Mr. Skeat classes the final e's as (1) Essen tial, (2) Grammatical, and (3) Superfluous. The Essential final e represents an Old Eng. lish or Latin termination, as stede (O. E. steda) diademe (Latin, diadema). The Grammatical final e represents a dative or a genitive case, an adjectival, a verbal, or an adverbial form. The Superfluous final e is added by license for the metre, as in line 7960, where queene represents the O. E. cwen, or in line 15,109, where betwixe is the O. E. betwcox. This license was also used, in O. E. at least, in the cases of cwen and betweox, quoted by Mr. Skeat. Cwene is found in the "Ancren Riwle ;" betwixe in Layamon, a century before Chaucer; cwena was used by Alfred the Great in the ninth century, and cwene by the writer of the Chronicle, in the eleventh century. Mr. Skeat's views concerning the final e are essentially those of Tyrwhitt, Child, Ellis, and Morris. Professor Child has published an elaborate inquiry into its use in the paper contributed to the "Memoirs of the American Academy," already mentioned, the principa. portions of which are incorporated in the ex tensive work, above referred to, on Early Eng ON READING CHAUCER. ci ish Pronunciation, by A. J. Ellis, published by the Early English Text and Chaucer Socie ties. Exception was taken to the views of Mr. Skeat by the late Professor Joseph Payne, of the Philological Society, whose hypothesis is presented in an essay published by the Chaucer Society in 1874. Mr. Payne held that "when Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, the final e had become little more than a modal orthographic note of spelling, scarcely, if at all, recognized in common parlance, while at the same time the use of it as an element of rhythmical composition was freely admitted. It was therefore adopted at the will of the poet, wherever thought necessary, in the middle of his verse (except at the sectional pause, where as a rule it was silent), but not at the end, where it was unnecessary." There is little difficulty with regard to the consonants, though the following hints will be of service. C is hard before a, o, u, and consonants, as cow, clerk; soft before e, i, and y, as cell, city : and never sh, as in vicious, which should be pronounced vi-si-us. Ch is always hard, as in cheese, and is some times sounded like k, in words from the Greek, as christen. It S final was frequently sharp, as in hiss. was never sounded like sh, or zh, as in vision, which was pronounced in three syllables. Tion, sion, cion, were pronounced sž-on. U consonant is equivalent to v, though the use of u and v is irregular in the MSS., and is no followed in the present text. Y consonant has the sound of y in yet, but y vowel was usually sounded like i in pin. The chief vowel sounds are the following: A long is equivalent to a in father, alms. The sound of a in same did not arise till two centuries after Chaucer. A short is like no sound now heard in received English. It is the continental short a, heard in the French chat. Aa is equivalent to a long, above. Ai is equivalent to ah'ee. The sound in wai is modern. Au, aw, are equivalent to ah'oo (not as in Paul). Ay is equivalent to ah'ee, as ai above. E long is equivalent to ai in pair, e in there E short is equivalent to e in met. ON READING CHAUCER. ciii Ea is equivalent to ea in break. The sound in seal is modern. Ee is equivalent to e in there. Ei, ey, are equivalent to ah'ee, as in aye now. Eo is equivalent to e in there; not as in people. Es final is generally pronounced. Eu, ew, are equivalent to ui, or the German ü, or the French long u. Ge final, or before a or o in French words, is equivalent to j. Sometimes the e of ge final was omitted. I long is equivalent to ee in meek, nearly. The present sound of i in sine was never given to that letter, but was represented by y.1 I short is equivalent to i in pit. in 1 In an essay published by the Chaucer Society in 1878, entitled "Here" and "There" in Chaucer, by R. F. Weymouth, Doctor of Literature, the conclusions of Mr. Ellis regarding the sounds of e, i, ei, and ai are excepted to at considerable length. Mr. Weymouth argues (1) that "here' and the words that rhyme with it were probably sounded in Chaucer's time with the same vowel as in the present day;" (2) "that i in Chaucer's time was diphthongal, or approaching he sound that symbol still represents in" mine, drive; (3) that ai and ei were equivalent to ey in they, ay in day. Mr. Weymouth considers that the words rhyming with "here" and "there Chaucer fall into two classes, which rhyme among themselves only, the exceptions (out of the twelve hundred and forty-six cases in Chaucer) being eighty-nine, or little over seven per cent., - less than the percentage of imperfect rhymes in Cowper, Byron, Keats, Scott, Morris, and other modern poets. The words that he finds most frequently rhyming with "here" are dere, deer, manere, mater, bachiler, bokeler, neer, fere (companion), appeere, peer, com Peer, spere (sphere), frere emispere, lere Among those rhyming with "there" are were, bear, jorbear, here (her), spere (spear), swe fere (fear), ere (ear), where. Te is equivalent to e in there. The sound in sieve is modern. O long is equivalent to oa in boar. the same value. Oo had O short is equivalent to o in got, nearly. 1. Oo in boot was the most common, as in schoures, flour, pourchase, south, ploughman, pronounced shoo'ress, floor, poorchass, sooth, ploochman. In the last example ch stands for the sound of ch in the Scotch loch, and the German licht. 2. U in pull, put. This is not very common, but is found in boucleer, of which the last syllable is sounded like ere in there. This is found in 3. Ou in soul, ow in snow. words having aw, or ow in very Early English. Yknow, though, i-kno-oo, tho-oo-ch. Ow has the sounds of ou just mentioned. Ulong is equivalent to the German # and ccurs in French words only. The u in tune comes near it. U short is equivalent to u in bull, never u in but. W vowel is equivalent to u, or oo, as wde herberwe, oodë, herberoo. |