English is weirder than you think. Every week I dig into the hidden history of everyday words: etymology, Old English, and the accidents that shaped how you speak. Linguistics PhD. deadlanguagesociety.com
Colin Gorrie
Here's what that wilderness ride looks like in the original:
Sumwhyle wyth wormez he werrez and with wolves als,
Sumwhile wyth wodwos þat woned in þe knarrez,
Boþe wyth bullez and berez, and borez oþerquyle,
And etaynez þat hym anelede of þe heʒe felle.
One of the joys of the poem is how it plays with language.
For example, when characters are at court, the language turns French: "plesaunce" 'pleasure,' "prys" 'excellence,' "ioye" 'joy.'
In some of these lines, every content word is French, with English supplying only the grammatical glue.
English spelling is not as bad as advertised.
I went on the @grammargirl.bsky.social podcast to make the case for the messy, chaotic, amazing English spelling system.
