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NanakiXIII Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Ye Olde English?

This is not a grammar question, but I didn't know where else to put it.
I'm looking to learn a bit of the older English. Not medievil, just from a couple of centuries ago. (Where does was still logically doth.) Does anyone know any sites where I could learn a bit?
  

Top answer

I've been looking for exactly the same thing myself, but I haven't had a great deal of success in finding much. org/wiki/Middle_English "]Middle English[/url]. But I'd LOVE for someone else to tell us more.

  • I've been looking for exactly the same thing myself, but I haven't had a great deal of success in finding much.
  • org/wiki/Middle_English "]Middle English[/url].
  • But I'd LOVE for someone else to tell us more.
  • Rommie
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12 Answers
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I've been looking for exactly the same thing myself, but I haven't had a great deal of success in finding much. The best thing I've found so far is the Wikipedia entry on [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English"]Middle English[/url]. But I'd LOVE for someone else to tell us more.

Rommie
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NanakiXII-
I'd suggest looking at an anthology of early English literature. Older works are printed in their mostly original forms, and obsolete words and grammatical structures are explained in footnotes at the bottom of the page. Anthologies are a good place to start because they allow you to look at the work of many different authors over a long period of time. If you become inter
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Thanks for your replies. Though I'd like some more replies, does anyone else know any sites?
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Sorry, posted the wrong link and can't find the correct one. Oops.
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Well if no one knows any, can anyone tell me what verbs in the past simple end in?
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Verbs in the simple past end in "-ed". So Modern English "played" is Middle English "pleyed". That "-ed" is called a 'dental suffix' and is a common feature of the simple past of WEAK verbs in all Germanic languages. NOTE: the "e" in the "-ed" was usually voiced in Middle English. It is pronounced like a schwa.
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Thanks, Nestor. But..what's a schwa?
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A "Schwa" is a slightly pronounced vowel sound in unstressed syllables (represented as an upside down e in International Phonetic Abc).
Example the sound of "a" in ago /?'gou/, the sound of "o" in harmony, or the sound of "e" in father (when the "r" is not pronounced, as in British Standard English).
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Well if no one knows any, can anyone tell me what verbs in the past simple end in?


The website I gave you in the very first reply to your post ([url=""]Wikipedia[/url]) DOES answer that question.

You might like to look at it.
Rommie

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