How far back in time can you understand English?
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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.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!
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@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.
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@Natasha_Jay @WeirdWriter This I’ve got to read, but it needs to be done on the Braille display. I’m currently working my way through the daily diary of a Brit named Samuel Pepys from the year 1666. As far as I know it’s presented just as he wrote it, and it’s fascinating to see how certain words have evolved from then to now. Also grammatical changes. If I tried to read it in audio it would be a slog.
@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
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@rozeboosje @Natasha_Jay Wow, that's impressive! What is/are your native language(s)?
@chiraag @Natasha_Jay Dutch... I can understand German, too, but I'm not very confident speaking it and even less writing it.
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@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.
That's so very impressive
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay
1200 was pretty much a brick wall for me -
How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay if it starts with lingo that teens and twenty somethings use now, I won’t make it very far.
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@Natasha_Jay I've read Chaucer, lets give it a bash.
EDIT: Made it to 1000 CE
@thejessiekirk @Natasha_Jay Same with Chaucer but it's been a looong while. Made it to around 1200 without a problem, I could decifer to around 1000 but then I stood no chance. But I'm native German, I'd say that did actually help me in some cases.
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@Natasha_Jay Neat! Until 1500 it was alright, but no idea what to make of the weirder letters earlier on.
@murks @Natasha_Jay Basically they are th and gh as well as the long-s, if you also replace some cases of v<->u and y<->g you should be able to decifer back to 1200 roughly
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay I got to the 11th century. Could not read the tenth.
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay that was fun!
I understood what was going on as far as 1300, got most of 1200, got the gist of 1100 but definitely missed some of it, and was fully guessing at what was going on in 1000 (it turned out i guessed at least a bit of it right so there was a shadow of comprehension).
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@Natasha_Jay if it starts with lingo that teens and twenty somethings use now, I won’t make it very far.
Yeah no, 6 7, that slaps are apparently already becoming outdated. That's less than a decade.
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
Lost me at 1600 "thouing". First word I had to understand from the context.
1200 still understood half.
Thought I lost meaning completely at 1100 until I imagined it was a play being performed, then got an eighth of it.
1000 could only glean some meaning from the spacing of the words, might as well be a completely different language to me.
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay @hedders 1200 defeats me, even with a solid knowledge of Scandinavian languages other than my native Danish, reasonable command of modern English, a fair bit of German, and a smidge of Dutch. It was going so well up to that point too.
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay for an audible experience
arumnatzorkhang on tiktok... - @cappyjax | Loops.video
arumnatzorkhang on t... • 13 likes • 0 comments
(loops.video)
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Yeah no, 6 7, that slaps are apparently already becoming outdated. That's less than a decade.
@cainmark @Natasha_Jay facts!
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@bmk @Natasha_Jay I had the same. Frisian and Dutch came to germanic aid.
got about as far as 1100 but struggled at 1000, but I do understand Dutch and German (and listen to some pirate radio from NL every so often, where I get to hear many of the regional dialiects)
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay Fun, but I have a some comments and criticisms.
1900: I wish the author had leaned less obviously on Clement Clarke Moore and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They spoke (or wrote) a stylized English consciously, and our traveller would not.
1700: The letter "ſ", the "long s", is typographical, not linguistic. Readers at the time would read "congress" as readily as "congreſs".
1600: Again, this is mostly typographical variation. Spoken, one would understand it easily. The weird "thouing" want seen until some fifty years later.
1500: Spoken, this would present no trouble to a modern listener.
1400: Typographical again, wiþ only minor variations in þe ſpelling used. Nat harde to reade, alþouȝ again the letter ſubstitution can be rouȝ.
1300: I don't see "ſchaltou" that far back, bit I didn't dig hard. I imagine spoken, one would realize it's two words mashed together. A Germanic "en" seems to show up randomly. "Rewþe" made me smile.
1200 and earlier: I feel like the vocabulary is starting to change here to the point where my unfamiliarity with the typographical anachronisms becomes an impediment. Hearing it spoken would help, and I'm interested enough to want to substitute modern characters for the archaic to see if that gets me further.
Thanks for posting this.
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How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
@Natasha_Jay as old as 1300.
I did read a lot of Medieval & Arthurian literature as a kid. -
How far back in time can you understand English?
It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.
"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
(www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
