Aphorisms on Reading Middle English

In General

Reading Middle English can be arduous at first, but if you keep at it you may be surprised how quickly you become accustomed to it. Below are some guiding principles and helpful reminders:

  • First, get the gist of a passage/text. Understand that you won’t pick everything up on your first reading. All literature requires multiple readings to grasp the nuance of a work, but Middle English literature often requires multiple readings to simply understand what’s being said.
  • Reading a passage aloud will make that passage tour more of your brain, which in turn will make it easier to understand and easier to remember.
  • Use dictionaries and compare the Middle English text with a modernized version (if one’s available). 

Consonants

In general, Middle English consonants can be pronounced as they are in Modern English, with the following exceptions:

  • g, k, and w are pronounced at the beginning of words: knowe, gnawen, written
  • wh differs from w: white, wite
  • l is pronounced before consonants: folk, half
  • r is usually trilled: faren
  • gh is prounounced in the middle of a word: knyght, wrought
  • French-derived words are often pronounced as in French: ymagynacioun, resygne 

Vowels

Middle English distinguishes between short and long vowels in a way that differs from Modern English. The following are not absolute rules but general aids to get you started on pronunciation.

  • Short vowels can be pronounced roughly as they are in Modern English. Middle English vowels are short when followed by two consonants.
  • Long vowels can be pronounced roughly as they are in modern European languages. Middle English vowels are long when they are doubled (wood) or when they come at the end of a word (he, to, holy). A, e, and o are long when they come at the end of a syllable, i.e. when followed by a single consonant and a vowel (name, mete, note)
    • Long a can be pronounced as in Modern English “father”: maken, maad
    • Long e can be pronounced as in Modern English “name”: be, sweete
    • Long i (y) can be pronounced as in Modern English “machine”: lif, white, myn, holy
    • Long o can be pronounced as in Modern English “note”: do, soone
    • Long u (spelled ou or ow) can be pronounced as in Modern English “goose”: hous, flowr
  • Diphthongs are pronounced differently in Middle English:
    • Ai, ay, ei           between “aisle” and “day”                        saide, day, veine, preye
    • Au, aw              as in “out”                                 chaunge, bawdy
    • Eu, ew               as in “few”                                 newe
    • Oi, oy                as in “joy”                                 joye, oynement
    • Ou, ow              as in “thought”                           thought, lowe
  • The final e was sounded in Middle English (like the a in Modern English “sofa”).

Special Characters in Middle English

      Character            Name             Transliteration              Pronunciation

           þ                 Thorn                    th                       th like “the”

           Ȝ                 Yogh                      3                       gh like “night”

           ð                 Eth                        th                       th like “the”

           Ƿ                 Wynn                     w

           ß                 Eszed.                    ss

Helpful Dictionaries

Kurath, Hans, and Sherman M Kuhn, ed. Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956. <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/>.

Simpson, John, and Edmund Weiner, ed. Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. <http://oed.com>.