MIDDLE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the Oxford English Dictionary specifies the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages.
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[@thatonenerd21]

My sister thought Middle English is just English with Thee, Thou, Thy, Thine, and art. I can finally prove her wrong >:D. Btw great video Andy!

[@PewPewPlasmagun]

That's early modern English, tell her.

[@MixerRenegade95]

@@PewPewPlasmagun Problem with saying that, is that Old and Middle English also have that.

[@athelgast8010]

This is rather a solemn version of modern english, performed in the translations of Bible, Quran, texts of philosophical, religious or occult character...

[@fabulouschild2005]

Thees and Thous come a little later 😉

[@augustuscaesar8287]

So I hear your sister isn't the sharpest tool in the shed 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@mitchellbarton7915]

My brain cant decide if it understands this or not and I love that.

[@TheMrPeteChannel]

Notice how some words are differently used now. Crops means plants we eat. Then it meant leaves.

[@NoahNobody]

It's fascinating to see which words haven't changed.

[@midnightblue3285]

Becose native people stayed ethnic with isolating themselfs from the rest of the slave world

[@TheMrPeteChannel]

Some changed with spelling. Others changed meaning. Chambers now usually means a large formal room.

[@intreoo]

I'm amazed at the extent of French influence over English. I just watched the 'Old English' episode and could not understand a single word, but I am able to understand Middle English to a limited degree. Until now I thought the only French influence in English was the vocabulary, but French literally changed the entire structure of English as a whole!

[@cheesehands3112]

It really only had influence on the vocabulary, lol. The 'difference' you hear is just phonological development getting closer to us, which simply happens over time...

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

And for the better Intreo. Middle English is the most beautiful if all time periods. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is English at its best. I love how ever vowel is pronounced. e.g strange.👍 M.E. Thanks Andy

[@inebriatedfowl3197]

People making some wild assumptions without any real evidence when actual painstaking work is needed to prove something like that. Like the painful work that linguistic studies (which go against what you said) take.

[@danebrennand]

That's because England became more like France than any saxon influence prior. Names like William and Henry etc are all from the French takeover. The ironic part is these "English" were at war with the French despite literally being culturally french colonised hundreds of years prior. Arguably, it's French culture that colonised the entire world, simply called English, it shares not much in common at all with the culture of the Angles. In WW2 when the British were worried about "Germany winning and we all speak German" this ironically would've been a closer to return to true "English". History is really funny. Funny that we even refer to them as "British". Briton's were from BEFORE the Angles and Romans. The whole story of King Arthur is about the invasion of the Saxons. Britannia is the oldest name for the country, the name the Roman's gave it. The island that is England/Scotland today has been effectively ethnically cleansed and colonized like 4 times. The true, true language of the British Isles, is the celtic remnants of Briton that exist as Welsh, and some commonality with the Pictish/Celtic languages of Gaelic. Welsh and Scots are the "true" culture of whatever you call "England" today. When you think about it, the homeland of these celts was constantly invaded and taken over, first by Romans, then by Saxons, then by Danes/Norwegians and then by French. Arguably, it's still happening to this day, with massive Pakistani and Central Asian influence taking over in the UK, which will definitely also impact the language going forward. 300 years from now you might find whatever the world calls "English" then, is actually far more "arabic" than what we're speaking now. Audio recordings from our current time might sound like "New Old English" to them. America's version of English might further deviate from the British variant as time goes on until the point where it's like comparing Dutch to German and they sound barely alike, but similar.

[@ethanoux10]

@@cheesehands3112 French influence caused the grammatical case and gender system of old English to collapse

[@valmarsiglia]

Amazing how in a couple of centuries English went from the language of Beowulf, completely incomprehensible to modern English speakers, to the Canterbury Tales, which any reasonably educated English speaker can understand almost entirely.

[@valmarsiglia]

@@Glossologia Right, but people were still reading Beowulf in OE in the late 10th/early 11th centuries, given that the only surviving manuscript is from that time.

[@valmarsiglia]

@@Glossologia Good points.

[@Allan-et5ig]

Beowulf should by no means be completely incomprehensible to you...

[@LionKing-ew9rm]

I guess it's sorta not correct to compare late Middle English with Old English (instead you should see if middle English speakers of say 1100 ad still understood Beuwolf )

[@valmarsiglia]

@@LionKing-ew9rm The only extant manuscript of Beowulf is from the early 11th century, though it'd be interesting to know if someone in 1100 would have understood it. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's last entry is from 1154, though at that point English had clearly absorbed French influence, with grammar closer to that of Modern English.

[@ack0rmn355]

As a German and Dutch speaker I think Middle English shares more similarities to Dutch and German than modern English does

[@lilg-star4408]

💯 huge germanic influence

[@thetboys9809]

The farther back you go, the more similar they all become to each other.

[@constantinvaldor3742]

​@@lilg-star4408 can you understand the words I can't understand?

[@virgilflowers9846]

@@lilg-star4408 Well it’s not really Germanic influence; English is a Germanic language. The further back you go the more apparent that becomes

[@YvieT81]

It’s like a mix between Old English which was highly Germanic and modern English. It already has more modern English ‘features’ compared to Old English, but it still has a lot of Germanic influences as well.

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

This is, I believe the most beautiful period of the English language.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

👍 Agreement thou.

[@thedumbdog1964]

Hahaha what the

[@danielzhang1916]

it seems like a pattern, the middle period is always the period of poems and literature

[@HopefulHeretic]

It's like if French and German had a child, and then that child read Shakespeare while having a stroke.

[@I_Am_Tomas]

I love how middle english sound like person trying to read english text written in modern english for the first time without knowing correct pronunciation.

[@kamrankhan-lj1ng]

Simply because we are also not certain how exactly the Middle English was pronounced and accented!

[@flutterwind7686]

Our modern spelling was from the middle ages

[@justinstewart4889]

@@kamrankhan-lj1ng We have a pretty good idea.

[@danielzhang1916]

spelling wasn't standard until much later, they Latinized many of the words, that's why it's so different than before

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

How about you dont backslide in to logography and instead write down spoken english using the english alphabet again? That would look like this: Haaw abat yuu dount baeckslaaid in tu lolografy aend insted rite dawn spouken inglish yuzing de inglish alfabet agen? Daet wud luk laik dis:

[@salimrahal1811]

Good job! I expected to find more French/latin words, but i also came across a lot of Germanic ones, for instance: strondes ( shores) is similar to Strand in German which means "beach", sonne (sun), er is close to ehe ( before), fugeles-- Vogel ( birds) and so on.

[@fgconnolly4170]

I while ago I started to rewrite English, based on what old English vocabulary and grammar could have become were it not to be influenced by French, in other words a normal germanic language, and I actually translated that text from the Canterbury into my language: Wen tha sweet April shours haft thirled tha dryeth of March to tha wale, And each edder is bathed in that fught wos radend craft shal onwaken tha blossom, Wen tha West Wind eek mid his sweet ethem haft gyfen lyf in evre wold and field to mild crops, And tha yung sun haft runnen his half leap in tha Ram, And wen lytel fowls maken songs, that slepen tha night mid open eyes (so shyt yekind them, and hirtet); Then lede longen to gon on roads, And weyfarers to seken fremd strands, And far halwes, knowth in sundry lands, And moast onsunderly from evre earldom of Angelland, to Canterbury the comen, tha holy seyned martyr for to seken, that haft helped them wen the waren sik.

[@BlackZWolf]

I think there's a Conlang called "Anglish" which applies exactly your idea of using only non latin vocabulary.

[@kareepan3382]

Wow, that was almost entirely comprehensible to me. I think you've done a stellar job of answering the question in the back of my mind of "what would the english language look like if the norman conquest hadn't taken place"

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

The is a whole subreddit and website for this conlang. It is called Anglish.

[@fgconnolly4170]

@BlackZWolf I know I called mine anglish as well but I don't like what other people have done because they only change vocabulary and not grammar and pronunciation

[@fgconnolly4170]

@@kareepan3382 thanks

[@88kjk75]

I'm Croatian, and I can understand all medieval Croatian texts with ease, so it always fascinates me when I see these examples of Medieval English, and expecially Old and Middle English that show just how much that language has changed over the centuries.

[@danielzhang1916]

Middle English is after the Normans came and brought many words, so it's much closer to how we speak it today, many French words replaced older words in common usage, that's why we don't use them now

[@88kjk75]

@@danielzhang1916 the impact of French on the English vocabulary is really unprecedented in Europe, I believe. It really gives English a interesting linguistic history.

[@ArtistsCry13]

I am shocked at how much I understand this language. Watching this made me smile! It’s such a huge part of my heritage and I am so proud to descend from the English!

[@davidbouvier8895]

I spent the last two years of high school reading Chaucer in the original. It wasn't too hard. The language of London at that time was derived from the East Midland dialect and it is the direct ancestor of modern English. Many years later, I encountered the Kentish dialect from the same period. Now that was a real challenge.

[@branstorm]

For me, Middle English sounds like Danish and I love it! Old English though is godly and it’s my favorite form of english

[@ReiKakariki]

I guess you are fall in love with...Anglo Saxon that nicknamed by old english and confused with middle english. If you love Anglo Saxon go ahead its a pratical , pretty and nice lang, very used and loved in others germanics nordics nations. 🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹👍👍👍👍

[@corporatejones9126]

Sound like Danish? I think you have ear problem and you’re Japanese who first time heard about Germanic language

[@corporatejones9126]

Middle English sound like mix german and dutch! But danish on another hand is like potato stuck on the throat

[@owenhughes5614]

@@ReiKakariki Old English is not called Anglo Saxon the early English settlers in the British isles never called them selfs Anglo Saxon they called them selfs Ænglisc old English word for English

[@saibot7218]

@@corporatejones9126 not much German here.

[@xleplex7070]

So interesting to see how English still retained much of its Germanic elements long after the Norman invasion.

[@ReiKakariki]

Maybe not, but normands destroyed all germanics aspects of english, the cutted anglo saxon and threw it on in the trash or latrine as you prefer. Middle english and anglo normand french is the real root of latine english spoked in the world today. 5% to 8% latine english is germanic, the majot percents of idiom are french, latine and helenic today.

[@jzjzjzj]

@@ReiKakariki you're barely literate how can i trust that? the vast majority of english grammar and simple daily words are born from german and northern german and danish languages

[@michaelcalle2981]

@@jzjzjzj You mean Germanic and not German because they never existed back then and most of the English vocabulary we use today right now are of French and Latin origin.

[@joanxsky2971]

@@michaelcalle2981 thats not true just because 60% of english vocabulary comes from latin doesn't mean most of spoken english is latin around 60-80% of daily speech in english is germanic. most of the word borrowed from french and latin are barely used. also out of the 100 most used english words 81 of them are from germanic origin

[@michaelcalle2981]

@@joanxsky2971 I'm not saying that all the words are of Latin or French origin but the vast majority of English words are not of Germanic origin, it's common that we mostly use daily speech words or grammar that come from Latin, french and Greek origin and even other languages that the English borrowed overtime when invading other countries during colonialism.

[@marcelbork92]

2:02 The spelling and indicates a "closed" [e:] pronunciation. As by the way it is still in Scots.

[@D3NPC]

I don't know why, but I just got a sudden interest in middle English for no good reason, but at least I found something I can watch for it! Thanks, ILoveLanguages!

[@robertofranciscomonsalvesp8080]

Bravo, Andy. This is just awesome!

[@constantius4654]

In modern American English the Germanic/Saxon world 'folks' is more widely used instead of the French origin word 'people' . Great video.

[@Mx12b]

Entirely depends on where in America though. Rarely ever hear "folk" used in Michigan, if I do it's because someone is talking about folk tales or music or I just happen to be way up north. I'll hear "people" or the more simple "y'all" far more.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

Small correction - gh after i wasn't like gh after ou or other positions. It was palatalised and eventually sounded close enough to a [j] semiconsonant (y- in English, like yellow) to be turned into an elongation of the preceding i.

[@RobbieStacks90]

@DoubtingThomas The final "e" in Middle English was pronounced as a schwa whenever it wasn't followed by a vowel sound. Truthfully, I do believe a well-educated modern speaker would be able to communicate with a late Middle English speaker, provided that the modern English speaker were given a crash course on continental vowel pronunciations, trilled Rs, and archaic words and their medieval meanings.

[@cullenluong]

Only true in late Southern Middle English. Even in modern times some Scots dialects retains the gh sound in words like night,might,eight,ect.

[@Davlavi]

Informative as always.

[@gaufrid1956]

Ah Geoffrey Chaucer! I can always remember the first two lines of "The Canterbury Tales".

[@billycalifornia1112]

I didn’t fully understand outright what all this passage from The Canterbury Tales said but I understood it way better than I did when reading Old English from the Saxon Era.

[@deusexe582]

Thou dost nice work

[@Carmilla_Mircalla]

Sounds beautiful, I actually think it sounds better than Old English

[@yassineanassine7905]

It sounds very beautiful.

[@jekylleve5738]

This one is closer to our Modern English today.

[@maxopaladino]

People says: "Oh bro, wish to know when English came from this totally understandable Old English to Modern English" Well, you see, Middle English we see in this video, had 2 previous version before breaking a part from Old English, those being: Late Old English: It's basically Old English but cases are falling off to an reduction to a 2 cases and possibly (if the French didn't invaded) 2 gender system, and it followed with further simplification of the verb system (naturally). Also considering that influences of Nordic languages finally appeared in Late Old English. Early Middle English: This is English roughly after the Norman conquest in 1066, this variety was the most "short-lived one" cause it still was like Late Old English somehow, even with the French influence, it maintained it's bases, but it's main difference from Late of Old is the fact that this variety totally destroyed the Final Vowel conjugations and declension (same thing happened in Dutch and in German), simplifying even more the verbal and nominal systems, and also this variety had few French words (nothing more than 10% of French words and less than 5% where used). This period was from 1070 to 1180. English could've still survived as a mainly Germanic language, but basically, the Norman conquest persecuted those who still written in a more conservative English. The truth over the Anglisk tung is anfolden. The harshness of written the landspeech were Frenchmen forsaken, they made an overhandlen where we were not willed and skilled to forotheren through the menslashen, so we felt under our own unmightyness of the lack of fight.

[@7mad211]

thou hast spoken a good speech

[@maxopaladino]

@@7mad211 Thanks brother

[@josiahcole3186]

Nice! I can see this selection of vocab has come from the prologue of the Canterbury tales, a great read for those interested in middle english. Handy to have a middle English dictionary on hand

[@mbd501]

I have a copy that's been modernized to make it easier to read.

[@historicalreview7839]

yes because it is important to know Middle English when you encounter all the tens of Middle English speakers in England and abroad

[@descriptiondescriptiondescript]

It sounds somewhat German here and there

[@90sHONEY]

Some words are actually German, like Sonne for sun

[@joanxsky2971]

@@90sHONEY most of them are english is germanic

[@dyflin3246]

@@joanxsky2971 Also a lot of French influence as well.

[@manujuve99]

Give us back those /r/'s!!!

[@mesapdarecriminals0integri563]

This is when (well, I guess this is more when Anglo-Saxon became Anglo-Norman which after many years became Middle English) we nearly doubled the number of words in our language and one of the handful of reasons why modern languages like Spanish has 200,000 words and French 150,000 words yet English has between 600,000 and a million. Words were brought from French to English so as to make modern English have 40% of its words coming from French where before we were a completely Germanic language without romance influence. You could often tell the class of a person too back at the turn of the language since the nobility would use the French word and the commoners the Saxon word. Now we often just have two words that are synonymous. This is where we got cow vs beef (from French boeuf) pig vs pork (porc) lamb vs mutton (mouton) chicken vs poultry (poule) and so on.

[@fluffymumu7102]

It then also makes sense that those words (beef, pork, mutton, poultry) now refer to the “dressed” or already slaughtered animal, while cow, pig, lamb, and chicken are still breathing, meaning the commoners grew the animals and slaughtered them and sent them off to the nobility who would only partake.

[@alistairt7544]

And a lot of the words that we use in government, in culture, in cuisine, or even in formality, are usually from French too, since people who were in power and influence, and eventually the educated as well, all spoke French, or at least knew how to communicate in French.

[@ijansk]

Like a whole mix of German, Dutch, French and even Spanish.

[@mickeymaxer2879]

Next time can you make a video about the Nahuatl language

[@HCRAYERT.]

This sounds like someone speaking with a strong accent and accents are something one can get to use to, so understanding spoken Middle English isn't as farfetched as I thought, for this variety of Middle English at least.

[@jimbarrofficial]

Takes me back to when I (attempted) to read Chaucer at university.

[@SinilkMudilaSama]

Middle is the other side of anglo normand french, his brother lang in fact. Not is linked to Anglo Saxon, it's other lang a latine lang that is base of modern english, which is latine too.

[@andreasghb8074]

This is great! It still sounds very much more Germanic than modern English, but the words borrowed from Norman Medieval French aslo still sound more French than their contemporary counterparts. Fascinating!

[@justinstewart4889]

I think modern English sounds plenty Germanic. Really, we just lack those gutteral sounds.

[@tfan2222]

@@justinstewart4889The guttural sounds but also most if our vocabulary isn’t Germanic.

[@justinstewart4889]

@@tfan2222 1) English phonology is almost entirely owed to its Germanic heritage. In fact, there is nothing I can look at immediately and think comes from Romance influence. 2) Most of our vocabulary technically is Romance, BUT most of the vocabulary we actually use in our day to day lives? It's very Germanic. Even the words we have that are Romance in origin are pronounced in a very Germanic fashion. 3) English also sounds Germanic in ways that our modern ears do not appreciate, because it preserves sounds almost all other Germanic tongues have dropped.

[@joanxsky2971]

@@justinstewart4889 true

[@danielzhang1916]

this is English centuries after the Normans came, it was a fusion of Germanic and French at the time, so it sounds much different than modern English today

[@asiancat2053]

Middle english more understandable than modern ones for non mother tongue

[@historicalreview7839]

they should have stopped at Middle English, much nicer sounding than today's English since word ended with vowels

[@rb.5940]

For me a foreigner, this is the true language that English should be soeaking in countryside.

[@hyunchulshim3195]

It looks like I can still order some food in London using my modern English in those days.

[@PapiDoesIt]

I've often wondered what English will sound like 300 years from now. Will they look back at our speech as quaint yet somewhat understandable?

[@trisk902]

with the internet now I doubt language will change at all maybe New Slang will come along but the language itself nah

[@danielzhang1916]

the difference now is Hollywood and the internet, I doubt English will change all that much, maybe new vocabulary but as long as everyone speaks the same it won't matter, English is the language of diplomacy and business around the world, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon

[@brancheortiz8804]

Old and Middle French, please!

[@liviemillie6455]

Yesss Old French is amazing

[@philcarswell125]

Sounds Dutch, which makes sense as the Dutch are also descendants of the Danish vikings. Shows how the 2 languages have evolved separately from one another

[@historicalreview7839]

The Vikings killed my grandfather!

[@AndresLeonRangel]

At least it sounds the way is written…

[@Meowie765]

Old English>>>>>>Middle English>>Modern English

[@7mad211]

old english>middle english> early modern english>modern english

[@JustAnotherAccount8]

I never understood why modern english is considered a germanic language until now. Old and middle English definitely sound dutch and maybe a little german (modern dutch and modern german) to my untrained ear. I used to have a dutch friend who would speak dutch at home to his parents and it sounds very similar to this

[@danielzhang1916]

English has Germanic roots, with French and Latin influences later on, it just drifted far away from how it used to be

[@angelusvastator1297]

Old english sounds way more germanic than this

[@user-ib9lg1wz7y]

Because the grammar of English goes back to the Germanic languages, despite the fact that most words in English are not of Germanic origin By the way, in colloquial English, Germanic words predominate rather than Celtic-Romance words

[@gabipinto]

Sería tan lindo, si fuese así el inglés ahora

[@blackearl7891]

My brain is reading weren wyde, as were wide instead of were spacious. Brain is also interpreting weren as weren't in some passages when i know it should be were

[@hadden8742]

for me, as a Russian speaker, it is very difficult to understand the difference between the spelling and sound of modern English. Here the words are read as they are written. Very comfortably

[@davib.franco7857]

I thought the same and the accent sounds better to me

[@alistairt7544]

I somewhat agree but you also have to understand the context and the situation of the speaker. The speaker is reciting this in a poetic manner, with slower cadence and better enunciation. I'm pretty sure normal day to day speakers at that time didn't speak like this. Probably spoke faster, cutting some sounds to make shortcuts, and didn't enunciate every sounds.

[@danielzhang1916]

English has too many same-sounding words, and similar-spelled words, which make it even more complicated, like bight, bite, eight, ate, might, mite... and tough, through, sought, slough, rough, trough... these are all correct words

[@kernowforester811]

Chaucer used the East Midlands/Anglian dialect. It was very different from that spoken in say Devon or Northumbria at the time. Also, English was probably already changing before 1066, with the vulgar speech of the Britons who had learnt English, looking more like middle English, minus the French and Latin loanwords. We don't know, as only the high prestige English of the English overlords was recorded by the literate monks etc. When English started to be written down again, it showed those changes. Regional dialects still retain elements of middle English, minus the levelled inflections, though some of them even survive. Devonian for instance can use -en as a plural ending, and 'a' in place of 'ge', such as in 'I am agoing'.

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

This a-form is still found in part of rural America, especially in Appalachia, having come over with the settlers centuries ago.

[@zeon_zaku]

Do you have information regarding that? Lower class and especially rural speakers of most languages actually tend to be more conservative, whereas the urabn high class tend to be the ones, who push changes through.

[@kernowforester811]

@@zeon_zaku Information on....?

[@zeon_zaku]

@@kernowforester811 the evolution of vulgar varieties of English?

[@londonanderson9622]

It sounds like a French person and a German person had a baby and it’s native language was this strange yet awesome combination😂

[@qpdb840]

This form of English is very different compared to the English spoken today in each part of the world

[@billycalifornia1112]

Another thing is that when it was read aloud to me I was able to understand it a lot better. Me trying to read it by myself however it looks way more Foreign to me.

[@euj0]

Sound like the English villagers from Age of Empires 2

[@markjosephbacho5652]

It boggles the mind how this beautiful language turned to the likes of Vallet Girl accent 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@TheMrPeteChannel]

Sounds like Scotts

[@alanoww]

When he said “Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye”, I felt that

[@valevisa8429]

Closer to German and French pronunciation.I like it more than the present one.

[@eh1702]

You put the modern border for Scotland, which is not the linguistic border for early Scots. This political and linguistic border was considerably further south until the 12th century, and the political border was a little further south in the east until the 15th century.

[@Dawn_Of_Justice]

Interesting. Sounds Frenchy.

[@cojac6SMG]

This is when English starts to be influenced heavily by and borrows words and sounds from the lingua Franca of the time, French

[@ReiKakariki]

Yo my friend aaannndy time to show anglo normand french on other clip. Hugs friend.

[@EngPheniks]

Sounds somewhat like Scottish

[@noone2345il]

Middle English sounds like a French guy tries to speak British English.

[@curtpiazza1688]

Great intro to ME! 😊

[@poulomi__hari]

So there was a time when English was spoken as it was written. A simpler tyme...

[@Shantosh9550]

So this is the English used in every renaissance fair.

[@elvyn8709]

Middle English - Partial phonetic language.

[@Rasytojas1980]

Old Germanic + French

[@lisamayes8409]

Foreign sounds like "strange"

[@7mad211]

it literally is

[@LearnRunes]

The word strange originally means foreign. The reason children are taught 'stranger danger' is literally because of a belief that foreigners are dangerous.

[@Literallyhim_fr]

Could you please for your next video do the south juts or sønderjysk dialect of danish

[@xequro23]

Can you please make a video of Karbi Language? Btw the video was very interesting.

[@sahilsingh6048]

Middle english makes more sense in pronounciation

[@gio_toro856]

Ajora con soañol antiguo...pero no con el cabtar del mio cid si no con otro texto

[@tomru2003]

To me as a native German speaker it sounds like how I would pronounce English without knowing the pronunciation rules.

[@ThiCath]

Guess the word Day! Me: Day? Nay, DIE

[@r-labs9357]

Middle English really is mutually intellectuae with modern English. A lot of it is the same words but spelled differently

[@azieldaly2965]

Not really.

[@mbahremuk]

Amazing.

[@darkyboode3239]

I can understand about half of it, the way the words are pronounced and the spelling is similar.

[@francescocaiaffa5389]

È molto più bello da sentire lo inglese medievale che non quello attuale......più musicale.....saluti dall italia.....

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

👍 Agreement thou.

[@dan74695]

@@gandolfthorstefn1780 Agreement thou?

[@dan74695]

Why have no idea what the intonation was like.

[@liviemillie6455]

I can't believe how few people are hearing the French influence!! It sounds very beautifully French to me.

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

It shouldn't have any french :/ It sounds nice but ruined the English language

[@JamesMartinelli-jr9mh]

@@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess Brits would argue that Anglo-Saxon ruined their language.

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

@@JamesMartinelli-jr9mh 2 completely separate languages And what ruined the britons language was the Roman invasion and occupation, not the Saxons

[@sillanus1]

as a native English speaker this is what I imagine French sounds like to a Spanish speaker

[@Newfold-scar1-rf1ci]

Basically, Middle English is a beta version of English And Old English is basically an alpha version of English.

[@tong_thanh5837]

Before the GVS ruined everything, English speakers kept pronouncing native words the way it should be as they were in old English. Where ow = ou = /u/

[@martinburke362]

apan ahill tharstud acoo atmasta mooved cosits noothar Noo!! ah aagghh Jim laad!!

[@footballxcr75500]

Pls udi language

[@jhonwask]

I kind of like Middle English better than modern English; it's more poetic.

[@Johnnybomb1]

Why is it always a recitation of the Canterbury Tales? Is that the only surviving literature from that time period?

[@haeleth7218]

Great video. I'd love to know exactly how long it took for the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Middle English. Was it very gradual (maybe 140 years)? or was it quite quick (maybe 50 years)?

[@mbd501]

They said it begins around 1150, so that would be within 100 years after the Norman invasion.

[@danielzhang1916]

most people knew it by the time of the Canterbury Tales, 320 years after the Normans came

[@seronymus]

Unpopular opinion: I love Old English (and as Orthodox Christian believe pre-1066 England was Orthodox), but I think Middle usually sounds better.

[@MixerRenegade95]

England was never orthodox, anything west of the Balkans were Catholic derived.

[@shawnv123]

@@MixerRenegade95 there’s sources supposedly the anglo saxons were orthodox supporters that’s why most of the anglo saxon aristocracy went to byzantium after the norman conquest, also orthodoxy is actually pretty big in england,

[@MixerRenegade95]

@@shawnv123 No it wasn't, it couldn't The Pope/ Bishop of Rome had sent envoys to Christianize the Saxons. If the Englisc did convert in Constantinople later that was their choice. No way did Greek orthodoxy thrived in western Europe at that time otherwise the Clergy and customs would had been there.

[@danielzhang1916]

@@shawnv123 some Anglo-Saxons joined the Varangian Guard, it doesn't mean they were Orthodox in any way, they didn't want to stay after the Normans came and lost their lands, the Guard were recruited because they didn't have any outside loyalties besides the Emperor, they were the majority by the time of Alexios

[@carlgharis7948]

I understand maybe 1/2 of the text

[@Zambineaux305]

Crazy how we can still understand the majority of what is being said, even if the subtitles weren’t there. I see an English being spoken by an Irish or Scottish, with more German in the vocab.

[@danielzhang1916]

this is English centuries after the Normans came, a fusion of Germanic and French words, closer to today

[@shawnv123]

if modern english has around 27% germanic in it how much percentage of germanic vocabulary did middle english have

[@mrmoth26]

Most of the most commonly used words in English today are Germanic, the typical English text will contain about 70% Germanic origin words. Most loanwords in English are either obscure or outdated.

[@michaelcalle2981]

@@mrmoth26 Most of the common used words today are of Latin and French origin because they form about 66% of the English vocabulary, for example you'd usually hear the words like view, value, judge and even the name comment that we post here on social media is of Latin or French origin. Only 27% of the English language or grammar is Germanic.

[@mrmoth26]

@@michaelcalle2981 No, most of the commonly used words in English are of Germanic origin, this is a fact. Your statistics only show the origin of all words in English, not the most common ones. If you examined a random English text, around 70% of the words will be of Germanic origin. Think about the most common words like "the", "and", "you" etc. They are all of Germanic origin. Most Latin or French loanwords in English are obscure or were only used like once but were still added to the dictionary. That 27% makes up the majority of the words people use in actual speech and writing, the rest that is made up by French, Latin, Greek etc. Loanwords are obscure and often outdated. The statistics that you shown don't refer to the frequency of the usage of the words but of the percentage of all words, even ones that are almost never used. If you went by frequency, the most frequent words are of Germanic origin.

[@mrmoth26]

@@michaelcalle2981 And English grammar is entirely Germanic, it doesn't have any Latin influence at all in the grammar.

[@mrmoth26]

@@michaelcalle2981 words like the, and, you, me, I, be, is, was, water, bread, meat, eggs, food, word, name, has, been, had, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, like etc are much more common than words like judge, view or comment or any Latin origin words.

[@LearnRunes]

Thumbs up if you can understand most of this video.

[@josephnguyen4548]

Do Early Modern English !

[@ap1865]

it’s still English just fancier

[@luananderson4256]

1:44

[@bintangbenua]

Soon Belgium will form language like this.

[@elconquistador6795]

Haha, eso es imposible