Can Germans understand Old English? | Language Challenge | Part 2 | Feat.

[@Ecolinguist]

A few more Old English mini-challenges 🤓 → kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqKsdptvZdGtmqM

[@mrpeacecraft]

Have you heard of "Plattdeutsch"? It's 1 of the 3 official languages in germany and it helped me learning english because some words are basically the same, just written a little different. And many words are also used in the maritime language, which is just super cool.

[@mrpeacecraft]

Example: "The sheep on the wall" --> "De Scheep op de Wall" --> "Die Schafe auf dem Wall." But there aren't many people left that speak platt, but it would be interessting to see what they understand.

[@sdvcs-o2v]

this is gold for me seeing this evolution between english and german makes me thrilled

[@VictorNascimento-sv8vd]

Why?

[@oneoflokis]

💯👍

[@oneoflokis]

​@VictorNascimento-sv8vd Because it's FUN.... 🙂

[@SocialBurrito3]

Thrills my nerdy, language-loving soul.

[@Designer_TopG]

​@@SocialBurrito3 Sehr interresant herr komissar

[@amancalledjim5382]

Never felt so foreign as an English speaker listening to old English.

[@rFuzzyBearX]

It sounds Welsh to me lol

[@mayfielcl]

Thats because todays english is influenced by latin and french because it was noble

[@juansola4121]

Same with old Spanish

[@jasongarfitt1147]

I think I got slightly less than half

[@GamingKnight0820]

Those damn Normans changed the entire language

[@nigethesassenach3614]

I’m English but I also speak a little German. I managed to understand the odd word here and there but always from my knowledge of German not modern English. I’m glad you had a Frisian speaker on your panel, very enlightening, along with the Danish input.

[@wilhelmbittrich88]

Me too, exactly this.

[@ddpb2010]

Tbh Frisian sounds like the middle ground between German and danish

[@runningfromabear8354]

I didn't expect to understand any of it as a native English speaker. However, I picked up on a few things like the first one, I guessed either 'what is today?' Or 'what are you doing today?' I guessed 'the heaven'. And timber rotten. Usually I'm the bottom of the heap for languages but this turned out a lot better than I would have expected.

[@Larrypint]

whaet do we heo-daeg? = was tun wir heut(zu) tage? sum mann waes on haede So'n Mann war auf (der) Heide. De heofon haef fremde bleo der Himmel hat fremde Bläue (it comes from blao/bleau,blue, blau = ursprünglich das schimmern des Himmels) fremde Bläue, could mean something mean like strange blue on a foggy day =Nebel. Wenn jemand betrunken/benebelt ist sagen wir auch heute noch, er ist blau.

[@Tonymarony5113]

I'm Australian. I guessed a few old English words right. I don't speak German. But a lot of German words are similar to English. When I hear German,I can sometimes work out what they are saying.

[@liverturcxdanpavs]

As a Dutchman I had trouble with understanding by sound alone but reading it I can translate it correctly up to a 100%.

[@zetareticuli841]

And to me it sounded like Dutch ^^

[@MaLanick87]

I am German but same

[@LearnGermanwithMarzipanfrau]

Yes, reading and listening helped me to spot some words too. I am Swiss and sometimes our words in Swiss-German are more likely to English than to German. :D

[@pdniev]

Same as a German, reading 100% and only listening maybe 20%.

[@iceomistar4302]

Doesn't surprise me, Old Frankish and Old English were likely intelligible, Old Saxon and Old Dutch were so similar that if you didn't know the differences you'd be forgiven for assuming they were the same language.

[@claudioristagno6460]

For me as a former linguistics student who speaks English, German and Dutch it was so interesting

[@ewg6200]

As a former linguistics student, you should know better than to use the greengrocer's plural.

[@claudioristagno6460]

Which plural?

[@404Dannyboy]

@@ewg6200 As a person with a linguistics degree I don't care much for prescriptivists being over concerned with minor grammatical trivialities.

[@MannyBrum]

You'd have no trouble at all speaking Middle English.

[@mpforeverunlimited]

First language

[@merc340sr]

Amazing. As an English speaker and student of German I recognized words like hus, genog, spricst, timber, Ic, etc...

[@efisgpr]

waeld was also very close to Wald

[@einhalbesbrot]

Heofon heaven ​@@efisgpr

[@fablb9006]

As a french speaker I understand 0% of old english

[@redsorgum]

✌️🇺🇸 😘🇫🇷 ✌️

[@logansomething]

As an English speaker is bizarre. One feels like they SHOULD understand, like there is a feeling of meaning here and there, but you can't reaaaally catch it. It's like seeing it out of the corner of your eye.

[@erichimes3062]

Hwæt?

[@cerka27]

As a Spanish speaker, I understood -86% 🤪

[@furyiv]

The Saxons were Germanic

[@juwen7908]

Hey Norbert, you should try this with one english speaker, one dutch speaker, one low german speaker and maybe one norwegian speaker. That would be very interesting, cause maybe we could see the steps of changing. Btw you have a great chanel! Very enjoyable to learn about the relationship between these 4 languages. Greetings from Berlin 😎

[@timoloef]

I totally agree. Certainly when these speakers know their local dialects, I'd love to see that (or join lol)

[@XTSonic]

Try a Flemish speaker rather than a Dutch speaker, as Flemish accents have been more conservative and thus closer to Old English in sound than Hollandic Dutch.

[@timoloef]

@@XTSonic I agree, with the exception of people from the north-east (drenthe, groningen, twente), they usually speak dialects related to that of the hanseatic era

[@XTSonic]

@@timoloef That's fair, but that's also not Hollandic Dutch then ;) Just disappointed Dutch is always represented by a throat-scraping, American-R saying, needlessly diphtthoning Amsterdammer.

[@timoloef]

@@XTSonic I don't identify as Hollander ;)

[@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13]

I absolutely love these language nerds they are keeping the old languages alive 👍😃

[@fractal_gate]

This guy has now, for better or worse, become the face of an Old English native in my mind. If I travel back in time, I expect all the people there to look like him.

[@raymondkidwell7135]

He's pretty typical English looking other than some parts that are more Nordic looking.

[@23rdMS_Inf]

@@raymondkidwell7135 Anglos and Scotts, and the rest of the British Isles are native Briton. Only in some areas there is minor Anglo-Saxon and Nordic DNA influence. Invaders never replaced the native population, just their culture. They look alike for the most part.

[@raymondkidwell7135]

@@23rdMS_Inf This guy in the video looks like a typical working class English in most parts of the country. But there is quite a lot of Germanic influence. Modern Germans, Norwegians etc. have a bit of a mixture of traits themselves but I'll use over generalizations. My uncle (not by blood, married to my aunt) is of English descent. He has cousins in England etc. I don't think he is mixed with any other nationality. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and sharp facial features, prominent nose, which I would say the most common look is basically similar to Simon- this being the more Britonic look probably dating back thousands of years. But I would say my uncle's look is more from Angles, Saxons, Vikings etc. My uncle is working class, but you see the Germanic features more in the East of the country or in the upper class, though there's some mixture of both everywhere. There's also some Roman and Spanish mixture, especially in the West such as Wales or Ireland. So it's possible to find someone who is 100% English who looks more like a typical Spaniard. Though there are blond blue eyed, Germanic looking Spaniards as well due to a variety of reasons, but one being Germanic ancestry in Spain too. It could also be that modern English just happened to evolve a certain look that is a bit different from what they looked like 800 years ago even if the ancestry is the same. I have no idea what a typical person looked like back then but I would just imagine someone like Simon based on what modern English people look like. I would imagine the Saxons and such more like my uncle with the more sharp cut facial features and some, not all, having more lighter features more similar to North Germany or Norway but not exactly the same.

[@p4uler]

old english is anglo-saxon - the Angeln were located at the north side towards Denmark if I remember correctly while the Saxonias spreader all over from the north western to the south east of Germania ... they quite came along as these Saxonias and English do until the recent days 😆

[@23rdMS_Inf]

@@raymondkidwell7135 I can't be biased because I am an anglophile myself but it seems British people are some of the worst looking people on Earth. There are definitely handsome British actors and people, but I'm speaking of the general populace compared to the rest of Europe.

[@HiddenXTube]

As a speaker of German, English and Wesphalian Plattdütsch I really like these challenges.

[@Bearodon]

I speak Swedish, English and Rammstein German and it really is not hard to understand most of what he was saying.

[@andregraen7873]

German, English and Eastphalian Plattdütsch for me.

[@sarah8383]

Dat pöggsken...

[@johnp8131]

Interresting, other than my basic schoolboy German from the seventies, taught to us by an Austrian Lady. I learnt most of my German over 10 years in the rural pubs of Kreis Viersen, much to my German Mother-in-laws displeasure! I could pretty much grasp the meaning of 90% of it?

[@uliuchu4318]

Westphalian Platt is already quite a significant link between all those languages/dialects... I don't speak it but heard it (especially eastern westfalian varieties) as a child a little bit and when I saw/heard frisian old english and danish for the first time i distinctly remember that feeling of familiarity...

[@michaellindauer6274]

Very interesting! I have studied German, lived in Germany briefly, and had contact with Dutch. It was good to have a Frisian and Danish speaker. A Low German speaker would have been a good addition to your panel.

[@gothia1715]

German also evolved away from its roots alot which makes this quite hard. Erik here who can speak frisian which hasnt changed as much as german understands old english quite well. But its really fascinating. Im a native german speaker too and i understand a few words in between.

[@whitemakesright2177]

Also, the Anglo-Saxons were not that closely related to modern Germans, despite coming from modern Germany. They were much more closely related to Danes.

[@Gurfi28]

@@whitemakesright2177That would also explain why as a Swiss I didn‘t really understand a lot of old english, while I usually understand a lot of Old high German. They don‘t really seem too closely related then.

[@wambowombax2631]

I speak lowgerman and i understand the old english quite well, feels a Bit like listening to an old guy who slurrs a lot

[@wambowombax2631]

some words are completely diffrent, but you can rhyme it together by context

[@efisgpr]

Moritz is the guy you're thinking of. I totally agree!

[@sarahkaroline1550]

I studied modern and old Germanic languages a long time ago. Old English wasn't a module offered, so I'm particularly happy when this comes up. Thank you to Simon for sharing his knowledge and interest! On the subject of "soþlice" possibly being related to Danish "sand" (truthful) - Norwegian and Swedish "sann", I also thought it might be related to English "sooth" as in "sooth-sayer". I looked up the etymology of "sann" in the Swedish etymological dictioary (SAOB: Svenska Akadamiens Ordbok) and it looks like it is : Old Swedish: "sander"; compare with Danish "sand", Norwegian "sann", Old West Norse "sannr, saðr" even English "sooth"; Gothic "sunjis", Sanskrit "satyaḥ" (true, real) and shares a root with Latin "sum" (I am) . [I don't know if I can post a link, so I've just pasted and partially translated the text.]

[@LittleWhole]

Yeah, Simon said during the video that "soþ" is related to "forsooth" in Modern English.

[@sarahkaroline1550]

@@LittleWhole I got the words the wrong way round as I wrote it in a rush! I meant to write if "soþ" might be related to "sand/sann", as well as "sooth".

[@redwaldcuthberting7195]

Sum variant Esum The present stem is from Proto-Italic *ezom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi (“I am, I exist”). Although *ezom is traditionally reconstructed with voiced -z-, this Latin verb lacked regular rhotacism as in expected *erum, and instead the first vowel of the intermediate forms esum and esom was deleted. Cognates include Ancient Greek εἰμί (eimí), Sanskrit अस्मि (ásmi), Faliscan 𐌄𐌔𐌞 (esú), Old English eom (English am). Sooth from Santhaz From Proto-Indo-European *h₁s-ónt-s (“being, existing”), the present participle of *h₁es- (“to be”) (from which the present forms of *wesaną). Compare also *sundī (“guilt, misdeed”), an abstract noun derived from *h₁sóntih₂, genitive *h₁sn̥tyéh₂s, the feminine form of the participle.

[@Akuvision2011]

I got the sooth, but didnt know it was cognate with sand/sann

[@ICXCTSARSLAVY]

"soþlice" is clearly an adverb, and could be clumsily interpreted as "soothly" or forsooth, as Simon said. Old English is such a fun topic, and I am thrilled that it is becoming a popular topic again.

[@irfanb4332]

7:45 The German cognate you are looking for is Blei, it means lead but it also has an older meaning: i.e. Colour. -> German word Blei comes from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-, Proto-Indo-European - -éyti, and later Proto-Germanic *blīwą (Colour, hue. Lead (metal).)

[@re_di_roma_is_back2388]

Great!

[@groeleorg]

Blei stems from blau (blue), which would be the more direct cognate (it was loaned as french 'bleu' which led to 'blue')

[@gillianforrester558]

​@@groeleorg I agree, it comes from blue.

[@Vyacheslav-Kovalenko]

@@groeleorg Flores, fLEUrs, fLOWers, fLORi, bLUmen, LULet, bLOEmen, bLOmmor, bláthanna, blomster, blom, blommen. Common feature(сore) sound as... со LO(la,lu,le,li) res. Color.

[@jaimeromanini4093]

As far as i know not only in germanic languages, modern term 'color' or 'colour' was blue, since blue was one of the first man made pigments that seemed artficial or taken from sky.

[@isa811116]

As a native German speaker I could not understand the spoken first example but written out it seemed more logical. But it appeared after the resolution. Thanks for the video😊

[@JesseTate]

May I just say, they all acted extremely German in the most delightful way

[@wolfganghuhn7747]

🤔guess they are

[@lukaswalker2342]

Whatever that means

[@Itsrainingcatsyall]

@@lukaswalker2342iykyk 😂 but they’re very focused and humble 🧡

[@JesseTate]

@@Itsrainingcatsyall exactly haha, quibbling over proper details in the least aggressive/threatened way. Very earnest and focused on the goal.

[@MeanBeanComedy]

I love Germans. They're great. (I'm biased because both sides of my family are heavily German.) I've always found we "get" each other.

[@Patrickbatemanharvard]

When Germans and Dutch can understand it better than native speakers 😁😁

[@JamesMartinelli-jr9mh]

I would never suppose that it's related to English.

[@MrOnion-js1ls]

@@JamesMartinelli-jr9mh yeah, Modern English is so latinized that it sounds like a completely different language compared to Old English

[@awkwardsaxon9418]

​@James Martinelli timber and sky were in there and some other smaller words maybe. The German speakers have an advantage here because they are also fluent in english I think

[@chefdaddy9025]

It would make sense historically after the Roman's left England during the fall the Anglo Saxons took over after and migrated mainly from north Germany, genetically they have more incommon then they probably even know. The dialect and language have evolved like such

[@Grothgerek]

Aren't germans and dutch not the "native" speaker of old english? Its related to them, while modern day english developed in a other direction.

[@daveingram9240]

Fascinating .. Years ago I worked in Nordrhein Westfalen as a village postman for a few months and there this old guy that could speak Plattdeutsch as a living language and we tested a few sentences both ways from English via Dutch and Frisian to platt deutsch and back again... It was fascinating to see how close the languages were in each step....

[@EnnoMaffen]

My grandparents spoke Plattdeutsch fluently. Every now and then my grandma would - without noticing - switch back from 'Hochdeutsch' to the language of her childhood, 'Plattdeutsch'. I was able to understand most of it still, though I remember how fascinated and puzzled I was as a kid. It felt like she spoke something that was made up. Today I can appreciate how much it helps to know modern English when trying to understand Plattdeutsch.

[@oOIIIMIIIOo]

Plattdeutsch spricht man aber im Norden. 🤔

[@EnnoMaffen]

@@oOIIIMIIIOo Hauptsächlich, aber nicht nur. Es gibt zum Beispiel auch das Münsterländer Plattdeutsch.

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

​@@EnnoMaffenGenau, so wie in de nähe im Osten der Niederlände, ungefär dieselbe Sprache (Plat, oder Nedersaksisch)

[@Fuerwahrhalunke]

I live on the lower Niederrhein, relatively close to the Netherlands and the Plattdeutsch we speak is called "Kleverländisch", which is a mixture between Dutch and German. Historically speaking the area I'm in used to be part of the Netherlands and we used to speak Dutch up until the 19th century. Not to mention that I've spoken and written in English for the past 15 years. For me it's pretty easy to understand around 70% of old English and 100% once I can see the words.

[@LorenIpsem]

This is absolutely fascinating. In addition to Frisian, it would be interesting to have a Dutch speaker on your panel.

[@skylinwinter5970]

I was so surprised because I, as a German understand most of old English. i wonder if it also has something to do with where you come from in germany and what dialect you might speak within germany

[@jamesdeich6102]

Reminding me of times in High School English looking at Old English Text and the teacher ask me to read, and I read it fully as if it were German, which I studied then, and he said my pronunciation was perfect. A fun memory for me and a little reflects the common ancestoryship.

[@smadaf]

"Sothlice" (sorry I'm not bothering with odd characters right now) is "sooth-ly", as in "in sooth", meaning "truly". You speak truly: you're right. I'm wondering whether "cystig" is related to "cistern", "cystitis", &c.-in the sense of "you are bladder-like", "you are tank-like", meaning "Your capacity of goodness is great", "You are very generous".

[@yikes7607]

I'm a Portuguese who speaks German and I mostly got the words with similar cognates and I also noticed the grammatical similarities. The "sofliche" word meaning honesty or truth reminds me of soothsayers. This was a great test! I think German natives or German speakers with an interest in languages could at least survive if they travelled back through time and space.

[@yikes7607]

@Pray without ceasing Thanks! I always had an interest in languages, and I remember as a kid I was happy to finally learn English because a whole new world of knowledge, culture and opportunities would finally open up for me :)

[@etuanno]

It depends, while looking at translations, people who speak the South German/Swiss dialects could easily travel to the 15th century and would understand most of it. The locals would think it's a strange dialect, but it would work most likely. The allemannic dialect group roughly speaks the same way they did at that time. For sure it would take a few days to acclimate, like to a strange, new dialect, but it would work rather quickly.

[@neon_berni]

Came here to comment about soothsayers as “truth tellers”! 🎉

[@RichWoods23]

I read "sofliche" as "sooth-like", which I'd present in modern English as "truthfully" or "truly" depending upon context.

[@avishaiedenburg1102]

I just checked, and Moritz had a very good hunch regarding the original form of "sooth". The reconstructed Proto Germanic is "sanþaz". For whatever reason, this word was only used in the North Sea Germanic (English, Frisian and Continental Saxon) and in the North Germanic languages. The Old Norse had the same issue pronouncing "nth", so there were two forms for this word: "sannr" and "saðr". Today, most North Germanic languages have some form of "sann", whereas Danish has "sand". Of the North Sea Germanic languages, English appears to be the only one that retained this word past the "old" stage of the language.

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Just to elaborate on Old Norse: *-nþ becomes -nn in Old Norse. However, if nn is next to an r it becomes ð, so that's why we have double forms like sannr/saðr, munnr/muðr, brunnr/bruðr, and even Finnr/Fiðr. In accusative, these are all just: sannan (adj.), munn, brunn, Finn etc. Danish and to some extent Swedish later had a separate sound change where nn, ll, and mm become nd, ld, and mb. The cluster mb quickly or at least mostly went back to mm, while we find nd and ld quite a lot, so tand, mand, brønd, mund, sand, finde (< finna), guld (< gull), etc. So while Danish tand looks a lot like *tanþs, the d and *þ are actually unrelated.

[@hoathanatos6179]

Old High German had sand for true but the only cognate that exists in modern German is Sünde, which evolved from the idea of being guilty, aka the accusations against one being true. The Latin cognate sons/sontem also carries the meaning of the guilty one or criminal.

[@XTSonic]

@@hoathanatos6179 Interesting. In Dutch "zonde" is as meaning "sin" (in a religious sense, religious guilt I guess) and "shame/pity" (as in unfortunate) In verb form, it can "bezondingen" (sinning) can still be used in the legal context as well, or just the personal context like sinning against a diet by having a pizza.

[@avishaiedenburg1102]

@@XTSonic someone else brought up German "Sünde" in the same context, both are cognates of English "sin", but I'm not sure they're related to sooth

[@hoathanatos6179]

@@XTSonic Yep, while the English word Guilt (Gylt in Old English) originally meant that which is owed/must be paid (a crime, sin, debt, failure of duty, etc..) and is cognate to Geld in German and Dutch and then Geld/Gäld/Gjeld in Scandinavian languages that mean debt.

[@EvelynElaineSmith]

I used German as my prerequisite language for my Ph.D. program in English (1995), having spent five years cataloging a collection of books written in German on West Asian & African languages while taking German on my lunch hour at another university library than from where I earned my Ph.D.10 years earlier. If I didn't know the Old English word, I would guess the German word & be right about 90 percent of the time. The class dwindled to five students during the course of the semester: Three students passed (2 A's & 1 C -- I was one of the A's). About the only criticism I received was that I needed to stop using a German accent when I read Old English (West Saxon dialect) aloud.

[@authormichellefranklin]

Love when Simon is here. You know it's gonna be good!

[@sebaestschn1]

With Austrian / South German, it is very difficult to get the connections to Old English. But around 20% was understandable. Very interesting.

[@etuanno]

As a Swiss German, it was definitely very challenging. I got the conversation mostly right. But I could barely use my dialectic knowledge and relied mostly on my English.

[@brittakriep2938]

@@etuanno : When knowing old/dated words of German Language, and dialect words, you sometimes can guess english or dutch words. I am Brittas boyfriend, swabian, so alemannic like you.

[@SIC647]

As a Dane who speaks German too (and English obviously), it was pretty understandable. To me it sounded like muddled Dutch, and I understand Dutch because I understand the three above languages.

[@ernstkrudl4895]

Austrian, in school we read samples of Old German and old English, VERY similar, writing is easier to detect, speaking is who knows how they spoke ;:)

[@Pharo02]

Yes, because Northern Germanic Tribes invaded Britain so Tribes like Saxons and Angles

[@exhxv]

As a Dutch speaker I would like to add a possible related word to the first sentence. Old English: Hwæt dõþ wê hêodæg? Dutch: Wat doen we vandaag? Literally: What do we today? So, 'Wat' is similar to Hwæt 'doen' is similar to dõþ 'we' speaks for itself 'vandaag' , especially the -daag part is similar. Language is so interesting. One more thing, I love this, but I would love it even better if the people who have to guess the word or sentence, after their first guess hearing it, can also do a second guess after seeing it written. Keep it up though, i'm a fan! Cheers Peter.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

It's incredible how the old germanic forms for "today" are similar to the latin form "hodie" (from which derivate the italian "oggi", the spanish "hoy", the french "hui" of "aujourd'hui", etc.).

[@claudiopereira9900]

"Hoje" in Portuguese

[@claudiopereira9900]

A proxima vez não se esqueça que Português e Romeno são linguas latinas também!!!! Grazie

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@kookoo6128Sure: like you all are barbarians ( from "bar, bar")

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@claudiopereira9900 Etc. significa "et cetera" (= todas as outras línguas românicas, que não são apenas o português e romeno).

[@claudiopereira9900]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 que bom saber que o Português se relega a "etc". And btw hoje is closer to the Latin hodie than oggi, hoy and hui....so strange that was relegated to "etc". Just saying....lol

[@sjefkerolleman2094]

As a Dutch Frisian I understand it clearly

[@CW-rx2js]

Yes because it's closest to old english

[@jacksondewit6935]

It shares like 80% of the the Lexicon, you should.

[@bareldnijboer7700]

I confirm, it's easier probably for (west-)Frisians (who are living in the Netherlands), which I am too, to understand these old English sentences. Got about 90% of it right.

[@karinavormweg6538]

Its the same with east Frisian in Germany. Some words are still the same. They have tea time at 5 o'clock, too.

[@davidavery2629]

I want to say, what you guys are doing is very clever, highly entertaining, and endlessly fascinating. Thank you.

[@chrisrudolf9839]

6:40 I think the comparison of old English on with German on (auf) + Dativ is spot on, you could actually (probably more commonly than "in der Heide") say "auf der Heide" instead. It doesn't work with all kinds of locations though, only with places that you can actually stand on (like heather, field, mountain) or that are abstract (auf der Arbeit = at work), but not with locations that would surround and conceal you, like forest or city and also not port (you can be "am Hafen" (at the port) if you are somewhere on the docks or "im Hafen" (in the port) when you are swimming in the port basin or are on a ship that does so, but you can't be "auf dem Hafen").

[@wintonhudelson2252]

My wife is of Dutch/Norwegian ancestry. Speaking with her Dutch relatives, I recall them mentioning that Fresian Dutch is the most similar Germanic language to English.

[@RichardDCook]

I'm an American who doesn't speak Old English or German or any other language, yet I'm familiar with the Great Vowel Shift, and I understood some of the Old English, about the same as the German speakers did. Interesting that they would get a word I didn't, and the other way round, as with "forsooth". The coolest thing was the guy who knows German, Frisian, and Dutch who was able to grab things as needed. I'm guessing that someone who also knows Icelandic would understand even more.

[@ihsahnakerfeldt9280]

Wow those remarks by Moritz about the "goose"/"Gans" phenomenon and the fact that sand in Danish means truth and the way he connected all of this to the old English word were amazing.

[@brittakriep2938]

In swabian dialect of German language, Gans is Gaas, and Gänse (Plural) is Gees.

[@ihsahnakerfeldt9280]

@@brittakriep2938 Yeah the parallels are everywhere it's insane.

[@alb12345672]

@@ihsahnakerfeldt9280This language is VERY similar to Yiddish. I bet yiddish speakers would understand most of it.

[@michaellindauer6274]

Yes, Moritz’ language skills are keen and contributed greatly to this video. Bravo to the panelists and organizers!

[@surgerrayjohnson2118]

Maybe that's cause Yiddish came to be in an area that is pretty much right next to Swabia ​@@alb12345672

[@XD-cr3du]

I'm suprised that as a Dutch person it's actualy quite easy to guess what is meant with old English in most cases.

[@beasley1232]

As an English speaker I understood 0% of old English. I could understand basic Spanish vocabulary easier than old English 😂

[@Stoirelius]

I did a little research in wiktionary and turns out the lad was right. "Sand" in Danish and "sooth" in English are cognates. Great catch!

[@UpsideDownMan]

9:50 I realized that "bleo" sounds a lot like "blue" or "blau" which led me to guess "the sky is an unfamiliar shade of blue". I did not realize that the word that we use for "blue" today meant any general color in Old English. Very fun video!

[@Ssj4vegeta212]

The word blue actually comes from Anglo Norman French. BUT that word in Norman French ironically comes the frankish language, which is a germanic language. Haha the beauty of language and the histories of it.

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

blue comes from French as the other commenter mentioned, bleu, which came from blāu in Frankish. Blue in Old English was actually blāw, which if it had survived to modern English would be something like 'blow' (pronounced as the verb), whereas what you're talking about is probably 'blēo' which is a different word. Potentially related, but the etymology is unknown. Blēo would have become 'blee' in Modern English, though more accurately might be that it did survive as 'blee' and it's just archaic now.

[@unraed]

@@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410 eala!

[@SebtorDude]

You might have a point. I was also thinking of "Bläue" or "Bläuung", which would indicate a particular shade of blue colour.

[@aluimmumitat]

This reminds me of the Japanese word for blue "ao" which was used for green traffic light in Japan because they didn't have a word for green. Blue was used for a wide range of colors. It seems funny to me that both worlds for blue had a similar development despite being in geographically separated cultures.

[@BlameThande]

Having the short conversation as well as just the sentences was a nice addition - after hearing it a couple of times I started adapting and hearing more of the meaning.

[@GeoffSlack]

Well... I'm no linguist and really only speak modern English yet I was compelled to watch this through. So interesting to see such a huge change in the language while being able to identify a few words

[@golden.lights.twinkle2329]

I like the fact that 'Hw-' in Old English turned into 'Wh-', and '-yng' turned into '-ing'. We should not forget that there were many separate dialects of Old English which varied greatly. The one most people refer to today is just one dialect that was chosen to be the standard.

[@simonevanmuiswinkel9464]

And in Dutch the hwat just turned into wat

[@1armeddrummerinaprisonrock244]

the same with german, lots of dialects of it.

[@SIC647]

And in Danish Wh- became Hv- (what/hvad). Except in Western Jutland where it is still Wh-. 🙃

[@RichWoods23]

Old English was influenced by Old Norse and Norman French before the dialect of Middle English spoken in the Midlands of England also gained dominance in the London region, just in time to be cemented into standard usage by the introduction of the printing press. It all came about by happenstance rather than as a directed choice.

[@Zederok]

May I be the one thousandth person to recommend we need more of these types of videos. Truly amazing and informative for a language junkie like me. Thank you for brightening my day. :)

[@DanielMorris-cc8hx]

Well all the boys did marvelous. I didn't know what was going on and neither did you so hats off to the guys.

[@stephanpopp6210]

Even the German of 850 AD is very hard to understand for Germans, so this was a great performance. Old High German was much closer to Old English. It's a pity that we can't make Alfred the Great and Otfrid von Weissenburg talk to each other. They could have done it in their time. Otfrid, from his Gospel Harmony, thoughts on the Magi and their trip: Manot unsih thiu fart / Thaz wires wesan anawart. Wir hunsih ouh biruahen / Enti eigan lant suachen. Thu nibist es wan ih wis / Thaz lant thaz heizit paradis... (th as in English, z = ss. Codex Frisingensis, Bavarian State Library , no. CGM 14, p. 38.) This travel reminds us / That we pay attention to its essence: Let us care for ourselves too / And seek our own land. You are not aware of it, I think, / That land that is called paradise... fol. 38 (I know, the shreds of pagan poetry are cooler today, but Alfred the Great would have liked this.)

[@stephanpopp6210]

@binkobinev2248 Charlemagne would have been nice to talk to, but he could not have talked to King Alfred the Great. He died 30 years before King Alfred was born. The Nibelungs, if they weren't entirely fiction, probably lived and died 400 years before Charlemagne, i.e. in the time of Attila the Hun. What they spoke was not German yet, because the sound changes that define German (t --> tz, p --> pf...) happened 150 years after their death. If we could have recorded their Germanic, it would be very different from Otfrid's Old German.

[@stephanpopp6210]

@binkobinev2248 No, I can't. It's like what Latin is to a French person. Or Old Church Slavonic to a Polish person. Far away. Gothic is not even a direct ancestor of German. E.g., the Gothic Lord's Prayer begins with "Atta", not with "fathir" or so. There are Old High German Lord's Prayers from the 800s, but even these are quite gibberish if you are not trained in the language.

[@Ban_Helmers]

Moin! English speaker living here in Germany. I was surprised by how much I could understand of the OE conversation after it was shown writen out. Really cool stuff!

[@ameba5093]

Me literally trying to connect "heode" in old english, "heute" in german, "hodie" in latin and "hoy" in spanish... ok, spanish comes from latin but with visigothic influences coming from germanic which at the same time produced old english... linguistics is fascinating.

[@roshp3577]

These videos are strangely addictive/interesting! Good job!

[@seanbrown207]

Native English speaker from the US. I find Old English fascinating. Studied standard German in school for many years and have a slight passing familiarity with Dutch. I really have to dig into my Germanic languages background to make any sense of Old English. Def not mutually intelligible with modern English. I also learn so much from the comments section!

[@universe1498]

Not sure if it could help but you could search Kurdish language to find a connection? It is the "ergative" language that evolved from Sumerian which is start up of the Indo-European. Thanks

[@re_di_roma_is_back2388]

Not at all. THere's less difference between Latin and modern Italian. Maybe because Latin has been (and still is) more used even nowadays in official documents

[@ducatobeing]

That was very interesting. I recognised a few words in the transcript, though I was unable to place any context. I really enjoyed this.

[@IchliebeHunde58]

With my understanding of English and German, it made it possible for me to understand, about, 60-70% of the Old English. It is really fascinating to be able to understand and/or be able to decipher a language from 1300 years ago. Thank you for the interesting video and it would be appreciated if more like this were to be posted.

[@Sonderborg75]

Hi, German/English speaking Dane here. 😊 Funnily enough, the word sky in Danish means cloud. When we talk about the sky both as in heaven and sky, we use the word himmel, just like the Germans. So in Danish the himmel is blue, the skies are white. 😂 The word “fremd” or in Danish, “fremmed” is both used to describe someone foreign and something unknown.

[@TerencePetersenAjbro]

"Sky" can also mean "shy" in Danish, right?

[@Sonderborg75]

@@TerencePetersenAjbro Yes. But not as much as in being shy of meeting other people for instance, it’s mostly used when describing animals being shy of people or other things. Related to people it’s mostly used when saying someone doesn’t shy away from anything.

[@TerencePetersenAjbro]

@@Sonderborg75 at have skyklapper på is a good expression!

[@Sonderborg75]

@@TerencePetersenAjbro Yes. 😂 I don’t even know, what they’re called in English (I am a horse owner myself), but the Danish word is very descriptive of them. Flaps you put on the bridle to prevent the horse from getting scared/afraid. I just remembered, that we also call, what the French call jus, sky.

[@TerencePetersenAjbro]

@@Sonderborg75 Blinkers or blinders in English.

[@veraroyen4986]

The first one was the easiest to understand in german and english. ❤ Thank you. It is interesting to listen to similarities and the change of words ❤ I love it. Could listen to it hours and hours. The longer you think about it the more similarities you recognize. ❤❤❤

[@vinceturner3863]

Absolutely brilliant!! As an English speaker who knows German, this was very educational and enjoyable! thanks!

[@UnshavenStatue]

Wiktionary is a great reference for looking up etymologies on the fly. Searching it for soþ quickly leads to PGer *sanþaz, including anglo-frisian descendants but also modern norsish sannur/sann/sand, all meaning something like "true". That also gives the PIE source *h₁sónts, and it lists numerous other descendants, tho with a wide variety of meanings -- Latin sons, meaning "guilty" or "criminal", Ancient Greek on or eon, meaning "reality", and Sanskrit sat, meaning "existing" or "real".

[@smallwisdom8819]

I that related to the 2 english words "sence"/"sense" and the german word "sinn" (with both meanings)?

[@smallwisdom8819]

But as written in the other comment, might also be english "sin", german "sünde". Very curious.

[@geisaune793]

etymonline is also a very good resource. It only has english words and their origins though

[@languages1147]

ων in Ancient Greek is exactly the active present participle of be and is used now as an neuter adjective ον meaning something that exists and some other forms. -sens is used for the active present participle of be in Latin in some compound verbs like absum.

[@SurfinScientist]

@@smallwisdom8819 We Dutch have the word "zin" or "zinvol".

[@davidthomson5507]

What is superb example of collaboration. Well done guys.

[@ricoelbomba7615]

As a german native speaker i can say i 100% unterstand german

[@SirBedevereTheWise]

👏🏼👏🏼 Impressive As an English speaker I can say I understand 75% of English 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@daveblack3900]

Shit 75% is doin’ good!

[@Larrypint]

whaet do we heo-daeg? = was tun wir heut(zu) tage? sum mann waes on haede So'n Mann war auf (der) Heide. De heofon haef fremde bleo der Himmel hat fremde Bläue (it comes from blao/bleau,blue, blau = ursprünglich das schimmern des Himmels) fremde Bläue, could mean something mean like strange blue on a foggy day =Nebel. Wenn jemand betrunken/benebelt ist sagen wir auch heute noch, er ist blau.

[@SirBedevereTheWise]

@Larrypint you say someone is blue meaning they're drunk? In English if you say someone is blue it means they're sad or depressed

[@SirBedevereTheWise]

​@@daveblack3900😂 the other 25% is guessing

[@LostDisciple24]

As a historian (focus on Roman history) that speaks German, English, and Spanish (I can also somewhat understand Latin and Arabic), I have been trying to get into Old English and Old French. Not exactly sure where to start or what would be considered credible sources. I have been fascinated with Old English/Saxon since my sister has traced our family back to the early 500s in what is now the Hamburg region.

[@groeleorg]

I doubt anyone in Germany can with certainty trace their ancestry to the 6th century - and even if: this wouldn't be 'their family' - this would be almost every German's family (or rather a negligible and highly doubtful shred of ancestry)

[@LostDisciple24]

@@groeleorg I get what you are saying, since the "Germans" like most barbarian tribes back then bred like rabbits. The information that my sister and I have MAY NOT be accurate. However, it has been verified by a 3rd party all the way back to the 8th century so IDK.

[@brythonicman3267]

Interesting that after all these years the word hafen/haven (port) has survived in England, such as Havens End and Newhaven.

[@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands]

it is way closer to old Dutch/lowgerman and Frisian than to high German

[@arthur_p_dent]

of course it is. No pesky High German sound shifts in English, Dutch, Frisian, or Low German.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

Also I suspect that West Frisian is more similar to English than East Frisian because it's been influenced by Dutch rather than Danish, and Dutch is more similar to English than Danish

[@MoLauer]

@@OntarioTrafficMan there was no East Frisian in the video and I think that East Frisian wasn't influenced by Danish, but more by Low German.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

@@MoLauer Sorry I meant North Frisian (Sylt Frisian in this case). Sylt Frisian is influenced by Danish as well as Low German, and both of those languages are more distant from English than Dutch is.

[@MoLauer]

@@OntarioTrafficMan well you could argue that Low German as an ingvaeonic language is closer to English than Dutch is

[@thelatearthurmorgan6158]

In modern English we have the word Soothsayer. Which is like a prognosticator. Now i see how it means a truth teller. That is fascinating.

[@Chris-mf1rm]

These videos are excellent! The participants brought their own particular experience and added something to the whole. For example, the suggestions for cognates in different Germanic languages which were not necessarily immediately apparent. Thank you!

[@nole8923]

I’ve heard old English spoken before and it sounds a lot more like German than modern day English.

[@coppersulphate002]

It makes sense because they all have the same Germanic roots

[@MisterHowzat]

​@@coppersulphate002 roots

[@J14Irish]

If you are used to understanding very thick modern accents from the UK it is surprisingly easy to get the overall gist of the sentences!

[@AndyZach]

You need to have an interview with Tolkein, who was an expert on Old Anglo-Saxon and Nordic languages. Too bad he's dead. Perhaps you can review some of his scholarly writings. He'd know all the nuances and implications of the various words in history in various languages.

[@dcbaars]

This is very interesting as a Dutchie because in the current English I miss a lot of cognates but seeing this old English nr guessing along with Germans makes way more sense having all Germanic as an ancestral language. I speak German, English and Dutch so I always missed the link in some words

[@dapengu777]

I love this so much! I love to see how similer german, durch end english can be. I once listend to a speech in dutch without knowing any dutch and i understood like 80% as a german language speaker how learnd a lot english

[@cailleanmccain]

Regarding the third sentence, reading it afterwards I spontaneously thought, that it makes a lot of sense that "bleo" is colour, seeing as the sky would normally be blue... so I looked it up: from Old English blēo, bleoh ("colour, hue, complexion, form"), from Proto-Germanic *blīwą ("colour, blee", also "light, glad"); Cognate with Scots ble‎, blee, blie ("colour, complexion"), Old Frisian blī‎, blie ("colour, hue, complexion"; > North Frisian bläy‎), Old Saxon blī‎ ("colour, hue, complexion"), Old High German blīo(h)‎ ("colour, hue"), blīo ("metallic lead") (German Blei‎), Danish bly‎ ("lead"), Icelandic blý‎ ("lead"). So it rather has to do with a metallic-grey shimmer regarding German - which today you can still find in word "bleiern". You can use that to describe the colour of a greyish-blue sky similar to the color of lead (but in a rather depressive sense). Originally it referred to the blueish-white colour of freshly cut lead, so a rather friendly color, and is very close to the adjective Old High German 'blīdi', Middle High German 'blīde' ‘heiter, freundlich’, Old High German also ‘glänzend’, those mean "fair/bright/cheery, friendly/pleasant" and "shiny/glossy/radiant". Then, the conversation with the word "truthfully", "sothlice", that has the descendant "sooth"/"truth" in English, and ascendants: From Middle English sooth, from Old English sōþ (“truth; true, actual, real”), from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz (“truth; true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sónts, *h₁s-ont- (“being, existence, real, true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Akin to Old Saxon sōþ (“true”), Old High German sand (“true”), Old Norse sannr (“true”), Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌾𐌰 (sunja, “truth”), Old English synn (“sin, guilt"; literally, "being the one guilty”). Honestly, I have never heard of the connection between "sand" and "truth" in German before. As a sidenote, I also found out, that the word "soothsayer", who is now someone predicting the future, used to be someone who is telling the truth. I guess that back in the days, that would have seemed to be the same thing...

[@Cineastre]

Thanks for looking this up! Interesting research.

[@Germericanboi]

I will say, as a native German English Ostfriesen (East Frisian) and Plattdeutsch (Low German) speaker, I understood quite a bit very well without too much effort, especially when seeing the written text. Culturally, I think it’s typical of Germans to see (and often overemphasize) differences over similarities. Even with some cognates, the Germans tend to focus and even fixate on what is “other/different/foreign” rather than how much they have in common. They all said they understood around 20-30 percent, but based on what we saw it was closer to 30-45, just based on this video alone. However, I think Old English still has far more in common with Modern High German than it does with modern English, and that would be apparent to any native English speaker, who doesn’t speak any other Germanic languages.

[@joeynyesss1286]

Frisian is the closest language to old English

[@joeynyesss1286]

@@Momoa786 lol why do you hate England so much?

[@niallrussell7184]

Icelandic is pretty much Old Norse.. so all the other Scandanivian languages are bastardized Icelandic. lol

[@Logined85]

Cheers, Norbert! Thanks for making further videos! Simon's interesting in particular.

[@leonrambach1216]

As a German, Old English sounds strangely familiar. Like a language you have learned at some earlier point in your life and are now trying to remember while looking for similarities with your native language. I fully understood the first sentence and about half of the second & third. I couldn't really understand much of the oral conversation besides the first sentence and 'timber', but when reading it I understood the entire conversation after examining it for a bit. Granted, I studied English and had some courses covering Old English so I've worked with the language before. But I believe most Germans that also know modern English and have some knowledge about linguistics can at least decifer the meaning of written Old English sentences.

[@jasonchilds558]

Thank you for this, I think that most Non-English speakers think that English just appaired out of nowhere and is simple. But it was once a very complicated language that evolved into what we speak now.

[@jwenaposse305]

me too

[@raflidiot]

Old english might be easier because the accent is accurate, but it's just way too many. So i think it's simplified because of that.

[@RichWoods23]

English is simple only if you just want to learn the basics, because it's very forgiving of errors in everyday usage. After that it's ridiculously complicated because of the plethora of languages that influenced it, such as the subtleties of having three or more words for almost everything. And on top of that there's the spelling...

[@Sensibar007]

@@raflidiotI recommend the book and TV series The Story of English from the 1990s(?). Details the development of the english language.

[@arthur_p_dent]

2:31, actually "heute" derives from Old High German "hiutu", which in turn is a contraction of "hiu tagu", literally "on this day". So still a perfect cognate.

[@junctionfilms6348]

It is the same as: heodaeg - 'Heute and Hiutu seem just a contractions of Hiu tagu - so if Modern German did not have that contraction it would be Heutag, like the OE. I guess in English the 'heo' was dropped and replaced by 'to' at some stage over time - or even people spoke 'to' in some OE times but it was not written in the more formal texts (?) 'heo' ( this ) became 'he' ?? ( not sure about that transition or how it happened ) but then - In Modern English we might write: 'Heeda' ? Heda ? Hede ? etc ??

[@BlameThande]

Some English dialects say 'the day' in that context, so that might have come from 'he' rather than being related to the article.

[@junctionfilms6348]

@@BlameThande Yea like " what are you doing in the day"

[@joselugo4536]

Heute as pronounced in German always reminds me of "HOY" in Spanish with the same meaning too!

[@DerDickeOlle]

​ @Arthur Dent The way you explain the derivation of "hiutu" reminds me of the Latin "hodie" which translates as "today" and is probably the short form of the ablative "hoc die ("on this day"). So now I wonder whether the this term was adapted from the Romans to get the cognate form "hiutu". @Jose Lugo Imo, "hodie" is more likely to be the origin of the Spanish "hoy" or the French "hui" in "aujourd'hui" ("au jour de hui" = "on the day of today") since both are Romance languages: hodie => hoie => hui/hoy. I've noticed a shift or loss of consonants with many latin-based words in modern Spanish.

[@annegoschke330]

Greetings from North Germany. Yes, there are many similarities between the "Plattdeutsch" and the "Old English" language, because in the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons settled from North Germany to Great Britain. For example water = water in Plattdeutsch and English.

[@moononastick8628]

As an English speaker the only way I have any idea what these are is to use German to vaguely understand some words. It’s amazing how far English has morphed - and continues to change rapidly.

[@JimmyS.25]

I have just decided to learn old english. It's such a great link between the two languages I already speak !

[@PaulStewart-jr3gm]

As a native English speaker, with a fairly good understanding of German and a smidge of Dutch, I was able to understand all of the examples, but only because I had time to mull over the options.

[@Kuhmuhnistische_Partei]

'Fremder' actually doesn't just refer to foreigners in modern German. It can mean all kinds of things. "Fremdes Eigentum" just means "Other peoples property", "fremde Tierart" means an unkown animal species to a specific person or "gutes Verhalten ist ihm fremd" means "Good manners are unfamiliar to him". And "Fremdverschulden" doesn't mean "foreigners are to blame", it means "fault of a third party/ another person" legally distinguished from "Eigenverschulden" - someones own fault (Fremdverschulden und Eigenverschulden are terms mostly used for something like a car accident or other lawsuits where you have to determine who caused it). A "Fremder" can just be a stranger, like "Warum ist da ein Fremder in unserem Garten?" - "Why is there a stranger in our garden?". When I'm honest, the only examples where "Fremder" has explicitly to do with "foreigner" is in the term "fremdenfeindlich" (xenophobe

[@ixglocTV]

Not to forget Fremdsprachen

[@Wargasm54]

I got most of the story about Edward and the rotten wood. My native language is English however I was born to a German mother that spoke German too me as a very young child as she did not know much English at the time. So I never developed a fluency in speaking German, but oddly I can understand quite a bit of German. I am 57 years old now.

[@justmillenialthings]

I actually just learned about the bleo thing. Blao in German originally just meant bright and didn't refer to a specific color, so I suppose in old English it may have become even more generic to refer to all colors. I.e. the cognate of bleo is blao which is now "blue".

[@dorolicious]

As a northern German I need it written down, then it's really easy to understand. Just listening is a bit more difficult. 😅

[@RichWoods23]

I'm English and only know enough German to order a meal and beer. I too find Old English much easier to understand when it's written down. It's the difference between getting the gist of 80% of it and only being able to guess at 20% of it. Great fun, regardless.

[@hefeibao]

Which makes sense in a way, as the pronunciation changes more than the spellings, it seems to me.

[@bjrnarestlen1234]

As a Norwegian, it was interesting to guess at the sentences!

[@MaartjeTosca]

In Italian too the word for strange and foreigner is the same one. In Dutch strange is 'vreemd' and a foreigner or unknown person is 'vreemdeling'. But that's close to the German words for the two. 'Fremd' and 'Fremder'.Although German for foreigner is 'Auslander'.

[@pelagiushipbone7968]

Absolutely loving these old English vids. I’m just holding I it hope for one with Dutch, German and maybe Icelandic speakers then I can rest in peace

[@berdge3917]

5:39 "Sum mann wæs on hæðe", While "sum" is okay, just using "Man..." would likely be more accurate. "On the heath" takes the dative, "...on þæm hæðe", forgoing the "þæm" makes it indefinite 12:57 "...in þæt hus" should really be "...on þæm huse". You don't live "into" a house, so it's not a transitive statement. If you wanted to say something more like "that" in Modern English it would be "þissum" ("þæt" is the nom./acc. neu. form of "the", not "that" as a demonstrative) "Who lives in that house?" = "Hwa wonaþ on þissum huse?" "...ac he næfþ weald genóg" should probably be something closer to "...ac næfþ he na genogne weald" "Ic mæg dæl mines wuda giefan" should be more like "Ic þe cuðe giefan minum wodan [þa þe ic hæbbe] "

[@onurbschrednei4569]

Wow, it’s impressive how similar the grammar/syntax is to modern German. It tells me that German hasn’t changed its grammar in 2000 years.

[@decyattysyachpchyol]

​@@onurbschrednei4569It is a prudent, frugal choice, to reuse the grammar books

[@CrimsonFall2009]

This is so fascinating. I’m an English teacher/nerd + I speak B1 German. I understood the first sentence of “who lived in that house” immediately and then got about 1/4-1/3 of the rest by sound (ish), but the individual sentences earlier, lol no.

[@SH-172-]

I think Dutch and North German with a Frisian dialect make it much easier to understand than the normal High German dialect. super interesting... thanks

[@Earthquaker]

Frisian is the closest relative to English so that makes sense

[@Earthquaker]

@Wilhelm Eley Frisian is a still living language, that's why it's used as a comparison as the closest language. Linguistically, English and Frisian are descended from the same branch of Germanic languages where modern German is not. Saxons literally lived in England so of course Saxon is closer to English but Saxon isn't still spoken so why would we use it as a modern touch stone?

[@HeinzSchmidtUweGonzo]

as a German, it took me a moment to adjust to the new listening habits, but I'm surprised at how much I understand.

[@IraWójt]

Enjoyed it enormously! Thank you.

[@funniful]

Oh! So fun! Just a Midwest housewife here…I got the first one, and after reading the last written exchange, I got that one, too! I speak English, a little German, and a little Spanish. 😋

[@WGGplant]

Native English speaker from the US. I got the first sentence perfectly, and I kinda got the third sentence correctly. And I was pretty close with the dialogue. I ended up summarizing it as "they are talking about helping edward repair his house in the woods.".

[@Stadtpark90]

That was way more fun than I expected. (German Speaker here. Only got the first one right so far, but I’m only halfway through.) Edit: these guys are good. Better than me at least.

[@youngyoungmcgurn5088]

I find this sort of thing fascinating, finding cognates between English and German. Having not studied German or Old English, I daresay you guys will have spotted these almost immediately, but it was fun to figure out what the English cognate of "Zeit" was - "tide" in English, like "Yuletide" (and, also, being an island, chances are the actual sea tides would have been seen as intrinsically related to times of day). Also, I learned something about English from this! I knew from a different source that "Heide" is German for "heathen" - I didn't realise it also meant "heath", and therefore it was a discovery for me that the etymology of "heathen" in English is directly from "heath", i.e. that non-Christian polytheists were viewed as living in open, wild country, "away from civilisation", so to speak.

[@DaliwolfBacon]

I enjoy when you play this game so much! It is amazing how much I can pick up on. English is the only language I speak well, but I grew up hearing German, and I study Old Norse a bit as a hobby. Thank you for doing this!

[@moladiver6817]

In Dutch the word for heaven is "hemel" and can sometimes also be used for the sky. "Wat een blauwe hemel vandaag" would be understood as "What a blue sky today'. So it depends on context but "hemel" primarily means heaven. The most commonly used word for sky is 'lucht' which also means air.

[@dziobusz]

That was interesting. I've been speaking German for about 30 years in North Germany where I live and found that I could understand about as much as the guys in the challenge. I think that I could probably learn to understand old english quite quickly though - its structure and words are all deceptively familiar, but still foreign enough that it's hard to understand without any training.

[@netdragon256]

I thought it was "speak softly" on the middle sentence. Old english already had "contamination" from Roman and Viking (later on), so it's really tough sometimes. You really have to know a lot of languages to have a chance. Gotta give a line of Beowulf. It's a classic old english story :D

[@lonleybeer]

I feel like if you had dutch/flemish speakers on here it would be easier to understand for them than any other germanic language speakers

[@ruawhitepaw]

I'm Dutch and I still had a hard time understanding it spoken. But in writing I found it much easier. I have studied a bit of Old English though so I'm not an average Dutch person.

[@SurfinScientist]

I am Dutch with some knowledge of German and I understood as much as the German speakers.

[@niallrussell7184]

"and other germanic language speakers" would also include modern english speakers!

[@prospektarty1513]

The confusion between modern English and old English is that modern English is not directly descended from the version of old English used in this video. Modern English is descended from Anglo-Norse or a heavily scandinavianised form English spoken in the Eastern half of England from Yorkshire to London. This language developed in the Anglo-Viking settlements in England as a result English lost its West Germanic grammatical structure and adopted a distinctly Scandinavian grammar and syntax that has survived into modern English. The old English used I this video ceased to be the language of England after the Norman conquest. People forget that before 1066 the Capital of England was Winchester where the prestigious Wessex dialect was spoken and most literature in old English were written in that dialect by clergy. Unfortunately the Normans moved the capital back to London from Winchester. London north of the Thames had been the southernmost part of Danish England - an area that covered 45% of England where an Anglo Danish or Anglo- Norse dialect had developed when English retuned as official language of England that was the dialect that was used as the standard language known as Middle English. By that time Middle English had diverged significantly from old English. If Anglo Saxon had survived in its purest form it would resemble Dutch and German. But it hasn’t so what we speak today is part West Germanic and part North Germanic, with the grammar and syntax being almost entirely north Germanic in origin and this can be confusing for many linguists who may not have made the distinction. It also shows why most modern English speakers struggle with Old English.

[@reverendbecker]

@@prospektarty1513 I whart you claim is true I don't understand why linguists put german frisian, dutch and english into the wester variety and danish, swedish and norse into the northern germanic varietiy of germanic languages.

[@jeffwilliams3924]

I've seen a few of these videos, and for what it's worth, I'd like to see this as a cooperative activity rather than a "competitive" one. Everyone could brainstorm together for the answer, and we could all learn from their reasoning without the weird element of "who did it better." Just my 2 cents.