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re: English language historian demonstrates what English sounded like throughout history...
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:17 am to RollTide1987
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:17 am to RollTide1987
My father was back and forth to England in WWII, and he said a lot of working class English were very hard to understand even then.
Now there has been a lot of TV and radio that has homogenized the language.
Now there has been a lot of TV and radio that has homogenized the language.
1
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:20 am to Auburn1968
quote:
a lot of working class English were very hard to understand even then.
good thing he didn't go to Scotland
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:23 am to RollTide1987
Dramatic change from 1400 to 1500. 1500 sounds very clear. 1400 still sounds foreign.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:24 am to 777Tiger
I met a Scottish guy about 20 years ago who was on vacation in Florida and I couldn’t understand anything he said at all. Completely indecipherable
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:26 am to biglego
quote:
I couldn’t understand anything he said at all. Completely indecipherable
azn air traffic controllers can be hard to understand but the consensus of most people in the industry is that Scottish controllers are the most difficult to understand
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:32 am to Willie Stroker
quote:
Why did you take that class?
Like most of my life decisions, poor planning and too much rum when making the choice.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:33 am to RollTide1987
We read Canturbury Tales in Old English in High School. You kind of learn to piece the puzzle together with words that are the same, words that are phoenetically similar and foreign words that fit the narrative.
For example:
quote:
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertue engendred is the flur;
That means April showers bring May flowers.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:34 am to BamaCoaster
Reggie tricked you into it
Posted on 12/29/25 at 11:54 am to RollTide1987
My Louisiana wife has friends outside of Homa .
When we visit them it sounds like they have almost a Brooklyn accent. They are lifelong residence of Homa area.
Always found that interesting.
When we visit them it sounds like they have almost a Brooklyn accent. They are lifelong residence of Homa area.
Always found that interesting.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 12:11 pm to AUFANATL
quote:
We read Canturbury Tales in Old English in High School.
No you didn’t. It wasn’t written in Old English.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 12:12 pm to threedog79
quote:
it sounds like they have almost a Brooklyn accent.
yat accent is similar
Posted on 12/29/25 at 1:47 pm to RollTide1987
Picked up a few things at 900 and 1000, then picked up everything at 1600, that’s about what I heard when people have said how far could you go back in time and still easily communicate with people of the English speaking world and the answer was about 1600 A.D.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 4:05 pm to RollTide1987
I understood some stuff in late 800s, and then it was gibberish again for a couple hundred years. That's crazy.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 4:09 pm to Mo Jeaux
you didn’t. It wasn’t written in Old English.
Middle English which is...not new.
Middle English which is...not new.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 4:09 pm to 777Tiger
quote:
quote:
a lot of working class English were very hard to understand even then.
good thing he didn't go to Scotland
I walked into an Irish bar in Queens some years ago on a hot day and looking for a beer. The staff was new immigrant Irish and I found it very hard to hear the English under the heavy brogue.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 4:17 pm to 777Tiger
quote:
good thing he didn't go to Scotland
About 20-25 years ago I worked for a company that supported an organization for businesses based in the UK that did a lot of business in the US and vice versa (Coke, Rolls Royce, etc.). There were several native Scots that would come to events, and I had to train my brain to slow down what they were saying in order to understand them.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 4:54 pm to threedog79
quote:
My Louisiana wife has friends outside of Homa . When we visit them it sounds like they have almost a Brooklyn accent. They are lifelong residence of Homa area. Always found that interesting.
I learned how to speak in Thibodaux and moved away when I was almost 5. Although I have since lost my accent, up until I was around 12 people would ask me if I was from New Jersey.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 6:00 pm to RollTide1987
A good visit if you are in San Francisco is to the American Bookbinders Museum that has some of the oldest reference material on what was lost in the Cottonian Library fire...LINK
A great look at how this all sorted out:
A great look at how this all sorted out:
This post was edited on 12/29/25 at 6:09 pm
Posted on 12/29/25 at 6:28 pm to RollTide1987
Language development is fascinating. Good stuff.
Posted on 12/29/25 at 6:40 pm to RollTide1987
The reason why the language begins to be intelligible after around 1000 is because of the Norman conquest in 1066 which introduced French/Latin words and grammar into the language which we still use today. Modern English is truly a mix of old English and Middle French/Latin. I don’t really agree with the concept that modern English evolved in a straight line from old English. You can clearly see from this video that there’s a clean break in the intelligibility of the language after the Norman invasion in 1066.
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