How far back in time can you understand English?

[nrmacdonald@mastodon.social]

@Natasha_Jay
English is a pidgin confounded by and comprised of the languages of the many peoples that occupied that fertile green and pleasant land and many pedant scholars that tried to "improve" it.
Once you get that it all, sort of, makes sense.

[pomegranate_stew@kind.social]

@commonst @Natasha_Jay
Same, though I found it easier as it went back past 1600 to read it aloud rather than in my head. Hearing it somehow made it easier for me up until 1200, at which point I didn’t know/remember enough of the words and pronunciation to even make that help.

[pomegranate_stew@kind.social]

@_RyekDarkener_ @Natasha_Jay
I sent this link to my kids who’ve studied German. It’ll be interesting to see if they can get farther back than I did. They probably will.

[arem@mstdn.ca]

@Natasha_Jay The symbols seem to be the slowdown, simply from figuring them out. 1300 becomes the limit, being the start of non-standard spelling.

[rozeboosje@masto.ai]

@Natasha_Jay As English is not my first language I'm proud that I made it as far as 1200.

[harrymutt@social.vivaldi.net]

@Natasha_Jay

Interestingly, as a German, I can understand quite a lot of the very old texts. But my mother had a PHD in English and French and knew a lot about old Germanic sagas and medieval German literature. So, that is nothing foreign to me.

If you read anything from Walther von der Vogelweide, you will clearly see the similarities to the oldest texts. Words and grammar are recognizable, and if you can read one, you can read the other.

But even in Shakespeare's time, you will find a lot of those common roots of our languages, and if you get used to the different spelling, the sound of it rings familiar. And as late as in Jane Austen's times, even the number format was still the same as in German, for instance, four-and-twenty and not twenty-four.

After all, with all the lost grammar and words, modern English is just a watered-down version of old German.

[chiraag@mastodon.online]

@Natasha_Jay This was fun! I got through 1300 and just...gave up at 1200. I caught the inflections, the issue was vocab for me!

[mansr@society.oftrolls.com]

@CppGuy @Natasha_Jay I found it pretty easy to read until 1300. The 1200 section I can understand about as well as (modern) Dutch. After that, I'm completely lost.

[chiraag@mastodon.online]

@rozeboosje @Natasha_Jay Wow, that's impressive! What is/are your native language(s)?

[runoutgroover@cloudisland.nz]

@hedders @Natasha_Jay Same. 1100 defeated me.

[frantasaur@mastodon.ie]

@Natasha_Jay probably got a bit further than most, but only because I also speak Dutch Amazing how they converge.

[deirdrebeth@mas.to]

@2something @Natasha_Jay

Reading from present time backwards I was clear on the narrators voice through 1300, but not the statements from others.

If you'd just handed me a section from 1300 or 1400 I think I would have been lost, and struggled mightily with even the 1500s.

Though a search and replace of f for s would simplify quite a bit there

I once painted a scroll using spelling from the mid 1100s and at the time I could read it clearly!

[badri@snipetteville.in]

@Natasha_Jay omg!! Great find. On my reading list for tomorrow 🤩

(I wish it wasn't on Substack, but anyway...)

[mab_813@fedi.at]

@redshiftdrift @Natasha_Jay

I made it till 1200, I think German being my first language helped me in the end.

[moranaga@literatur.social]

@Natasha_Jay

I am German, English is my third foreign language (after Latin).

In the 1800s, I had two words that seemed unusual to me or that I had to deduce from the context. In the 1600s, there were three. From 1500 onwards, it became a little more difficult, with one word unusual and three unknown: ‘prees’, 'avys' and ‘thyder’.
I had real difficulties with the 1400s.

[moranaga@literatur.social]

@Natasha_Jay

Interestingly, the 1300s were easier to understand again, with the meaning becoming clear after reading the text a second time. From 1200 onwards, however, I was lost.

Thank you so much for this entertaining post!

[cyberspice@oldbytes.space]

@Natasha_Jay @TCMuffin I made it all the way back to 1000 but then I’m interested in our lost letters like æ and þ (I have the icelandic keyboard set up so I can type the letters they still use) and I have some German.

[mab_813@fedi.at]

@Thumper1964 @Natasha_Jay @WeirdWriter

For those interested, Samuel Pepys is also in the Fediverse: @samuelpepys

He's a 17th century guy so he can really be a sexist asshole. He's an interesting person to follow, not many people from the 17th century around here

[rozeboosje@masto.ai]

@chiraag @Natasha_Jay Dutch... I can understand German, too, but I'm not very confident speaking it and even less writing it.

[tcmuffin@toot.wales]

@cyberspice @Natasha_Jay

That's so very impressive