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How far back in time can you understand English?
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this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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For stuff that's neat. Neat article? Neat video? Neat pic of a bug you saw? All good. Neat meme? Ehhh... take it to the meme subs.
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Same here, 1300 was a slog, but I got through it. 1200 was like trying to read German, I got a few phrases here and there but that's it.
That’s exactly what’s happening. If you read the author’s explanation, around 1250 is when English starts picking the up the Latin and French loan words that modern English speakers are used to.
English is a Germanic language. So, without the loan words, it is very much more like German.