On 21 Jun 2005 16:23:45 -0700, credoquaabsurdum
<credoquaabsurdum@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Chris Croughton wrote:
>
>> The way to get 'into' King James or earlier English is, basically, to
>> read it, out loud preferably. Or, an thou likest not the Bible, there
>> are more modern works which use the language correctly -- in SF/Fantasy,
>> Christopher Stasheff's "Thw Warlock In Spite of Himself" and Piers
>> Anthony's "Robot Adept" books both have extensive use of 'elder' Eglish,
>> and both tend to cause me to speak in that manner after that I do read
>> the books. There are others...
>
> 285: A clerk ther was of oxenford also,
> 286: That unto logyk hadde longe ygo.
> 287: As leene was his hors as is a rake,
[snip]
> Anthony and Stasheff didn't help me much here, unfortunately, although
> they were both on my reading list in high school.
They were? When I was at school the best we had was Tolkien ("The
Hobbit" in my first year of school; the BBC was also broadcasting their
first audio version, and out English teacher recorded it on reel-reel
tape and brought episodes in). Of course, I don't think either Anthony
or Stasheff were published back then (or at least not in UK editions)...
No, they wouldn't help much with Chaucer and earlier, but they will with
more recent English (Shakespear and later). That is, they will help to
speak it (does anyone really have trouble understanding the KJV? Apart
from cultural issues and meanings which have become lost or obsolete,
that is).
> It took a pair of evil university professors to grind Chaucer into me.
> But in the grinding, they guided me back across seven hundred odd years
> of history and showed me a brother spirit there: that was a priceless
> gift to a poor boy learning how to be an English teacher.
I don't remember when I first read Chaucer, but it was before high
school. My mother had (still has, as far as I know) a version in the
original spelling. Of course, it probably helps when one's mother is an
English teacher <g>. I didn't read Langland's "Piers Plowman" until
later teens (before university), although by then I'd started reading
the Norse Eddas.
I think that like 'foreign' languages if you start early enough it is
natural.
Chris C
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