What’s weird is even though I haven’t taken German in decades, I think understood more words that were of Germanic descent than words that are still similar in modern English. I have to wonder - is their word order supposed to be the same as modern English?
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I like to think it sounded like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4wzJZdmelA
I have to love people that are so into something so esoteric that they go full immersion but miss that their collar is sticking out from under their bedsheet cloak.
Also, can we talk about that four-horned goat? It makes me want a) to get a Baphomet tattoo, and b) to later upgrade it to quad horns.
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I can understand this guy about as well as, or better than the speakers of some modern British dialects in which the consonants are swallowed.
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Yup… until I managed to do that, I couldn’t understand a word. Time travel suddenly sounds less hot. Michael Crichton did tick this box in Timeline (at least the book, can’t recall if they did it in the film version as well), which was nice.
Another brummie has a go, probably with as much if not more success.
(Started at the relevant bit, but the whole clip is great.)
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What old English perhaps mayhaps sounded like
On a side note, would be great if someone made subtitles
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Too lazy to look it up, but some time ago we had a video of father and son linguists reciting Shakespeare in modern and ye olde middle English, had we not?
I liked it. Still have to watch the one above. Guess I will enjoy it, with a G&T.
See upthread:
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Middle English? Shakespeare?
Sheriff Sheiff, FTFY.
I was wrong, again. I really shouldn’t be browsing BBBBS.
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As a German I am surprised, how similar this 1200 year old language is to some sort of distorted german language. It’s mixed with words from Sweden, Netherlands and idioms from the Lower Rhine. If this language is true, I would have a chance to talk to them.
Ok, hold my beer - I am going back in time to try this out. Where’s my DeLorean?
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I recall reading years back that audio can sometimes be recovered from the tracks left by paint brushes, and I wonder if it has helped with understanding old accents and pronunciation.
What? You’re making that up. It sounds like myth that the eye captures the last thing the person saw before death.
The language and basic pronunciation are accurate. The question is how it sounded in daily speech. It’s no surprise that this would resemble the languages of the lower Rhine, because that is exactly where it came from. Its closest living relative is Frisian.
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Shakespeare = Early Modern English ≠ Middle English. Maybe you’re thinking of Chaucer.
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Hence the question mark after “Middle English”. I was questioning the use of the term in association with Shakespeare.
