon's usage of Arthur as an English, rather than British, hero, and how the text paints 'The British' as the first Englishmen, rather than foreign outcasts. This unnavoidably ties into Norman tensions at the time, and is really quite fascinating.

[resurgam44]

@MVillani1985

Specifically, I got this out of a book by Joseph Hall that I own called 'Early Middle English 1130-1250. There is a wealth of pre-1300 Middle English texts out there in various dialects. For an example of a South-Eastern dialect C.1170, I reccomend the spirited Poema Morale. For a Southwest Midlands dialect C. 1200, I reccomend Layamon's Brut or perhaps the Ancrene Wisse, depending on your interests. The Brut is actually Arthur's first appearance in English literature.

[MVillani1985]

@resurgam44 Interesting, thanks for sharing this. Where did you find this? I know it's hard to find examples of Middle English from 1066-1300.

[resurgam44]

@MVillani1985

For comparison, here is a quote from the Early Middle English Kentish sermons, C.1250:

"Hure lord godalmichti to us speketh ine tho holi godespelle of te day, and us seaweth one forbisne. Thet yef we uilleth don his seruise, thet we sollen habbe tho mede wel griat in heuene. For so seyth ure lord ine tho godspelle of to dai thet on goodman was that ferst uut yede bi the Moreghen for to here werkmen in to his winyarde, for ane peny of forewerde."

[resurgam44]

@MVillani1985

Ah. Sorry about that, my bad. I've just never heard the 1020 proclamation likened to middle english before. While I will grant that the vocabulary is mostly similar (as it is with nearly all OE prose) the inflextional leveling -while in decline- is still very obviously centered upon Old English -rather that Middle English- paradigms. Note constructions such as 'the me god syllan wolde', 'unswicende' and 'thaet eow naefre heonon forth thanon nan unfrith to ne cymth'.

[MVillani1985]

@resurgam44 Cnut's rowing song? I actually never heard of such a thing. I meant the proclamation by King Cnut.