Englysh

Having been looking through my version of More's Utopia, due to it being mentioned in a recent topic somewhere, i thoguht i'd ask how people find reading english when it's not published with any modernised spelling.

I mean, if you look at a folio of shakespeare, then compare it with a student edition, words can be quite dramatically changed in their appearance. I'm not trying to point anything out here, but I was just wondering if people actually like/prefer reading texts with their original style of spelling, or going for the more modern versions. Is there a real difference do you think? And if so, is the older version more... enchanting? Should spelling and the like be an unedited element for true reading a piece of literature?

Reply 1

pixiepeep

The version of The Millers Tale we're reading for English uses the majority of Chaucer's spellings I think, but I have another version that just tried to update it a bit, and it didn't 'feel' right... I prefer original spellings, unless it's like a complete foreign language.

Reply 2

Endymion

I always think it's important to see different versions of English to see how it progressed through the centuries.

Reply 3

Tyler Durden

I think it's definitely worth trying to read the original (same goes for translated texts when possible). I was really lucky to have had an amazing English teacher at the start of year 12 who knew his way around Anglo Saxon English and we looked at some of the old poetry. The best one was The Dream of the Rood. I loved it. But yeah, it's quite painstaking but definitely worth trying to go through the Olde Englysh (oh dear :p: