How do I pronounce Middle English?

Chaucer's English comes after the stickier Germanic rules of Old Anglo-Saxon and before the Great Vowel Shift. On top of that, there are many similarities to Modern English, especially when it comes to consonants. In other words, the basics should be easy to pick up.

Orthography, or spelling, in Middle English is in a period of transition. If you traveled around England in 1300 and asked five literate people to spell a word, for certain words, you'd get five different spellings. Geoffrey Chaucer made a rough attempt to standardize spelling (even he spells the same word various ways in his works). We'll discuss features of dialects other than "Chaucer English", but we'll use his speech, and his spelling, as a starting point in all cases.

Middle English Consonants

Most consonant sounds act like English. Since consonants in most words are nearly identical to their Modern English counterparts, let's focus on the differences.

  • By default, the letters /th/ and /f/ are voiceless like in "thing" and "fish". They are only voiced (like "this" and "of") between two vowels:

    ferne, fowles, forward, oft VS. fyfe, ofer, efer
    that, thoghte, thonder VS. bathen, sothe, fother

  • The letters /gh/ or /h/ (depending on spelling) represent the 'hard h' sound in German "ach" or Scottish "loch" between /a/, /o/, /u/ and a consonant. They represent the 'soft h' of German "ich" or English "heehee!" between /e/ or /i/ and a consonant:

    night, ih VS. ynogh, oght, draught

  • The combination /wh/ represents the sound of "h" + "w" (like an "h" pronounced just before the start of the Modern English version of the word):

    whanne, what, who VS. wende, wo, wissen

  • The two letters /ng/ sound like "finger", not like the simple velar 'n' of "singing":

    fingeres

  • The letter /s/ sounds like "seem", unless it's between two vowels, then it's like "please":

    seyde, sothe VS. cosin

  • The sound of /r/ is typically "trilled", like Spanish "r" (but not "rr").

    rood, ferne

  • The /k/ is pronounced in word initial /kn/:

    knight (or kniht)

  • Especially in older texts (closer to Old English), special characters appear, notably the letter þ ("thorn") and the letter ð ("edh"). Þorn and eð represent the sound /th/, and follow the pronunciation guide for /th/ above.

Middle English Vowels

Vowels are a bit trickier, but here are a few rules to get you pronouncing Middle English vowels in no time. Note that long vowels come before a single consonant or on their own at the end of a word. Short vowels, on the other hand, are found before two consonants or before a single consonant at the end of a word. Any vowel written double (aa, ee, oo, uu) is long.

  • Before two consonants (or before a single consonant at the end of a word), vowels tend to be short. /a/ sounds like "pat", /e/ like "let", /i/ like "sit", /o/ like British "rob", /u/ like a shorter version of "soon".

  • When it's not stressed ("unstressed" or "unaccented"), the vowel /e/ tends to have a neutral schwa sound, like /e/ in "angel":

    engel, tendre

  • Long /a/ sounds like a lengthened version of "father" (pronounced for a slightly longer time). Short /a/ sounds more like "pat".

    name (or naame) VS. bak

  • Long /e/ sometimes sounds like the /e/ of "they" and other times like the /e/ of "let" (both sounds held out for a longer time). Short /e/ sounds like "let":

    sweete, breeth, mete VS. tendre

  • Long /i/ or /y/ sounds like "seem", while short /i/ or /y/ sounds like "sit" or "seem" pronounced for a shorter amount of time:

    my, ire VS. ynogh

  • Long /o/ sometimes sounds like "boo" and other times like British "rock" (both for a slightly longer time). Short /o/ always sounds like the /o/ in British "rock":

    good, wo VS. oft, holt

  • Long /u/ sounds like "cue", while short /u/ sounds like "full":

    nature VS. unstraunge

  • The diphthong /ei/ is spelled "ei", "ey", "ay" or "ai", and sounds a bit like "whey":

    they, day

  • In older inscriptions, documents, works and texts (nearer to Old English), you may find vowels with a macron (a bar) written above (like nāme). The macron simply tells you that the vowel is long, and follows the pronunciation guides above for long vowels.

Who are you? & Middle / Old English Resources

Native Language offers language learning materials of all kinds, like this free site teaching basic Middle English pronunciation and grammar.

Native Language sells Native Grammar: How Languages Work, which is a good introduction to the backbones of language, with challenging, hands-on exercises and activities.

I use an old (1933) edition of The Poetical Works of Chaucer, edited by Robinson and published by Houghton Mifflin. More to date, the Norton Critical and Riverside editions have the original text with commentary, whereas many versions (like the popular Penguin edition) are actually translations of Chaucer. Penguin Classics does offer a version with the original spelling, however.

Good Middle English course books are hard to find. A Book of Middle English teaches basic grammar & pronunciation, and has plenty of reading exercises from 1100-1400 AD. If you're somewhat of a linguist at heart, try An Introduction to Middle English.

Teach Yourself Old English is a great course for beginners looking to read even older material like Beowulf.

The Germanic Languages, edited by König and Van Der Auerwa, has a detailed article on Old and Middle English, as well as one on the modern language, with overviews on phonology, morphology, lexis, syntax and historical comparative info. If that means nothing to you, best to move on.