{"id":405,"date":"2021-08-12T19:47:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T19:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/?page_id=405"},"modified":"2024-12-12T15:39:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T15:39:08","slug":"consonants-and-vowels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/chaucer-aloud\/consonants-and-vowels\/","title":{"rendered":"Pronunciation: Tips and Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"consonants\">Consonants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The pronunciation of consonants in Chaucer\u2019s language resembles that in our own (though it is believed that Chaucer would have rolled his \u2018r\u2019s and that he would have pronounced the \u2018k\u2019 in the combination \u2018kn\u2019 as in \u2018knight\u2019).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"vowels\">Vowels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is in its vowel sounds that Chaucer\u2019s English differs significantly&nbsp;from the English we speak. Learning these few sounds makes it easy to pronounce Chaucer\u2019s verse as he would have pronounced it. Listen carefully as you read along:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/files\/2024\/12\/Benson-vowels-2_1.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table aligncenter is-style-stripes\"><table class=\"has-grey-background-color has-background has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Middle English&nbsp;<\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> Sounds like Modern&nbsp;<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">i, y&nbsp;&#8220;sight, myne&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;m<strong>ee<\/strong>t&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">e, ee&nbsp;&#8220;me, meet, mete&#8221; (close e)&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;m<strong>a<\/strong>te&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">e&nbsp;&#8220;begge, rede&#8221; (open e)&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;b<strong>a<\/strong>g&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">a, aa&nbsp;&#8220;mate, maat&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;f<strong>a<\/strong>ther&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">u, ou&nbsp;&#8220;hus, hous&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;b<strong>oo<\/strong>t&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">o, oo&nbsp;&#8220;bote, boot&#8221; (close o)&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;<strong>oa<\/strong>k&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">o&nbsp;&#8220;lof, lok&#8221; (open o)&nbsp;<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"> &#8220;b<strong>ough<\/strong>t&#8221;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The vowel sounds in the modern words used to illustrate the sounds of vowels in Middle English are directly related to those earlier sounds. In a change that took centuries (but was just beginning in Chaucer\u2019s day),&nbsp;the vowels in Middle English were \u2018raised\u2019 \u2014 a physical fact and description, since, over time, the tongue was placed higher in the mouth when making these vowel sounds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consonants The pronunciation of consonants in Chaucer\u2019s language resembles that in our own (though it is believed that Chaucer would have rolled his \u2018r\u2019s and that he would have pronounced the \u2018k\u2019 in the combination \u2018kn\u2019 as in \u2018knight\u2019).&nbsp;&nbsp; Vowels It is in its vowel sounds that Chaucer\u2019s English differs significantly&nbsp;from the English we speak. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":216,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-405","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2273,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405\/revisions\/2273"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}