Oh my gosh, reading through the prologue for The Canterbury Tales is probably the hardest and, simultaneously, funniest thing I've ever really done. Just looking at some of the words and seeing how foreign they look just make me wonder how the English language got where it is today. The evolution of language and things like linguistics have always been interesting to me, but until today I never really looked at Middle English. Some of the words in the prologue just look like a strange mixture of consonants and vowels to me. And then finding out that a lot of the vowels aren't even pronounced the same? I've discovered that I'm spending all this time just trying to pronounce the words that I don't even realise I don't know what I'm saying (thank God for the precious side notes in this book, or I'd be totally lost)!
I think I almost lost it listening to the recording. I tried so hard to follow along but the reader seems to read so smoothly that a lot of the words just kind of came out as noises to me. I've got to say it'll be interesting to read this aloud in class while we go through The Canterbury Tales. A lot of the time when I'm reading through the prologue (maybe it's just me) it sounds like I'm just trying to say English words in a really bad, stereotypical Swedish accent.
But then again, I wonder what Chaucer would think if he heard English today. I think he'd be just as confused as I am.
In other news, I tried to google search a hilarious picture for this post, and it didn't quite work out.
That's exactly how I felt! The whole thing is incredibly disconcerting, kind of like how I first felt when I saw Shakespearean English for the first time as a kid, but at least that has a relatively painless way to interpret it. Here you have words so warped and twisted around that it's hard to even say, let alone get the proper meaning of.
ReplyDelete'Stereotypical Swedish accent' is the perfect way to describe what it's like reading it, and now I can't help but try and make my faux accent even thicker.
Something that really helps me while reading this, is to read a few lines out loud to myself ( usually to a punctuation mark) and then going back and deciphering what I've read. That way I get practice both with pronunciation and translation. When I first started reading I was getting really frustrated trying to figure out which one to pay attention to.
ReplyDeleteThis is is exactly how I felt! OMG the whole Middle English thing just drove me absolutely crazy! I am so happy it's over with now. It was very difficult for me when I tried to say the words--- it was horrible. Whatever came out of my mouth...was NOT Middle English. Chaucer probably would laugh at all of us if he heard this catastrophe! To be honest, I just gave up trying to speak like I was apart of the Medieval Time Period. I just spoke normally..it seemed to work out just fine as long as I had the Middle English Dictionary right beside me :)!
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