How much of Richard III's language would we understand?

We would understand a great deal. English came close to being wiped
out except as a peasant language in the two centuries following the
Norman conquest in 1066, but worked its way up through the ranks and
slowly displaced Norman French as the Norman nobility assimilated and
lost its connection with Normandy. As a Ricardian you will be aware
that Latin and French were the official languages of law and official
communication in England until the reign of -- you guessed it --
Richard III. His Act One (and only, I believe) restored the use of
English as an official language.

You might find it helpful to read Chaucer (d. 1400) in the original.
I'd guess you will not have much difficulty. Chaucer is the first
major writer in English to rejoice in the vernacular; you'll notice
that he does away with the grammatical gender (der, die, das -- le,
la, les) that continue to burden the source languages of English.
(Although "his", meaning "its" -- cf. German "sein"--persisted for
another century and more. Shakespeare didn't use the possessive "its"
until his final play.) To get a really great grip on the language of
Richard III, read Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur --
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/index.htm or
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/125 . Published by William Caxton,
Malory's Morte d'Arthur is said to have been the first secular book
published in England on Gutenberg's movable type. Most sources say
that it was publsihed in 1485 (a significant year for Richard III)
but I have seen an old engraving the caption of which describes
Caxton kneeling to present the first off-the-press copy of Morte
d'Arthur to Edward IV. Which is rather odd when you think of it:
Malory wrote most of it while he was imprisoned in the Tower during
Edward's reign.

Anyway, if you have no trouble reading Malory, you would have had
little trouble understanding the language of Richard. (I spent four
years researching precedents in English usage when I was writing
"Dark Sovereign" in Shakespeare's English to compete with the Bard's
"Richard III". You can find a sample on my site, www.RobertFripp.ca.

Cheers,

Robert
--
Robert Fripp,
Freelance writer, and author of...
- "Power of a Woman" (Memoirs of Eleanor of Aquitaine)
- "Let There Be Life" (Thoughts on life and our cosmos), and more.
Email: r_fripp@... ~ Tel: 416 481 7070 x 29
URLs: http://RobertFripp.ca ~ http://writers.ca

You're right about Chaucer. When I was an English teacher, I taught some
of Chaucer's stories in translation to grade XII tech students. For a
lark, I presented the students with some passages of Chaucer in the
original. They understood it perfectly, although they used modern
pronunciations.

You're also right about Malory, who gives us an excellent feel for late
fifteenth century English.

Robert Fripp wrote:
>
> We would understand a great deal. English came close to being wiped
> out except as a peasant language in the two centuries following the
> Norman conquest in 1066, but worked its way up through the ranks and
> slowly displaced Norman French as the Norman nobility assimilated and
> lost its connection with Normandy. As a Ricardian you will be aware
> that Latin and French were the official languages of law and official
> communication in England until the reign of -- you guessed it --
> Richard III. His Act One (and only, I believe) restored the use of
> English as an official language.
>
> You might find it helpful to read Chaucer (d. 1400) in the original.
> I'd guess you will not have much difficulty. Chaucer is the first
> major writer in English to rejoice in the vernacular; you'll notice
> that he does away with the grammatical gender (der, die, das -- le,
> la, les) that continue to burden the source languages of English.
> (Although "his", meaning "its" -- cf. German "sein"--persisted for
> another century and more. Shakespeare didn't use the possessive "its"
> until his final play.) To get a really great grip on the language of
> Richard III, read Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur --
> http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/index.htm
> <http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/index.htm> or
> http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/125
> <http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/125> . Published by William Caxton,
> Malory's Morte d'Arthur is said to have been the first secular book
> published in England on Gutenberg's movable type. Most sources say
> that it was publsihed in 1485 (a significant year for Richard III)
> but I have seen an old engraving the caption of which describes
> Caxton kneeling to present the first off-the-press copy of Morte
> d'Arthur to Edward IV. Which is rather odd when you think of it:
> Malory wrote most of it while he was imprisoned in the Tower during
> Edward's reign.
>
> Anyway, if you have no trouble reading Malory, you would have had
> little trouble understanding the language of Richard. (I spent four
> years researching precedents in English usage when I was writing
> "Dark Sovereign" in Shakespeare's English to compete with the Bard's
> "Richard III". You can find a sample on my site, www.RobertFripp.ca.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Robert
> --
> Robert Fripp,
> Freelance writer, and author of...
> - "Power of a Woman" (Memoirs of Eleanor of Aquitaine)
> - "Let There Be Life" (Thoughts on life and our cosmos), and more.
> Email: r_fripp@... <mailto:r_fripp%40impactg.com> ~ Tel: 416
> 481 7070 x 29
> URLs: http://RobertFripp.ca <http://RobertFripp.ca> ~
> http://writers.ca <http://writers.ca>
>
>
>
>

I have been out-of -town for a while but I was interested to read a
message from Robert Fripp on my return. I have a copy of "Dark
Sovereign" - got it years ago from some mail order advert in British
Heritage! Glad to "meet" the suthor, if only on the Internet!

L.M.L.,
Janet

--- In , Robert Fripp
<r_fripp@...> wrote:
>
> We would understand a great deal. English came close to being
wiped
> out except as a peasant language in the two centuries following
the
> Norman conquest in 1066, but worked its way up through the ranks
and
> slowly displaced Norman French as the Norman nobility assimilated
and
> lost its connection with Normandy. As a Ricardian you will be
aware
> that Latin and French were the official languages of law and
official
> communication in England until the reign of -- you guessed it --
> Richard III. His Act One (and only, I believe) restored the use of
> English as an official language.
>
> You might find it helpful to read Chaucer (d. 1400) in the
original.
> I'd guess you will not have much difficulty. Chaucer is the first
> major writer in English to rejoice in the vernacular; you'll
notice
> that he does away with the grammatical gender (der, die, das --
le,
> la, les) that continue to burden the source languages of English.
> (Although "his", meaning "its" -- cf. German "sein"--persisted for
> another century and more. Shakespeare didn't use the
possessive "its"
> until his final play.) To get a really great grip on the language
of
> Richard III, read Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur --
> http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/index.htm or
> http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/125 . Published by William Caxton,
> Malory's Morte d'Arthur is said to have been the first secular
book
> published in England on Gutenberg's movable type. Most sources
say
> that it was publsihed in 1485 (a significant year for Richard III)
> but I have seen an old engraving the caption of which describes
> Caxton kneeling to present the first off-the-press copy of Morte
> d'Arthur to Edward IV. Which is rather odd when you think of it:
> Malory wrote most of it while he was imprisoned in the Tower
during
> Edward's reign.
>
> Anyway, if you have no trouble reading Malory, you would have had
> little trouble understanding the language of Richard. (I spent
four
> years researching precedents in English usage when I was writing
> "Dark Sovereign" in Shakespeare's English to compete with the
Bard's
> "Richard III". You can find a sample on my site,
www.RobertFripp.ca.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Robert
> --
> Robert Fripp,
> Freelance writer, and author of...
> - "Power of a Woman" (Memoirs of Eleanor of Aquitaine)
> - "Let There Be Life" (Thoughts on life and our cosmos), and more.
> Email: r_fripp@... ~ Tel: 416 481 7070 x 29
> URLs: http://RobertFripp.ca ~ http://writers.ca
>
>
>

One of my favourite English placenames with silly pronunciations is
Oswaldtwistle (ozzle-twissle) on the Lancashire/Yorkshire boundary.

some newbies to our area from the south were talkng about having gone
to Outright'n. It was Outrington (pronounced OOT-ring-ton).

By the by, Katy, just wondered if you've received the last couple of
emails I sent (one about 3 weeks ago). no pressure.

Marie