this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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"You are before in my king."
Þæt sceal wesan: "þū stenst beforan þām cyninge".
Interesting, knowing German and modern English makes this about as decipherable as Dutch.
Old English was more mutually understandable with Old Norse than German and Dutch are today as I recall. Northern English dialects still show the influence of Old Norse on the English they spoke not just in location names but in vocabulary and some grammar. It’s been years since I studied this in grad school, so please take it with a grain of salt.
As a Dutch person, I disagree ;)
But yeah, knowing Dutch, English and German makes this pretty understandable, right up until someone starts to speak it.
The same applies to Danish. Sorta kinda readable, impossible to understand when spoken.
Well, as a German I understand about as much old English as I would Dutch.
There’s a guy on YouTube who, among other things, makes language intelligibility videos. Here’s the one he did on how well German speakers can understand Old English
This video is also a good one!
Or this one.
As a Dutch speaker, I can understand some of the Old English, but not all of it.
Gebruikersnaam klopt!
I can actually mostly interperet that. It's rough, and I couldn't speak it, but I might be able to get a vague sense of what's being said.
Which means ... ?
"You stand before the king."
"Could you send for the hall porter? There appears to be a frog in my bidet."
In Icelandic "Þú stendur fyrir framan þínum konungi"
So how much old English from Beowulf do you “get” when it is pronounced. Basically the English had forgotten how to read Old English and it was a Danish/Icelandic linguist who helped figure out the language again.
That could also work, "þū stenst beforan þīnum cyninge".