Old french pronunciation needed - Mediaeval York

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » March 22nd, 2009, 7:36 am

Can anyone tell me how this passage should be pronounced, please? I can handle the occasional modern French phrase, but this is beyond me. It's from guild statutes in fifteenth century York

(My solo "Life in a mediaeval city ..): http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17848

"Ceux sont les articles de lez pewderers de Lounders, les queux les
genz de mesme lartifice dyceste citee Deverwyk ount agrees pur agarder
et ordeiner entre eux par deux ans passez, devant Johan Moreton,
maire."

Thanks,

Peter

Post by **ezwa** » March 22nd, 2009, 3:00 pm

Hi Peter,

Here's my wild guess.
If anyone can correct it, he is most welcomed to do so.

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » March 22nd, 2009, 3:16 pm

Thanks, ezwa; if we haven't any dissenting voices within the next day or so, you're my gospel.

Peter

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » March 23rd, 2009, 3:15 pm

Ezwa, how can I post my attempt for you to check? I want to avoid anything that changes the meaning too much; I know I'm speaking much more slowly than you.

Thank you for your help,

Peter

Post by **ezwa** » March 23rd, 2009, 3:34 pm

Good evening, Peter.

You can upload it to my folder on http://upload.librivox.org

Select "ez - ezwa" for the MC.

Cheers,

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » March 23rd, 2009, 11:36 pm

Thanks, Ezwa;

Here you go. Do be critical; I'd like it to sound reasonable.

http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/ez/York_french.mp3

Peter

Shipley · Post by **Shipley** » April 8th, 2009, 8:07 pm

Any Quebecois around? The Quebecois are the last group of French speakers on earth to preserve the pre-1789 pronunciation of French - every time I'm in Quebec, I have little or no trouble with the written French but the spoken form of the language baffles me! The main problem is that the pre-1789 version pronounces all the final consonants which are dropped in modern French.

Of course, if you do opt for a genuine pre-1789 version of the French, you will probably baffle many of your French-speaking hearers, including those who regard it as their native tongue!

Jc · Post by Jc » April 8th, 2009, 8:46 pm

Yeah, I'm Quebecois. But even in Quebec, accents vary a lot, and for some reason, I can't talk with my usual Qc accent when I read...

And I think this might be something that one of my profs would call "Law French", since apparently at some point, statutes in England were all written in French, so it's quite hard to know exactly how it should be pronounced...