Old English poem about ''chickens'' and ''poules''

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Raf Maes - 25 Oct 2003 10:37 GMT

Hello ,

Probably a needle in a heystack, but it's worth a try.

I am looking for an old-English poem that describes , in a lucid way,
the problems that late 'middle-ages' Englanders had with understanding
each-other. This was because of the mix of anglo-saxon and french
vocabulary during that period. (13-14th century ?)

All i remember about it was that it mentioned (amongst other words)
'chickens' and 'poules' and that people from the north used the
one term and people from the south of England used the other term and
so they had a hard time understanding each-other.

Anyone that has a reference or name ?

Thanks

Raf Maes
Hoboken, belgium

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Owain - 25 Oct 2003 19:58 GMT

| I am looking for an old-English poem that describes , in a lucid way,
| the problems that late 'middle-ages' Englanders had with understanding
| each-other. This was because of the mix of anglo-saxon and french
| vocabulary during that period. (13-14th century ?)

Off the top of my head, I think that you are thinking of Caxton's discussion
of the English language (mid fifteenth century) in which he talks about the
possibility of standardising the spellings and pronounciations so that the
regional dialects can communicate with each other. The bit that I remember
talks about 'eggs', and how eyyn (proun. similar to the name 'Ian') was the
word in the south, whereas 'egges' was the word from the north. It was
uncommon, but in this instance the northern regional variation took
priority.

Owain

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Sebastian Hew - 26 Oct 2003 01:52 GMT

> > I am looking for an old-English poem that describes , in a lucid
> > way, the problems that late 'middle-ages' Englanders had with
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> 'egges' was the word from the north. It was uncommon, but in this
> instance the northern regional variation took priority.

This seems to fit the bill, although, I don't remember anything about
poules and chickens. Caxtons's discussion is in Middle English though,
not Old English as the OP requested, although the era that he specified
was well and truly after the OE period.

Sebastian.

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Raf Maes - 27 Oct 2003 12:35 GMT

It probably was Caxton's dicussion of the English language and
spelling which i had in mind. As it has been +- 15 years since i've
read the text in an English course, my memory and imagination probably
transformed the 'eggs' and 'eyren' into 'poules' and 'chicken' (or the
author of the course added these words as extra examples to the
course-text)

Many thanks for the info.
Raf

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / October 2003

Old English poem about ''chickens'' and ''poules''