The parlament of foules, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed., with introduction, notes, and glossary, by T. R. Lounsbury.

PECULIARITIES OF MS. A.

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being generally employed before consonants, the latter before
vowels. But this manuscript has in line 478 non seruyse where
the rest have no.
Like all the others, this manuscript has the usual variations
of spelling. Double forms of the same word occur frequently,
and sometimes even in successive lines. For illustration, we
havefect andfet, fo andfoo, cok and kok, centence and sentence,
tersel and tercel, noble and nobil, she and sche, saw and say and
seye, ek and eke, eche and ech, nat and not. One characteristic,
however, which it does not share with any other manuscript,
is the invariable spelling of fresh with the vowel o instead of e,
as in lines 259, 354, 442. The noun denoting the agent has
also invariably the termination -ere. This may have been a
survival from the Anglo-Saxon; for this final e, in this case,
is never pronounced, whether followed by a vowel or consonant. The words which show this ending are bildere (176),
cartere (102), huntere (99), jangelere (457), louere (I65, 582),
makere (I99), mortherere (353, 612), pipfere (178), redere (132),
shetere (I80), skornere (357), stroyere (360), and wrekere (361),
and, apparently by a false analogy with these, cofere (177),
laughtere (575), pilere (177).
The comparative form of the adjective usually ends in ere,
the superlative in este; but forms in er and est occur. This
final e is not pronounced except in the case of moste (375).
Another peculiarity of the spelling of this manuscript is the
occasional doubling of the vowels e and o, giving such forms
as cleere, deere, greene, greete, reede, seene, theere, weere, and
hoote, moore, and yoore, along with the more common forms
with a single vowel.
But the most marked-peculiarity of the spelling of the manuscript is the constant use of i or y for the ordinary e of the
terminations. This appears, not only where the usual e has
been weakened from an Anglo-Saxon a, o, or u, but where, in
Anglo-Saxon itself, e was the vowel found. Thus we have the
nouns brothyr, doughtyr, hungir, modyr, somyr, syluyr, watyr,
wondyr, gardyn, yryn; the pronouns othir, anothir; the adjectives nakyd, aldirnext; the prepositions aftyr, undyr, betwixsyn,