Apparently Old English and Dutch are so similar that if I were to learn old English i would be able to have a conversation with a Dutch person.
I’m going to try it
Apparently Old English and Dutch are so similar that if I were to learn old English i would be able to have a conversation with a Dutch person.
I’m going to try it
Well, let’s take a test. Do I understand this Old English text, “Bede’s Death Song”:
Nope, I speak Dutch but I don’t understand this text at all… So I’m afraid you still have to learn Dutch if you want to have a conversation with Dutch speaking people
Some of the basic concepts that Old English uses are also used in modern Dutch. Although it is easier just to learn Dutch.
That text you quoted… is that even a language?
It sounds like Dutch, according to Technodreamer, so it must be a language
Lol in that case I won’t even try to pronounce it
Try picking something easier and see if it works.
Well there are a lot of similarities between all germanian languages…
I bet you dutch speakers can understand at least the basic meaning of this swedish translation of the beginning of one of Q’s texts:
Yes Hallstrom, I understand it completely while I never learnt Swedish! However, I know the original Dutch version so that may have helped
German is also quite easy to understand. But Old English remains a mystery to me…
I don’t think you can class old English as “English”
I recognise more Dutch words than Old English words.
After reading the Swedish text four times, I think I understand it. But in general I find it easier to understand Dutch, because many words are a bit like German.
I can’t understand the Bede’s Death Song at all. From which century is that?
I can’t understand the Bede’s Death Song at all. From which century is that?
735, that’s 8th century. There are different versions, I don’t know if this the earliest.
Translation in Modern English:
Before the journey that awaits us all,
No man becomes so wise that he has not Need to think out, before his going hence, What judgment will be given to his soul After his death, of evil or of good.
Now can we have a modern translation of that?
My freshman history teacher (who speaks fluent German and also teaches it) says that Dutch looks like poorly spelled German, and having wandered around the Dutch section some, I kind of agree… Not quite close enough to understand all of it, but a lot of it.
Swedish is Germanic? …I didn’t know that.
My freshman history teacher (who speaks fluent German and also teaches it) says that Dutch looks like poorly spelled German, and having wandered around the Dutch section some, I kind of agree… Not quite close enough to understand all of it, but a lot of it.
Swedish is Germanic? …I didn’t know that.
Yes, he’s a freshman, he should learn German is poorly spelled Dutch, like every language!
Yes, he’s a freshman, he should learn German is poorly spelled Dutch, like every language!
Heehee!
Evidently modern English is poorly spelled Dutch too!
I’m Norwegian.
I had a guest from the Netherlands this summer, and I understood more or less everything she said in her own language…
Thw words sound the same, the spelling is very different.
Evidently modern English is poorly spelled Dutch too!
I have to agree.
Dutch is so similar to Norwegian spelled in the weirdest possible way, that I can understand more than half of what is written on the dutch site. (I guess it helps to be a florist, too…) I have heard that the Vikings and the old englishmen could easily understand each other. I couldnt understand much of that sonf though.