Re: Middle English question

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Patrick Dunn wrote:
> > OE is more my field, but the general rules are:
> >
> > final e's pronounced as /@/
> > a vowel before a final e is long, unless followed by double consonants (so
> > "hadde" is a short a, but the e in speke is long
> > doubled vowels are long
> > y pronounced like /i/.
> > Most vowels have their eupropean equivelents.
>
> So, something like:
> [he: aks@d after eg@s and Te: go:d@ wif answerd@ Tat Se: cu:d@ spe:k@
> no: frenS@ and Ten at last a no:Ter sEd Tat he: wu:ld@ ha:v@ had@ ej:r@n
> Ten Te: go:d@ wif sEd Tat Se: understo:d him wel]?
I believe so.  Remember that the /w/ in answerde is pronounced, too.  They
really didn't have much of that silent letter nonsense.