Evolution of English
The Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales represents a collection of old English consequently it is possible to compare it to the modern English. Considering the various elements of reading, spelling pronunciation, vocabulary, I realized some words or phrases that I could easily identify with while some I could not (Chaucer). For instance, I could easily recognize the words, drope, wo, gret, liquor and Lorde’s. The words have a closer similarity to the modern English, especially when considering how they are spelled or pronounced. For instance, in gret that should be great in modern English, the former makes use of short syllable as compared to the additional vowel in the latter (making it have long syllable). Just by pronouncing the word, it gives a close proximity to the modern English I identify. Further, in the word drope, which have the meaning of drop in modern English, I easily recognized it because of the easy identification that there is only a change in the syllables. The former have a long syllable, because of the additional e at the end while the former have short syllable. I recognized liquor because of the preformed opinion in modern English that it always means something liquid. For the lorde, I also realized that there was addition of the vowel e making its pronunciation to become different to the modern, Lord. However, I experienced a hard time in recognizing such words like eke, abbot able, thilke. i was not able to recognize eke since there was no element of similar pronunciation or spelling to the meaning in modern English. As mentioned by the Merriam-Webster, the word may mean also in the modern English. Further, abbot ringed no meaning because neither did it have any element of rhyming word in the text nor did it have any similarity in pronunciation or spelling to any modern word. In modern English, the word implies the superior monastery for men. The reasons apply the same to thilke, which, according to Librarius means that in modern English (Librarius).
When reviewing the introduction and general prologue of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, I realized that English have undergone some modifications particularly when looking at the specific words used in different subsequent eras. First, I realized that the spellings, vocabularies pronunciation grammar and appearance brought much difference between the three eras of English (old, middle and modern). First reason for the differences is that most of the words in old English owed their origin to other languages such as German and French. For instance, there was use of heorte (German) instead of heart as used in the modern English. The change in time, have led to the modification of the words giving rise to the modern English. Further, the appearance between the old English and modern English may also differ because the former preferred the usage of Latin alphabets; something that does not the latter does not have. Þ (in old English) implies th (in modern English). Another reason for the grammatical change in English is Norse influence, which made the old English to add some endings, especially vowels, to word roots. For example, in drope (OE) instead of drop (ME) there is addition of e in order to indicate the 3rd person singular subject “he droped”. Further, some words, which exist in the modern English, do not occur in the old English because of the borrowing from other languages. For instance, pork and beef are French words used to refer meat of swine and cow respectively in modern English, unlike to old English when these did not exist.
Work cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Cantebury Tales. Retrieved from: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/webcore/murphy/canterbury/
Librarius. Middle English Glossary. 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.librarius.com/gy.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abbot
