🐥 🧚🏾 🚑 Do you know English? Find out how far you could go in the past 📓 👞 👨🏼‍🍳

Language is a plastic system that is constantly changing. But these changes are invisible to the average person - they require decades and even centuries.

We decided to show how much English has changed over the centuries. But not in a boring near-scientific article, but in almost interactive. Find out how far you could go in the past with knowledge of modern English and at the same time understand your interlocutors.

The experiment will be conducted within the British Isles. Ready? Go!

What is modern English?

The history of the English language has more than 1,500 years. And during this time he managed to change a lot of times beyond recognition.

Modern English is a global language. According to various sources, it is spoken by from 1.5 to 1.75 billion people worldwide. But even today, English cannot be considered static.

For example, British and American English are two completely different branches of the language, which today are developing separately from each other.

1997 « ». , , . , . , , , , .

— —
Philosopher's Stone — Sorcerer’s Stone —
car park — parking lot —
sherbet lemon — lemon drop —
cooker — stove —
mummy — mommy —
cinema - movies - movie theater
jumper - sweater -
ice lolly sweater - ice pop - popsicles
football - soccer - football
trolley - cart - trolley
trainers - sneakers - sneakers
sweets - candy - sweets
changing room - locker room - locker room
mad - crazy - crazy

We will not consider dialects in more detail and will focus on British English. American English began to spread actively only after the First World War.

To begin with, let's go shallow into the past. We will consider the example of English literature.

19th Century - Charles Dickens

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens' most famous novel, was first published in 1849. It is written in New English.

And you know what? The language in it is practically no different from modern English, which we speak in 2020.

I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas.

Whether sea-going people were short of money about that time, or were short of faith and preferred cork jackets, I don’t know; all I know is, that there was but one solitary bidding, and that was from an attorney connected with the bill-broking business, who offered two pounds in cash, and the balance in sherry, but declined to be guaranteed from drowning on any higher bargain.

***

, – .

But either at that time the sailors had little money, or little faith and they preferred cork belts - I do not know; I only know that a single offer was received from a certain applicant for matters related to stockbrokers, who offered two pounds in cash (intending to compensate the rest with sherry), but did not want to give more, and thereby protect himself from the danger of drowning.

As you can see, all grammatical constructions are absolutely identical to modern ones. The vocabulary is fully understood. The only thing is a bit heavy style, but these are questions to Dickens himself as a writer.

So yes, a modern person who knows English could talk to Dickens without any problems.

«Born with a caul» — . .

Caul — . , , . . , .

«Born with a caul» — . .

«Born with a caul» — «». — « ». . « » , , «».

In David Copperpild, the phrase simultaneously carries both meanings. That is, the child was physically born in the membrane and at the same time was lucky. But in Russian, the first meaning disappears and the whole phrase turns into a metaphor when in fact it is a direct description of events.

XVI-XVII century - William Shakespeare

The luminary of British poetry, William Shakespeare wrote in early New English. And although the language was already similar to modern, there were some fundamental differences in it. And if you look, then there were a lot of such differences.

Let's take Shakespeare's Othello as an example.

RODERIGO

Tush! Never tell me.
I take it much unkindly
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.

IAGO
'Sblood, but you’ll not hear me!
If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.

RODERIGO
Thou told’st me
Thou didst hold him in thy hate.

The presence of the second person singular, “thou,” is most striking. That is, this is the very missing “you” that is not in modern English. The second person plural pronoun looked like “ye,” not “you.”

A little nuance. The modern meaning of the word “you” depends more on the context and intonation of the speaker. But sometimes it is necessary to emphasize separately that a person speaks to a large number of people, and not to someone specific.

For this, the phrase “you all” or its analogues “guys”, “fellows” and others are often used.

What is even stranger to the modern reader, the conjugation of verbs is partially preserved in Early New English. It is very similar to conjugation of verbs in modern German - the technology is absolutely the same, even some forms correspond.

I go - I go
thou goest - you go
he, she, it goeth - he, she, it goes
we go - we go
you go - you go
they go - they go

In general, Shakespeare's speech is quite understandable. There are a large number of words that are not written as we are used to, but which at the same time have an almost identical pronunciation.

Yes, you need to think about the speed value, but this is Shakespeare's style. So if you suddenly find yourself in the 16th century, you can talk to people. Modern English will sound illiterate due to the simplification of grammar, but in general, most of the words and grammatical constructions you can understand without problems.

XIV Century - Jeffrey Chaucer

Let's go even further, in the XIV century. As an example, consider one of the most famous English works of medieval literature - The Canterbury Tales by Jeffrey Chaucer. Middle English in all its glory.

For convenience, we brought adaptation to modern English immediately, so that a huge difference in the texts was understood.

1. Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
When April with its sweet-smelling showers
2 The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
3 And bathed every veyne in swich licour
And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid
4 Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
By which power the flower is created;
5 Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,
6 Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
In every wood and field has breathed life into
7 The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
The tender new leaves, and the young sun
8 Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
Has run half its course in Aries,
9 And smale foweles maken melodye,
And small fowls make melody,
10 That slepen al the nyght with open ye
Those that sleep all the night with open eyes
11 (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
(So Nature incites them in their hearts),
12 Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
13 And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
And professional pilgrims to seek foreign shores,
14 To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
To distant shrines, known in various lands;
15 And specially from every shires ende
And specially from every shire's end
16 Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
Of England to Canterbury they travel,
17 The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
To seek the holy blessed martyr,
18 That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Who helped them when they were sick.

Middle English shows the reader the futility of being. There is much more incomprehensible vocabulary than familiar words. At that time, Latin and Old French strongly influenced English, so there are a lot of borrowings from these languages in vocabulary. There are a lot of verbs that are written today in a completely different way.

You can also pay attention to the formation of proposals. There is a reverse order of words "complement - predicate - subject."

To read Chaucer in the original, knowledge of English as a foreign language is no longer enough. You can understand the general meaning and individual phrases, but you won’t be able to understand all the nuances of the text even if your English is at the fluent level. Accordingly, if you find yourself in Britain in the fourteenth century, Middle English will sound like a completely alien language for you, in which only certain familiar words are guessed.

VIII - X century - Beowulf

Beowulf is England’s most famous literature of early Christian times. It occupies about 10% of all Anglo-Saxon literature that has survived to this day.

Beowulf is written in Old English. And more precisely, on a mixture of Wessex and Mercian dialects - that is, dialects of the central and southern parts of England.

1. Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
Now! We Spear-Danes, in ages gone,
2. þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
Days of the clan-kings, knew glory.
3. hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
How those princes did mighty deeds.
4. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
Shield Sheafson seized mead-benches
5. monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
From many a man, among his enemies;
6. egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
That terror of warriors flourished later,
7. feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
After his first rescue as foundling,
8. weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
Waxed under heaven, grew in honour,
9. oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
Till near tribes, over the whale-road,
10. ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
Had to yield to him, forced to submit,
11. gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning.
Offer him tribute. That was a fine king!

A logical question arises: "What is this, English?". Oddly enough, but yes, he is the most.

Old English is exclusively for linguists who specialize in this topic. Even native speakers with perfect language skills and a large vocabulary can recognize only single words.

Old English became that unstable support for the future language, which was constantly changing. After all, the transition from runic writing to the Latin alphabet essentially forced to reinvent the written language.

During this period, it is clear that the language went from Proto-Germanic (this can be seen on the prefixes "ge-" - "gefrunon", which now exists in modern German); but it was significantly influenced by Old Norse (for example, the letter “” and most of the words in which it is taken) were taken from it. Also, Latin and ancient Celtic dialects had a strong influence on the language.

In fact, the Old English language is a seething cauldron in which dialects of different peoples of the British Isles were mixed and spices were added in the form of borrowings from other languages. And several centuries passed before the spelling and phonetics of the language settled down a little and gained at least some stable form.

So if you suddenly find yourself in England in the X century, it would be better for you to quickly set up your time machine and fly back. Because you cannot understand absolutely nothing.

And if you objectively compare modern English with its more ancient ancestors, then learning it is a pleasure. And if you teach correctly, it’s even better.

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