I am trying to find a source where I can determine the correct pronunciation of the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word weorþscipe from which the English word 'worship' is derived. I have searched on line and have come across a couple of sites that give different pronunciations.
If anyone con point me to a website or person that can help, it would be greatly appreciated.
Retired English Professor and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Leicester is a member here. He’s a scholar of that period. Maybe he’ll see your post & chime in.
I'm old. I'm English. And I have been a scholar. Sorry can't help.
But the wide variety of accents, dialects and pronunciations in modern English would have been even wider 1000 years ago. Pronunciation would also change with time over the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Middle Englidh. So it's probably a case of picking one source and sticking to it.
I suggest you contact a local university or college in New Zealand. Talk to the English Department to see if there is a specialist in Old English or Early English literature or language. Or someone in linguistics. I studied the subject about 50 years ago and never was much good at pronunciation. But part of the course involved reading the texts out loud. Of course, this may be a dry well given the reduced curriculum in the liberal arts world wide. Good luck, and it’s a good question.
Just a bit of thread drift here....
English, as it is properly spoken in England, is my favourite foreign language.
quote:
Originally posted by mike gregoryJust a bit of thread drift here....
English, as it is properly spoken in England, is my favourite foreign language.
It is attributed to Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw ... "The United Kingdom and America are two countries divided by a common language!"
banjonz, General George Patton quoted him in the movie "Patton".
https://www.aaac.com.au/auction-lot/19th-century-english-copper-brass-hunting-horn_BCD4B5C841
I figure if we're calling all Brits I'd throw this in. My wife bought this horn in England years ago. Everything is exactly the same but hers is a few inches longer. Same bell, same join in the middle & the exact same mouthpiece. I used to play brass in a concert band & it's painfully small.
I didn't think it was a hunting horn since it's so long. It doesn't seem like something you would carry on a horse. Maybe used by someone on the ground?
Its all solid copper & a bit of brass. She didn't pay much for it. I'm cleaning it up. There's green corrosion around the rim of the bell. I've been watching some videos of fox hunting calls. Could this be a tourist souvenir?
Sorry for the Continental Thread Drift!
Pronunciation can vary considerably even today in the US.
Take the word "greasy."
In the northeast, it's pronounced gree-see.
Down south, it's gree-zee.
And some folks really do say "earl" for oil.
And then there's y'all, you all, youse, and [spelled phonetically] yuuns.
I remember the first time I drove to the south from the northeast. Three quarters of the way through Virginia, the FM radio stations went away, and I picked up a local AM station in Wytheville, which back then was not much more than a trucker's highway rest and service area and an interstate highway junction. The disc jockey had a very thick local accent with a quick cadence, and I couldn't understand much of what he said.
Now, 40+ years later, with the proliferation of cable tv, satellite radio, the internet, and the slow but steady migration of people from the north and west to the southeast, regional accents are becoming an endangered species, along with regional playing styles again. But I can still hear the distinct difference between the "Walker County Squeak" and the Dade County drawl-- two adjoining counties separated by a mountain.
It's not unlikely that Wayne's Old English pronunciation for worship may have varied considerably between London Town, the West Country, and certainly Wales.
Edited by - rcc56 on 09/29/2023 18:34:52
here is a website that has dozens of sources for old english translations
lexilogos.com/english/english_old.htm
quote:
Originally posted by 1935tb-11here is a website that has dozens of sources for old english translations
lexilogos.com/english/english_old.htm
Thanks fior that Terry. I will investigate.
When reading Victorian poetry, it’s necessary to have a Victorian age translation to fully get the author’s meaning back in the day.
Recent word encountered, “clime”. Used in Mathew Arnold’s “Morality.”
Brad
quote:
Originally posted by rcc56
I remember the first time I drove to the south from the northeast
My apologies for railroading this thread but Bob's comment took me back to a fond memory. Yup, the trip from Ontario, Canada to visit friends in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 70ties. Our first stop was in Indiana, the next in Kentucky's road side welcome center. I asked them "are we in the South already?" They didn't know, darn...
Stayed overnight somewhere and continued to AR the next morning. Stopped at the AR road side welcome center and asked if they had any AR state maps I could have please. The young lady looked at me, asking "where are y'all from? "Canada." Her face about to explode into laughter and the both of us, pointing at each other, and like we rehearsed it, "you sound just like in the movies!!!" Yup, turned out it was her very first day on the job there and for myself, I sure soaked it up and loved it.
These days though, in most U.S. places we've traveled to, almost everyone speaks the same bland Hollywood [movie/TV] English. Kinda sad...
[/memory fade out]
Edited by - Bart Veerman on 10/05/2023 01:21:46
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