Doesn't sound like a yank reading it to me. Sounds very much like an
educated regional English voice.
I've never been sure whether those silent letters were originally
pronounced - I suspect they were and that it's not just a poetic
device. The 'k' in knighte for instance.. Some of it was Germanic,
coming through from Old English, so a terminal 'e' in tale might well
have been sounded. There have been major shifts - 'bird' was once
'brid', 'king' was 'cyninge'. Tricky innit?
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 10/06/2010, at 1:50 AM, Joel Wilcox wrote:
> The sound file illustrates the consonants and otherwise silent letters
> that need to be pronounced to get Chaucer's poetry to scan, among
> other things. As for the "sound" of it -- it sounds like a Yank down
> the street doing a reading. If I read a passage of Don Quixote in
> Castilian Spanish, I might illustrate some peculiarities of the
> dialect, but I can guarantee I'd sound like a Yank doing it. Not what
> the sound file is meant to illustrate, I think.
--
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