Re: Middle English question

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
> I tend to pronounce Middle (and Early) English as if it were
> dialect Dutch, and that works pretty well along the lines given
> here. But what I was wondering about was, how are the diphtongues
> pronounces, _ou_ especially? I guess /au/, but it might be /o/
> or even /u/...
"ou" is /u/.  When English began to be written again after the Norman
invasion, they adapted French orthography, so that, for instance, =FEruh
(/Trux/) became through, after the Great Vowel Shift, long /u:/ became
/au/, hence words like "house".  I know some things about Middle English
pronunciation, but not, for instance, when /E/ or /&/ was used.

--=20
"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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