The Kentish Hymn [all]
Posted by mdrout on 30th January 2008
One of the only verse texts with significant Kentish content, the Kentish Hymn consists of a short passage that encourages Christians to love God and a long section that is a direct address to the Deity, praising Him and asking for forgiveness for sins.
The major difference, in this poem, between Kentish and more common West Saxon are the spellings “io” instead of “eo”, “e” instead of “æ”, and “e” instead of “y.” I found that trying to pronounce the Kentish spellings ended up dragging my voice to a higher pitch, which I do not actually think is characteristic of a real Kentish accent (but note that the most visible spelling differences move vowels higher and more to the front from the West Saxon).
Posted in Minor Poems, Kentish Hymn | No Comments »