alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7221 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 1 of 20 23 January 2010 at 12:57am | IP Logged |
First I cannot really put this into real detail by which particular speakers of which languages, so I am going to guess.
If there were ancient languages for sound approximation, which speakers of a modern language could resemble the ancient language most.
Here are some of my thoughts.
Ancient <---> Modern
Old English <---> British English
Ancient Egyptian <---> Coptic
Latin <---> Italian
Classical Greek<---> Modern Greek
Sanskrit <---> Hindi
If there are others that want to contribute, I would like to read it.
Edited by alang on 23 January 2010 at 1:05am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish*
| Message 2 of 20 23 January 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged |
Coptic is also an "old language" now, it is not used in conversation.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7221 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 3 of 20 23 January 2010 at 1:06am | IP Logged |
Gusutafu wrote:
Coptic is also an "old language" now, it is not used in conversation. |
|
|
I read that Coptic is still used in church services for Coptic Christians, so I am guessing they would be the closest. It is somewhat grasping at whatever is left in the present day.
I had thought of this topic for about two months, but did not think about writing it down in the forum until recently.
Edited by alang on 23 January 2010 at 1:08am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 4 of 20 23 January 2010 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
alang wrote:
First I cannot really put this into real detail by which particular speakers of which languages, so
I am going to guess.
If there were ancient languages for sound approximation, which speakers of a modern language could resemble
the ancient language most.
Here are some of my thoughts.
Ancient <---> Modern
Old English <---> British English
Ancient Egyptian <---> Coptic
Latin <---> Italian
Classical Greek<---> Modern Greek
Sanskrit <---> Hindi
If there are others that want to contribute, I would like to read it. |
|
|
I'm not so sure that British English speakers would resemble Old English the most. English has changed a lot
over the centuries. Maybe Icelanders or Germans would do a better job.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6330 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian
| Message 5 of 20 23 January 2010 at 3:43am | IP Logged |
Old Church Slavonic <---> Bulgarian
tractor wrote:
I'm not so sure that British English speakers would resemble Old English the most. English has changed a lot
over the centuries. Maybe Icelanders or Germans would do a better job. |
|
|
West Frisian maybe?
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 6 of 20 23 January 2010 at 5:09am | IP Logged |
Frisian…even Scots might be closer to Old English.
They say Sardinian is the closest Romance language to Latin.
For Old Norse, Icelandic.
For Ancient Greek, maybe Pontic Greek.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish*
| Message 7 of 20 23 January 2010 at 10:49am | IP Logged |
Well, Greek is still used in church services too, and so is Church Slavonic! AS is Latin.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5553 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish
| Message 8 of 20 23 January 2010 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
British English is definitely in no way similar to Old English. I would agree it is closer to a language like Frisian.
And isn't Romanian closer to Latin than Italian? Grammar-wise, at least.
1 person has voted this message useful
|