PRONOUNCING FRIDESWIDE
I've been asked more than once how to pronounce
"Frevisse", and I posted my thoughts on the matter a
few months ago. But today I got asked the same question about
"Frideswide". So let's see if I can make a good answer
of it.
I understand that at present it is pronounced "Fryswide" -- long "i" both times. But I have to suppose, given the spelling, that at some time that "d" was included. And then there's the final "e" that was pronounced in Chaucer's time but got dropped over the centuries. And then there's
the Great Vowel Shift of the 15th century, when the pronunciation of every vowel took one step to the side, as it were, and changed to something else from what it had been.
(I'm not making this
up!) And of course there's the local dialect to consider, whatever it might have been then, but I'm not even thinking of getting into that.
So how was "Frideswide" pronounced by the mid-1400s?
Take a guess! For myself, I tend to say "Frid es wid" with short "i" both times and short "e". But if I'm feeling frisky, I can add the final, now-silent "e" and get "Frid es wid eh".
But, on the whole, I think you should say it however seems comfortable to
you!
- Margaret
