In this paper, we have studied how word forms in Chaucer's English stand, checking scrupulously against the variants of editors' spellings, and have shown some general phenomena of variant word forms in Chaucer's texts. The prefix "y-" or "i-" tends to be dropped in Chaucer's English. However, the forms "ifounde" and "iknowe" occur in Boece. The forms with the medial letter "k" such as "maked" and "makid" are often found in Boece. Boece, one of Chaucer's prose works, seems not to utilize the form "made" and its related forms. The collocation "ye han" and "I have" are often found. Present-day English does not use the form "han", but in Chaucer's English the preference for "han" and "have" tends to depend on the preceding subject such as personal pronouns "ye" and "I". The form "from" tends to precede the words with an initial vowel. In Chaucer's English, the form "fro" is more prevalent than "from". The collocation "this Pandarus" occurs more often than "this Pandare," especially in the initial position of a line. "Pandarus" never occurs at the beginning of a line, but often at the end of a line. "Pandare" tends to precede the words with an initial vowel.
We have then illustrated some textual differences of word forms in The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, and examined some actual occurrences of the initial, medial, and final letter loss in Chaucer's English. In The Canterbury Tales, BL seems to prefer the word forms Modem English adopts, such as the forms without the prefix "y-", "corps", "subtil", "nat", "poore", "somne", and "wisdom". The words "corps" and "subtil" keep a medial letter. It is noticeable that the words "nat", "poore", "somne", and "wisdom" showing the loss of medial letter(s) are often used in BL. The word form "nat" often found in BL may show Chaucer's own spelling. BL prefers the loss of a final letter such as "a", "be", and "han". The final -e is not dealt with in this paper.
In Troilus and Criseyde, RT prefers the words without the initial and medial letters, compared with BN, RB, and WN. However, there is little difference between RT and BN, RB, WN in preference for the words without final letter(s).