[MIDDLE ENGLISH] The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer

[Gitta]

Hello,

There already is a Modern English version of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, but no Middle English version!

It would be really helpful for people reading/studying the Middle English Canterbury Tales to hear the way Middle English sounded/sounds.

Please note: Middle English is pronounced differently than modern, contemporary English. So as a reader, one should know the correct pronunciation.

The text can be found at here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22120/22120-h/22120-h.htm

[RuthieG]

Ay, there's the rub...

A few brave souls had a crack at the Prologue back in 2007, but as far as I know we don't have any Middle English scholars here, unless either Cassiane (who is currently making recordings in Old English and Anglo-Saxon) or composr (who has recorded in Anglo-Saxon) also has that string to her/his bow.

Ruth

[Gitta]

Know it's a lot to ask, but globally speaking there must be enough people to make it happen, even if it's taking a (long) while...
Do you know how to contact Cassiane and composr ?

[Nicholas19]

Know it's a lot to ask, but globally speaking there must be enough people to make it happen, even if it's taking a (long) while...
Do you know how to contact Cassiane and composr ?

All the more reason to spread awareness about LibriVox. I love the sound of Middle English and we should definitely have more books like this.

composr has listed "Old and Middle English" as one of his interests but it would be up to him to decide whether or not to take on a project like this. It might be a bit much for one volunteer, at any rate. I haven't seen composr on the forums recently, but perhaps he'll see this post and comment at some point. Cassiane is currently recording the West Saxon Gospels (Book of Mark).

[CarlManchester]

Gitta, it would be great for this to be done as a project. I think the main thing to be aware of is LibriVox's traditional approach to quality to control, which doesn't tend to emphasise the "control" part so much. For anyone wanting to start this as a group project, you can try imposing standards on volunteers, but there's only so much you can do, I would suggest.

Incidentally, an LV recording in Old English actually got played on the BBC last year: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/cm/BBCvLibriVoxCaedmon.mp3

[Hildegard]

I just wanted to chime in and say that I am new and a medieval lit PhD student, and I would love to get in on some Old or Middle English reading action (I'm an Anglo-Saxonist, but like most of us, encountered Middle English first and can handle it comfortably). The entirety of the Tales is probably a little large if there are only a few medieval-types around (and being very new to this, I myself am probably not worth a whole lot at this point), but maybe a smaller-scoped project (or a series of smaller-scoped projects) could bring Middle-English-equipped people out of the woodworks/attract them to Librivox? Quality is, of course, a potential problem, but in my classroom experience, the people who read Middle English badly and the people who volunteer to be heard by others overlap pretty rarely.

Once again, I am very new (this is my third post in the forum), so if I have said anything very ignorant or out of turn, please chastise or ignore me as you see fit.

[kayray]

No chastising for you, Hildegard :)

A project consisting of selected sections of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English would be a wonderful thing -- I've love to hear that! If you hang around for a while to get some recording experience under your belt and learn our ways, you could set up and run such a project yourself.

We usually have projects over in the "Short Works" section for multilingual poetry and prose:
http://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=29087
http://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=28559

That would be a fine place for you to put some shorter Middle English (or Old!) recordings, which would enrich our catalog and give you some experience before you start something more ambitious.

[Nicholas19]

The entirety of the Tales is probably a little large if there are only a few medieval-types around (and being very new to this, I myself am probably not worth a whole lot at this point), but maybe a smaller-scoped project (or a series of smaller-scoped projects) could bring Middle-English-equipped people out of the woodworks/attract them to Librivox?

Great to have you here Hildegard.

Perhaps some of the stories could be read individually? Leni has set up a Multilingual Short Works Collection. Also, there is the LibriVox Language Learning Collection, Vol. 003. The latter collection also welcomes readings from Middle English grammars, primers, readers, etc. or recordings about Middle English.