/lit/ - Literature

Iambic pentameter, I suppose. But an annotated edition in ME, like the Riverside Chaucer, along with a basic understanding of ME phonetics and lexic, should suffice.

> Modern English Translation

What's the fucking point? You may as well just read a Jersey Shore plot.

One reads Chaucer *for* the language.

>>8961339
>translation
>of the Canterbury Tales
You can be better than that, OP.

Whan that Aprill with his showeres soote
Of which vertu is engendered the roote
Than will folkes something something something

>>8961374
Hahaha I failed so hard at remembering that

>>8961339
The meter it's written in. Is this a trick question?

But seriously, read the original or die a pleb.

>>8961354
>>8961362
>>8961374
>>8961384
>>8961408
Alright lads I get that it's pleb to read it in Modern English, so does anyone have any good ways to learn Middle English?

>>8961339
Eastern European Linguistics student here. I could read the majority of it by 2nd year into my undergrad years with a word I'd truly have no idea every 10th line but even then there would be a gloss
it's truly embarassing (or betrays lack of faith in your English and intelligence) to read a translation, everything comes through if you get used to it. Start with the prologue, the miller's tale, the knight's, then the pardoner's, and by the time you are done with those you'll be good enough at reading it.

>>8961432
>>8961452
didn't see your post but what I wrote applies largely
you learn it by practice and through observing regular change, such as the affix y- at the beginning of verbs denoting past tense (ycleped - called, yherd - hairy (lit. haired)), -en or -n to express plural 3rd person present tense verbs (longen - they long; maken - they make), these are largely in the gloss of any proper edition, and once you notice the pattern it will be very easy for you to read and understand, you won't have to stop and check anymore

there are also rules to pronunciation, which you can easily learn by listening to academic recordings of the reconstructed accent

>>8961432
just to help with an example.

But, sires, now wol I telle forth my tale. wol - will
Thise riotoures thre, of whiche I telle, rioture - you can use your modern english here to guess this will mean something close to rioter, like debaucher, idler etc which is the original meaning.
Longe erst er prime rong of any belle, rong- rang
Were set hem in a taverne for to drynke. hem- them, themselves
And as they sat, they herde a belle clynke
Biforn a cors, was caried to his grave. cors - corpse

It did surprise almost every linguist I talk to how accessible some ME texts are, and this is one of them. Now that doesn't apply to the whole corpus, there is stuff that is very hard to understand (...Wurþen men suiðe ofuundred and ofdred, and sæden ðat micel þing sculde cumen herefter: sua dide, for þat ilc gær warth þe king ded ðat oþer dæi efter Sancte Andreas massedæi on Normandi...), but the Tales have been read by laymen ever since it came out and people have been able to appreciate it. Here's a poet born not even 100 years after Chaucer making the argument that he be read in the original:
In Chaucer I am sped,
His Tales I have read:
His matter is delectable,
Solacious, and commendable;
His English well allowed,
So as it is enprowed,
For as it is employed,
There is no English void,
At those days much commended;
And now men would have amended
His English, whereat they bark,
And mar all they wark.
Chaucer, that famous clerk,
His termes were not dark,
But pleasant, easy, and plain;
No word he wrote in vain.

>>8961339

>Modern English Translation of The Canterbury Tales

>>8961464
> affix y- at the beginning of verbs denoting past tense
Not strictly the 'past tense', as this denotes the past participle. In German this is 'ge-' (like 'sehen' 'to see' and 'gesehen' 'seen'). In the evolution of English, this Germanic 'ge' became 'ye', and eventually the 'e' was elided, leaving 'y' (and ultimately losing that in ME).

>>8961507
> Longe erst er prime rong of any belle, rong- rang
As an aside, this switching of the 'o' and 'a' beside nasals still occurs in northern English and Scottish accents.

wrong becomes wrang
strong becomes strang
man becomes mon
etc.

>>8961652
I typed all that up in a hurry, but of course you are perfectly right. I do Old English as well so I am aware of the ge- prefix.

also, interestingly, Scots does that, indeed with long vowels too, at least Middle Scots and certain parts in PD Scots such as Caithness:
moan -> mane
alone -> alane
home -> hame
bone -> bane

>>8961432
It's not even a whole different language, it's just English with weird spelling and archaic phrases. A few hours of study should acclimate yourself to it.