| Forum: | Medieval Life And Culture |
| Topic: | language in medieval times |
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------------------ ------------------ Secreta Secretorum ------------------ Secreta Secretorum ------------------ ------------------ Gordon.deborahknowles I am starting research for a novel which starts in the early 1300s, Edward II Battle of Bannockburn etc. I would like the speech to be as authentic as possible. Could anybody recommend any books or even translate the odd sentence? I would be most grateful! Philip Davis This is well beyond my expertise but start with reading some medieval texts. You can find a good collection on line at http://www.hti.umich.edu/c/cme/index.html
There have been enormous shifts in pronunciation in the last 700 years. In english the K of knight, knife, knee etc. which is now silent was, I believe pronouced uptill Shakespeares time.
And the astronomyours beheldyne the constellacions of hys bryth by thare castle, and foundyn that he sholde bene wyse and curteyse, good of consaill
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/index.html Philip Davis As an aside early and middle english and Scots of all ages is pretty well unintelliable to modern speakers of English. You will either have to ensure your readers have studied ME at university level or write unauthentic dialogue. You then have to decide if you are going to use 'hollywood' ME ("egad sire lo younder at ye olde tea shoppe") or use modern English.
And the astronomyours beheldyne the constellacions of hys bryth by thare castle, and foundyn that he sholde bene wyse and curteyse, good of consaill
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/index.html Glaive203 ME is no harder to read for a modern english speaker than a very slangy english dialect;but old english is more foreign than german or french. The pronounciation is however quite different than modern english.Read claxton's morte de arthur-you can get it as a double valume book from penuine and chauser to get a feel for ME.One of the biggest differences between ME and modern english is the continued use of Ich(like in german) for I and the use of "fair" as a courteous honorific like the japanese san.Of course words that you think you know the meaning of have different meanings in ME,for example,the word "pair" means a set of any number,what we call a string of pearls was called a pair of pearls in ME.There're a number of common words that have radically changed in meaning.Some like "enquest"(a hunting term denoting the initial search for animals to hunt) have taken on figurative meanings in our english.If you studied german rather than french or spanish you should have less of a problem comprehending the odd word-I've yet to encounter a good modern ME dictionary,and doubt very much that any reader will mind your using modern english mixed with a few ME nouns.You should know that Me did not have a standard spelling system and its writers delighted in spelling the same word as many different ways as they could think of-its not uncommon to find the same writer spelling the same word differently in the same paragraph even in official documents! Really the best source is the unabridged oxford dictionary-not the little one volume one;but the one about the size of the old brown book encylopedia britania-you'll find most variant spellings and contempory quotes in it;but there're some really bad definitions in it for example "targe/target".Early hoptologists[scholars of arms and armor] thought that the word targe and buckler meant the same thing-oops! Sorry for being so long winded! deborahknowles Thank you both so much. I think my best bet is Chaucer, otherwise I will probably not have started the writing until the next century! Who knows how we will speak then? I love good old Geoff's work anyway, so my research won't be too arduous! wurdsmiff English around the time you speak of was the language of the common people of England and Southern Scotland, though the Scotls had their own dialect shared with the Northumbrians and Cumbrians, parts of Scotland in earlier centuries. The nobility generally spoke French, reflecting the common Norman heritage of both countries, Generally speaking, the Scots north of the great highland fault spoke gaelic, and Bruce himself was known to be fluent in all three, useful when commanding an army of mixed culture. Written language of the time was generally in latin, though occasionally in French, and was generally compiled by ecclesiastics, since most of the nobility was illiterate and depended on the church to provide written records.
Demeure par la verite
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