Language and Love, c.1380

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Language and Love, c.1380

https://www.tumblr.com/youzicha/806821895775387649/glossary-eek-also-and-even-tho-at-the-time-prys?source=share

You know the form of language, too, can change.
Within a thousand years, even the words
that were most precious then, seem strange
and foolish to us; yet they spoke them so
and did no worse in love than we now do.

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It’s strange how this is quite recognizably an old version of English (bet the pronounciation is way different tho), but to actually understand the meaning of it you pretty much need a full-on translation. Even with the vocabulary provided, the grammar still throws me for a loop.

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I was curious to see if hearing the pronuciation of it would help bridge the gap at all and spent some time getting the IPA transcription of each individual word before realising that it’s Chaucer, someone has already done this better than I could

So anyway, here’s the relevant passage courtesy of Kevin Johnson over on LibriVox

For what it’s worth, I think I understood less of it in audio form than in text

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Pronunciation of English changed way more over time than spelling. Which is the whole reason why English has the verbal vocabulary and the written vocabulary, which both need to be memorized with not too much correspondence between them.

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Afaiu Chaucer wrote in vernacular English, which at the time still had many Germanic words that were replaced by Anglo-Norman vocabulary in more highbrow arts and politics. The fully Germanic Old English is nearly completely incomprehensible to a modern reader, though that includes changes in grammar as well as further changes in vocabulary.

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You’d think that would make it easier on me, a German, but I happen to know that the Germanic of Old English is based on the languages of the old saxons and angles, which are the ancestor of today’s Low German which I don’t understand, either lol

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To anyone interested in the topic, I can recommend the excellent ‘The History of English’ podcast. It puts the changes in the historical context. It’s chronological, so it’s advised to listen from the start.

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Trying to hew closer to the original grammar rather than preserve the poetry:

You know also that the forms of speech can change within a thousand years.

And words too, which at the time were prized, but now, shockingly foolish and weird we think them.

And yet they spoke them so, and succeeded as well in love as we.

A thousand years? That’s so 1380 of you, Jeff! I can think of cringey ‘80s pick-up lines that fit this standard.

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