OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE (ANGLO-SAXON)

Welcome to my channel! This is Andy from I love languages. Let's learn different languages/dialects together.
Please feel free to subscribe to see more of this.
I hope you have a great day! Stay happy!
Please support me on Patreon!
www.patreon.co....
Please support me on Ko-fi
ko-fi.com/otip...
Old English (Englisċ, pronounced [ˈeŋɡliʃ]), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman conquest of 1066, English was replaced, for a time, by Anglo-Norman (a relative of French) as the language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into a phase known now as Middle English in England and Early Scots in Scotland.
If you are interested to see your native language/dialect be featured here.
Submit your recordings to [e-mail].
Looking forward to hearing from you!

[@TheRickyLevi]

As a native speaker of Dutch, I understood pretty much all of it. I obviously might be biased, as I also speak English natively, but still. It’s great hearing the similarities between Ænglisc and Frisian (Frysk).

[@rvdzst]

Vocabularywise you are right. But German is the only living Germanic language that still has a fully fledged grammatical case system as did Old English.

[@TheRickyLevi]

@@rvdzst yes, and? Dutch had a fully fledged grammatical case system until the late 19th-early 20th century.

[@rvdzst]

@@TheRickyLevi I know. The same is bound to happen with the German case system. But believe me, I am so damn proud that German managed to uphold its case system for so long, I almost get a boner at that thought.

[@diono8170]

@@rvdzst True, but dude, you've forgotten that Icelandic and Faroese are also very conservative and even more inflectional...

[@rvdzst]

@@diono8170 These two have slipped my mind, but I agree. Their pronunciation is also quite heavy on "th"-sounds, just like Old and Modern English.

[@oussamatalha1903]

I speak German and i understand most of vocabulary

[@athdot]

I feel like frisians would understand this more than modern english speakers. Also I literally just realized that "bid" is cognate with "bitte" and "thank" is cognate with "danke"

[@manuelllanes2444]

i came here hoping that when i invented a time machine and went back in time i could communicate with the native people, oh boy imma going to be hang in there as a peasant without even knowing why, LOL.

[@Yyr85]

Every village has its own language..

[@hirsch4155]

The sounds are more like Drents or Groningen than Dutch.

[@ERROR674]

Interestingly, it sounds more like German than it does like modern English.

[@washfish6483]

Well english received a lot of french influence and probably started to sound like a mix between germanic and romance languages

[@kiboma4209]

@@washfish6483 English spelling wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the damn French

[@washfish6483]

@@kiboma4209 honestly, french just somehow ended up sounding germanic and refused to change their spelling, then went to the british isles, invaded it, and told the people there "we're gonna change the spelling, deal with it" and now you have all the words with french influence that have weird spellings

[@polluxxxx399]

@@washfish6483 help why did that sound so funny

[@nickbakker2200]

​@@ansan23utube According to wikipedia old saxon is also known as old low German, so it should be the ancestor of modern low German. It's no coincidence that old English, old Dutch and old Saxon all sound very alike because lots of the Germanic tribes who migrated to England in the 5th and 6th century had their origins in north west Germany, Schleswig, Jutland and the Dutch coasts which were inhabited by Frisians at the time. Frisian is actually the closest related language to modern day English.

[@head_in_the_clouds]

As a native German speaker I understood almost everything

[@thh982]

Before you learned modern English could you understand all of it?

[@Kodeekat]

My Icelandic father could read Beowulf after never having studied Old English. Yes, I know a tiny smattering of Icelandic and some of this sounds somewhat familiar.

[@philipjia9029]

😂 as a Chinese speaker this sounds very German to me too

[@elwolf8536]

I'm English knowing even a little German helps me understand OE

[@mpgnz73]

Nonsense!

[@ZiggyBoon]

It's essentially pre-Norman English when England was culturally and politically oriented toward Scandinavia, and the languages spoken across the North Sea were more or less mutually intelligible. How different the world would be if Harold had defeated William at Hastings! The King of England today might be a guy named Aethelburt.

[@joaomartins9800]

Well, this version is actually less scandinavian than modern English, as it's how they wrote before the beginning of the Danelaw. Late Old English and Early Modern English, specially the dialects spoken in places where the Norse ruled (Yorkshire, northern Mercia and East Anglia) would look more norse.

[@RobbieStacks90]

That's probably the biggest difficulty in trying to speak Old English today. Inflected forms and pronunciation changes aside, if we were to communicate with an Anglo Saxon, we'd have to consciously stop ourselves from interpolating words of Old French, Latin, Greek, Italian, and modern French derivation into our speech while also incorporating Old English words that became obsolete well before modern English developed.

[@zephyruslodwick5931]

If this interests you, look Anglish up. It's a made-up sort of English that only uses Germanic words, as opposed to words coming from French. Depending on how far you go with the idea, removing Norse and Dutch words, you get a wholly different language.

[@richlisola1]

Before the Norsemen actually

[@helgaarana5903]

This is no quite correct. While it is true that in pre-norman times the British Isles were more closely tied to Scandinavia and their language has lended many words into English vocabulary, the two languages remained distinct and belonged to different branches of the Germanic language family. The Scandinavians speak the northern branch, whereas English belongs to the Western Branch, alongside dutch and, most notably, frisian.

[@vegamctavish]

Funfact: We Germans understand some Old English because the Angles and the Saxons (Angelsachsen) immigrated from Germany in the 5th century.

[@vegamctavish]

@@AntiEverything-ut6pg well, there are most likely enough people who didn’t know 😉

[@Patrickbatemanharvard]

Angles and jutes came from Denmark if I'm not mistaken.. Yeah Saxons are from northern Germany.. Germanic people back then speak almost different dialects of the same language.. So yeah

[@wtz_under]

@@Patrickbatemanharvardif im not mistaken i heard its from the danes also, not referring to the viking men tho

[@binxbolling]

From that area, yes, although the Danes may have been a separate tribe.

[@Matt-jc2ml]

Denmark. There is actually a third group called the jutes that lived on the Jutland peninsula which is modern day Denmark. They lived there together and then invaded England once the romans left. Well some, the others invaded once the British isles had kingsoms. You know them as Vikings

[@Dksoskxlxlxld]

It is very similar to German, but the way of speaking is more like Scandinavian Germanic languages.

[@rebelusa6585]

To me, it sound more like dutch than german. Old english are so different from modern english, to me, it is a conpletely new language

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

That's because the German language you're thinking of is standard High German. English is from the Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic) group in the West Germanic languages. It's a bit more distant to High German and more closely related to Low German My family is from North Frisia, and in my community we speak a very old dialect of Low German that is very close to Dutch Frisian. That region compassing North Germany, Holland and Denmark, is where the English language came from. The very name "English" is from a region in North Frisia called Angeln, right by the border with Denmark. And if you read the Anglo-Saxon chronicles the very names used to describe the Germanic tribes is derived from thos regions, like Jutes (Jutland), Frisians, Saxons, etc So it's very close to Low German dialects from the North, Frisian and Dutch Saxon dialects in Drents, Gelderland, like Achterhoeks, etc

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

Also there's a big misconception and confusion about Low German. Low German was originally the Ingvaeonic languages spoken in North Germany, that are still alive and spoken in communities, but people tend to refer to Low German as the dialects and accents of High German that is spoken in those regions today, which isn't the same thing, but even the northern dialects of high German spoken in those regions are somewhat close to real Low German, like the pronounciation and inflection, because speakers retain the lingustic traits of Plattdeutsch

[@ΕυαγγελοςΑγγελος-ρ6ζ]

@@rebelusa6585 English Are Kinda Similar To Frisian

[@somedude6683]

Maybe because the *_Jutes_* were from Denmark.

[@jaydengreenberg9618]

Can you do a video on the Mercian Dialect of Old English? Most examples of Old English come from the West Saxon Dialect, which was most prestige during the Anglo-Saxon times. However, Modern English is actually mostly descended from the Mercian Dialect spoken in London. The Mercian Dialect has more similarities to Modern English than the West Saxon dialect, and it would look a little less foreign.

[@mercianthane2503]

And remember, that this is the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Modern English with its dialects and accents mostly come from the anglian speaking regions of England aka from: Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia.

[@jesperlykkeberg7438]

Also ÆthelBerht, King of Kent (6th century), - also regarded as King of Britain (BretWalda) - and his people - the Cantwares - from Dane-eyat (Thanet) and Sondwik (Sandwich) would´ve spoken Old South-West Jutish (Ang-YELLish), and even East-Danish, both dialects of Danske Tunge. The East-Danish dialect is preserved in placenames such as Lyminge, Hawkinge, and Hacklinge - villages with East-Danish endings, from the Ingwaz-rune read as the two-syllables East-Danish girl´s name "Inge" and used to denote the meaning of "adhering to" ("hin-gehørende til" = henhørende).

[@mercianthane2503]

@@jesperlykkeberg7438 Interesting. I was aware of a jutish dialect, but I never made such connections. Thanks.

[@MrHotlipsholohan]

English has a Saxon base , this proves it ,

[@linderoes7832]

Is modern Scottish English originated from Northumbria.

[@mercianthane2503]

@@linderoes7832 That's what I've heard.

[@seaslugs]

I love how "Hello" is basically "whats up?" in old english

[@LearnRunes]

The word "wassail" remains in use today, though it's not heard much outside of the carol.

[@danielzhang1916]

Hello wasn't invented until the early 19th century: variant of earlier hollo ; related to holla.

[@christianpipes2110]

I was thinking the same thing! 😂

[@gorgosaurusful]

Y con esto nos damos cuenta de que, efectivamente, el inglés es una lengua germánica.

[@miguelangelgarcia1601]

Claro, el origen de los anglosajones es similar al de la comunidad menonita, son germánicos.

[@Lipe_360]

26% Germânica 29% latim 29% francês 6% grego 6% desconhecido 4% celta e bretão

[@АлександрИльин-д8ч]

​​@@Lipe_360el ingles - 1 mill. letres. el frances - 130 000 letres. classico latim - 25 000 letres.

[@nfacundot]

Siempre ha sido germánica, pero estuvo muy cerca en influencia con el Latin, el griego y algunos romances como el Francés por el tema de las guerras

[@salazarslytherin6575]

I learnt German at school and it actually sounds surprisingly similar. I actually didn’t have too much trouble understanding it..

[@cbsteffen]

They’re from the same language family (Germanic).

[@12hoodiebruv]

really similar to German and Danish

[@TheRickyLevi]

More similar to Dutch and Frisian if you ask me

[@mirola73]

Germanic, so all Germanic languages.....

[@12hoodiebruv]

@@mirola73 yes but in particular to German, Danish and Dutch

[@AndreiBerezin]

Cant be similar to Danish, you can actually hear separate sounds here

[@hunchbackaudio]

Sounds like a Scandinavian that learned to speak Dutch.

[@danborggren6608]

We use "svälta" (sweltan) in Sweden, but it means 'to starve' and not die. A lot of words were incredibly similar to Scandinavian.

[@strand195]

I thought it sounded like my scandi friends talking when she was going through some of those lists.. not necessarily the vocabulary but the accent itself.

[@redpillsatori3020]

Yes, "starve" used to be the general verb for dying in Old English (similar to Modern German's "sterben"), but meaning narrowed to just mean death from not eating. Kind of an indicator of just how much malnutrition and starvation was a part of people's daily lives back then.

[@IR-xy3ij]

During the middle ages there wasn't really a language barrier between the Norse and the English and it was well recorded

[@marchauchler1622]

Its because Swedish is part of the North Germanic branch. Engiish like Dutch, Frisian and (Low) German are part of the West Germanic branch. The North and West Germanic branches are basically cousins thus a degree of mutual intelligibility or resemblance of words is definitely given

[@binxbolling]

​@@marchauchler1622German is also West Germanic.

[@danki-duck]

this made me tear up a bit 🥲 we really are brothers 🇬🇧🇳🇱🇩🇪❤

[@Bbbbbbbbbbhhhhhhh]

Yeah, me and my Dutch friend always argue and make fun of each other because I’m English and he’s Dutch, but we always think of it as brotherly love between similar peoples.

[@intreoo]

As an Anglophone, it amazes me how incomprehensibly different the same language is but in the past. And even more amazing that Dutch and some German people can understand it better than me.

[@morningwine2624]

Your remark reminds me of Normand Conquest; I read 70 % of Modern English vocabulary derives from French and other classical languages (Latin and Greek).

[@swissfsm5855]

​@@morningwine2624no, just around 15-20%, English is truly germanic

[@0x00a]

@@morningwine2624 yes, but about 75% on average in daily spoken English is still Germanic

[@eh1641]

These Germanic languages were all mutually intelligible at some point. The thing is that while English changed drastically in the past 1000 years Dutch and German changed relatively little

[@abi1021]

So much of it is like our English now!!

[@EngPheniks]

I can feel Germanic touch in its sound

[@vicentediaz448]

I'm learning old english and is some difficult for the gramatical cases and other concepts, for example the old english has been influence from the proto-germanic, old norse, old frisian and a little bit of latin. Greetings from Chile:)

[@johnvanlandewyck4295]

Old norse, old frisian as well as old english and the other Germanic languages are all descendants of Proto-Germanic

[@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13]

Why are you learning it for it's not like you can have a conversation with someone??

[@revvyie]

@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 cuz it’s fun

[@AHeroWith1000Names]

@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 Do not underestimate the intrinsic motivation of human spirit ;)

[@AlfareeziMokoginta]

hmm.... English is a Germanic language, which means it developed from a Proto-Germanic language

[@victors.3633]

I'm a native English speaker and speak a little German. I understood so much of this ☺️❤️

[@Republic_Of_Vicoria_Official]

As a native English speaker, I understood most vocabulary.

[@MihaiMihai-wr1nh]

I know modern English and a little German and I was able to understand 75-80% of what was said in this video! I am from Romania btw!

[@michaelcalle2981]

That's because you saw the translation of modern and old English where as without the modern English translation you would not understand hardly anything of old English and only just 1% of it.

[@IR-xy3ij]

@@michaelcalle2981 It really depends on how much German he knows

[@michaelcalle2981]

@@IR-xy3ij Yes true but even old English is different compared to modern German where as when you compare old high German and old English then it's very close or sometimes the same depends on what sentence they are doing. It's also mostly intelligible for the old English speakers and old German speakers when communicating with each other.

[@magusscythian]

Naturally, the surprise of commentators, because in modern English from a third to half of the vocabulary is of Romance (French) origin

[@LearnRunes]

That is very true.

[@rbunebula_1551]

That’s not a third of spoken vocabulary tho

[@nfacundot]

I know why and it's about French influence with the wars in Joanne of Arch epoch

[@Smin-f3h]

"You're a germanic, Englisc!"

[@DaDoM123]

And a thumping good one I'd wager.

[@judy534]

Sounds like german,dutch

[@Vickynorssken]

As a speaker of both German and Dutch I understood a fair share

[@marchauchler1622]

Yeah as a Dutch and (Low) German (Low Saxon) speaker I can approve that Old English is related to us

[@kaanjel]

And mordern English, as it seems xD. Quite some similarities there too. Most word I went: oh yeah, thats German, some words I thought: that's similar to this Dutch word. And some were just related to English words, of which there is probably a Dutch or German equivalent, that I am unaware of.

[@asarinativenations2508]

It's look mixed between Nordic (viking) and German

[@Halicos93]

I find interesting how old English sounds like love child of German and Swedish to me XD.

[@nexus4dev]

Make a video about Middle English

[@Jiafei280]

I think Middle English was Angels.

[@alanjyu]

That's basically William Shakespeare

[@alanjyu]

@Zura you are absolutely right. I had a brain fart.

[@nexus4dev]

I like middle english but I don't like modern english.

[@davidmallon8300]

Scots developed from Northumbrian old English whereas English developed along the lines of Southern Old English. Northumbrian can still be heard in some areas but since the loss of traditional working class jobs and the standardisation of English along the Southern style it has sadly died out a lot and many of the words we used to speak have been dropped. An example would be chollers which my mam's grandparents used such as "Yiv got reed chollers" meaning you have red cheeks when it was cold. My nanna's generation stopped using these words and then my mams generation dropped more words to the point that my generation barely know these older words and the only ones we use are what we still using in daily speaking e.g. Gan = go, Caad = cold, Hyem = Home, Bairn = child etc.

[@MrHotlipsholohan]

Scots is a form of Gaelic is it not , brought over to Scotland by the Irish celts , completely different to any form of English ,

[@davidmallon8300]

@@MrHotlipsholohan no Scots became a thing when the Gaelic and Norman nobility adopted the lowlanders language and customs. Befire that they were very similar to Northumbrians as we came from the same origins of Northumbrian Angles. It's a Germanic language

[@MrHotlipsholohan]

@@davidmallon8300 there are actually two native Scottish languages: Scots Gaelic and Scots. The first is a Celtic language so closely related to Irish as to be mutually comprehensible. I agree with you on the Scots ,

[@davidmallon8300]

@@MrHotlipsholohan oh sorry for the confusion as I tend to always refer to it as Gaelic although the term can be used for all Goidelic languages i.e. Manx, Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It's a shame that SG was shunned and sidelined as it is a beautiful language and really there should have been more done to preserve it both by the Scottish Kingdom and then Britain after the act of Union

[@binxbolling]

​@@MrHotlipsholohan"Scots" and Scottish Gaelic are 2 separate things.

[@svenbartram2695]

As an Englishman, some of the vocabulary is straight forward (Anglo-German mostly). The part at the end I could barely understand a word though. And that vocabulary and spelling looked so unlike English. I find modern English, Dutch, Friesian and German all much easier to listen to and can take in more where there are similarities.

[@danielzhang1916]

modern spelling was changed by the Normans, they Latinized some of the words, and English has a lot of same-sounding words like bight, bite, eight, ate, might, mite, as well as similar-spelled words, so they changed a lot

[@wor53lg50]

​​​​@@danielzhang1916stop pushing that narrative, you write the same type of BS all the time, in fact Irish have more Norman DNA than the English, as the Irish Chieftains and Irish upper class land owners actually married off their daughters and sisters to Norman nobility for alliance and to keep land, whereas as in Britain they was overseers and taken land owners where the native British became mere serfs..

[@danielzhang1916]

@@wor53lg50 that's your opinion, don't read it then

[@f.w.s.b6631]

0:55 "9 in old English is my favorite" 👴🏻

[@CPSUMedia]

I speak a good bit of German and I can tell the similarities very well.

[@BlackZWolf]

As a Portuguese speaker who also speaks Modern English, Old English really feels as intelegible to me as Latin.

[@dionysus1394]

As a native English who speaks Spanish this feels less intelligible than Latin 😂

[@maiquephrancisco6371]

Verdade meu amigo, pelo que eu vi, o Inglês antigo mistura muito o som do Latim antigo. E outra,se prestar atenção no fonema das vogais, não existem sons de EI - A, Â - U, IU - U. Ou seja l, se falava quase como se escrevia. Pela que vi em outros vídeos, o Inglês Antigo, tinha mais similaridade com o Alemão Antigo.

[@pelgervampireduck]

Latin sounds more comprehensible and if you know Spanish, Italian or Portuguese, you can guess some of the words. This sounds like it's not even related to English, it's like a weird German.

[@FrancisTheBerd]

Latin unintelligible?!

[@Nissardpertugiu]

as native nissard - and speaker from cuneese family and knowning italian Its not intelligible for me.

[@chevalierduneant4528]

Make a video about Anglo-Norman, please! Would aprreciate it so much!

[@thatonenerd21]

It's here! ITS FINALLY HERE! Thank you soo much Andy! I've been waiting for this for a very long time! It's 9 minutes too!

[@moussamerabet5137]

It was so Germanic 😢

[@wtz_under]

@@Fish-uj5bti like the germanic roots. if only time could go back

[@elconquistador6795]

Si Inglaterra no era invadida por los normandos/franceses el idioma todavia sería así como el de este vídeo o hubiera cambiado muy muy poco hasta nuestros días ,aunque no tendría la posición que tiene hoy como primera lengua internacional .

[@playgt326]

El anglosajón es como el latín de los ingleses hablantes, de hecho, cuando lo escuché por primera vez, pensé que era alemán 😮

[@billbombshiggy9254]

Every loser in the comments be like: I understood it all! No you didn't. Quit lying.

[@Eald_Englisc_beon_micel]

I only know Pumped up kicks in Anglo-Saxon 😭😭😭

[@Eald_Englisc_beon_micel]

But I'm using this to learn it

[@vera_ramirinho60]

This old english is very hard to understand. I understand English but the modern english, the modern english isn't the same that old english

[@LearnRunes]

That's because the French outlawed speaking English in England in the 11th century, only the English weren't very good at learning French.

[@shawnv123]

@@LearnRunes they didn’t outlaw it it was only not the language of englands government from 11th century to the 14th century

[@wor53lg50]

​​@@shawnv123no, thats correct what the commenter said, the peasants couldn't learn Latin French or read it or speak it or write it, so they had to reverse the laws, in reality the french overlords became more English than they was french, its actually went in reverse believe it or not... But remember Normandy was a British duchy, so would have spoke auld English anyway, also William the bastard was a relative of Harold...

[@Sausagey2]

I’ve finally found the language spoken in the listening exams

[@ivancastillo7852]

It's more similar to German than to modern English.

[@izzahdion732]

start here => 6:08 i love his voice in old english really! 😍😍😍😍it is like a knights who gives a speech in front of the troops to boost their spirits for the war

[@derbdep]

This was many centuries before knights were a thing. knights came in after the Norman invasion in the 11th century. this would have been spoken by a warrior in front of the fire surrounded by his clan or Angle, Saxon, or Jute subtribe.

[@mickeysouris6324]

I find if you use german pronunciation to speak Dutch, that will sound really similar to old English.

[@eshan0013]

The number 9 in Old English💀

[@JP-wt8jg]

I am german. Its very interesting that,please, means bidde, today german bitte😊

[@carolineJakovinen]

As a bilingual English-Portuguese speaker who happens to study Swedish, I could understand 30% of the poem. I'm curious to see how much Icelandic speakers would grasp from the text

[@leonardoschiavelli6478]

Eald Ænglisce spræce... 😍

[@Benjamin-ou8rm]

As an native English I understood everything

[@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13]

FRENCH,,GERMAN,,DUTCH and NORDIC MIX

[@bunnyrabbit1699]

a language of Danish immigrants became the language of English peasants then the language of English kings then the global lingua franca.

[@joshuabradshaw9120]

It's interesting how I can recognize many of the verbs but I can't grasp much else without a translation into modern English. So much old vocabulary has been lost and the inflection is mostly gone. Modern English word order is SVO. In England at that time there were still a fair number of Brittonic and a few Latin speakers, speakers of the various Anglian and Saxon dialects, and later Vikings who spoke old Norse. To me it would thus make perfect sense that the language would simplify considerably. I remember reading that even before the Norman invasion English had changed significantly over six hundred years.

[@CinCee-]

Do Middle English next

[@watchmakerful]

Most of these words are still in modern English! However, I can't recognize some of them. Fela (many). Is it related to "full"? Or to German "viel"? Miċel (big). Was this word completely lost? Wer (man). Again, such a basic word and totally lost? Bearn (child). It looks related to "bear", "born", is it? Ċeorl (husband). No thoughts at all. Nīeten (animal). Fugol (bird) and hund (dog). Nowadays clearly "fowl" and "hound", but why different meanings? Wæstm (fruit). No thoughts... Wyrtruma (root), rind (bark). Again no modern descendants? Hýd (skin). Þearmas, sweora, hryċġ (body parts). The last one may be "ridge" (?), but what about others? Orþian (breathe). Witan, cunnan (know). Two different words, as in modern German? Ondrædan (fear). Sweltan (die). Ofslean (kill). Related to "slay"? Snīþan (cut). Too similar to German "schneiden", but why entirely lost? Tōclēofan (split). Delfan (dig). Sellan (give). How did they say "sell"? Gnīdan (rub). Þwean (wash). Tēon (pull), sċūfan (push), weorpan (throw). Cweþan (say). Ēa (river). Wolcn (cloud). Dūn (mountain). Other words for "mountain" are rather clear, but not this one. Sweart (black). Clearly German "schwarz", but are there any descendants in modern English? Yfel (bad). Evil??? Horiġ (dirty). Sinewealt (round). Swīþra, winestra (right, left). Do these words have modern English cognates?

[@jemts5586]

Wer (man) Survives in Werewolf. A half man, half wolf creature of mythology. Otherwise no modern usage. Rind (Survives in some cases regarding fruit, their skins are referred to as *rinds* ) Delfan ( to *delve* or to dig) Dūn (Think of dune, sand dune, still a hill) Hyd (Hide, animal skin) Witan, cunnan (maybe related to *wit and cunning* ) Sweart (Not really any modern use, maybe more old fashioned, *swarthy* , meaning of a dark complexion) Knīdan (to rub... Maybe related to "knead"? Like kneading dough?) Swealter ( maybe related to swelter, or sweltering) Tōcleofan (to split, *to cleave* , same meaning. The tool that does this is a *cleaver* )

[@harrynewiss4630]

Fela (many). Is it related to "full"? YES albeit distantly Miċel (big). Was this word completely lost? Survived in Scots as 'Muckle'. 'Much' in modern English is descended from it Wer (man). Again, such a basic word and totally lost? Still found in compounds ie werewolf Bearn (child). It looks related to "bear", "born", is it? Survives in English dialects as 'bairn' Ċeorl (husband). No thoughts at all. 'Churlish' is from this today. Fugol (bird) and hund (dog). Nowadays clearly "fowl" and "hound", but why different meanings? Not untypical of what's happened to some of these words, their meaning has become more specialised or shifted slightly Wyrtruma (root), rind (bark). Again no modern descendants? Rind in ME is from the latter Hýd (skin). Hide in ME Þearmas, sweora, hryċġ (body parts). The last one may be "ridge" (?), but what about others? Later English 'swire' but largely defunct Witan, cunnan (know). Two different words, as in modern German? Yes. 'Wat/wot' was still in use in Elizabethan times Ondrædan (fear). Dread in ME Sweltan (die). Swelter is a descendant but with different meaning Ofslean (kill). Related to "slay"? YES Snīþan (cut). Too similar to German "schneiden", but why entirely lost? ME 'snide' is descended from this ie 'a snide remark' Tōclēofan (split). Cleave is still in use if a bit archaic Delfan (dig). When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? Delve still used Sellan (give). How did they say "sell"? sellan could be used for 'sell' but there were other words too Tēon (pull), sċūfan (push), weorpan (throw). warp in ME is descended from weorpan Cweþan (say). 'Quoth he' you can find in Shakespeare. Archaic now Ēa (river). Survived in dialects to an extent. 'Eddy' comes from this Dūn (mountain). Other words for "mountain" are rather clear, but not this one. This may have a root in Old Welsh Sweart (black). Clearly German "schwarz", but are there any descendants in modern English? Swarthy in ME comes from this, so does sordid Yfel (bad). Evil??? YES Horiġ (dirty). Survives in dialects

[@celty5858]

I think "bearn" is probably a cognate of Old Norse "barn", meaning child 😁 "Swarthy" likely stems from "sweart". It means dark-skinned. Witan likely became "wit"? Gnidan - "knead"? Dūn - "dune"? like a sand dune? Snīþan - maybe "snip"? Delfan - "delve"? Hýd - "hide", like of an animal Maybe ondrædan became "dread"? Wer was also a prefix that meant "man" but was lost over time. But we still see it in "werewolf".

[@watchmakerful]

@@celty5858 Very likely, except "snīþan", there is no way to get "p" out of "þ" (voiceless "th" [θ]). PS, there is a very obsolete adjective "snithe" (sharp, cutting) directly derived from this word.

[@Delzaan]

​​@@jemts5586 cunnan related to Dutch ken, meaning know. And Fela I think related to German Viel, Dutch Veel meaning much, a lot, many

[@lofdan]

Mere is lake in Old English. Lacu is like a pond.

[@anglishbookcraft1516]

Mermaid

[@mladenzrnic2669]

How would the English language sound if there were no Romance influences?

[@광동아재廣東大叔]

As a native speaker of German, I was able to understand almost more than half of that. Especially whole sentences rather than separate words. No wonder English is grouped as a germanic language.

[@sabbirshahabuddin1512]

Now I know the languages of age of empires II 😊

[@spicytranslations9604]

Hell ya

[@podmizje]

its absurd that modern english doesnt have plural for "you"

[@Drunrealer]

Incredibly based and had no Norman in it

[@CariocaExplicador21]

In the old English, the letter W always sounded like U? In other germanic languages, W sounds like V.

[@stellaislovely]

w is its own semi consonant phoneme /w/ but I get what do you mean. /w/ is a Proto-Germanic phoneme, English just retained it while many has lost it. But the older stages of them had it at one point

[@Stickmansland]

It's very different from today 😅

[@LearnRunes]

Could you please create a version of this video with the text in Anglo-Saxon runes?

[@hanzyo1916]

As an Indonesian speaker who studied English and is now learning Dutch, I was able to understand most of the meaning of the text without having any trouble guessing the context of what was being said.

[@tankiwolf]

yeah, Old English is actually very similair to Dutch. btw im Dutch and learning Indonesian right now. i love Indonesia

[@karreidas366]

one more verb : lose = forleosan , forloren at past participle which gives the adjective forlorn

[@monkeypie8701]

Can we have english from the early 1300s or 1200s Or maybe anglo norman

[@richlisola1]

Surprisingly found some of this understandable. Especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!

[@SharoozK]

As a non native English speaker, it sounds like German to me

[@evdalzarrinolbistan]

Its words are very similar to German.

[@jgrennmusic]

Does anyone even speak old English anymore

[@alexemre1197]

It sounds more German

[@atvalleau]

As an American, I understand the text more easily than the spoke word. I noticed a number of cognates I think they are called: words that look and even sound similar to modern English, although they might not have the same meanings anymore. Many of these similar words clearly show the effects of that good old Great Vowel Shift!😊

[@Da_goddess]

So basically old English wasn’t English lol

[@terranceaddison4599]

Kinda..I don't understand a single word

[@ZabawneGierki-ot3ts]

That helmet makes the cartoon knight look like a duck.

[@lmusima3275]

For a moment I thought I was hearing Dutch. I’m a native English speaker learning German

[@kristinaking4680]

Old English sounds a lot similar to Frisian language

[@12hoodiebruv]

Spricht Sie Englisch?

[@rhino5877]

Sprechen* Sie Englisch?

[@12hoodiebruv]

@@rhino5877 you are right

[@shawnv123]

@@rhino5877 wow that’s the same as in german

[@mahomadabrahimabenjucef]

I've spent years thinking about helping Andy to prepare a video about the Anglo-Norman (Fraunceys, Normaund) language; remember this beautiful oïl language was the language of the English nobility and royalty during a great part of the Middle Ages. Nonetheless, I end up never having time for it, unfortunately :(

[@andrewchantnem6807]

So much like dutch

[@LearnRunes]

Have you seen the video of the man who speaks Old English buying a cow in Friesland?

[@dalubwikaan161]

Old English is our bae

[@kristinades9215]

Especially to learn how latinizing can change a language

[@davidwhiting5630]

Sounds mixed Welsh and German.

[@-._.---._.---._.-]

i find it very interesting that old and middle English kinda sound like someone speaking german with a heavy Scottish accent

[@azieldaly2965]

That's just the accent of the reader. There would have been many accents of old and middle english just like Modern English.

[@MT-ud6hx]

It seems like Dutch language

[@JohnDove-d8d]

Lowland Scottish is closer to this than modern English is. Modern English is this + French. Lowland Scottish is a variant of this.

[@philandrews2860]

For the greetings and phrases as well as for the Beowulf samples, it would be cool to have a literal translation into the modern surviving versions of the words, even when their meanings have changed somewhat, with some being archaic (such as used in the King James version of the Bible, Shakespeare, etc.) Example: "Pleased to meet you" could be rendered as: Me liketh thee to meet (singular) Me liketh you to meet (plural) That would make it pretty much a 1 to 1 correspondence with the Old English, making it more intelligible. Here are a few more: Goodbye: Fare a-soundly ("sound" meaning solid, or healthy) I love you I love thee Do you speak Old English? Speakest thou English?

[@moshemizrahi1133]

It sounds Nordic/Scottish/Welsh and Dutch combined.

[@kingpin3228]

The old english of hello sounds just like “wassup hi”

[@LearnRunes]

The words "hail" and "hey" come from English's original Germanic roots whereas "hi" was popularised by those who wanted to make the language more French.

[@MirMahmud2003]

Sounds like a native German language from stone age.

[@dariush__]

10th comment! Finally what I needed, Thx Andy! 🙃

[@henrikduende]

Im swedish, and there are lots familiar words. Even if the sound is diffrent

[@richlisola1]

So many words like modern english!

[@LearnRunes]

That's because it's the same language; it's just grow a little younger.

[@chiappim2]

It's closer to German than modern English.

[@prasadhemantha7757]

My favorite KZbin channel

[@AxlPatrol]

This sounds so close to modern german it's uncanny.