| a
welle |
well |
| besyde |
beside |
| certeyn
|
certain |
| chirche
dore |
church
door |
| diffinicioun
|
definition |
| fifthe
|
fifth |
| gentil
|
gentle |
| he
mente |
he
meant |
| herde
I nevere tellen |
I
never heard tell |
| hir
(degree). |
their |
| housbondes
|
husbands |
| I
can nat seyn |
I
can not say |
| I
mighte |
I
might |
| I
ne sholde |
I
should not |
| manye
|
many |
| mariage
|
marriage |
| multiplye
|
multiply |
| myghte
she |
she
might |
| nat
longe agon |
not
long ago |
| nombre
|
number |
| seyde
he |
he
said |
| sith |
since |
| taughte
he me |
he
taught me |
| thou
hast y-had |
you
have had |
| to
speke |
to
speak |
| understonde |
understand |
| with-oute
lye |
without
a lie |
| yeer
|
year |
| y-nough
|
enough |
 |
What do you notice when you compare the spellings?
|
|
What often happens to the letter 'y'?
|
|
What happens to the final 'e's?
|
|
Can you find other inflections? (tellen,
seyn, yhad)?
|
|
Which words do we no longer use?
|
|
What
do you notice about word order?
|
|
Return
to the first page and listen to the audio with
your answers. What do you notice about how the
words are pronounced? The final 'e's? The vowels?
|
Chaucer
could see the language change, even in his lifetime:
| "and
certaynly our language now vsed varyeth ferre from
that whiche was vsed and spoken whan I was borne" |
Chaucer: Prologue to his translation of 'Eneydos'.
|
Ask an older person if they have noticed much
change since they were young. It could be useful
to jot down the differences they remember as you
might be able to use them in an assignment.
|
If
you have worked on the Beowulf and Chaucer activities
in 'Origins' and on 'Inflections' in Changing Times,
you are now well placed to test your knowledge by matching
words from the three periods - Old English, Middle English
and Standard English.
You
may like to visit Topic Changing Times: Word
matching.
You
can either return to the previous pages or go to the
Topic menu.
|
Previous
page
