This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
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(Un)Surprisingly, competent Germanic skills (all the Nordics + Dutch) helps a lot with very old English. I don't understand as much as I'd like, but significantly more compared to in my early 20's when I "just" had linguistics skills
@forestfjord how far back did you get? (Ish)
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This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
In a fictional travel blog, the author writes about their experience in a small town, jumping back 100 years of English each entry.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
@alexhaist This will be great fun to read in the blizzard tomorrow. Thanks!
Oh, and “for neuer in al my lyf hadde I beholden so foule a creature.”
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I can read back to about 1400, but I used to be able to puzzle through middle English in my 20s.
@alexhaist At 1200 I was lost. I got the sense with a Braille display and some gnawing I might have been able to figure out some of that one, but that's probably where it would have ended.
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I can read back to about 1400, but I used to be able to puzzle through middle English in my 20s.
Allas! I scholde neuer hauen icumen to þis toune of Wuluesfleete!
I know I should be able to read the 1100, and while finding I can read it aloud, the meaning of it has entirely escaped me in my dotage.
So 1200 is the last I can manage sensibly, and that much did I enjoy greatly.
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@alexhaist At 1200 I was lost. I got the sense with a Braille display and some gnawing I might have been able to figure out some of that one, but that's probably where it would have ended.
@Gaptangle oh wow! I was thoroughly lost by then.
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@alexhaist This will be great fun to read in the blizzard tomorrow. Thanks!
Oh, and “for neuer in al my lyf hadde I beholden so foule a creature.”
@danmccullough I wish you much joy of it! I love this sort of historical linguistic stroll.
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@Gaptangle oh wow! I was thoroughly lost by then.
@alexhaist At one point I had learned a chunk of German and a tiny bit of French, and don't recall enough of either now to have a conversation but some of the old structure is still sitting rusty in my brain. Comparing all of them and recognizing sources of phrasing or spelling can help with that if I have the Braille. Screenreaders of course with their modern English pronunciation rules wreck it all lol.
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This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
In a fictional travel blog, the author writes about their experience in a small town, jumping back 100 years of English each entry.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
@alexhaist by 1600 I'm reading aloud out of necessity.
By 1300 I'm struggling.
1200 I can get the gist of with the help of my linguistics degree.
Past that it's all just German to me. -
Allas! I scholde neuer hauen icumen to þis toune of Wuluesfleete!
I know I should be able to read the 1100, and while finding I can read it aloud, the meaning of it has entirely escaped me in my dotage.
So 1200 is the last I can manage sensibly, and that much did I enjoy greatly.
@dgold @alexhaist Wuluesfleet.
Now I'm wondering where the f in wolf came from. A little extra efficiency of speech? A borrowing of the p from Latin lupus? Whatever it is, I'm charmed by the idea that the word wolf used to be onomatopoeia. -
This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
In a fictional travel blog, the author writes about their experience in a small town, jumping back 100 years of English each entry.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
@alexhaist
Thanks for posting! (I made it through 1400, with a smidgen of 1300’s.) -
This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
In a fictional travel blog, the author writes about their experience in a small town, jumping back 100 years of English each entry.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
@alexhaist I'm fine as far as 1300, but further back is opaque. I find that those last couple of centuries, 1300 and 1400, become vastly more accessible if (a) written in modern orthography and (b) read aloud.
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This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
In a fictional travel blog, the author writes about their experience in a small town, jumping back 100 years of English each entry.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
@alexhaist Wow. I barely read the 1500 text
My boyfriend however, an English philologist, recognised all the things he learned at the university!
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This is delightful fun: how far back in time can you understand English?
In a fictional travel blog, the author writes about their experience in a small town, jumping back 100 years of English each entry.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
@alexhaist
1200 is more guessing than reading.
🧝 : "The languages of humans are many, and they change faster than a dragon flies." -
I can read back to about 1400, but I used to be able to puzzle through middle English in my 20s.
@alexhaist I was comfortable until 14/1300, but quickly zoned out around 12/1100 unless I was *really* focusing.
Caveat that I’m German/English bilingual with decades old linguistics studies behind me.
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