Spelling was not fixed
Middle English had no single standard. Writers spelled by ear, and dialects differed from region to region. A written standard, often called Chancery Standard, began to take hold around 1430. That is why you may see knyght, knyghte and knight for one word, and why this site’s Middle English page shows one common spelling rather than “the” spelling.
Letters that look odd
Thorn (þ) was common for the th sound until the digraph “th” spread in the fourteenth century. Yogh (ȝ) stood for several sounds and was later replaced by modern letters. Scribes used u and v, and i and j, interchangeably, and y often stands for i. A final -e, as in herte or chirche, is a common sight.
Read it aloud
Silent letters in modern English were usually pronounced. The k in knyght was sounded, and the gh was a throaty sound, a little like the “ch” in Scottish “loch.” In verse, many final -e endings count as a light extra syllable. The long vowels sound closer to continental European vowels than to modern English, because the Great Vowel Shift only began late in the Middle English period.
One line to practice on
The Canterbury Tales opens: “Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote.” Editions vary in spelling, but the meaning is “when April, with its sweet showers.” Read it slowly: whan is “when,” shoures is “showers,” and soote is “sweet.”
A method for reading
Skim for words you know. Replace y with i, drop final -e, and sound out the rest. If a word still resists, look it up. The Middle English Dictionary from the University of Michigan documents the language and is free online. Then use the Middle English Translator here to check common words in both directions, remembering it is a word list and not a grammar.
Sources and further reading
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