SECOND MIDDLE ENGLISH PRIMER.GRAMMAR.Chaucer was a native of London, and his dialect is the London dialect of the second half of the fourteenth century, which was mainly Midland, mixed, however, with some Kentish and South-Western elements. In its grammatical forms Chaucer's English is closely allied to that of the Ormulum. In its spelling it shows the same French influence as the Ancren Riwle, only stronger. The two main changes that took place in the language itself during the fourteenth century were (i) the further loss of grammatical forms, and (2) the wholesale introduction of French words.SPELLING.The chief innovations in spelling that took place in the course of the fourteenth century {some of which began earlier in some parts of the country) were the following. The sound of (uu) was represented by the French ou, u keeping its older value of French u, long and short, as also that of short (u) in many cases. But as in writing u was liable to be confufd with some other leTable of Contents CONTENTS; PAGE; Grammar 1; Key to Phonetic Transcription 25 Texts:-; I Complaint to Pity 26; II The Former Age 36; III Adam Scrivener 38; IV Truth 39; V The Hunt 4°; VI Parlament of Birds 45; VII Prologue to the Canterbury Tales 71; VIII Pardoner's Tale 98; Glossary 106About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org