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William Dunbar’s Lament for the Makaris (Elegy for the Poets), written about 1505
Okay by 1505 it was Middle Scots, not Middle English (I was thinking of it as earlier).
Now the two verses you quote don't illustrate it, but my problem with rhymes was that he not only rhymes Latin mê with English long e, as expected, but also with what is now a final short or long -i vowel:
And feblit with infermite;
Timor mortis conturbat me.
...
The flesche is brukle, the Fend is sle;
Timor mortis conturbat me.
...
etc. with many other examples throughout it
(Southern English: short /i/ in infirmity, long /i:/ in sly -- this was of course before the Great Vowel Shift moved /sli:/ to /slai/.)
If Middle Scots was simply intermediate between Middle English and Modern Scots English, this is odd. What I suspect must have happened is that final /i:/ had moved down to /e:/ by Dunbar's time, and was later restored by southern English influence.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted timorous/timor JosieWales 02/28/01 01:27 PM Re: timorous/timor NicholasW 02/28/01 01:34 PM Re: timorous/timor Jackie 02/28/01 02:21 PM Re: timorous/timor maverick 02/28/01 05:06 PM Re: timorous/timor Rapunzel 02/28/01 05:26 PM Timor mortis conturbat me NicholasW 03/02/01 08:39 AM Re: NW Profile jmh 03/02/01 08:50 AM Timor Timur NicholasW 03/02/01 08:24 AM Re: Timor Timur Bingley 03/03/01 04:46 AM Re: timorous/timor Seian 02/28/01 02:01 PM
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