Can Modern English Speakers Understand Old English? | Language Challenge | Feat. Eadwine

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
  • In this language challenge we continue exploring connections between Old English and Modern English. Speakers from Scotland, Ireland and the United States participate in a series of language experiments to see how much of Old English they can understand and if their specific accents and dialects have any effect on their comprehension. This time we focused on longer samples that Eadwine composed in Old English for this show specifically. You can join his Discord server if you are interested in further exploration of the Old English topic.
    🏋️‍♀️ Support my Work:
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    🤗 Big thanks to:
    🤓 Eadwine - the Old English speaker in this video and admin of the Englisc Discord Server → / discord
    🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Robert Sproul-Cran - a voiceover artist from Scotland, → www.robsproulcran.com/voiceov...
    🇺🇸 Dany - a linguist from the USA.
    🇮🇪 Andrew - a channel subscriber from Ireland.
    🎥Recommended videos:
    Old English vs Modern German → • Old English vs German ...
    Dutch vs English → • Dutch Language | Can E...
    🤓 Can American, Australian, and Non-Native English speaker understand Old English? → • Old English Spoken | C...
    🤓 American, Australian, and Non-Native English speaker vs Old English | #2 → • Old English Language |...
    🤠 Old Norse | Can Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic speakers understand it? @Jackson Crawford ​→ • Old Norse | Can Norweg...
    🤓 Latin Language Spoken | Can Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian speakers understand it? → • Latin Language Spoken ...
    🕰 Time Stamps:
    0:00 - Introduction
    1:47 - 1. Challenge
    6:06 - 2. Challenge
    9:24 - 3. Challenge
    12:08 - 4. Challenge
    18:51 - 5. Challenge
    23:49 - Commentary
    🤗 Big hug for everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
    #languagechallenge #oldenglish

ความคิดเห็น • 2.2K

  • @WiesoNurMistnamen
    @WiesoNurMistnamen ปีที่แล้ว +2175

    It would be nice if you could see a complete translation of the descriptions

    • @EngliscMidEadwine
      @EngliscMidEadwine ปีที่แล้ว +82

      Hi there! I can give you the translations - I gave them to Norbert because I wasn't sure if he needed them.

    • @EngliscMidEadwine
      @EngliscMidEadwine ปีที่แล้ว +291

      Word 1
      This is a thing we see when we look up into the sky. But not just one. There are thousands of them in the sky, and they appear to our eyes as little lights that twinkle - at one moment you see them, at the next not, and then you see them again. Most of them are very far from our world. But one is nearer to us. This one appears in the day, the others at night.
      Word 2
      This is a color. It is a very common color we often see in our lives. It is warm, not cold. Now I will say some things of this color: apples, and cherries, are. Also fire is this color. In the time when Old English was a living language they called gold it. But what I mostly think of with this color, is blood; it is the color of blood
      Word 3
      This is what you feel about someone who is dear to you. There is more than one kind. You can feel it about your brother, monther, best friend, but also your wife or husband. But it is a good thing - you don't feel this to your enemy. We like to say often that it comes from your heart. I don't know if that is true, but that is what everyone says.
      Challenge 4: Now I am not talking about an Old English word. I am going to tell you briefly the story of some film, and you should tell me which one it is: A long time ago in a far away galayxy there ruled an evil empire. They had power over all worlds on this galaxy and now they are building a new weapon that can destroy a whole world in one blow. But a young farmer rises up, learns that he wields a magical power known as "The Force" - He uses it to destroy the weapon, before the empire destroys the rebellion.
      The last I will tell you about is a game. That is a video game from the year 1985. In this game you play as a plumber with a red hat, who runs through the mushroom kingdom, to save the princess (king's doughter). On his journey through the kingdom he will contend with evil mushrooms and turtles and jump on them. There are also good mushrooms, which make you the player larger. There are eight worlds and in seven of them you will hear said: Sorry, but the princess is in another castle

    • @WiesoNurMistnamen
      @WiesoNurMistnamen ปีที่แล้ว +27

      @@EngliscMidEadwine Thank you!

    • @Y2KMillenniumBug
      @Y2KMillenniumBug ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Is it a real language cause I can't read the transcript

    • @Y2KMillenniumBug
      @Y2KMillenniumBug ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Maybe Caesar rice

  • @hoathanatos6179
    @hoathanatos6179 ปีที่แล้ว +3196

    As a Low German speaker this was actually pretty easy. I got so many words that neither a High German speaker nor especially an English speaker would have caught onto.

    • @Meatloaf_TV
      @Meatloaf_TV ปีที่แล้ว +112

      what is a low german speaker?

    • @mikemathias1562
      @mikemathias1562 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      Us holstein?

    • @Sphere723
      @Sphere723 ปีที่แล้ว +312

      @@Meatloaf_TV Northern German or Netherlander. High German is down in the south around the Alps.

    • @hoathanatos6179
      @hoathanatos6179 ปีที่แล้ว +272

      @@Meatloaf_TV German dialects/languages are often broken up into three categories based on intelligibility and sound shifts that have occurred. You have Upper German variants in the mountainous South, you have Middle German across Central Germany, and then you have Low German in the Northern Lowlands. German nationalism in the mid-to-late 1800s led many state institutions to abandon the native Low German dialects in the North for Standard High German as a unifying national language while Southern Germans remained much more conservative and worked to preserve their dialects in the face of state efforts at assimilation. That's probably why you aren't aware of it.

    • @Asher-Tzvi
      @Asher-Tzvi ปีที่แล้ว +203

      @@Meatloaf_TV low German is a language that evolved from Old saxon. Where as modern German evolved from Old High German. Low German is closely related to Old English and Old Frisian because they also evolved from Old Saxon

  • @JasonTaylor-po5xc
    @JasonTaylor-po5xc ปีที่แล้ว +1347

    I don't think I've ever heard Old English spoken. It sounds like a completely different language. I wonder if our current modern English will sound just as foreign to those 1000 years from now.

    • @redpillsatori3020
      @redpillsatori3020 ปีที่แล้ว +241

      It is a completely different language, and that's mostly thanks to the injection of Norman French vocabulary a la "Billy" the Conqueror starting in 1066. It's also due to the fact that the Gutenberg press had not yet been invented, so I doubt English will change AS drastically in the next thousand years (if it's even still naturally spoken then). We have to consider that English is now a worldwide, lingua franca, and tons of English (as well as other languages) is being archived and thoroughly documented daily on the internet and in books.

    • @derekbrown2215
      @derekbrown2215 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      ​@@redpillsatori3020 Billy the Bastard

    • @HelloOutsiders
      @HelloOutsiders ปีที่แล้ว +33

      @@redpillsatori3020 Languages will probably form back into 1 like in the tower of babel days.

    • @garethbaus5471
      @garethbaus5471 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      ​@@HelloOutsiders The story of the tower of babel sortove might have been inspired by a real structure(there is not sufficient archeological evidence to support even that assertion at the moment) , but we do have a significant body of evidence that opposes the idea of their ever having ever been a global unified language at any point in history. The current linguistic trend does appear to have a reduction in the diversity of languages, but there does not appear to be a high probability of a single universal language becoming a thing at any point in the future.

    • @tjkasgl
      @tjkasgl ปีที่แล้ว +19

      ​@@garethbaus5471 Biblical events such as the confusion of language at the time of the tower of Babel likely were regional, not world wide.
      It could be argued that even now we have confusion of language between political factions within our own nations

  • @ronnie-being-ronnie
    @ronnie-being-ronnie 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +500

    My sis was taking a literature class for college. She was reading something in old English and was struggling, having to sound out the words. She got stuck and kept repeating two over and over. My son, two years old, looked at her, listening. He went up and pointed at his eye and said, “Me oy.”
    He was right, lol.

    • @ForrestOutman
      @ForrestOutman 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +98

      And that's the immense power of neuro plasticity

    • @kathyoneill4011
      @kathyoneill4011 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      So cute

    • @human7491
      @human7491 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +35

      Yeah, and "window" literally means "wind eye"

    • @Universemasterj
      @Universemasterj 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      That sounds like you’re just Irish lol

    • @statinskill
      @statinskill 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@human7491 Das Windauge.

  • @madeofmandrake1748
    @madeofmandrake1748 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +180

    Absolutely hilarious that the New Yorker heard "thousands of them in the night sky" and thought airplanes instead of stars. Hard to think of a city that has worse light pollution than the one with giant lightup billboards going 24/7

    • @RafaelBenedicto
      @RafaelBenedicto 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      When a major New York blackout happened in 2003, people started calling emergency hotlines and reported that thousands of strange objects were suddenly appearing in the night sky. Lo and behold, these "strange objects" were actually just stars 😂

    • @MelGibsonFan
      @MelGibsonFan 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      @@RafaelBenedictoI was there for the 03 blackout and I never heard any such thing… I mean guess in a city of roughly 8 million at the time, anything is possible.

    • @takishaedwards273
      @takishaedwards273 14 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      ​@@RafaelBenedictoI'm a New Yorker and I was there during the 2003 and no one did that 😂 we're not idiots. We know what stars are. This is such an internet lie for clout and not a good one at that

  • @BlizzardWizard99
    @BlizzardWizard99 ปีที่แล้ว +819

    Now the real question is can Old English speakers understand Modern English?

    • @renatodavid3049
      @renatodavid3049 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      😂

    • @gigieinaudi24
      @gigieinaudi24 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      I Guess more or less yes if you speak english with no much latin words

    • @Blox117
      @Blox117 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +52

      we wuz kangz n shet mang stawp da cap

    • @ivann129
      @ivann129 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      It simmilar on writing informal english so incomphrehensible

    • @markg.7865
      @markg.7865 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      No way, I can barely understand deep Southern accents.

  • @tammo100
    @tammo100 ปีที่แล้ว +1787

    As a Dutch speaker who also speaks Low German, this is actually quite easy. I had the first one without help from the text.

    • @lukasvandewiel860
      @lukasvandewiel860 ปีที่แล้ว +51

      As another Dutch speaker, with a light dusting of Norsk to boot, I had no clue. Only 3 and 4 were easy.

    • @maryk446
      @maryk446 ปีที่แล้ว +49

      I heard once that Old English is closer to today's German than it is to Modern English.

    • @danielwhyatt3278
      @danielwhyatt3278 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      You are very lucky indeed, then. I’m British English, and I had absolutely no idea what was being said in the first example. Honestly I understand German better than I know this, and I only instead of few words in German.😆😓😓😭 this language feels completely alien to me now. I guess it makes sense then that this is considered old English as honestly, it feels more like I am listening to something closer to Welsh. That’s the language we really just don’t need coming back. Lmao

    • @danielwhyatt3278
      @danielwhyatt3278 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      @@maryk446 I can hear it. I’m English and it doesn’t feel at all like the language we have today. It feels closer to Welsh with a tiny bit of Germanic then it does to modern British English today.

    • @Nikelaos_Khristianos
      @Nikelaos_Khristianos ปีที่แล้ว +24

      @@danielwhyatt3278 Weirdly, Old English has no connections to Welsh at all. Not even the occasional loan word. So it's interesting that it sounded a bit Welsh to your ears.

  • @bloodystatic4156
    @bloodystatic4156 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    For a language that is 1573 years old, parts of it are surprisingly comprehensible!

  • @eviek3809
    @eviek3809 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Lol…thousands of things in the sky at night geez could it possibly be stars?! I’m sitting here screaming STARS!!

    • @Alizudo
      @Alizudo 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      RIGHT?!

    • @stinkbug4321
      @stinkbug4321 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@Alizudo Shows how much you know. Pfbbtt, it's U.F.O's.

  • @EngliscMidEadwine
    @EngliscMidEadwine ปีที่แล้ว +595

    Eadwine here! Thank you Norbert for having me on your channel, I had a lot of fun!

    • @darraghchapman
      @darraghchapman ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Great job! Tricky but gettable prompts, and I enjoyed your cadence and pronunciation, even if it was slowed down a bit to give them a chance.

    • @EngliscMidEadwine
      @EngliscMidEadwine ปีที่แล้ว +20

      @@darraghchapman yes I did have to read a bit slower. First thing said when we started recording was I was talking too fast.

    • @Ecolinguist
      @Ecolinguist  ปีที่แล้ว +32

      Thank you for your contribution, Eadwine! 🤗

    • @teopilemalakia1444
      @teopilemalakia1444 ปีที่แล้ว

      ti liubish gruzia i ukraina?

    • @EngliscMidEadwine
      @EngliscMidEadwine ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@teopilemalakia1444 what language are you speaking? something Slavic definitely... but other than that I can't tell

  • @mahlonrhoades4509
    @mahlonrhoades4509 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +135

    i'd like to see how a Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic speaker would do - old english is far closer to these than modern english

    • @colbymasvidal2397
      @colbymasvidal2397 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      Im danish and I didnt understand anything😊

    • @PatrikLarssonRang
      @PatrikLarssonRang 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Yeah I'm Swedish and could see some words in relation to any of the Scandinavian languages. But I'd say Icelandic might understand it better but that judgement I make mainly because they have similar letters. Þ for example.

    • @annominous826
      @annominous826 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      I'm Norwegian, I picked up the occasional word and phrase, but it took until I saw the text to start understanding it. The first two, I had a great deal of trouble with, but the last three, I figured out before the people on the show. However, it took as much knowledge of English as of Norwegian.
      The closest languages would be other West Germanic languages, and I'd expect Frisian and Low German speakers to have the easiest time of this.

    • @fortyfortytwo759
      @fortyfortytwo759 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I was wondering if someone who speaks Frisian can understand.

    • @4scene
      @4scene 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I am fluent in Norwegian. I could pick out some of the words but was not able to understand what was written. The lilt reminded me of some of the Norwegian dialects.

  • @justinlee3017
    @justinlee3017 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    This was a pleasant surprise from the TH-cam algorithm! I wish Eadwine would create a Duolingo course for Old English.

  • @davidmarkwort9711
    @davidmarkwort9711 ปีที่แล้ว +455

    Being German this sounds a lot like Plattdeutsch or even Dutch, both being Friesian languages/dialects. Some of what you spoke I heard as a child in the 50's in Barrow in Furness, they had a broad Lancashire dialect and used words that were unknown in London, even the pronounciations were different. Just love listening to the odl dialects, am now 72, but you never stop learning.

    • @hotstepper887
      @hotstepper887 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      There is a reason for that... In the 11th century when the Normans invaded England, only French and Latin were spoken by those rulers and the clergy, but we English people refused to relent, and we hung on to our sturdy language. For one hundred years or more, books were not written in English, but only in Latin, French, and Greek, but we English people only spoke English. We insisted on speaking English, we absorbed French, Latin, and Greek words, and added them to English words - that came from Old German and Old Norse. We made the language, “English”, richer, more subtle, and much more precise.
      The Normans, meanwhile, intermarried with us English people, and they also learned to speak English - playful, pungent, philosophical, practical, and poetic English. This is just one of many of our greatest achievements, and the English language belongs to all of us. First, for saving our language from conquest, and then secondly, by letting it grow freely, with all the people of England deciding which words we liked, and wanted to keep, and which words we'd scuttle. In the intervening years, we English people, have invented and added over a million new words, including half a million technical and scientific terms, while German has about 185,000 words and French has fewer than 100,000.

    • @eileencritchley4630
      @eileencritchley4630 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@hotstepper887 We also add a few Hindi words as well over the years think of the word Bungalow, eg one story house. Juggernaut from the Hindi word 'Jagannath' we've add Abratic words also into the English Language.

    • @hotstepper887
      @hotstepper887 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@eileencritchley4630 Indeed many rather than as few - Bandana - Chutney - Shampoo - Typhoon are a few others,

    • @eileencritchley4630
      @eileencritchley4630 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@hotstepper887 Correct.

    • @xess4168
      @xess4168 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Dutch and Plattdeutsch are not actually Frisian Dialects/Languages.
      Dutch is derived from Frankish, and Plattdeutsch is derived from Saxon.
      West Frisian and it’s dialects are the actual closest language, other than the Creole and Scots languages, that retains an English grammar structure.

  • @LupinoArts
    @LupinoArts ปีที่แล้ว +69

    I got the last one. In my dialect of German, "Schwamme" (or Schwämme) means "mushroom", and with "cyninges dohter" and "gamen" it was clear that it was a game, something with a "kingdom of mushrooms" and a princess, so the only game that came to my mind was Super Mario.

    • @wilhelmseleorningcniht9410
      @wilhelmseleorningcniht9410 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Pa Dutch (German dialect) is much similar with der Schwamm meaning mushroom

    • @Valerio_the_wandering_sprite
      @Valerio_the_wandering_sprite ปีที่แล้ว +1

      It's amusing how the same word means "sponge" in Standard German.

    • @wilhelmseleorningcniht9410
      @wilhelmseleorningcniht9410 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Valerio_the_wandering_sprite They are spongy to be fair lol. Another term that pops up in pa Dutch is Marichel, which is related to Morchel, but can mean both a morel specifically and just a mushroom in general.

    • @LupinoArts
      @LupinoArts ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@Valerio_the_wandering_sprite That's no coincidence: Just look under the cap of some sorts of mushrooms and the rule of thumb that mushrooms with lamella tend to be poisonous while tose with "sponges" are more likely to be edible, at least in central Europe.

    • @Kajkes
      @Kajkes 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@Valerio_the_wandering_sprite natural sponges that live in oceans are actually a type of fungus, so it's all connected.

  • @neshrosuryoyo
    @neshrosuryoyo 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    It's amazing how English developed to become a universal language used or understood by almost everyone!

    • @tulenik71
      @tulenik71 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      what is amazing about collonialism, series of aggressions, genocides and slavery?

    • @WhoOCares
      @WhoOCares 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      very valid point@@tulenik71

    • @gonsalomon
      @gonsalomon 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      We all started using tools over the Internet that were developed in English as well (and this is 21st century, not that old), so why fighting the current when flowing with it seems to be easier...

    • @fasteddiejs
      @fasteddiejs 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@tulenik71Every society in history had slavery. It was the dominant economic model. So, this is an unfair characterisation; you make it as if the British were unique in this regard. But the British empire was unique in the sense that it was the first empire in history to abolish slavery, and British people lost their lives trying to stop the trade on the high seas as the practice continued, and indeed, still continues to this day in other places and by other people. As for genocide and colonialism, this again, is not unique to the British. In fact, as empires go, the British empire is a benign example. Why do you think most of the near east and North Africa speak Arabic?

    • @dumupad3-da241
      @dumupad3-da241 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@gonsalomon English became the global lingua franca before the internet was a major factor. The decisive cause was just that the USA has been the richest and most powerful country in the world for more than a hundred years now. The flow certainly needs to be fought to some extent - what's easy isn't always good for you.

  • @yurigrilo6405
    @yurigrilo6405 ปีที่แล้ว +32

    I teach English for children here in Brazil, and once, we had to present some work about Middle Age churches in England. They found a text in old English, but I couldn't help them with its reading. Hehehe
    We had fun, but it was a hard work for all of us.
    Great channel! Congratulations!

    • @dylanmurphy9389
      @dylanmurphy9389 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Germans and Dutch people understand Old English quite well.
      English people can’t understand a single word

    • @anne4240
      @anne4240 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Sou brasileira. Esse vídeo apareceu pra mim como sugestão, abri pois sou muito curiosa em relação a linguagens do passado. Entendo inglês moderno (apenas ouvindo, não sei conversar) e consegui entender o q os convidados falaram, mas do inglês antigo não entendi nada 😅

    • @fasteddiejs
      @fasteddiejs 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ⁠@@anne4240I am English and I didn’t understand any of it. Old english and modern english are basically two different languages. You need a background in other Germanic languages to make any sense of it

  • @ianhelyar9553
    @ianhelyar9553 ปีที่แล้ว +50

    I was impressed how much I could 'guess' with my smattering of Swedish. This is fun!

  • @Mercure250
    @Mercure250 ปีที่แล้ว +489

    Fun fact : "Kaiser" is in fact related to the word "Caesar" (same for "caser" in Old English). The name "Caesar" was used by pretty much all Roman emperors, in honor of the first emperor, Augustus Caesar (who got his name from Julius Caesar), and thus, in some languages, became the word for "emperor". In Classical Latin, the "C" was pronounced hard like a "K", so it was a lot closer to the modern German pronunciation.
    Interestingly, "Caesar" also became the words for "emperor" in the Slavic languages (Russian "царь", which "tsar" comes from, or Polish "cesarz").

    • @iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643
      @iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      Caesar doesn’t come from Augustus, but from Caius Julius Caesar, his great uncle.

    • @gailforce
      @gailforce ปีที่แล้ว +6

      most titles are widely spread. earl/jarl etc.

    • @Mercure250
      @Mercure250 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      @@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643 Correct, but Octavian took his name, and became the first emperor, Augustus. And it's because of him that all the emperors took the name Caesar.

    • @iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643
      @iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Mercure250. True. But the name Caesar comes from Caius Julius

    • @Mercure250
      @Mercure250 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643 Yes, I'm not denying it. I suppose I could edit my original comment to specify it.

  • @lukasfolkner4618
    @lukasfolkner4618 ปีที่แล้ว +45

    Someone tell Andrew that the word he asked about 'Drycraeft' retains a Celtic root that appears both in Irish 'Draíocht', and strangely, in English 'Druidry', both meaning Witchcraft.

    • @crowe6961
      @crowe6961 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Yeah, I caught that too. Drycraeft, Druidcraft...

  • @nirutivan9811
    @nirutivan9811 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

    As a (Swiss) german speaker who also knows English and some Swedish and Norwegian I did understand some things. I had almost no chance understanding it by just listening, but with reading I could work with my German and English knowledge to guess what it is. Swedish & Norwegian weren‘t that helpful, but German helped a lot.

    • @ami443
      @ami443 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Because it is anglo saxon.

  • @jcortese3300
    @jcortese3300 ปีที่แล้ว +195

    I got absolutely nothing without the text, and damned little from that. (Too many Romance languages.) The one thing that really struck me was how beautiful old English sounded. The language has become a lot harsher somehow, using a lot more stop consonants. The old language was much softer and more sibilant.

    • @arrionelton
      @arrionelton ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Yes, and almost all sounds coincide with the letter, and the sound - R stands out especially.

    • @danterada
      @danterada ปีที่แล้ว +37

      Old English sounds very Germanic, almost nothing romance language.

    • @Zenigundam
      @Zenigundam ปีที่แล้ว +14

      I was surprised at how much of it I understood, but, then again, I majored in English at an elite university and had prior exposure to Old English, so I understood a lot of words that your average English speaker wouldn't get because I've studied their word etymologies.

    • @eileencritchley4630
      @eileencritchley4630 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@Zenigundam Same I studied etymologies as a child as my father was very keen for us to understand the root meanings of words.

    • @marcusrodrigues516
      @marcusrodrigues516 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      This is not even close of any romance language

  • @martelkapo
    @martelkapo ปีที่แล้ว +141

    The word *blēo* strikes again! I remember seeing it in one of the previous OE videos on this channel. It has no cognates in any of the most widely spoken Germanic languages today.
    Also, it's fascinating how the first challenge was the most difficult for me…really goes to show that once your ears become attuned to the sound correspondences, it becomes MUCH easier to follow along.

    • @martelkapo
      @martelkapo ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Also, 11:17 shows just how similar PIE roots can remain long into the history of its descendants: OE **wer** and Latin **vir** are only separated in pronunciation by the vowel!

    • @gljames24
      @gljames24 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Is it where we get the color blue?

    • @martelkapo
      @martelkapo ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@gljames24 no, despite the similarity in both words starting with they ultimately come from different (but related) PIE roots. Funny enough, "blue" was borrowed into English from Anglo-Norman, which itself borrowed it from a Germanic language, so the borrowed Norman form actually supplanted the native English term, despite it ultimately coming from the same Germanic source. If this hadn't happened, we'd be saying "blow" instead of "blue".

    • @ObvsCam93
      @ObvsCam93 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Surely the word 'blee' is related to it? Meaning colour or hue. I use that word to mean colour or complexion even today personally.

    • @HappyBeezerStudios
      @HappyBeezerStudios 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      blēo might not have a cognate, but it does have a false friend.

  • @just_depie
    @just_depie 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Old English sounds so good! I love the rolling of the "r".

  • @andersblom3173
    @andersblom3173 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    This was actually quite amazing to watch! Being fluent in Swedish and English (and having studied German), I understood a lot more than I would have thought! The Star Wars one was clear to me even as it was read! Well done, indeed! More of these, please.

  • @anna-lisaansardi9419
    @anna-lisaansardi9419 ปีที่แล้ว +181

    Why, Why, Why did we ever quit speaking Old English? It's such a beautiful language to hear spoken and has a beautiful sing-song-y quality to it. I didn't understand much of what was sad while the text was being read, but it was still such a joy to listen to it being spoken.

    • @techfan1017
      @techfan1017 ปีที่แล้ว +60

      It sounds terrible

    • @ikec2894
      @ikec2894 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      I don't know the specifics but likely war's and conquests played a part in why the Language evolved. Conquerors inserting parts of there own language into the conquered

    • @anna-lisaansardi9419
      @anna-lisaansardi9419 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      @TechFan101 agree to disagree. I think English sounds terrible and Old English sounds beautiful.

    • @doowoppyify
      @doowoppyify ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Be honest and admit you didn't understand a single word... LOL

    • @anna-lisaansardi9419
      @anna-lisaansardi9419 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@doowoppyify this and that mother and brother were words I understood, after that pretty much just pretty sounds.

  • @StefanBI96
    @StefanBI96 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    Tungol is pretty close to tungl which means moon in Icelandic.

  • @benjaminfoster5383
    @benjaminfoster5383 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    It is great to see how Old English has survived. Your reading, speaking, and writing are directly connected to those times so long ago.

  • @johnfloros3232
    @johnfloros3232 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This is very cool. I love languages and to hear Old English spoken today is amazing. Good job on the part of the contestants and host. Really interesting. It's good to know that there are others out there that are as interested in language as I am. Good job!!!

  • @gabrielniklasschildt5612
    @gabrielniklasschildt5612 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    best thumbnail I've ever seen.

    • @Ecolinguist
      @Ecolinguist  ปีที่แล้ว +2

      thanks. lol

    • @amjan
      @amjan ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I have to agree!!

  • @JJ-ig6ot
    @JJ-ig6ot ปีที่แล้ว +9

    In the jewellery business we still say that gold is red, if it is "normal" gold. At least in Sweden

  • @benjigalvani
    @benjigalvani ปีที่แล้ว +53

    As a brazilian this amazes me to see how much difference there's between old latin languages and Germanic ones, like two completely different worlds

    • @thomaszaccone3960
      @thomaszaccone3960 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Latin and German are both Indo-European languages. When you put a lot of words through the mind bending rules of linguistics, the connections become more apparent. Like Latin, old English was a more highly inflected language than modern German or modern English.

    • @javierhillier4252
      @javierhillier4252 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I'd say the latin languages have stayed a lot more similar to there vulgar latine

    • @thomaszaccone3960
      @thomaszaccone3960 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@javierhillier4252 True. Caballo comes from Vulgar Latin Caballus not classical Equus and Testa - head, comes right from Vulgar Latin for jar

    • @javierhillier4252
      @javierhillier4252 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@thomaszaccone3960 I only know french and its cool to see that testa is 《tête》 in french ê means there used to be an s after the e

    • @thomaszaccone3960
      @thomaszaccone3960 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@javierhillier4252 Classical "head" was caput, capitis

  • @katarzynalpzm0arajko-nenow32
    @katarzynalpzm0arajko-nenow32 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    As a Polish native speaker that speaks also English and Norwegian I must say that knowing Norwegian helps me more with this than knowing actuall English. 😂

  • @SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands
    @SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands ปีที่แล้ว +17

    A lot of words are still used in Dutch.

  • @_zaldivar2590
    @_zaldivar2590 ปีที่แล้ว +70

    If I could make two recommendations; English speakers trying to understand Scots, and a Celtic language experiment (Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, Breton).

    • @KingMidas1983
      @KingMidas1983 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      I would love to hear anyone speaking Bretagne. My grandfather was born in Brittany and brought up speaking it until the French government literally beat it out of his generation. He immigrated to Canada speaking French, but with a "brogue" if that makes any sense. His accent carried into his English and Spanish as well.

    • @lothariobazaroff3333
      @lothariobazaroff3333 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      There are many words in Welsh similar or identical to their English counterparts (e.g. car, siop, lico, siaced, plismon, peintio), but I doubt any English speaker would understand any sentence without such words.
      Fasai siaradwyr Saesneg ddim yn deall unrhyw frawddeg, tasen nhw ddim yn sylwi unrhyw eiriau cyfarwydd yn y brawddegau hynny. (English speakers would not understand any sentence, if they did not notice any familiar words in those sentences.) - I hope there aren't many mistakes in this Welsh sentence, I'm still a learner.

    • @user-kp1gb7cp8g
      @user-kp1gb7cp8g ปีที่แล้ว

      Don't know what you mean under "Celtic languages" video, because literally no Celtic language is mutually intelligible with other, for Celtic language speakers any other Celtic language is like English to Nahuatl speakers.

    • @isamukim1693
      @isamukim1693 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      ​@@user-kp1gb7cp8g Irish gaelic, Scottish gaelic and Manx are certainly mutually inteligible. It pretty much depends whether the languages belong to the same branch or not. Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are almost dialects of the same language, Manx is very close to them also (at least in spoken, not written form). There're already many videos of people talking in them and understanding each other quite well. All three languages belonging to the Goigodelic branch. The problem comes with speakers of the Goigodelic branch vs. the Brythonic branch (Breton, Cornish and Welsh). They wouldn't understand each other. However, the languages are still related and many words look alike, more like German and English.

    • @herpyderpy4366
      @herpyderpy4366 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@user-kp1gb7cp8g You have no idea what you're talking about. The Goidelic languages in particular are fairly mutually intelligible. Not without their difficulties (particularly depending on the specific dialects in question), but "English to Nahuatl" is an utterly absurd comparison.

  • @XaviRonaldo0
    @XaviRonaldo0 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +55

    Would be interesting to get a west Frisian speaker on the challenge considering it's considered to be English's closest relative

    • @nfnworldpeace1992
      @nfnworldpeace1992 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      im frisian and speak dutch and english and a bit of german and i can sometimes understand random scandinavian words its so interesting how language evolved over time

    • @Magnus_Loov
      @Magnus_Loov 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@nfnworldpeace1992 Funnily enough, I looked at some common words in different Germanic languages and Frisian seemed to be closest to Swedish. (if you don't count Norwegian and Danish which also are part of the North Germanic languages).

    • @robbk1
      @robbk1 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@Magnus_Loov I think that depends upon which dialect of Frisian you are comparing to Standard Swedish. North Frisian has a tremendous influence from The Jutes in Jylland (Jutland) who some historians believe migrated south from southwest Modern Sweden (Skone) to the very southwest of Jutland (which is now southwest Denmark; whilst West Fries has gotten much more influence from Dutch and some from low Frankish. The North Frisian's other main element came from Old Aengelsc (The West Germanic Angels, who migrated there later than The Frisians, together with The West (Lower) Saxons. As a Dutch speaker, who also understands West Fries and English, I can understand West Fries better, But, I also understand Dansk as well (though not absolutely fluently, so that also helps me with Nord Fries. So, I was able to read the printed Old English with little trouble, but I didn't get all of it when Norbert spoke very quickly, or slurred his words in a few spots. Someone who speaks Dutch or Frisian, plus a Scandinavian language shouldn't have much trouble with Old English. I was shocked ay=t how well I moved through reading "Beowulf", getting the gist most of the time.

    • @Green4321
      @Green4321 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@robbk1 thanks. You answered I had. My late parents were fluent in Dutch and English, although they spoke different Dutch dialects. My father also had some knowledge of West Frisian. I wish I could know if they would have been able to understand Old English.

    • @timppaUT
      @timppaUT 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@robbk1Well. The way I've remember it, all germanic people originate at the southern part of Scandinavia, where they have spoken Old Norse, or quite propably, whatever proto Norse was before that, until they migrated to north part of Europe, so it's no wonder why most European languages have so much similarities. Celtic languages are a bit "weirdo" among them. That's why it interests me most of all European languages.

  • @bobbybranham4830
    @bobbybranham4830 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I really enjoyed this. Facinating to here my ancient ancestors language spoken. Beautiful. 🎉❤

  • @yurirykov
    @yurirykov ปีที่แล้ว +28

    You're getting Roman connotations because the word "Caserrice" is indeed reference to Caesar. You can also see it in Russian with Czar, which is the same. Literally "emperor", or "ruler as powerful as Caesar" as opposed to "common king of some run-of-the-mill kingdom". Using this word would be a pretty serious claim, because at the time, every backyard in Europe was called a kingdom. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of them on the territory that we now know as Germany. Burgundy, Normandy, Lorrain, and many other modern French territories were their own kingdoms, so there was an understandable demand for a word that represents more than a mere local king.

  • @Antonio_DG
    @Antonio_DG ปีที่แล้ว +105

    It is estimated that modern English has had the following linguistic influences:
    Old English (or Anglo-Saxon): 26%
    Latin: 29%
    French: 29%
    Other (including words taken from languages such as Greek, Norwegian, Dutch, and Medieval Latin): 16%

    • @dylanmurphy9389
      @dylanmurphy9389 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Pure BS

    • @groggerton3841
      @groggerton3841 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      @@dylanmurphy9389 no hes telling the truth its a 5 second google search 💀

    • @jonpetter8921
      @jonpetter8921 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I know at least "window" came from Scandinavian (danish/norwegian) vindu

    • @williamking3301
      @williamking3301 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Also, in America there are the loan words from Native American languages (such as "moccasin"), Spanish (via Mexico), French (via New Orleans), and African languages (such as "tote").

    • @binxbolling
      @binxbolling 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      But most words used commonly are Germanic.

  • @johnpairduke-bj1cp
    @johnpairduke-bj1cp 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    What fun! Fifty years ago I took an Old English class. It was exciting to delve into what I remember.

  • @grafinvonhohenembs
    @grafinvonhohenembs ปีที่แล้ว +20

    Austrian German, German German, Dutch really helpled a lot here! For example, I guessed Mario right away because in Austrian German, mushroom is Schwammerl and in Old English it is swamm. :D This was such a fun exercise!

  • @Gasp7000
    @Gasp7000 ปีที่แล้ว +48

    As a note about how gold related to, and still relates, to the color red, it is interesting they cross-identified that because in physics, the vibrations of gold are the same as red. They are healing vibration measurements that are, in fact, also used in far-infrared medical treatment. Also interesting, I have a friend who is a glassblower, and she told me that in order for glassblowers to make red-colored glass, they must add the element, gold. It is tradition in ancient arts and construction that wherever gold-leafing was to be applied, it was first underpainted with red pigmented paint. As it comes near the time to restore the gold-leafing about every 20 years, such as a building’s roof dome, the red paint typically shows through.

    • @blaklena
      @blaklena ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Waow! I know a lot of things and are not easily impressed but here you are impressing me with beautiful knowledge!
      I study Architectural Alchemy or the usage of sacred architecture with the purpose of transforming and purifying the human consciousness, and one very Amazing author and teacher, Ibrahim Karim, spoke heavily from the vibration of Gold and I didn't get that beyond any metaphysical attributes Gold also had this type of vibration within more conventional physics!
      You just made my day 😊

    • @Alborzhakimi7010
      @Alborzhakimi7010 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Wow, this is incredibly interesting. In Persian, the word for the colour blonde “bur (بور)” also means red in some texts (both ancient and relatively newer literature). In the Shahnameh, the word “bur” is used to refer to mostly red horses but also other red things, but today “bur” is mostly used to denote the colour of a blond persons hair.

  • @redfog42
    @redfog42 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Wow! Interesting stuff! The progression of language is fascinating.

  • @budweiserthedog4449
    @budweiserthedog4449 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Oh I love this! It's like Old English University Challenge! 😍

  • @danielbroome5690
    @danielbroome5690 ปีที่แล้ว +213

    I feel like English is one of the harder ones because half our language is stapled onto the skeleton of german so we have to ignore any base romance language words and try to think back to something like King James' English to even have a shot at getting certain words to sound similar to their old english counterparts. Not to mention the cases that we stripped out of the language.

    • @sugarnads
      @sugarnads 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Ki g ja es english has all the french in it, which came over 600 years BEFORE king james.

    • @mr_h831
      @mr_h831 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I thought English had a heavier basis in Latin or Greek languages.

    • @sugarnads
      @sugarnads 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      @@mr_h831 youre not serious.
      English is a germanic language. England is literally angeland. The land of the Angles. A german tribe.
      English imports words from anywhere it finds them if theyre useful.

    • @mr_h831
      @mr_h831 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@sugarnads Oh wait sorry, I'm thinking American English.
      It has a lot more Latin influence in it.
      Whoops.
      I mean obviously it's still got that Germanic framework, but you'd be surprised how many American English words can trace their roots back to Latin, because it's actually alot.

    • @michaelzizzo6726
      @michaelzizzo6726 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @@mr_h831it has nothing to do with American. Modern English uses a lot of Latin words from influence of the Roman Empire and Catholicism. However old English has none of that influence and therefore is more akin to German than modern English.

  • @clarehidalgo
    @clarehidalgo ปีที่แล้ว +10

    8:48 Reminds me how in Old Norse things referred to as "Raven colored" was referring to the iridescent blue of the feathers and for a long time it was getting mistranslated as black instead of blue

    • @dumupad3-da241
      @dumupad3-da241 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Citation needed. From what I've read, it's the other way around and the word for 'blue' could also mean 'black' (perhaps with some bluish nuance).

  • @-Reagan
    @-Reagan ปีที่แล้ว +1

    That thumbnail was PERFECT

  • @FldMrshlWAbouSaad
    @FldMrshlWAbouSaad ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Super stimulating!

  • @dolorlux4612
    @dolorlux4612 ปีที่แล้ว +23

    I would really love to make this an actual game, I'd love to do some coding and turn these paragraphs into a group guessing game kind of like the online version of cards against humanity. But with guessing Old English's paragraph topics! I absolutely LOVE THIS! Please make more of these videos with guests! This was so WELL produced in my opinion! My hats off to you!

  • @AmericanShia786
    @AmericanShia786 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    I took two years of German in high school, back in the mid-1970s, and tried to guess at individual words. I surprised myself by getting a few right, but only a few. This was still lots of fun.

  • @Samantha-qn5ow
    @Samantha-qn5ow ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This is fascinating. IDK how I got here, but I'm glad I stayed!

  • @ianrodenhouse5397
    @ianrodenhouse5397 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Fascinating!

  • @Dariusuzu
    @Dariusuzu ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Dzięki ci za twoją robotę videa twoje są zawsze ciekawe do oglądania ;)

  • @zhuravlik26
    @zhuravlik26 ปีที่แล้ว +133

    We need a video of Old English vs Dutch. Dutch helped me to understand 4 and 5 much more than English. :D
    Also interesting that the word for "cold" in the second one - "ceald" - is pronounced almost with "kh" - like in Swiss German. (And there were no Swiss German videos here too, btw.)
    It was a very curious one, and even more curious that it's not with Simon.

    • @eljuano28
      @eljuano28 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Agreed. Ik ben Nederlands aan het leren. It's helpful.

    • @marsukarhu9477
      @marsukarhu9477 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Yeah, I speak the Scandinavian languages, Dutch and German, so this was pretty easy. It would be nice to have a panel with a German, a Dutch and a Swede/a Dane/a Norwegian :)

    • @alanguages
      @alanguages ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Frisian gets my vote, but any Frisian speaker is more than likely able to speak Dutch anyway. On top of that the Dutch people study English at school. It would be three Germanic languages in their mental database to learn Old English. Not a one on one comparison.

    • @LyNguyen33739
      @LyNguyen33739 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That's because ceald was a word of the Southwestern dialects in modern-day West Country. The word cold we use in English today is derived from cald, which was more commonly seen in areas in Eastern England including London.

    • @shadybacon3451
      @shadybacon3451 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@alanguages there is another video on this channel, you may or may not have seen. Can German speakers understand old english, one of the guys on that also speaks Frisian

  • @lucyleptonyx5858
    @lucyleptonyx5858 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Obsessed with how common "þ" is as a sound! Old English sounds like one of those languages that physically "feels" good/fun to use 😂

  • @EnderKingDubs
    @EnderKingDubs 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    As someone with virtually no experience in other languages, especially germanic languages, I was proud to get the Star Wars one before they could.
    I had remembered that "tide" means "time" in Old English and guessed "langre tide" meant "long time", so I knew that this takes place a long time ago. Then I saw "yfel Caserrice" and based on the sound I figured "yfel" was "evil", and knowing that "kaiserreich" basically means "empire" I should've guessed it here.
    Instead, I saw the words "niewe wæpn", my brain autocorrected that to "new weapon" and it immediately clicked that it was Star Wars since the Death Star, a "new weapon" was such a specific and integral part in what otherwise could've been a million different fantasy stories.
    But I was absolutely hopeless on the rest. XD

    • @christineperez7562
      @christineperez7562 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      English is a Germanic language. Modern English shares at least 100 words with modern German.

  • @kevinb2469
    @kevinb2469 ปีที่แล้ว +24

    Yes the German word for man is Mann, but the German word “man” still exists as the word for “you”/“one”/“somebody” that involves talking about a nonspecific and indefinite person placeholder.(and not the normal 2nd person pronoun) It wouldn’t surprise me if a few other Germanic languages still had a similar word leftover.

    • @EngliscMidEadwine
      @EngliscMidEadwine ปีที่แล้ว

      They do and OE also uses man in that way.

    • @b43xoit
      @b43xoit ปีที่แล้ว +1

      *Man* muss das Leben eben nehmen wie das Leben eben ist.

    • @aprillen
      @aprillen 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes, Swedish still has it, although a lot of younger people are avoiding it these days because it sounds gendered.

    • @alessbritish228
      @alessbritish228 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@aprillen really? i thought these days most young swedes are speaking arabic.

    • @PAC-MANN
      @PAC-MANN 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      gender hu? @@aprillen

  • @JorgeRafaelNogueras
    @JorgeRafaelNogueras ปีที่แล้ว +8

    This was a great episode! I thought the clues were fun and well-written. I do wish that he had translated the clues word for word after revealing the answer, so we could learn more Old English! 😃
    Thanks for your videos, Norbert!

  • @budweiserthedog4449
    @budweiserthedog4449 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Well done and thank you 😊

  • @wilsonwarner6903
    @wilsonwarner6903 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    This was fascinating

  • @jeannine1739
    @jeannine1739 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    These are so fun! I would love to see the modern English at the end of each round. I get them wrong almost every time, but they're great fun! :)

  • @CrumbThief
    @CrumbThief ปีที่แล้ว +24

    This is awesome! Many of these words have similarities to Dutch aswell. Like Swamm would be Zwam.

  • @Mark-xv5lb
    @Mark-xv5lb ปีที่แล้ว +1

    First time watching a video on this channel. Very challenging and entertaining.

  • @proudlycanadian3023
    @proudlycanadian3023 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Intelligent conversations are the best here!

  • @Ellary_Rosewood
    @Ellary_Rosewood ปีที่แล้ว +49

    I'm so fascinated by Old English and recently started my journey of learning this beautiful language. Any recommendations for resources would be greatly appreciated, since it's hard to find decent ones!

    • @darraghchapman
      @darraghchapman ปีที่แล้ว +15

      On TH-cam, Simon Roper (who has featured on this channel a few times) deals with it quite a bit, as well as other interesting linguistics stuff. I love his personality and videography as much as the topics he discusses.
      I've heard good things about 'leornende eald englisc', though I've never made a concerted effort to pursue OE after studying a bit in uni. Sheer laziness; I'd love to get good at it :/

    • @darraghchapman
      @darraghchapman ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Also, there are some pretty good OE dictionaries online, generally put up by universities, that--while crude and a bit dated--are fairly complete. A great resource if you want to translate a text word-by-word, which is a good way to learn if applied correctly.

    • @minerat27
      @minerat27 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      There is a free PDF of Fulk's "Introductory Grammar of Old English" on the internet somewhere, though I don't think I can link it in YT comments. RE Leornende Old Englisc, his very channel name is grammatically incorrect, a fact which is reflective of the quality of the OE in the rest of his videos unfortunately. He's not 100% wrong about everything, but I can't recommend him as a good source.

    • @darraghchapman
      @darraghchapman ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@minerat27 good shout with Fulk et al., Indiana U.P. should be the first link.
      Minerat, how would you improve 'leornende eald englisc'? (apart from the ash) I reiterate that I know very little OE. The closest I could find to "leornende" is present continuous of 'leornian': "leorniende". 'I am learning', maybe a flub as was common in manuscripts, but it doesn't even seem to be the most common word for learning either, at least in that sense. Maybe something like ''cneordlæcan' would be better.

    • @minerat27
      @minerat27 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@darraghchapman Actually the lack of æ is a point in LEE's favour, I don't have the exact stats to hand but "Englisc" is far more common in the corpus than "Ænglisc", but many people use the latter because it looks more "medieval".
      As regards "leornende", yeah, firstly as a Class II weak verb there should be an "i" in there, and secondly Old English didn't really use the present participle to form tenses like MnE does, it was mostly just used as an adjective. I believe the correct form would be "Eald Englisc Leornian", with the infinitive, though I'm not 100% on the word order. It's also possible that this kind of construction was just not really used at all, and they'd reword it somehow. And as for word frequency, that's not something I remember off the top of my head. I don't recall leornian being one of the etymological translations to avoid, but I'll check in the morning when I'm not on my phone.

  • @KaneyoriHK
    @KaneyoriHK 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    It's really interesting because you can hear traces of recognizable English very heavily buried, but I can hear the roots. It's really cool to me that I can, in vague parts, recognize some trace of the modern language. It's fascinating how languages change.

  • @LilSlav4123
    @LilSlav4123 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Verily, this hath been a wondrous timepiece, and I pray for the prospect of beholding more thereof.

  • @igorr6921
    @igorr6921 ปีที่แล้ว +37

    During my five years of study at a Ukrainian institute for foreign languages, we had a compulsory History of the English language course. Of course, 25 years on, I don't remember a thing in Old English, but we did look into it quite extensively back then. Just wondering if other non-native English students have had that experience in their countries.

    • @YukiSnowmew
      @YukiSnowmew ปีที่แล้ว +5

      We learn nothing of Old English in America. The oldest we study in school is Shakespeare. It's possible a history class in college might go over that time period, but as a CS major, I wouldn't know.

    • @eljuano28
      @eljuano28 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@YukiSnowmew well, I had Beowulf in OE in highschool, and Chaucer in ME, but I'm old, so...

    • @Nikelaos_Khristianos
      @Nikelaos_Khristianos ปีที่แล้ว +3

      In my native South Africa, where English is the language of education, it's not even mentioned. We barely studied the English language at all. 90% of it was literature analysis.
      Even in England it's rare to study Old English or Middle English at high schools. Maybe the literature is studied, but always in translation. Otherwise, you can study both languages at University if you pursue modules in Medieval English. Along with Old Norse if desired.

    • @happysloth3208
      @happysloth3208 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@YukiSnowmew I’m from the US as well, and I read Beowulf in my AP English literature class which was equivalent to a college level literature class.

    • @YukiSnowmew
      @YukiSnowmew ปีที่แล้ว

      @@happysloth3208 I mean, I'm sure it's taught in some cases, but most people don't take AP courses. I haven't been exposed to Beowulf in college, but I'm also a CS major.

  • @dimonarcher4598
    @dimonarcher4598 ปีที่แล้ว +33

    Being Russian I was surprised when I could guess the second word Red, cause my native language is from absolutly another language group, and I can speak only English and a bit of Italian and know only a couple of words and phrasis in German. It was much fun for me! And also I wanna know what 'swa swa' means? So funny expression for my ear:)

    • @dimonarcher4598
      @dimonarcher4598 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ASS_ault thanks!

    • @BrodyStag
      @BrodyStag 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@dimonarcher4598Jesus is the only way to heaven put all your faith in him and what he did on the cross

    • @statinskill
      @statinskill 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Russian is still an IE language and there are many commonalities.
      Take words like Leute / Lyudi. Or that the Russian word for face, Lits, also appears in the German word Antlitz (which also means face).

    • @statinskill
      @statinskill 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@BrodyStag Don't go wasting your emotions, lay all your love on me!

  • @SmellyBodega
    @SmellyBodega 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    i was blown away by how different it sounded than what i expected

  • @coffic
    @coffic 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    ❤❤❤ Ancestor language meets contemporary, my favourite!!! It would be amazing to watch the same format with old German or Old French. There aren't many speakers, most of them are in universities instead of youtube, but given how confidential their area of expertise is you'd find someone interested for sure :)

  • @darraghchapman
    @darraghchapman ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Pretty happy with my performance! A few pauses after the spoken bits, and a few more with text on screen either to confirm or to make a guess in the first place, but I got almost all of them. Like yer man, I never would've gotten Star Wars probably because I've had so little contact with the franchise (let alone seeing it in German!)

  • @kirepudsje3743
    @kirepudsje3743 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    As a Frisian, I could only pick a word or two from the speaking. For me it sounded like a complete different phonology was used. The spelling is also not common to me, however when trying to pronounce the words myself, it was much easier to understand to get the rough story. To be fair not getting all the right answers. When hearing old English with a more Scottish accent is much easier for me, probably because the phonology is closer to Frisian.
    Regarding man. Dutch has the (slightly ancient) pronoun men, which is not directly coupled to neuter, but refers to a non-specific group of people. "Men zegt dat ...", translates to "People say that ...". German has about the same with "man sagt ...", where man is also neutral.

    • @carolinemasson7172
      @carolinemasson7172 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I was going to say that for me it sounded like someone from the north of Scotland was speaking a dialect I am mostly unfamiliar with in terms of the phonology. I'm from Edinburgh like the man on the left. Also with the 'man sagt' German has a similar thing, but it less means person than 'one says...', as a polite way of not directly referring to someone.

    • @Yarkanlaki
      @Yarkanlaki ปีที่แล้ว

      as same way when foreigner read your language ❤ Old english is dialect of Frisian and Scottish are middle english speakers who survived from bring romanization by French

  • @sigurdurolafsson6906
    @sigurdurolafsson6906 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Btw, with my knowledge of english, icelandic and swedish, i can understand a lot or guess what. Mainly thanks to Icelandic, which still sounds pretty similar

  • @TheViking123
    @TheViking123 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    When they explained it since i speak danish it made a lot of sense

  • @MoonstoneGames
    @MoonstoneGames ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Old English seems so different, looks like other language a mix of german perhaps more into the roots than modern english. I couldn't recognize most of the words but when reading some maybe it would be possible, that's is something so incredible!

  • @zahras1492
    @zahras1492 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    That was awesome! Beyond expectations awesome! Should I be 30 years younger, I would probably give a try to learn old-English. It sounds very familiar and cute!
    Super interesting end of video feedback!

  • @jaelzion
    @jaelzion ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I only got "Love". All the relationships listed, plus the reference to the heart gave it away.

  • @thenumbertwentytoo
    @thenumbertwentytoo 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    as a language speaker this was most satisfactory

  • @joffrenevesvieira6793
    @joffrenevesvieira6793 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    No clue for me, I'm a portuguese native speaker. This was all greek for me.

  • @robthetraveler1099
    @robthetraveler1099 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    11:29 OE "wer" = cognate with Latin "vir" and Irish "fear"

  • @shemiahwalker
    @shemiahwalker 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Sounds poetic

  • @jukebox9407
    @jukebox9407 ปีที่แล้ว

    As a native old english speaker i can say that these guys did a great job on guessing!

  • @seamusoluasigh9296
    @seamusoluasigh9296 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    As a child I would go to the pictures to see a film. Thanks Rob for jogging my memory. It was very interesting to hear Old English spoken so fluently, I wonder what an Icelander would make of it?

    • @user-jx1up5sr7c
      @user-jx1up5sr7c ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Yeah, our English History professor said modern Icelandic is pretty much the same as Old English. I've been in doubt for ages:)

    • @ProfessorBiceps
      @ProfessorBiceps ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@user-jx1up5sr7c интересно, почему так получилось - ведь жители Исландии прекрасно понимают ещё и старые скандинавские тексты на письме

  • @thetoycollectorofseville6428
    @thetoycollectorofseville6428 ปีที่แล้ว +35

    Can you do "Can modern Italian speakers understand Italian from opera?"

    • @Ecolinguist
      @Ecolinguist  ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Sounds like a great idea! lol

    • @mattonthemoon225
      @mattonthemoon225 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I think the answer is “no” but not because it is old Italian, its just because it is very hard to understand that way of singing (1800 italian is not so different from current one)

    • @DBGabriele
      @DBGabriele ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@mattonthemoon225 Old and modern Italian are similar. Even texts from 980 AD are still readable. This is because Italians have been speaking it since the end of World War II. Thus, Italian does evolve over time, in fact, it has changed more in the last 20 years than in all of its history. By the way, the most challenging part of an opera is not the grammar or vocabulary but how the words are sung/stretched.

    • @mattonthemoon225
      @mattonthemoon225 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@DBGabriele penso di aver detto esattamente la stessa cosa... o no? :)

    • @DBGabriele
      @DBGabriele ปีที่แล้ว

      @@mattonthemoon225 hai ragione, cretino io XD

  • @warker6186
    @warker6186 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    this is interesting
    idk why i somehow loved lang learning like this kind

  • @Bob94390
    @Bob94390 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I would love to see something similar but with a word-for-word translation at the end. Then we would learn very much.

  • @annatraustadottir4387
    @annatraustadottir4387 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    The Star Wars was the easiest thing for me and the only time I got the answer from the spoken Old English and he just needed to speak few sentences. The color red I got quite easily when I saw the text. I did get the other words but only after I saw the text and after stopping the video to read it slowly. I didn't understand whole sentences but recognized enough of the words to know what it was about. I'm Icelandic and that helped. I recognized some words because of Icelandic, but also my knowledge of German helped a lot, and Danish and of course English.

  • @alvinmwangi
    @alvinmwangi ปีที่แล้ว +2

    this was so random but i thoroughly enjoyed it

  • @stormlord1984
    @stormlord1984 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Not an english speaker, but I really love how the Old English is sounding. Sounds ***SO*** fantastic!

  • @Darvit_Nu
    @Darvit_Nu ปีที่แล้ว +8

    This is very interesting! I have a latin, french, italian, low german, scotch, and scandinavian background (bits of language not ethnicity lol) so there are words that jumped out at me. The sentence structure reminds me most of old norse though :) very cool and fun to listen, pause & try to guess! I got 3 of 5

  • @Grak70
    @Grak70 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Fun observation: the Irish guy pronounced the word "film" more like "philum", which was the pronunciation as late as early Modern English in England.

  • @zbatevp-vlogs610
    @zbatevp-vlogs610 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great content

  • @gigimc
    @gigimc 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    this is so cooooool!

  • @JoshuaHere
    @JoshuaHere ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I hope they talk about the 20th century a lot if I ever get transported back in time, because these are the only ones I got 😂

  • @MikerBikerB
    @MikerBikerB ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Amusing to see that this video does a Simon Roper: talking about Old English without mentioning Dutch once, but mentioning German regularly. Old English and Old Dutch are very close, and Dutch is very conservative so Old English is easy for us.

  • @afic10
    @afic10 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This channel is fascinating!

  • @viktor8552
    @viktor8552 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    ”There’s thousands of them in the sky, which makes me think of airplanes, but it’s at night so it makes me reconsider” not thinking about stars, might be the most new york thing I’ve ever heard 😅

  • @clevertrickswithmatches5746
    @clevertrickswithmatches5746 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Old english language = modern islandic language! Very beautiful ❤

  • @BrysonMichaelRC
    @BrysonMichaelRC ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I've always told people German and English are closer languages then you think. Being that I'm not collegically educated on the subject, I assumed it was due to European languages being a combination of Latin, Celtic and Roman languages. Listening to this, English and German are almost similar. It's wild to see which language has separated from those basic linguistic similarities

    • @imaboxcar8459
      @imaboxcar8459 ปีที่แล้ว

      English comes to the British Isles by means of the invasion of the North-German tribes of the Angles and Saxons (Anglo-Saxons) following the decline of the Roman Empire, which had to withdraw military support from Roman Briton. So it was quite literally brought to the British Isles BY Germans as a Germanic language. Hope this helps :)

    • @demi3115
      @demi3115 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Why are you surprised, they're both germanic... >>

  • @Hemewl
    @Hemewl ปีที่แล้ว +10

    This one was fun!
    For the final one I picked up the spoken "Game from 1985 or 1958, or maybe 1850?", "red hat" and "the kings daughter", but didn't connect it with the word princess. If I did, I'm pretty sure I would have solved it immediately. Instead my mind got stuck at the Little Red Riding Hood, but that didn't make any sense with games and kings daughter. :D
    It surprised me that none of the participants picked up the red hat. Maybe they just didn't mention it.
    (Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Dutch/German/English)

    • @fordhouse8b
      @fordhouse8b ปีที่แล้ว

      Yeah, i thought the year was 1958 too. None of the clues would have helped me, since I never got into playing video games. I did play some Legend of Zelda and a couple of other games i cant remember, way back in 1989/1990, on my freshman college roommate’s old Commodore 64 computer. Also some Space Invaders on an arcade type machine they had in a restaurant in my Swedish hometown, and Ms.Pac Man, on another arcade style console another ex-roommate had in our living room.