Introduction to Chaucer's Language

Before we begin to read from Chaucer's works, we will spend a little time working on reading Middle English aloud-- because one of the best ways to learn how to read Middle English, is to learn how to hear it. This page gives you some very basic tools for pronouncing the language. Note that all of this is quite simplified: there are exceptions to most of the rules noted below. For more precise instructions, exercises, and samples, visit some of the links below. I have concentrated on the vowels because they seem to cause the most trouble. I have used modern word equivalents for the sounds (rather than phonetic symbols). These rules are drawn from Helge Kökeritz, A Guide to Chaucer's Pronunciation.

Short Vowels

a - as in German Mann or French patte

e - as in bed

i, y - as in sit

o - as in dog

u - as in put

When is a vowel short? Single vowels before single or double consonants usually are short if the same word has a short vowel today. Exceptions are words like bread, breath, dead, heaven, where the vowel is like French père; and gone and hot, where the vowel is like law.

Long Vowels

a, aa - as in German Vater or French art

e, ee, ie - as in German sehen, French été: use this sound when the modern word has a sound like he, see

e, ee - as in there: use this sound when the modern word has -ea, as in speak, dream, and also head, bread

i, y - as in see

o, oo - as in German Sohn, French chose: use this sound when the modern word is like food, good, blood, other

o, oo - as in law: use this sound when the modern word is like most, stone, throat

u - as in French tu

When is a vowel long? Single vowels and digraphs (a combination of two letters to represent one sound, as in sea or see) are long if the modern word has a long vowel or a diphthong. Words spelled with -oo today are always long, even if we now pronounce them with short vowels. There are exceptions to these notes about long vowels: these include the fact that a and o are usually short when followed by f, s, th, and r.

Diphthongs

ai, ay, ei, ey - aim for something between the sounds in lake and like

au, aw - a bit like the sound in house

eu, ew - rather like few; while there is another, somewhat different sound also corresponding to this spelling, this sound should get you started

ou, ow, ough - as in moon: use this sound when the modern word is like house, course, or through

ou, ow, ough - rather like know: use this sound when the modern word has a similar sound, or, before -ght, a sound as in law

A Few Notes on Consonants

The -g isn't pronounced in -gn in a word of French origin, such as regne

The -gh sound is rather like -ch in German

Initial "gi-" is pronounced like the "g" in modern English "age"; this sound can also be spelled with a "j"

Initial h- is silent in loanwords from French, like hautain

Roll your r's, if you can: initial r- was probably still trilled even in Chaucer's language, and in more northern dialects, the r- probably has even more force, wherever it occurs

Pronounce initial consonants in words like knight (think of Monty Python: "You and all your silly English ke-nigits!); both consonants in words like half are also pronounced

Faking It

While I encourage you to use the other resources listed here to learn to pronounce Middle English more precisely, what I'm most interested in is that you should get some sense of how Chaucer's poetry works through its sounds. As with other languages, you need to have the nerve to make mistakes in order to progress to oral reading. Many people find they can at least start the process by using vowel-sound equivalents from various European languages: you'll notice that French and German are both used in the simplified outline on this page.

Follow these links for a more precise account of Middle English pronunciation:

Teach yourself to read Chaucer is a series of online lessons, with sound files

Chaucer's Pronunciation, Grammar, and Vocabulary, from the Harvard Chaucer page, outlines the sounds of Chaucer's language

The Chaucer Metapage Audio Files lets you hear a variety of experts reading aloud from Chaucer

Texts for the Study of Chaucer's Language is another course page on language