For the pronunciation I encourage the use of Google Translate, set language as French, type the text and click on the speaker icon.
It’s actually pretty good at giving an accurate pronunciation.
Now, the text you study is written in Old French (kinda like the Modern English of Shakespeare), so some words are written in a way that evolved with time. Yet, pronunciation rules didn’t change that much over time.
For example, “Il faict le mesnaige” would be now written “Il fait le ménage”, which translates to “He cleans”.
As a French person, I can only understand this text by reading it out loud, it’s all phonetic.
- Commère: the equivalent of “gossiper” or “good fellow” depending of the context. Here, most likely, the latter.
- Courrousse: From the old verbe Courrousser, another word that helps you is “courroux”. It means wrath. So literally, “he does not wrath me”, meaning he doesn’t
- d’ung: Would be written “d’un” nowadays. In this context, “d’ung pays” means “from a/the country”.
- cecy: old version of “ceci”, this/that
Hope that helps, old French ain’t easy to tackle!
I would recommend this:
Il est bel et bon, commère, mon mari.
=> Il è bèl e boN, komèr, moN mari
Hey, tattletale, my husband is nice and good
Il estoit deux femmes toutes d’ung pays.
=> Il étè dö fam tut d’öN pé-i
There were two women in the village
Disant l’une à l’aultre – “Avez bon mary?”
=> dizaN l’ün a l’otr : avé boN mari?
asking the other: “got a good husband?”
Il ne me courrousse, ne me bat aussy.
=> il nö mö kurus, nö mö ba osi
He never scholds me, nor beats me
Il faict le mesnaige,
=> il fè lö ménazh
he does the chores
Il donne aux poulailles,
=> il don o pulay
He feeds the fowls
Et je prens mes plaisirs.
=> é zhö praN mé plézir
and I do as I please
Commère, c’est pour rire
=> komèr, sè pur rir
Hey, tattletale, it’s only a joke
Quand les poulailles crient:
kaN lé pulay kri
when the fowls shout
Petite coquette (co co co co dae)e, qu’est cecy?
pötit koket, kokokokodè!, k’è sösi ?
you stylish girl, kokokokoday! what is this?
Leave a comment