Oh, this was fun. Colin Gurrie at Dead Language Society composed a story based around London that goes back progressively in style and vocabulary to the year 1000. How far back in time can you understand English?
1500
I went forthe among the people, and as I paſſed throughe the market and the ſtretes of the towne, euer lokyng aboute me with grete care, leſt I ſholde agayn encountre ſome peryl, thee appeared, from oute of the prees that ſame man whom I ſo dredde. And he was passyng foule was of vyſage, as it ſemed to me, more foule than ony man I had ſene in al my lyf.
He turned hym towarde me and ſayd, “Straunger, wherefore art thou come hydder?”
And I anſwerd hym nott, for I knewe nott what I ſholde ſaye, ne what answere myght ſerue me beſt in ſuche a caas.
He then goes back over the territory, explaining the changes in each era. I commented there about prose being easier to follow than the poetry we are usually given for each era.
Gurrie is the author of Osweald Bera, which teaches Old English in the form of a story about a talking bear. I haven't read it, but it looks like fun and relatively painless.
I can read through the 1200 section without aids. If I want to get any further than that, I'll have to fetch a dictionary.
ReplyDeleteI could get the sense of 1100 and even 1000, but I missed words. The format of taking us back gradually helped.
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