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How far back in time can you understand English? (www.deadlanguagesociety.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Chromebby@lemmy.world to c/neat@lemmy.world
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Very entertaining. I’m totally lost around 1400. I don’t even recognize 1200 as English lol.

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[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 2 days ago

I'm good up until the letters start changing to be something other than the 26 characters we have now.

[-] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

I got to around 1400 in reading 1300 was too much, but I image if it was spoken it would be a lot easier, I was reading it in my head as a thick Yorkshire accent, and most of it made sense

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I image

You imagine?

[-] kbal@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago

Ic ymagyne?

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

[Saxon noises, or something]

[-] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

The þ character is called thorn and is pronounced like th in the, that, those etc. the 3 letter from what I gather is a silent g, maybe it wasn't silent back then though

this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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