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 A tentative blog to test the temperature. |
| English Today a phrase that has haunted my life popped into my head again. It goes like this: Sumer is icumen in It’s middle English for “Summer has arrived,” and illustrates how the early forms of English both baffle us and yet still have an aura of familiarity. It’s remembered because it’s the title of a medieval English folk song. Here’s the first verse with a translation (thanks Wikipedia): Middle English Sumer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu Groweþ sed And bloweþ med And springþ þe wde nu Sing cuccu Modern English Summer has arrived Loudly sing cuccu The seed is growing And the meadow is blooming And the wood is coming into leaf now Sing cuccu! I should explain the þ symbol is pronounced as th. It looks as though the main difference between the middle and modern is the spelling. Read it aloud and the meaning begins to come through. Obviously, it helps to know that the letter e could be pronounced as a modern e or as ee. Perhaps the real wonder in it all is that Shakespeare’s English is still understandable to us, with a little thought in places, of course. If we go back to the original Anglo Saxon, we’re completely lost. And Anglo Saxon was spoken the same amount of time before Shakespeare as there is between his time and ours. What makes all the difference is the arrival of the Normans in between Anglo and the bard. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about today. Word count: 251 |
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