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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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[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

Interestingly, DeepL has no problem translating the sections before 1200 into modern English if you tell it it's in Icelandic

[-] LavaPlanet@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 hours ago

The article explains the language throughout the ages, at the end, and the derivatives, Latin and French drop off, at about that time, and you see the language with its original core, Germanic, at that time, (I have probably butchered that in retelling, I couldn't be bothered going in to get the actual text)

[-] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 3 points 1 day ago

Huh. That's definitely interesting.

this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
147 points (99.3% liked)

Neat - For neat stuff you found

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