Would a modern German speaker grasp Old English?
Posted by Sad-Grade6972@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 16 comments
Old, Saxon English is obviously a totally foreign language, based predominantly on old German. Out of curiosity, would a modern German speaker find it any more comprehensible than we do? My suspicion is not, and that like us, they'd just be picking out the words that have remained similar and the Latin words.
eventworker@reddit
Ich Kann Offenbacher brudi, ist fast Deutsch. Wurd mal probieren wenn du willst.
BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit
It’s a long time since we were mutually intelligible.
What I will say is that, generally speaking, German speakers can understand English speakers a bit more so than the other way around and so they are ultimately more in tune to managing the difference…
The nearest language to English in terms of “nearly” being mutually intelligible is Frisian… but still not quite…
“Old English” was never really one distinct language, technically speaking… and German has also moved with the times and in another direction… They’re certainly cousins rather than siblings… Ultimately much closer at one time and now more removed…
The English languages adoption of multiple French words and vocabulary has also played a part and somewhat extended the distance from German… that’s why reading basic French can certainly feel more familiar and less intimidating to decipher than reading the equivalents in German…
holytriplem@reddit
No. The only people who'd even come close are Icelanders
horoscopical@reddit
Speaking as a moderm German speaker, no. Pre-Norman English is utterly foreign to me. I can understand Dutch or Swedish better.
DTH2001@reddit
Netherlands rather than Germany, but Frisian speakers can supposedly sight read Beowulf
Temo2212@reddit
I speak Dutch and I understand Old English from my Dutch not from my English lol
Neither Dutch nor English are my native languages idk if this is relevant
Leader_Bee@reddit
Old English is closer to frisian, they'd be able to understand a lot of it in Denmark.
AnnaMargaretha@reddit
In Friesland, yea. The rest of the Netherlands severely struggles to understand Frisian.
Eddie Izzard once went to Friesland to try and buy a cow off a random farmer speaking only Old English.
Decalvare_Scriptor@reddit
Here is Eddie Izzard attempting to use Old English to buy a cow in modern Friesland (in the Netherlands):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeC1yAaWG34
trmetroidmaniac@reddit
This is a question for r/asklinguistics and the answer is noooo. Standard German is miles away from the Old High German of 1000 years ago, which is itself quite distinct from Old English.
birchblonde@reddit
But I don’t think Old High German is relevant to this question
trmetroidmaniac@reddit
The point is that it's closer to Old English and closer to the common ancestor language.
TomatoMiserable3043@reddit
Your suspicion is mostly correct. There are some similarities in grammar and vocabulary, but Old English is about as similar to modern standard German (Hochdeutsch) as modern German is to Old High German.
A German speaker would have an easier time than we would due to more recognisable grammatical structures, but it would still take some work in order to understand it fully.
It would also be a little easier for Germans to grasp unfamiliar vocabulary due to the language not having adopted French, Greek and Latin words wholesale to replace ones with Germanic roots.
Muffinlessandangry@reddit
I'm a modern German speaker. I do not understand it.
AirBiscuitBarrel@reddit
I suspect they might find it slightly more comprehensible than we do, but no, a speaker of Modern Standard German would still need an Old English text to be translated.m for it to make much sense.
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