Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English

language.

This is a bonus episode to mark the unofficial transition from middle English to modern English.

In this bonus episode, we'll examine one of the last poems composed by Jeffrey Chaucer.

The reason why we're jumping back in time about a century is because I wanted to illustrate

the effects of the great vowel shift on the pronunciation of English.

So I chose this particular poem to illustrate the changes brought about by the great vowel

shift.

I'm going to present the poem to you in its original middle English, and then I'm going

to give you a version in early, modern English to reflect the first stages of the great vowel

shift.

Then I'm going to read a modern version to show the effects of the final vowel changes

that took place in the 1700s and 1800s.

This way you can hear how the English language has evolved over the past six centuries or

so.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com,

and you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes and transcripts at patreon.com

slash historyofenglish.

Now before we jump into this episode, I just want to note that this will be the only

episode I'm releasing on the regular podcast feed in December, so we'll pick back up with

the next regular episode in January.

That will be episode 144, and it will begin our transition into the modern English period.

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