11-04-2021, 11:22 PM
Yes, JKP, I surely include an experienced medievalist such as yourself in those "few people who can really read Middle English anymore"! I just meant that for the average modern monolingual English speaker, Middle English is just as much a foreign language as any other. I would argue, more so than Middle Dutch for a modern Dutch speaker, Middle High German for a modern German speaker, and likewise with French, Italian, Spanish, etc. For an interesting perspective, check out these Memrise courses on Middle English: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . It is really striking to me how unusual the pronunciations of Middle English "I", "thou", "he", "she", "we" sound to my modern English ear. And in terms of vocabulary, "underyete", "menske", "reed", "swage", ... even the average college educated English speaker will be totally lost just with these first few words. This is truly a foreign language for modern English speakers.
I think I am mostly joking about the idea of Middle English as the language of the VMS. Nevertheless, it would not be completely absurd, since we know for example that Wycliffe had a great influence on Jan Hus and his followers in Bohemia in that time period: it is believed that students brought Wycliffe's heretical doctrines and ideas from England back to Prague by 1399. And Wycliffe was famous for his vernacular Bible in Middle English. Surely such students would have become familiar with Chaucer's works in England at that time too. So it's not absurd to imagine students in Bohemia in the early 15th century with both a knowledge of and an interest in the Middle English language and some very significant works of literature in the language.
As far as I can tell, the only so-called "Middle English Voynich theory" was mostly based on supposed numerical gematria readings of letters, and the only serious English theory of the VMS attributed it to Anthony Ascham, a mid-16th century writer and thus Early Modern English, not Middle English. But that was an old theory, proposed long before radiocarbon dating identified the parchment as early 15th century.
I think I am mostly joking about the idea of Middle English as the language of the VMS. Nevertheless, it would not be completely absurd, since we know for example that Wycliffe had a great influence on Jan Hus and his followers in Bohemia in that time period: it is believed that students brought Wycliffe's heretical doctrines and ideas from England back to Prague by 1399. And Wycliffe was famous for his vernacular Bible in Middle English. Surely such students would have become familiar with Chaucer's works in England at that time too. So it's not absurd to imagine students in Bohemia in the early 15th century with both a knowledge of and an interest in the Middle English language and some very significant works of literature in the language.
As far as I can tell, the only so-called "Middle English Voynich theory" was mostly based on supposed numerical gematria readings of letters, and the only serious English theory of the VMS attributed it to Anthony Ascham, a mid-16th century writer and thus Early Modern English, not Middle English. But that was an old theory, proposed long before radiocarbon dating identified the parchment as early 15th century.