I still think that 1800s Charles Dickens English was the high point of the language and the version we should aspire to
Interestingly, DeepL has no problem translating the sections before 1200 into modern English if you tell it it's in Icelandic
Huh. That's definitely interesting.
Only after languages were institutionalized and formal education became more common, that the languages sort of stabilized and the rate of change became slower. Back then, languages were more "freestyle" and people sometimes didn't even properly understand each other
I was doing pretty well (albeit really slow and deliberate) through 1300, 1200 I was able to make out a few lines, but the rest is gibberish to me.
Edit: I had another wack at it and was able to pick out a little bit of 1100, still no luck on 1000
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.
Is it some kind of social commentary that the writer seems progressively more superstitious and easily frightened as the centuries roll back?
Dude talks about a walk back to his B&B like he's a Hobbit dodging nazguls
Yep! For instance, the author discusses the changes from a blog post to a letter from 2000 - 1800. As they move back in time, both the language and also the themes and form change to match the style of literature and culture of the time.
I mean he has a right to be suspicious
!the story seems to be about a werewolfs goons capturing him and sentencing him to death until he's saved by Ælfgifu gehaten!<
From 1400 and back, it's more phonetic. Less differentiation between how it sounds and how it's written, plus the accent shifts.
I feel an old Scots(wo)man might be more at ease with it, if read aloud. As both their words and this seems like the same kind of gibberish to me.
With enough patience I could maybe make it through a 1500 novel
Same, 1400s are difficult, but 1500s is at least understandable.
Shakespeare is modern English. Even that is challenging for most people. Beyond that it's not longer the English we think of (with the heavy French influence).
1200 was where I got lost. Ive been reading through 1600s documents recently for my history coursework so ive got a bit of practice!
I'm good up until the letters start changing to be something other than the 26 characters we have now.
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
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
I image
You imagine?
Ic ymagyne?
[Saxon noises, or something]
I've been a Rob Words channel fiend lately, about the same as you OP. I suspect if I was teleported back in time earlier than 1400 that I could learn quicker than someone who has never learned any form of English to a point, but it'd still be quite the effort. Then again I'm only considering listening and reading. I think learning to speak well enough to be understood in return is probably harder still, possibly worse than blank slate?
I think it would be more of a gradient than a cutoff. Unless you have a more specific definition for "understand."
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.
Rules