Read more
Excerpt from First Middle English Primer: Extracts From the Ancren Riwle and Ormulum; With Grammar, Notes, and Glossary
The object of this work is not to afford a general survey of the Middle English dialects in their different periods, but rather to lay a firm foundation for such a survey by giving extracts from the two oldest texts which have been handed down in consistent, contemporary spellings representing pure and fixed dialects, one dialect being the direct descendant of the classical West Saxon of Alfred and Elfric, the other the nearly direct ancestor of Modern English. The spellings of the mss. Have been preserved unchanged, except in cases of necessary alteration, but diacritics have been added as guides to the quantity and quality of those sounds which are imperfectly distinguished in the mss. The grammar and glossary are based entirely on the extracts, all comparison of the other M. E. Dialects and periods being rigorously excluded, the two texts being also kept apart as much as possible.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
