Middle English Reading and Analysis

On this page we will read an exerpt from Chaucer’s Middle English work The Canterbury Tales and discuss the transition between Old and Middle English.

Reading: The Canterbury Tales: Parson’s Tale, Lines 16-23

Ther cam a privee theef men clepeth Deeth,
That in this contree al the peple sleeth,
And with his spere he smoot his herte atwo,
And wente his wey withouten wordes mo.
He hath a thousand slayn this pestilence.
And, maister, er ye come in his presence,
Me thynketh that it were necessarie
For to be war of swich an aduersarie.

Analysis

Orthographic variation

During the period of Early Middle English (1150–1350), spelling was not standardized. Words were largely written phonetically, and pronunciation varied largely by region. examples above of othographic variation include theef (thief), slayn (slain), and wey (way). Standardization of spelling would not occur until after the advent of the Gutenberg press in 1439. the letters “v” and “u” were also used somewhat interchangably, as seen here in aduersarie (adversary).

Pronunciation of silent letters

Letters that are silent in Modern English are pronounced in Early Middle English. Examples in this text include the final “e” in pestilence and prescence.

Word order and loss of inflections.

Compared to Old English, Middle English is a much more analytic language. Word order matters more because nouns no longer have as many inflections. There was no more grammatical gender, nor was there a dative case. Surviving inflections include -s/-es and -en for pluralization and -es (later -‘s) to denote genitive case.

Sidenote: “axe” (lines 8-9)

“Go bet,” quod he, “and axe redily
What cors is this that passeth heer forby;

In these lines, the word “ask” is written and pronounced as “axe.” This pronunciation is typically associated with Black English and is often treated as incorrect, but it has been an accepted form of the word for over 1,200 years.

Sources and Further Reading

Exerpt from The Pardoner’s Tale:
https://stella.glasgow.ac.uk/readings/?me-2

NPR’s “Why Chaucer Said ‘Ax’ Instead Of ‘Ask,’ And Why Some Still Do”:
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/03/248515217/why-chaucer-said-ax-instead-of-ask-and-why-some-still-do