Old English vs German | Can they understand spoken Old English? | Part 1

Comments · 1.9K

• RO

  @roxxxydubois · 3 years ago

  It's crazy that modern germans can make more sense of old english than modern english speakers

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• RA

  @radboudmuurmans · 3 years ago

  I am Dutch, also a germanic language. I noticed that the pronunciation makes it slightly more difficult to understand, however once it is written it becomes easier to comprehend.

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• AK

  @ak5659 · 3 years ago

  I'm a native English speaker who took a class in Old English in grad school. All the students who had studied German (even if just a couple semesters) had a MUCH easier time with Old English than those who hadn't.

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• MN

  @mnk9073 · 3 years ago

  Not gonna lie, I think the speakers of "obscure" German dialects would actually have an easier time than those used to Hochdeutsch. I'd love to see people from the Pfalz, Köln, Baden, Hessen and or some Swiss Germans give it a shot.

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• LA

  @lanzknecht8599 · 3 years ago

  Languages are so fascinating! In Germany we had the famous animal chiropractor Tamme Hanken (RIP) from East Frisia who also travelled a lot around the world to treat mainly horses. Once he was in South Africa on a ranch to look after a horse but since his English was not the best he started to talk to the rancher in Frisian, who understood everything  and responded in Africaans. Both had no problems to communicate.

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• K2

  @k22kk22k · 3 years ago

  As a Japanese with intermediate level English skill (I believe😅), I’m completely mind blown. I couldn’t recognize any single word and got shocked seeing German people having clues. It’s literally “alien” to me, but I appreciate I got the chance to learn this. Love from Saitama (to the north of Tokyo)!

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• SA

  @sarah8383 · 3 years ago

  Difficulty when you see it: 2<br>Difficulty when you hear it: 8

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• RO

  @roytroller5797 · 3 years ago

  It blows my mind how understandable Old English is to me. As a native Dutch speaker who also speaks Swiss German, Standard German and Low Saxon, I got almost everything. Thanks guys, keep up the good work!

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• SV

  @svenrichtmann6792 · 3 years ago

  As a German and English speaker, I loved this video! My favourite nerd moment was when Simon acknowledged something as a “believable semantic drift”. Great!

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• DA

  @darkcrow9 · 3 years ago

  I am a Frisian from the Dutch province of &quot;Friesland&quot; and speak Frysk on a daily basis as I&apos;ve been brought up with it. I had very little to almost no difficulty guessing the 1st and 3rd test. Especially the colors and the word &quot;twa&quot;. And for the first test, basically every word was close to the same as it would be in Frysk, or at least if someone had drank a whole barrel of Vodka. It would make sense since Frysk is the closest related language to English and old English. Very interesting, very fun!!! Be aware, there are as many non-recognized dialects in Frysk as there are ticks on a stray dog. Every county, town, and I&apos;d almost say every person has their own little way of saying certain Fryske words. Mine would be &quot;Wald Frysk&quot; which means, Forest Frisian. Or Bush Frisian.

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• JA

  @jasonpatterson8091 · 3 years ago

  Loved this! Fernando is 100% correct, without the text this is so, so much harder. &nbsp;I can&apos;t imagine being put on the spot with it either, knowing that it&apos;s going to wind up on YouTube and ton of people will be watching me fail.

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• JO

  @Joker5086 · 3 years ago

  A German construction that&apos;d be very close to &quot;Hie meahton seon&quot; would be &quot;Sie vermögen zu sehen&quot;. It&apos;s rather archaic and nowadays I&apos;d use it in reference to people, not objects like eyes, if I&apos;d use it at all. &quot;Hie meachton brun, grene oððe blaw beon&quot; would be &quot;Sie mögen braun, grün oder blau sein.&quot; Again, quite an unusual construction, but certainly intelligible to German speakers. &quot;Sie können sehen/They can see&quot;; &quot;Sie können braun, grün oder blau sein/They can (or might) be brown, green or blue.&quot;

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