On 9/15/16 5:32 PM, Califbill wrote:
Keyser Soze wrote:
On 9/15/16 3:46 PM, Tim wrote:
2:21 PMKeyser Soze
- show quoted text -
Ah, so you've been to a TeaParty or Trump rally!

Seriously, English has evolved tremendously in the centuries since its
Germanic and Anglo-Saxon origins. It is unlikely you would have
understood many of the "English" words spoken by my favorite lady of
history,Eleanor of Acquitaine, and for many reasons.

Here's a sentence or two from Beowulf:

Sona þæt gesawon snottre ceorlas,
þa ðe mid Hroðgare on holm wliton,
þæt wæs yðgeblond eal gemenged,
brim blode fah. Blondenfeaxe,
gomele ymb godne, ongeador spræcon
þæt hig þæs æðelinges eft ne wendon
þæt he sigehreðig secean come
mærne þeoden; þa ðæs monige gewearð
þæt hine seo brimwylf abroten hæfde.
....

Bet you don't understand it either. Lol!



Actually, in college, I could have worked through a line by line
translation with minimal assistance from textbooks. Now, I can struggle
through a good part of it, but not as easily as in the good old days.
Blondenfeaxe doesn't mean blond, by the way.


It was also not English.


As I stated, English evolved from its Germanic and Anglo-Saxon origins.
Old English was English before it evolved into modern English
but...French was an official language in the Norman courts and elsewhere
in England. I suspect many of the most highly regarded citizens in those
days were polyglots. The Magna Carta was written in medieval Latin. All
those languages being used are fascinating, especially since in our
modern times, a huge percentage of their white Anglo-Saxon descendants
in this country, 'Merica, can barely speak and write English.