Middle English

===Chaucer, 1390s===
The following is the very beginning of the [[General Prologue]] from ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'' by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]. The text was written in a dialect associated with London and spellings associated with the then-emergent Chancery Standard.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+First 18 lines of the General Prologue
|-
! style="text-align:center" |Original in Middle English
! style="text-align:center" |[[Word-for-word translation]] into [[Modern English]]<ref>This Wikipedia translation closely mirrors the translation found here: {{cite book
|translator-first1=Vincent |translator-last1=Foster Hopper
|title=Canterbury Tales (selected)
|publisher=Barron's Educational Series
|year=1970
|edition=revised
|page=[https://archive.org/details/canterburytaless0000chau/page/2 2]
|url=https://archive.org/details/canterburytaless0000chau|url-access=registration
|quote=when april, with his.
|isbn=9780812000399
}}</ref>
! style="text-align:center" | Translation into Modern U.K. English prose<ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Henry Sweet |last1=Sweet |first1=Henry |title=First Middle English Primer (updated) |publisher=Evolution Publishing: [[Bristol, Pennsylvania]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-889758-70-1}}</ref>
<!--A text from 1391: [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s [http://art-bin.com/art/oastro.html Treatise on the Astrolabe].-->
|-
| {{lang|enm|Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote}}
| When [that] April with his showers sweet
| When April with its sweet showers
|-
| {{lang|enm|The droȝte of March hath perced to the roote}}
| The drought of March has pierced to the root
| has drenched March's drought to the roots,
|-
| {{lang|enm|And bathed every veyne in swich licour,}}
| And bathed every vein in such [[sap|liquor]],
| filling every capillary with nourishing sap
|-
| {{lang|enm|Of which vertu engendred is the flour;}}
| From which goodness is engendered the flower;
| prompting the flowers to grow,
|-
|{{lang|enm|Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth}}
|When [[Zephyrus]] even with his sweet breath
|and when Zephyrus with his sweet breath
|-
|{{lang|enm|Inspired hath in every holt and heeth}}
|Inspired has in every holt and heath
|has coaxed in every wood and dale, to sprout
|-
|{{lang|enm|The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne}}
|The tender crops; and the young sun
|the tender plants, as the springtime sun 
|-
|{{lang|enm|Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,}}
|Has in [[Aries (astrology)|the Ram]] his half-course run,
|passes halfway through the sign of [[Aries (astrology)|Aries]],
|-
|{{lang|enm|And smale foweles maken melodye,}}
|And small birds make melodies,
|and small birds that chirp melodies,
|-
|{{lang|enm|That slepen al the nyght with open ye}}
|That sleep all night with open eyes
|sleep all night with half-open eyes
|-
|{{lang|enm|(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);}}
|(So Nature prompts them in their courage);
|their spirits thus aroused by Nature; 
|-
|{{lang|enm|Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages}}
|Then folk long to go on pilgrimages.
|it is at these times that people desire to go on pilgrimages
|-
|{{lang|enm|And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes}}
|And pilgrims ([[Palmer (Pilgrim)|palmer]]s) [for] to seek new [[wikt:strand|strands]]
|and pilgrims ([[Palmer (pilgrim)|palmers]]) seek new shores
|-
|{{lang|enm|To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;}}
|To far-off shrines ([[Saint|hallows]]), respected (couth, known) in sundry lands;
|and distant shrines venerated in other places.
|-
|{{lang|enm|And specially from every shires ende}}
|And specially from every shire's end
|Particularly from every county
|-
|{{lang|enm|Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,}}
|Of England, to Canterbury they went,
|from England, they go to Canterbury,
|-
|{{lang|enm|The hooly blisful martir for to seke}}
|The [[Thomas Becket|holy blissful martyr]] [for] to seek,
|in order to visit the [[Thomas Becket|holy blessed martyr]],
|-
|{{lang|enm|That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.}}
|That has helped them, when [that] they were sick.
| who has helped them when they were sick.
|}