Tth Sra

English dialectology
Dr. Szit Judit
2015.11.10.

Middle English Text Analysis

I have chosen to analyze Le Morte DArthur by Sir Thomas
Malory. The selected part is the beginning of Book I. I indicated the
interesting words by highlighting them and made comments next to
them where I felt was necessary. The other highlights are patterns of
a same category that I will further analyze below the text.
Le Morte DArthur was written around 1470, so clearly at the
end of Middle English and the beginning of Early Modern English
period. The text is in Middle English although many state that it is
closer to the Early Modern English period while still keeping some of
the Middle English features of the language.
1

Original Text
Hit befel in the dayes of Vther Pendragon

Comments
Hit=It, befell, days, Uther

when he was kyng of all Englond / and so

King, England,

regned that there was a myghty duke in

Mighty, Cornwall, held, war

Cornewayl that helde warre ageynst hym

Against him (for a) long

long tyme / And the duke was called the

time

duke of Tyntagyl / and so by meanes kyng

Tintagel(place), by

Vther send for this duk / chargyng hym to

meanes(?)

brynge his wyf with hym / for she was

Duke, charge=to instruct

called a fair lady / and a passynge wyse /

him to bring his wife with

10

and her name was called Igrayne / So whan

him

11

the duke and his wyf were comyn vnto the

Passing wise (?)

12

kyng by the meanes of grete lordes they

When, wife

13

were accorded bothe / the kyng lyked and

By the meanes (?) of great

14

loued this lady wel / and he made them

lords

15

grete chere out of mesure / and desyred to

The king liked and

16

haue lyen by her / But she was a passyng

Loved this lady (as) well,

17

good woman / and wold not assente vnto

great cheer out of (good)

18

the kyng / And thenne she told the duke

measure

19

her husband and said I suppose that we

20

were sente for that I shold be dishonoured /

Assente=to give approval

21

Wherfor husband I counceille yow that we

(for the kings advances)

22

departe from hens sodenly that we maye

Should be

23

ryde all nyghte vnto oure owne castell / and dishonoured/therefore

24

in lyke wyse as she saide so they

Counceille(verb)=advise

25

departed / that neyther the kyng nor none

you to hens=here(?)

26

of his counceill were ware of their departing suddenly may ride all night
/ Also soone as kyng Vther knewe of theire

to our own castle

departyng soo sodenly / he was wonderly

Neither the king nor none of

wrothe / Thenne he called to hym his pryuy

his

counceille / and told them of the sodeyne

Council (Noun) were

departyng of the duke and his wyf

(a)ware[]
Soon[] knew of their
departing so suddenly,
wonderly wrothe(?)
Pryuy=privy=private
council(n)
Sudden departing, wife

Context of the text

The king of England, Uther Pendragon, who was at war with
the duke of Tintagel from Cornwall for a long time, invited him and
his wife, Igraine to come for a visit. When the duke and his wife

arrived, they were greeted with cheers. The king loved the dukes
wife and desired her, but the wife would not give in to the kings
advances, so asked her husband, the duke, that they depart
suddenly. Neither the king nor his council was aware of their sudden
departure.
Spelling, orthography and grammar findings summary
1. The first thing I noticed when reading the text, that many of
the same words are not consistent with their spelling, for
example the word duke (Line 16) was written like that and
also like duk (Line 6), departing (Line 22) and departyng
(Line 23), counceill (Line 22) and counceille (Line 25).
This could be because, as I mentioned before Le Morte
DArthur was written on the verge of a major language change
in England, when there was not yet an established spelling
system, that slowly came about with the invention of printing
which then set the rules of spelling, and the fist major
bestseller to be printed was actually Le Morte DArthur.
2. The yellow highlights are explained in the comment section of
the table.
3. The words that I highlighted in green have the similarities that
every one of them uses the letter v and letter u differently,
than in modern English. The reason for this comes from their
Latin usage, as back then they were not established as two
different letters, a consonant and a vowel (that is why we still
call w double u) so they became interchangeable.
The v is used at the beginning of words: Vther/Uther (Lines 1
and 6), vnto/unto (Lines 10 and 15)
While u is used anywhere else: loued/loved (Line 12),
haue/have (Line 13) and pryuy/privy (Line 25)
4. The words I highlighted in pink are another recognizable
feature of Middle/Early Modern English, the word ending e
suffix. In many cases it is the silent e at the end of words. For
example sente (Line 17), departe (Line 18) oure, owne and
saide (Line 20) The silent e was once a vowel sound that
became silent in Middle and Early Modern English.
The silent e also had the role of making the preceding vowel
a long one, for example tyme (Line 4) and wyse (Line 8).
In some cases, when words end with a silent e, the preceding
consonant is doubled as in warre (Line 3) and thenne (Line
15).

5. I have highlighted a few instances in blue where the letter y

is used as a vowel and it assumes the role of i, these were
also interchangeable. A few instances of this: kyng ( Line 2),
myghty (Line 3), wyse (Line 8) and desyred (Line 13)
The -i or -y in many cases were pronounced as long vowels
however in time this will change into its modern usage when
the Great Vowel Shift takes place and these long vowels will
become diphthongs. Thats why in this time the word wyf in
line 9, the y was probably pronounced ee as in weep. Then
as the GVS progressed it slowly became wife, where the i is
now a diphthong representing the /ai/ sound, the silent e in
the end has the same function as to lengthen the preceding
vowel, like it did in Middle English times. Same goes for tyme
(Line 4) and wyse (Line 8)
6. Modal verbs such as would and should were written like wold
and shold. Interesting fact, that while today these words have
silent l in them, up until the 1700s these were likely to had
been pronounced in Britain.
7. As far as syntax is concerned the text follows the
contemporary word order of SVO (Subject, Verb and Object).
the kyng lyked and loued this lady wel (Lines 11-12).

References
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:3?
rgn=div1;view=fulltext
http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/MEPhonology.htm
http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/MESpelling.htm
http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/earlymodern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic453618.files/Central/pronun
ciation/pronunciation.html#long_e