Assimilating Middle English Into Modern English
The difficulties in learning middle English as compared to modern English. Reading and understanding Chaucer are two different things.
Understanding Middle English is like learning another language. There are many
likenesses on paper, but transforming the knowledge from my brain to my lips requires
effort. Case in point is the pronunciation of a pure vowel. My pronunciations reek of
Modern English with The Canterbury Tales, and they have a Northern Illinois tinge.
Unlearning what one has learned as to spoken language is challenging. However, one aid
is imagination.
The challenge of Middle English is easier when actors in movies speak
similar accents. Resounding Chaucer’s lines off the walls of my apartment lead to my
voice resembling William Wallace’s from Braveheart. Character’s accents may be heavy,
like Tim from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Listening to The Franklin Tale CD helps
as a vocal medium between pronouncing Middle English in contrast to Tim’s
heavy accent. My ears are less trained than my eyes, explaining my reliance on
linguistics.
Cooper’s introduction to The Canterbury Tales and the text’s introduction are both
respectively helpful. Whether the whole picture or its parts, I found it helpful to read
first Cooper’s descriptions of the characters and the text. This helps in having a
“grounding” as to what I am getting into before the reading. Owing that nothing is as it
seems with and within The Canterbury Tales, lack of formality makes the tradition of
story-telling exciting. Chaucer may turn it into a game, but The Canterbury Tales is
story-telling without the price and without worldly incentives like bills.
Liked it
