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Old English readings

  Tags: Reading | Video | English
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Thantophobia
Groupie
United States
Joined 4921 days ago

49 posts - 66 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 1 of 6
13 April 2011 at 10:13pm | IP Logged 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=QE0MtENfOMU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=zfaEGU45lKA


I had no idea English used to be like that. That's awesome.

Edited by Thantophobia on 13 April 2011 at 10:17pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Michael K.
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5488 days ago

568 posts - 886 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Esperanto

 
 Message 2 of 6
13 April 2011 at 10:26pm | IP Logged 
Here's something from the BBC about the history of English:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/language_ timeline/index_embed.shtml
2 persons have voted this message useful



Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 5793 days ago

1457 posts - 1759 votes 
5 sounds

 
 Message 3 of 6
14 April 2011 at 12:02pm | IP Logged 
Michael K. wrote:
Here's something from the BBC about the history of English:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/language_ timeline/index_embed.shtml


It's great, especially the audio documents :). My comprehension of the oldest texts is virtually nil (I wonder if it's the same for native speakers of nordic languages :). But 1066 is a huge step towards the modern language. Shakespearian English is moderately hard to decipher. The 1490 text is very readable (introduction of the printing press by William Caxton) and everything that follows is also easy.

Edited by Sennin on 14 April 2011 at 12:13pm

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Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6462 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
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 Message 4 of 6
14 April 2011 at 12:17pm | IP Logged 
I can just about follow the Anglosaxon speech in some of those Youtube clips when the original text is on the screen, and I can barely understand Beowulf when I have either an English or the Icelandic translation beside it, that's all. Not too impressive, actually.

However the really interesting thing would be whether a native Icelandic OR a Frisian speaker with knowledge of Modern English could understand those clips or read the old manuscripts, - though my guess is that it would take some effort even for people with that background.

Someday in the future I might want to learn Old English, Old High German and Gothic, but I don't believe that it is something you can do in a flash. It took courses of two hours for one semester each to learn Old French and Old Occitan, and then only as passive languages. Old English won't be easier.



Edited by Iversen on 14 April 2011 at 12:23pm

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christian
Senior Member
United States
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111 posts - 135 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Japanese, German

 
 Message 5 of 6
16 April 2011 at 3:22am | IP Logged 
Even though I may not know exactly what it's saying, I get this unearthly feeling of connection and understanding. That's creepy.
1 person has voted this message useful



ruskivyetr
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5240 days ago

769 posts - 962 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 6 of 6
16 April 2011 at 5:49am | IP Logged 
The first video is actually Middle English (hence the title). Middle English comes AFTER the Norman invasion,
which brought the French influence into the language. Notice how you can recognize a bunch of words in the
first one, whereas in the second one it's nearly impossible. To give more perspective, Early Modern English
(Shakespeare's language) comes AFTER Middle English. Old English came way before the Norman invasion of
1066 (i.e. the Romanticization of the English language), therefore making it vastly different from Middle
English.

It goes like this

Old English (second video) > 1066, the Normans come, English becomes Romanticized (is that correct to
say?)> Middle English (the first video) > Early Modern English (Shakespeare)> Modern English (our language
today :)


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