chiknes chickens
koude could
londoun London
pye pie
shyne shin
blankmanger blancmange
daggere dagger
hoote somer hot summer
broun brown
felawe fellow
wyn wine
moone moon
berd beard
Spayne Spain
- What do you notice when you compare the spellings?
- What often happens to the letter 'y'?
- What happens to the final 'e's?
Return to the first page and listen to the audio with your answers.
- Which words do we no longer use?
- What do you notice about word order?
- What do you notice about the way the words are pronounced? The final 'e's? The vowels?
Can you find other inflections? (tellen, seyn, yhad)?
Chaucer could see the language change, even in his lifetime:
He wrote: "and certaynly our language now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was vsed and spoken whan I was borne"
- Ask an older person if they have noticed much change since they were young. It could be useful to jot down the differences they remember as you might be able to use them in an assignment.
