Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a well-known and publicized text. For hundreds of years, students of English and Literature have studied this text and worked within its language. In this study, the author will compare the language that he used as a Middle English speaker and writer to the language and words with which a modern reader would speak. There will be an analysis of the changes in English that is noted, as well as a description of patterns of similarities in phonology for the words that are similar to the way they are spelled in modern English.
There are many instances in Chaucer's text that can be derived by a modern day reader. By using phonetics and context, readers can determine the meanings of Chaucer's words in some cases. Many other are very difficult and need a deeper source for etymological changes. Instances of the simpler ones to decipher include "sondry londes " in line 14 (Chaucer), "trouthe " (Chaucer 46), "bataille " (Chaucer 61), and "hoote summer " (Chaucer 396). If one were to look at the text around these words or phrases, their meanings could be determined. "Sondry londes " means "various countries " and while "sondry " might be difficult to understand, "londes " sounds a lot like "lands " and a reader could make the correlation to the meaning of the word. "Trouthe " sounds and looks like "truth, " which is its meaning, and can be figured out by the surrounding text because in this section of the Prologue (Chaucer), he is describing a knight. "Bataille " looks to be of French origin because of the ending on the words, but nevertheless, it is also phonetically similar to its modern day twin, "battle. " When reading the section which includes "hoote somer " in line 396 (Chaucer), Chaucer is referring to a "hot summer " which has turned the skin of the shipman brown. The correlation between the two is phonetically the same and while reading about the shipman, it makes sense that due to being on a ship for a long period during a summer, he would get quite a tan.