In this bonus episode of the regular podcast, we explore the effects of the Great Vowel Shift on the pronunciation of English by reading Geoffrey Chaucer’s last known poem in Middle English, early Modern English and contemporary English.
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This episode was very enjoyable, Kevin. I’m looking forward to discovering Early Modern English through your delightful podcast. Happy holidays!
Kevin, wishing you a joy-filled holiday season.
I enjoy your podcasts so much! It even is wonderful for giving some background to non-native speakers for our anomalous spelling systems. It’s a revelation to learn that there is no evil intent behind all the complexity!
Wishing you a happy and productive 2021.
Jack Barry
Bolton, MA, USA
This is the best podcast! Very interesting and it explains some of the irregularities of the speaking and pronunciation of the English language.
Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying it.
Wonderful! I hear the vowel-sing-song of the Frisian language in your 13th century reading of “curtesye” and “dye”.
Dutch, Danish and Frisian helped me read The Canterbury Tales but hearing the language spoken is astonishing. Opening up a whole new world. Thank you very much. Anna
Hi Kevin,
Just wondering: why do you say use “ye” instead of “you” in the modern reading?
Thx
I originally included an additional reading in contemporary English with the ye’s changed to you’s, but when I listened back to the episode, it was too repetitive. So I just deleted the final reading and left the ye’s as they were.