Reading Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, I realized I could understand quite a bit.

It helps that I’ve been in more contact with older forms of English for the last few years, so I’m gradually getting myself accustomed to the different words.

I’m pretty fascinated by the change of the language, but also how much of it I can recognize from 7 centuries ago. Talking with a Japanese lady that works with me, she told me Japanese has changed so radically that she wouldn’t understand much of what Emperor Hirohito spoke in recorded audio from before World War II. The fact that I can read a fair amount of middle English, as well as Italian from that time too, is pretty cool.

Chaucer was probably written in the late 1300’s. It seems to have been a time of pretty rapid change.

If I look at the Ormulum from the 12th century, I’m going to understand very little, without help.

Some of that is the use of older letter forms- like the þ in place of th.

But by the 14th century, I’m able to grasp quite a bit more. Reading Chaucer still requires me to look up words every line or two, but if I read it phonetically, and sound it out the way those words sound today, it’s fully comprehensible. I did read a passage to my wife the other day, though, while she was looking at what I was reading, and while she could hear me saying the words, it was baffling to her how I got that from the words on the page.

Contrasting the fact that I can read it easier with a lot of practice, I found a video where a guy was reading the text as it would have sounded in Chaucer’s day. Just listening to it…. I didn’t understand as much. I can guess that if were transported back to that time, I’d be pretty lost.  

The accent on the video sounds like a brit approximating the swedish chef from the muppets, which, I’m just gonna take his word for it that this is what Chaucer’s English would have sounded like, but to be honest… I have no reference for whether he’s right or wrong. The video link is here.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Prologue in Middle English (Not Complete)

But I did listen to a bit of the book while I was reading along. And it’s a trip to hear how he pronounced -ght words- much more like the German nicht. I love seeing the progression of language though and I want to give a particular thanks for an incredible explanation I received about the past participle form from German to English. It was informative and exactly what I was looking for, and I can count myself the more knowledgeable for it.  

Since the current volume of Poetry is more or less chronological, I’m guessing I will need such knowledge for a bit as I journey through time with the heritage of English poetry.