How far back in time can you understand English?

It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.

"... as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler."

https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english

#english #language

How far back in time can you understand English?

An experiment in language change

Dead Language Society
@Natasha_Jay 1200. Seems I lost the meagre Old English I learned in university.
@commonst @Natasha_Jay
Same, though I found it easier as it went back past 1600 to read it aloud rather than in my head. Hearing it somehow made it easier for me up until 1200, at which point I didn’t know/remember enough of the words and pronunciation to even make that help.
@pomegranate_stew @commonst @Natasha_Jay Same here. I made it all the way, thanks to Malory and Ælfric in school, but I had to start reading aloud in 1300.