Middle English Alphabet

Geoffrey Chaucer and His Contribution

Main Written Records of the Middle English Period

Middle English Written Records

Lecture 8

See § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the most prominent authors of the Middle English Period and he set up a language pattern to be followed. He is considered to be the founder of the literary language of that period. Most authors of the Middle English Period tried to fallow this standard.

Features of the Chaucer’s Language:

· Chaucer’s Language was the basis for the national literary language (15^th – 16^th c.).

· New spelling rules (digraphs) and new rules of reading (1 letter = several sounds) appeared as compared to the Old English.

· New grammatical forms appeared (Perfect forms, Passive forms, “to” Infinitive constructions, etc.).

· Chaucer tried to minimize the number of the French loans in the English Language.

· Chaucer introduced rhyme to the poetry.

The Middle English Alphabet resembled the Old English Alphabet but some changes were introduced:

· th replaced ð/þ/Đ/đ;

· w replaced?;

· æ, œ disappeared;

· digraphs (2 letters = one sound) appeared (came from French):

o th for [q] and [ð];

o tch/ch for [t∫];

o sch/ssh/sh for [∫];

o dg for [dζ];

o wh replace hw but was pronounced still as [hw]!;

o gh for [h];

o qu for [kw];

o ow/ou for [u:] and [ou];

o ie for [e:].

Rules of Reading:

They resemble the modern rules, with several exceptions though:

1. Double vowels stood for long sounds, e.g. oo = [o:]; ee = [e:].

2. g = [dζ]

c = [s] before front vowels ([i, e]).

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g = [g]

c = [k] before back vowels ([a, o, u]).

3. y = [j] – at the beginning of the word;

= [i] – in the cases when i stood close together with r, n, m and could be confused with one of these letters or could be lost among them, it was replaced with y, sometimes also for decorative purpose.(e.g. nyne [‘ni:nə], very [‘veri]).

4. th = [ð]

s = [z] between vowels.

5. o = [o] – in most cases;

= [u] – in the words that have [Λ] sound in Modern English (e.g. some, love)

6. j = [dζ]

H/w:

1. § 292-295, p. 156-157; § 302-308, p. 160-163 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

2. Using your knowledge of the Middle English spelling and the rules of reading (Lecture 8) read an abstract from the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer (lines 1-14) on p. 33-34 in “A Reader in the History of English” by Е.К. Щука and try to identify the peculiarities of the Middle English spelling and rules of reading.

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