Medieval Cookery - Middle-English Word of the Day

Middle-English Word of the Day - February 7, 2008

Waymentynge (n.) - lamentation.

But swich a cry and swich a wo they make
That in this world nys creature lyvynge
That herde swich another waymentynge;
And of this cry they nolde nevere stenten
Til they the reynes of his brydel henten.

- Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury tales (1387-1394)

Pronunciation: /waImEnting@/

Key
/w/ w in we, away
/aI/ ai in aisle
/m/ m in make
/E/ e in met
/n/ n in no
/t/ t in tie
/i/ i in machine
/g/ g in go
/@/ a in sofa

The Middle-English Word of the Day is selected from Mayhew and Skeat's
"Concise Dictionary of Middle English."
As found on Greg Lindahl's website
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/concise/concise.html

The example text was found at the Middle English Collection of the University of Virginia Library.
http://etext.virginia.edu/collections/languages/english/mideng.browse.html

The approximate pronunciation is determined using Carol Hamill's Middle English Pronunciation Guide
and noted using upon the ASCII-IPA Standard
http://www.island.net/~hamill/medieval/mepronunc.html
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/

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