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| Stratosphere Newbie United States Joined 5410 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Studies: English | Message 1 of 12 14 March 2010 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering how hard it would be to learn to read and write Old English, not necessarily speak it.I'd like to read Beowulf in it's original language.
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5240 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 12 14 March 2010 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't know, but I would guess it would be as hard as German, Icelandic or Old Norse, or maybe harder. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5352 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 3 of 12 14 March 2010 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I studied it at University and picked up enough Old English in a term to read Beowulf - A good starter book is Steven Pollington's First Steps in Old English. But as hearing OE read helps alot I also would recommend Mark Atherton's Teach Yourself Old English package of book and CDs.
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| Stratosphere Newbie United States Joined 5410 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Studies: English | Message 4 of 12 14 March 2010 at 10:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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How difficult would it be though? Like learning a completely new language or easier? I don't have a lot of free time.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6490 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 12 15 March 2010 at 1:03am | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, like learning a completely new language. No free lunch here. It is only after I have learnt some Icelandic (which is close to Old Norse, which is close to Old English) that I can get some meaning out of Old English texts. Try Chaucer first.
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| Stratosphere Newbie United States Joined 5410 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Studies: English | Message 6 of 12 15 March 2010 at 2:43am | IP Logged | ||
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How long would it take me to learn it my self if I studied for about an hour a day? How close is it to Latin?
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| Stratosphere Newbie United States Joined 5410 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Studies: English | Message 7 of 12 15 March 2010 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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How far would this take me along? http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/oeindex.html
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| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6233 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 8 of 12 15 March 2010 at 4:03am | IP Logged | ||
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There is also this excellent resource: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/index.html
It's an electronic version of "Introduction to Old English", which is here. Edited by josht on 15 March 2010 at 4:07am 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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