Advertising - LEO without ads? LEO Pur
LEO

It looks like you’re using an ad blocker.

Would you like to support LEO?

Disable your ad blocker for LEO or make a donation.

LEO Pur
 
  •  

  • Forum home

    Language lab

    Pronunciation "knight" in Middle English

    5­ Replies
    Topic

    Pronunciation "knight" in Middle English

    Comment
    Hallo,

    lese gerade "Mother Tongue" von Bill Bryson. S. 119:

    "In Chaucer's day, [...] knight would have sounded (more or less) like 'kuh-nee-guh-tuh", with every letter enunciated."

    Laut Bryson soll man also im Mittelenglischen das Wort "knight" offenbar quasi buchstabiert haben.(?)

    Ich dachte aber, dass man "knight" wie das deutsche Wort "Knecht" (nur mit - deutschem - "i" statt "e") ausgesprochen hat.

    Ich habe schon gegoogelt, was mich aber noch mehr verwirrt hat. Auf der Harvard-Seite

    http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/p...

    hört sich die Aussprache des gh (unter Punkt 10) wie "ch" im deutschen Wort "ich" an, bei dem Aussprachebeispiel unter Punkt 11 aber wie wie "ch" im deutschen Wort "ach".
    Nirgendwo steht aber, dass die Aussprache des Wortes "knight" im Mittelenglischen heute umstritten ist.

    Mich würde besonders interessieren, ob es im Mittelenglischen noch den ich-Laut in Wörtern wie knight und night gab. Falls es Experten unter euch gibt, freue ich mich schon auf eure Antwort!


    AuthorSarah07 May 10, 09:28
    Comment
    Vielleicht hat Bill Bryson seine Recherche mit original Videomaterial belegt?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8H-rm6kt4 (pronunciation of "knight" at around 0.22)
    #1Author Richard (236495) 07 May 10, 09:33
    Comment
    It makes sense to me to pronounce it as if it were Knicht in German, and that's what I've always assumed. I don't know where Bryson gets the hard G from, and I doubt he has any particular expertise in Middle English. But it's all guesswork to some extent; none of us have recordings of Chaucer. (-:
    #2Author hm -- us (236141) 07 May 10, 09:42
    Comment
    @hm -- us: But it's all guesswork to some extent; none of us have recordings of Chaucer

    While I also have no specific knowledge of Middle English, I strongly suspect it's not guesswork. I think that the pronunciation of M.E. is well understood. I think that there are tried-and-true principles of historical linguistics which are quite reliable, especially for relatively recent historical languages such as M.E.

    There are some suppositions and uncertainties for languages as far back as Classical Greek (500 B.C.). But not for M.E., which ran from the 10th to the 15th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English).

    As to the question of the original post, again I'm guessing based on limited knowledge (though I do have some), but I think it's more like the German CH sound.

    There are undoubtedly some answers here: http://www.google.com/search?q=middle+english...
    #3Author eric (new york) (63613) 07 May 10, 10:24
    Comment
    I love Bill Bryson, but that book, fun as it is, is full of misunderstandings and mistakes. I wouldn't take what he says as gospel in the first place, on top of the fact that no-one actually knows what they said, and that British and American people today can't say the German "ch" sound, so can't reproduce it easily or transcribe it well if not using phonetic script.
    #4Author CM2DD (236324) 07 May 10, 10:30
    Comment
    Der ich-Laut liegt sehr nahe.

    In the sixteenth-century Complaynt of Scotland we find:

    Arthour knycht he raid on nycht
    Vith gyltin spur and candil lycht.
    #5Author Reinhard W. (237443) 07 May 10, 16:42
     
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  
 
 
 
 
 
en
English ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
en
English ⇔ Spanish
 
es
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
en
English ⇔ French
 
fr
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
en
English ⇔ Russian
 
ru
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
fr
French ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
es
Spanish ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
it
Italian ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
zh
Chinese ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
ru
Russian ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
pt
Portuguese ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
pl
Polish ⇔ German
 
de
ForumsTrainerCourses
 
es
Spanish ⇔ Portuguese
 
pt
ForumsTrainerCourses
Hello
 ­ automatisch zu ­ ­ umgewandelt