Old English Spoken | Can American, Australian, and Non-Native English speaker understand it? | #1

Have you ever heard Old English spoken? In this video, American, Australian, and Non-Native English speaker from Poland try to understand Old English by ear. It’s part of the Language comparison series on my channel, in which we explore the mutual intelligibility phenomenon between closely related languages.
Contact details for the guests of the show:
Simon Roper
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🎥 KZbin Channel → @simonroper9218
📱Instagram: @simon.roperr
Christian Saunders
🇦🇺🎥 KZbin Channel → @Canguroenglish
📱Instagram: 📱Instagram: @canguroenglish
Rico Antonio
🇺🇸🎥KZbin Channel → @BilingueBlogs
📱Instagram: @bilingueblogs
Support my Work: @Ecolinguist
My name is Norbert Wierzbicki and I am the creator of this channel.
☕️Buy me a Coffee → www.paypal.me/ecolinguist (I appreciate every donation no matter how big or small🤠)
📱Instagram: @the.ecolinguist
🤓🇵🇱👨‍🏫 Book a Polish Lesson with Norbert → ecolinguist.com/ (language conversation practice)
🎥Recommended videos:
🤓 American, Australian, and Non-Native English speaker vs Old English | #2 → • Old English Language |...
🤓 Latin Language Spoken | Can Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian speakers understand it? → • Latin Language Spoken ...
🇫🇷🇮🇹🇧🇷🇲🇽French Language | Can Italian, Spanish and Portuguese speakers understand? → • French Language | Can ...
🇮🇹🇧🇷🇲🇽Italian Language | Can Spanish and Portuguese speakers understand? → • Italian Language | Can...
🇧🇷🇲🇽🇮🇹Brazilian Portuguese | Can Spanish and Italian speakers understand? → • Brazilian Portuguese |...
🎥Romance Languages Comparison Playlist → • Romance Languages Comp...
🎥Slavic Languages Comparison Playlist → • Slavic Languages Compa...
🤗 Big hug for everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
#English

[@Ecolinguist]

Ich bin ein Muffin. 😌

[@altralinguamusica]

Yes. Yes, you are.

[@Ecolinguist]

😜

[@thatmfrandy4150]

You looks like

[@polskiszlachcic3648]

Ein Muffin? Dann bin ich ein Kuchen😂

[@KasiaB]

Kein Muffin, sondern ein KZbin-Star :)

[@7R1KKY]

This sounds like a Scandinavian who’s fluent in German and tries to speak English for the first time.

[@saber2802]

And then throw in the French language and you get English.

[@Dark_Plum]

@@saber2802 and some Latin, little bit of others, then blend for thousand of years. Oh, and remember - when you change how words are spoken don't change how they are written. Otherwise spelling will be to trivial ;)

[@thirstyboiisgodforever8169]

That especially what it is

[@zeytelaloi]

Yeah they shouldve had a Scandinavian too.

[@nickisuhl]

Lol that is the best grasp on it I've seen! xD

[@TacoTimePablo]

A lot of old English surprisingly sounds like current Dutch.

[@rickhemminga601]

I tought the exact same thing

[@TNTnor]

Frisian and dutch are the most closley related languages to english. But after 1066 english got a tremendous french makeover

[@kcisme144]

@@TNTnor "a tremendous french makeover" is my new favorite way to describe this

[@RsStom]

Lol i was gonna say that , i think frisians would uncerstand this

[@David-km2ie]

I noticed it too. If you both speak dutch and english you understand old english very well

[@rubenspoolder3567]

Crazy how close english, dutch and german are when you listen to this

[@lHawkyl]

Germanic languages

[@fyiatflyta]

I'm icelandic so I can easily understand a lot unless its distant from old norse

[@MrWinotu]

English is created from German, Dutch as well.

[@kashonder]

Of course, they are based on one foundation.

[@zephyrean8824]

@@fyiatflyta I believe Icelandic evolved from old english and Norse. Also, it is the only language that still uses the letter, "thorn" which looks like a b mixed with a p and makes the th sound

[@Jujuoak]

This really just reinforces the fact that English has strong roots from Germanic languages

[@Jujuoak]

@Hello hi this is Ahnab true, we do have quite a mix of languages, but English is described as being a West Germanic language with Anglo-Frisian dialects. So Germany, Denmark, Netherlands

[@corydorastube]

@@Jujuoak French. Loads of French. From 1066 to the 1500s French was the language of court and along with Latin was used in legal documents up until the 1700s.

[@stephencrompton4352]

@@corydorastube It has a lot of French and Latin vocabulary (in fact more so than that of Germanic origin) but the very core of the Language remains Germanic, it's ancestry is Germanic, and the most commonly used words in day to day speech are mostly Germanic.

[@stephencrompton4352]

@Sergio Diaz I know, my point was that English is not Romance language simply because the majority of the vocabulary is Romance in Origin. I just glossed over some of the details you mentioned.

[@Bob-jm8kl]

What if....William never conquered England. What would English sound like today?

[@plantemor]

I'm Danish and I understood almost everything he said. Sounded like someone took a sledgehammer to the Icelandic language and made it easier for southern Scandinavians to understand

[@philomelodia]

Plante Mor Guthorm and Aelfred could converse in their own respective languages and still understand one another.

[@fenrirunshackled4319]

Makes sense, it was basically a mix between the Norwegian and Danish of the time. It makes a lot of sense for it to sound like Icelandic+Danish because Icelandic is basically just norwegian from the 10tj century preserved.

[@CuDobh]

I am from Sweden and totally agree with you. Sounded like an Icelander speaking "Mainland Scandinavian"-like.. Or maybe a Faeroese person...

[@sondersonics7534]

I live in northern Sweden and I understood a lot but it’s also because I can read it at the same time so it’s definitely not just easy for southern Scandinavia to understand. A lot of the pronounciation sounds like far north Swedish accent.

[@Olinn2000]

As a native Icelandic speaker I understood everything thing he said and it was really funny hearing them butcher the words

[@Fae_van]

It's like i can almost understand him. It's rather frustrating.

[@dizzydaisy909]

It sounds like English with a really thick Irish/German accent.

[@Fae_van]

@@dizzydaisy909 yea it does!

[@KIR018]

@@dizzydaisy909 i think the german comes from the fact that early england was mainly germanic settlers

[@Xmasta420]

This is how I imagine English sounds to people who don't understand it

[@jadejaguar69]

Your picture is terrifying

[@eckelrock]

"Hit is, hwæt hit is."

[@lp2059]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA INDEED

[@y.stevens4315]

Hit is!

[@user-kh6jf5zj6n]

@@y.stevens4315 Hwæt heet ees

[@genius6084]

@@user-kh6jf5zj6n Indeed

[@Rmnznh.]

it is what it is

[@Andre-ih5ig]

The words sounds like german, but the pronounciation sound SOO norwegian

[@wolfofsolace349]

Yep, that pretty much sums up the Anglo-Saxons.

[@Kasiarzynka]

Omg YES

[@l.3ok]

Exactly

[@bungtempe]

its basically Dutch

[@swagrobloxgamer1531]

I think it sounded more icelandic

[@711jastin]

Old Chinese: I'm about to end everyone's career.

[@Ecolinguist]

😂

[@user-ed8zf5zv5j]

No, just about to prove you're a 40 year-old virgin.

[@defencebangladesh4068]

😂

[@JayzSpray]

@@user-ed8zf5zv5j stop talking about yourself buddy

[@KyleOzz]

@@user-ed8zf5zv5j Whats the link? Your comment just seems random and therefor, not funny.

[@laavo3754]

Speaking a scandinavian language, english and some german really makes it a lot easier to understand.

[@OOoOski]

Exactly, knowing a little bit of danish, I guessed first 2 without any problem. Old Norse and old English comparison would be very interesting

[@MrStokkich]

Yeah, Swedish, English and whatever German vocabulary I have left from school made this quite understandable. Of course, I could read the words and they couldn't, but still. Fun concept for a video for sure!

[@aggi999]

more like speaking a Nordic language rather than Scandinavian. I don't think knowing Finnish is going to help you a lot here, but being a native Icelandic speaker surely did

[@omenoid]

@@aggi999 Knowing Finnish won't help at all, but almost all Finns speak at least a little English and Swedish and many have taken optional German courses in school. So when you know 'djur/Tier' and 'ek/Eiche' it gives you an advantage.

[@largol33t1]

It was like that for me too! I know a teensy bit of Swedish and Swiss-German. If I had not, then the words would have been total gibberish to me. However, Swiss-German is a bit strange too because I can understand a German but a German cannot understand me! Ack! I am still annoyed that the Swiss hoodwinked me by not telling me their language is NOT the same German used in Berlin or Frankfurt...

[@Zarzar22]

I am half Dutch and half American, and using a combination of both languages, this is pretty much all completely understandable. Pretty nuts how accurately it seems to combine the two

[@HypercopeEmia]

@lilzeekys it's probbably the fact that old english ha sthe same roots as germanic languagess

[@kokomrade2541]

@@HypercopeEmia yubi

[@titaan814]

I have exactly the same. I speak fluent Dutch and English. I understood him with much ease.

[@Kasiarzynka]

English and German are my second and third language and I understood almost nothing, lmao.

[@willemveenstra2084]

@@titaan814 same here as well! Needed to read to comments to see if there where more people that experienced the same haha! So cool!

[@Sp00kq]

It sounds like German, English, some kind of Swedish or Norwegian, and maybe Dutch all mixed together into a language. It's amazing just how different old and modern English is

[@Liimeyyy]

Do you know what English is?

[@blackmage1276]

I blame french!

[@Nuka0420]

Damn William of Normandy

[@66hss]

Exactly, I'm amazed how I could understand this only having knowledge of Scandinavian languages and modern English!

[@corydorastube]

@@Nuka0420 A fine chap was Guillaume le Batard. One of my personal heroes.

[@sonofbelz]

Back in school there were a couple of guys who were generally considered "nerds" who spoke to each other in a secret language most of the time. I didn't find out until way later that it was actually just old english and they were huge history nerds.

[@user-ed8zf5zv5j]

@@Nhzharuthopar Rumor has it they got killed by partying dwarves drunk on mead.

[@dustinthewind3925]

@@user-ed8zf5zv5j No big deal. You may not respawn with your equipment, but you keep the skills.

[@baronthebeaver8586]

History nerds are the coolest nerds

[@rotwart]

Yeah, whatever. Liar.

[@andyc6542]

Find it hard to believe to be fair, but whatever gets you those likes I guess.

[@jonathanemslander6896]

If you know Dutch and German this isn’t too hard!!

[@peterfireflylund]

Danish helps, too.

[@samvodopianov9399]

I know! The second one I understood very well - habben is like in German 'Have'. Sounds a bit irish?

[@tonyguy231]

The next video idea. :D

[@platonshubin]

I learn German and am not a beginner anymore but it did not help me at all. I understood the basic verbs but not the special words.

[@paveldronov9944]

@@samvodopianov9399 , nope. Irish is (a) a Celtic language, and (b) it has no word for "to have." Instead, it uses a construction "Tá rud agam", which could be translated as "There is something at me". (В общем, почти как по-русски - "у меня есть").

[@bheinfishwick7032]

It's a pity that I dont have other people within my own life that take interest in meanings and origin's of things, but it sure is a breath of fresh air to see others having more intriguing conversations.

[@davidfairclough3664]

Know the place you are coming from

[@sahildoshi1670]

It's amazing the internet exists. I go on about this stuff all the time and don't mind that most dont care!

[@anonymousntwiggn8911]

At least you have the internet people

[@sailenkatel3436]

I feel the same way

[@itsshrimpinabag9544]

Keep looking, we are out there!

[@vKross]

As a German I was actually able to understand about 80%, I can finally feel special

[@doratheexplorer185]

same

[@mauriciorv228]

bist du eingentlich "special"

[@nevergonnagiveyouupnevergo3924]

As an american, I understood about 5%

[@PhilippeLarcher]

I'm french and I got 8 clues out of 9 :p

[@purromemes7395]

@@nevergonnagiveyouupnevergo3924 I’m American but I understand most😊

[@headcanon6408]

“Are you an animal?” X Æ A-12: *nervous sweating*

[@LazyBastard69]

X Æ A-12: Do i pass the Turing test?

[@o.sunsfamily]

Having your name become a joke in the YTbe comment section, the girls named Fanta and Cola feel his pain.

[@Xomsabre]

It's Kyle... X = Greek "Chi" (pronounced like the word "key" or the name "Kai") Æ is still used in modern phonetics and is commonly pronounced as "i" A-12 is just saying "Using the alphabet, what is the 12th letter?" to which the answer is "L" The Musks came up with the most ridiculous way to name their son "Kyle"... technically "Key - eye - el"

[@RunninUpThatHillh]

Cool; attaching el means "of God" .

[@RunninUpThatHillh]

Don't forget gematria.😆

[@4ultra]

Imagine how cool it would be if historic movies actually used the languages spoken at that time?

[@rinkorinko9969]

Closed caption writers: It’s free real estate

[@bravo320zf]

Reading this comment kinda reminds me of watching the Passion of Christ. lol

[@Shitbird3249]

We already have the Mandela speech Sign language guy.

[@Arisenbezzle]

The Witch (2015) was apparently written using documents from the time (its set in north america in the 1600s) and its Robert Eggers first film (guy who made The Lighthouse). great movie :)

[@PinHeadSupliciumwtf]

That's what I like about inglorious basterds I'd love if every film did that There's an interesting one in the language of the Basque region called errementari

[@jayw8726]

Guys, this is why even if time travelling would be possible we wouldn’t be able to communicate with historical figures. 😅

[@Lukas-hi1ho]

Well, that guy could 😳

[@gunnarsvensson7165]

Well we managed to communicate with many different tribes and people without speaking their languages

[@Clayt910]

If we have time travel we’ll have to have some type of technology that could easily translate languages, unless it’s some lost or unknown language

[@jayw8726]

@@Lukas-hi1ho Lol...yeah we would need him as the travel guide.

[@jayw8726]

@@gunnarsvensson7165 Please check how many important historical figures were fluent in Latin.

[@Jelisawesome]

The old English word "fugol" sounded almost exactly the same as the Frisian word for bird: "fûgel" and it is similar to the Dutch word for bird: "vogel".

[@lp2059]

Here in German it's also literally "Vogel"

[@martinm6027]

Frisian is the closest living language to English, and is much closer to Old English than modern English, which has been heavily modified by Danish/Norse, French and Latin.

[@jeanvaljean7266]

@@martinm6027 Perhaps Low German from Lower Saxony and Northeastern Netherlands is even closer to Old English than Frisian

[@element4element4]

In Danish: fugl

[@thaolinthaolinsson7748]

and in swedish it is: Fågel :D just goes to show how connected english is with germanic and northern languages

[@Cemike]

Old english sounds more Frisian,German and nordic than the "new" english

[@akcjaxd7863]

Modern English is a germanic language heavily influenced by French thats why it sound so different, more melodic than other germanic languages.

[@Cemike]

@@akcjaxd7863 yeah you're right

[@BFKAnthony817]

Well, the Anglo-Saxons did come over from that area of Europe when they settled England. So it absolutely should. In fact one of the easiest languages for us native English speakers to learn is the Scandinavian ones, specifically Swedish, Norwegian and Danish since our ancestors actually did come from close to Denmark. Then a few hundred years after that, we got invaded by our cousins the Vikings who incorporated more Scandinavian vocabulary in our language.

[@AtlantaBill]

"Bûter, brea en griene tsiis, wa't dat net sizze kin is gjin oprjochte Fries". Butter, bread and green cheese, who can't say that isn't a proper Frisian.

[@iopqu]

@@BFKAnthony817 No, the easiest language to learn is French, because of all the cognates. I've never studied French and I can read some of it. It's completely not understandable when spoken, but the spelling tells you what word it is

[@MrPianoMan]

"They can't see the captions" Like that's gonna help them! 😂

[@MD-mk3lh]

Well it actually does help, since the pronunciation is often times more messed up than the spelling. But maybe it's just because they look like germanic words. (I am a German)

[@cherahsBroll]

I was thinking the same thing 😂😂😂 Listening was easier than looking at the subtitles.

[@eshafto]

Helped me an awful lot. I wish I had watched it first without them, to see if I would have done as well. I suspect I would have done worse than the panelists if I couldn't see them. Also, please do one of these per day forever. I'm loving this!

[@EliteTeamKiller2.0]

It does help. That''s why I'm trying not to read as I play along. In fact, it helps quite a bit.

[@Vaderi300]

you can actually figure out or make guesses about what a word means by seeing how it is spelled, especially since audio clues can be misleading.

[@Labroidas]

Dude there are German dialects that I understand less than Old English, it's fascinating

[@Cloiss_]

I think the best part of this video was the ending where they all discussed the etymology of the words "deer" and "animal," it was so cool to see them making all of these connections between the different languages

[@floyddog2283]

So the Polish dude’s first language isn’t English, and he’s trying to understand a version of English that the vast majority of English speakers don’t understand

[@Anna-ug8cq]

But a lot of people are saying this sounds more like a Dutch, German or a Scandinavian language (which makes sense.) Polish is closer to those than Australian or American modern english?

[@notayoutuber3518]

People who learn a language often understand aspects of the language better than native speakers who may not have studied their own language in-depth.

[@Sephaos]

@@Anna-ug8cq American English is spoken with the natural accent. Britain adopted theirs during the industrial revolution.

[@Anna-ug8cq]

Abel Sephaos Really? I’m from northern ireland and we speak english but we pronounce a lot our words closer to how Americans do than the english. There’s so many accents in Britain that I doubt they all came about at the same time

[@jqxok]

I think this is easiest if you speak a Germanic language. I am Swedish, and got all three and could understand pretty much everything he said.

[@cecilyerker]

This was just a nice wholesome video of dudes politely discussing language.

[@chenzenzo]

This is my jam!

[@jebatman756]

Ms. Obvious strikes again

[@VCRider]

@@jebatman756 mr. Obvious needlessly responded again months later

[@feliz5919]

@@VCRider lmao fr

[@feliz5919]

@@jebatman756 Mr. obvious doesn’t get a obvious joke when he sees one.

[@mikkizmakeetas6529]

As a Swede I am content with the fact that if I for some reason travelled back in time where people spoke old english I would probably understand most of it.

[@Franckdatank]

Not if they spoke while having only 12 teeth in their mouths (half joke)

[@thomasalberto613]

As a Portuguese speaker, old English is a lot harder without the words from Latin and French lol

[@silverdiamond2098]

In old English you can really hear that English is an Germanic language. Some words and grammar really reminds me of the German language or other Germanic languages

[@michable100]

Old english was pure germanic. Modern is just a weird hybrid language.

[@josephscott1870]

As an english speaker who also speaks dutch i can really hear the dutch in this too

[@Nipponing]

And norse.

[@cestakou357]

@Re Up You're contradicting yourself in the very same sentence. I doubt you know the meaning of the word "etymology". It literally means the "study of the true meaning" and it is the part of linguistics concerned with the origin of words. English is a Germanic language, no matter how many words it takes in. Most function words and common words are still Germanic, some existing alongside well-established loanwords like Germanic "buy" and Romance "purchase", the latter being fancier. The clusterfuck you mention has nothing to do with foreign loanwords. Actually, it's the Germanic words that more inconsistent, such as "meat"/"meet", "knight"/"night", which used to be pronounced differently. The real reason is the conservative nature of English orthography, a lack of adjusting the spelling once in a while.

[@TitanOfDarkness25]

Ond and und for example

[@sfinnable]

Australian guy: Deer aren't really common animals in everyday life BC, Canada: what u talking about

[@holyjoeli]

I’m from the US and probably see a deer everyday

[@vishmonster]

To be fair any deer in Oz is probably getting kicked to death by an Emu.

[@shanemorrison7867]

To be fair,deer are an introduced pest species here, and seing as they are classified as such if you are so inclined may hunt them at any time of the year.

[@LuisCaneSec]

@@holyjoeli I'm from Michigan and annual deer collisions factor into our insurance rates.

[@ennagaeas4311]

@@vishmonster our local pub has a couple of emus and just got a baby deer. I'll keep you posted.

[@tazepat001]

"Beorcon." And my alcoholic brain thought "Thats definitely beer can."

[@MissPipistrella]

I really love this! Finally men who do not talk about football all the time :-)I think Old English is easier to understand for German speakers than for modern English speakers. Languages are so fascinating! Norbert, you are doing a great job bringing people and cultures together. Dziękuję i pozdrawiam!

[@OrangeDied]

you really need to talk to more people

[@_b_e_a_n_s_]

when he moves from old English to regular English my brain has a stroke

[@PhilipJReed-db3zc]

It threw me too. Apparently my subconscious had concluded that he was brought up in an Old English family and thus was a native speaker.

[@feliz5919]

@@PhilipJReed-db3zc he actually is a native Old English speaker from what I heard lol

[@beebee2783]

This is so weird.. Hearing a language that is so similar to your own yet so far removed is painful..

[@ZecaPinto1]

No french fries

[@sprachschlampe353]

I've had that experience visiting Louisiana and not being able to understand the locals speaking English. Interestingly, though, after a while your brain figures it out and you start understanding. After listening to this video, I feel like with a bit of exposure, that would happen with OE, too.

[@ZecaPinto1]

@@sprachschlampe353 quite normal. In Louisiana the main dialect after english is a french dialect

[@sprachschlampe353]

@@ZecaPinto1 One particular conversation I remember was in English. I was embarrassed that I had to ask the young gentleman twice to repeat it before my brain would parse what he was asking. I wish I had had the opportunity to hear the French there, too, but unfortunately I did not. I understand and speak (European) French pretty well. From what I've heard on KZbin of Louisiana French, I can understand most of it with a little hiccup here and there.

[@exquaze3785]

I speak polish and this is the same way I feel about some other slavic languages

[@anneliesS04]

I'm Dutch; I also speak German and English. Fascinating how much of the old English I can understand! The common roots of these languages really become more clear to me because of this video. I like it!

[@kylekauz4384]

I love how the linguist come out of each of these men as the contest went on. This is fascinating!

[@sarahhardy8649]

It’s strange that if I close my eyes, I seem to understand it better. I was taught that the animals are named in English, because it was the servants who farmed them. But the meat is named in french, because the rich Norman’s were the ones who got to eat it. So pig and cow are in English but pork and beef come from the french.

[@lilydrimm6626]

Omg that's....true x) Now that i look into it (as a french/english person) haha

[@Vaderi300]

yup. The English language is fascinating like that. The Norman conquest made language a class divide, which sticks with us to this day. Not many wars can make the claim they hit so hard the language felt it.

[@2GoatsInATrenchCoat]

An English teacher once taught me that many English words have one common synonym from French and one from German, and that the synonym that we perceive as being fancier is often the one that came from French (and vice versa). For example, "smart" came from German and "intelligent" came from French. We tend to use more German words conversationally and more French ones professionally/academically because we still have those arbitrary class associations with the words.

[@michaelgrabner8977]

also "venison" for meat from deer, or "mutton" for meat from sheep and "veal" for meat from calf After the slaughter the ruling Normans got/ate the meat and the old english peasants who were their servants were just allowed to get/eat the innings and the meat debries scratched from the bones those debries were usually then filled in emptied bowels in order to become sausages..also the blood was caught and processed further in order to become blood sausages...and the bones were cooked in order to become soup..simply the whole animal was processed

[@oliviapatricia5573]

Same here. I covered up the subtitles and could understand better. The second word and clues were the easiest to understand.

[@alanfraser7666]

Deer still meant "animal" right into Early Modern English. Even Shakespeare uses it as such in King Lear. "But mice and rats and such small deer ..."

[@diouranke]

I thought it might be animal it's dyr in norwegian

[@magiv4205]

"Tier" in German

[@jerry2357]

@18mac That explains something from when I was at a hotel restaurant in Arnhem twenty-odd years ago. The menu was available in English, but the weekly specials were only listed in Dutch. The waiter tried to explain what they were, and one was a dish made from “a kind of small deer”, which I later discovered to be hare. I always wondered how a hare could be a type of deer.

[@scottyj6226]

I think this could explain the jackalope For those who dont know a jackalope is made up animal, a rabbit with antlers from a deer. Sometimes taxidermists make them.

[@CountArtha]

The German cognate is Tier, as in "Tiergarten"

[@SuperCreh]

"Deer really isnt a common animal" Me with 20 deer in my backyard on the daily, and having to watch for deers while driving: "Excuse me, what?"

[@klrp3248]

"deer are not a common animal" Clearly, you do not live in Michigan.

[@lucydean4028]

Or many other places in the U.S. The deer in my hometown were so docile they let us pet them.

[@AlienXCherie]

Deer is probably one of the MOST common animal....we friggen have deer here All over Arizona....including the Sonoran Desert. White-tailed deer is SC state animal. Deer are the animal that kill the most humans in the USA (via car accidents).

[@nordvestgaming1238]

I live in a decently big city, and there is still deer just vibing everywhere, granted not in the downtown area, but all over the place just outside it

[@BrokieTheJokie]

Bruh even in Atlanta there's a lot of deer

[@fourthaeon9418]

virginia also

[@nerysghemor5781]

I didn’t realize “deer” was related to German “Tier”!

[@nbell63]

and modern Deutsch/German for bird is spelt 'Vogel' but pronounced 'foe-gul' whereas we see the Old English for bird is 'fugol'... nice historical echoes.

[@chgeri2232]

I picked up on that when learning Dutch, where "animal" is "dier"

[@Anna-ug8cq]

Nigel Bell Yeahh, it’s so cool

[@teethirtyfour7394]

Well when you break it down, English is pretty much just German, but with a few French and Latin words, and it’s evolved a bit over time

[@SternLX]

@@nbell63 Also note how close fugol is to Flug(flight). I have to wonder if fugol is also a root for Falter(Moth) even though it's an insect and not an Animal.

[@Variner]

12:15 interestingly enough, the German „Tier“ has another, narrowed meaning in the German hunter‘s jargon: the female red deer. So this becomes full circle.

[@dazedledzep3891]

As a person who speaks german and English it helped quite a lot. If I could speak norse I'd have the ultimate advantage

[@lf8262]

As a Swedish speaker with a slight grasp of German, I understood about 95% of what Simon said. Let us have Simon back!

[@MrNicopa]

Simon has his own Old English channel.

[@MrNicopa]

Simon Roper

[@Facerip]

Same here! Understood a lot

[@cheetahjammerplaysaj591]

I been learning Danish and Swedish for 3 years and learned Icelandic a bit, I can only understand like 85%

[@ilijamitrevski1210]

There should've been a German dude in the listeners; it would've made things a little bit more interesting hahahah

[@TypicalRussianGuy]

I honestly doubt German would've been helpful. Sure, it would've helped to understand some of the words, but the KEY words, the words one needs to understand what he was saying, are way too different in modern German. My knowledge of German is way better than my knowledge of Swedish or Norwegian, and yet it were Swedish and Norwegian that helped me guess, while my German only helped me with the auxiliary words like ''haben'', not much more.

[@hoathanatos6179]

I speak a dialect of Low German and I could understand most of the words.

[@ilijamitrevski1210]

@@hoathanatos6179 that's really cool. I've been learning standard German for a few years and Low German seems like the coolest German. Hopefully they'll be a Friesian or Low German speaker in part two.

[@hoathanatos6179]

The key words I understood from English or Norwegian, which I have also studied. Like grinde toth from grinding tooth (Baktän [cheektooth] in my language), æcernu from acorn rather than Ieekjenät [Oaknuts], great treow I could understand Groot in my language but treow from English tree or Norwegian Tre (Boom is tree for me). Muþ is like half way between the English mouth and Mül in my language, which means mouth, so that was easy to understand; alive would be läwendich for me but from Scandinavian origins I could understand it as alive [i live], and the same with dead being daud in some dialects of Norwegian [Doot for me]. Sciella sounds like the word for balancing scales rather than those of fish and reptiles in my language so I got it from there, and deor would be Dia so that was easy. Pronouns, verbs and preposition were super easy to understand and it was like listening to someone speaking another dialect of Low German. Just the nouns trip you up a bit and you have to think about them.

[@hoathanatos6179]

@@ilijamitrevski1210 My dialect is from Prussia as well, which became parts of Russia and Poland so we have many Slavic loan words, like Gruschkje is Pear, Tschinikj is Garlic, Tschemodaun is suitcase, Blott is mud, Bockelzhonn is eggplant, Prekauzhnikj is a manager or clerk, the adjective atelje is from отдельный, Laufkje is a shop related to Russian лавка, etc... There are a lot of loan words from Slavic languages.

[@ennuiarduous6446]

The best episode so far. I'd love to see more episodes like this, with deciphering the text.

[@ptderu7349]

As a native German and pretty much fluent in English, it feels natural and easy to understand.

[@shellgecko]

I hope to see something similar with romance languages speakers, can they understand Latin?

[@user-mb4ux7xv4j]

I think Metatron can speak a bit of Latin? He certainly knows how to pronounce it correctly

[@Kalifornya040605]

That would be amazing, I'm studying latin... but now I don’t feel that confident to have a conversation. But I think I could prepare sentences and words like this guy did...

[@amjan]

My half Italian half Polish friend understood Latin pretty well. Italian words and grammar similar to modern Polish.

[@Kalifornya040605]

J M yes, classical latin had declesion cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, vocative and ablative. Romanian still has four cases, but the other romance languages lost them. Still, you can see the heritage of declesions in some characteristics of romance languages...

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

As a Spanish speaker, I will tell you that classical Latin is very hard. Without prior knowledge of its grammar and even certain vocabulary, you will not understand. The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin. I think Romanian will have an advantage when it comes to grammar and syntax, and Italian when it comes to vocabulary. But if you have a Sardinian speaker, then the Sardinian should beat all.

[@AlexBeerForEveryone]

As a German-speaking person, I can understand almost everything 😏 Ofc I speak English as well so that helped.

[@amsterdamG2G]

Same for me as Dutch speaking

[@mrx-jz8us]

Yeah knowing German and English really helps a lot with understanding it.

[@emreertan2295]

Oud engels lijkt sprekend op het nederlands en duits

[@SrChatty]

I'm Swedish, and same here. A lot of words are very similar. Länge leve de germanska folken! ❤️🇸🇪🇳🇴🇩🇰🇩🇪🇳🇱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇸🇨🇦

[@vince371vc]

Ey krass oder? Richtig cool

[@catsara9114]

As a German, who also knows a good deal of Lower German, this was amazingly well to understand!

[@Gertol31]

When he spoke in whole sentences at the beginning it sounded like my dutch uncle speaking german with a heavy accent.

[@truthoverfalsehood__8757]

Old english is basically german I understood almost everything.

[@itsamario]

Old English is basically German, I understood almost nothing

[@justinfrancis4621]

@@itsamario Lol

[@J0J0McM0M0]

laber keinen scheiß

[@GrimYak]

close, yes. but yeah English is part of the Germanic language family.

[@711jastin]

@@GrimYak Anglo-Saxon to be precise.

[@jpslb418]

I've heard people speaking Old English before, but it was so cool to see it in a conversational context! Awesome video!

[@Ecolinguist]

Thanks! 😃

[@DINKY77142]

I love this, what a great, fun time. Nice. Please more like this!

[@alfonsstekebrugge8049]

If you're Dutch and your English is good enough this is no issue at all. Sounds like English with Dutch syntax and just some Dutch words thrown in for good measure. Got all three words without even trying. Furthermore the whole intro was just like 99% understandable to me without any mental effort.

[@itzdavid7714]

Imagine spending years learning a language no one else speaks

[@tomm.catt.9911]

Well from what I can gather in the comments about other languages, Scandinavian and Germanic languages can understand him fine

[@cambs0181]

Think it's about exploring the origins and connections of language.

[@barbaradyson6951]

@@Johnny_Is_Dead you forgot Cornish.

[@kirstygunn4523]

The only reason Welsh isnt spoken very much is because the English beat it out of them when they invaded the country and took over . Kind of the same thing they did with Scotland and the Gaelic language. They didn't die out they were murdered .

[@whetherman3016]

@@kirstygunn4523 Yeah no, in 1066 the English were conquered by the Normans who then enslaved the population and forced them into building Motte-and-bailey castles from which the population could be controlled, the English lords and royalty were killed or fled, and were replaced by French Normans (our royalty fled to Scotland and married into Scottish royalty), we attempted to rebel and the Normans burnt the North to the ground with scorched earth tactics and there was mass starvation, this was called the "harrying of the north", thousands of people died. The English tried to rebel for like a hundred years, this is the period in which the French Normans conquered Wales and incorporated it into England. At this point the English and Welsh were ruled by French noblemen who spoke French, married French people and lived in France, the famous "English" king Richard the Lionheart spent a grand total of 6 months odd living in England during his reign and couldn't speak English. It wasn't until the French noblemen were dispossessed of their French lands that they started to integrate. Where the Scottish are concerned... We took on their King!! (as mentioned before, the Scottish line had links to the original English line through marriage). From that stage England and Scotland were ruled by the same royalty, but had separate parliaments, much later the Scottish parliament voted to join with the English parliament after some disastrous decisions bankrupted Scotland.

[@unidalmann1025]

Surprisingly enough as an Icelander I can easily understand this since I’m quite fluent in English and Icelandic, the use of æ and þ is natural to me along with some words resembling Icelandic

[@brettfafata3017]

How easily can you understand it? Is it a struggle?

[@annonimooseq1246]

Brett Fafata if I had to guess I feel like it would be like trying to understand Scottish tweets as a non-scot in terms of understanding

[@Olinn2000]

Uni Dalmann no way I’m also Icelandic! Mér fannst þetta mjög fyndið vídeó lol

[@jahjoeka]

Ur last name is almost my first name lol

[@EliteTeamKiller2.0]

When you listen, þ just sounds like a th in modern English, so I don't see how being familiar with the character would help (unless you're reading... CHEATER! ;) ). But the vowels and general flow is probably much easier for you than people who don't speak Icelandic and similar languages.

[@LauraFreisberg]

I just stumbled upon this videos and immediately fell in love with old english and its handsome speaker. ;) As a german speaker it opened so many doors in my mind. Thank you!

[@palco22]

There's no end to this subject, you can dive into it at a very young age and 80 and 90 years later, you are still digging up new information ! We are so intrigued by our past ! Great video, thanks.

[@ThomasSchuuring]

If you speak dutch or german you can understand like 80% of this

[@marypetrie930]

Take the word "like" out of that sentence.

[@imperator7896]

Diggah das war so einfach

[@AlvisePeltreraLeoneProductions]

Old English is way easier to understand if you are norvegian, danish, swedish and so on. It's 80% related, especially the gramma, with that part of germanic languages. For obv historical reasons :)

[@Pidalin]

I can't imagine learning this old English, even normal TH sound is crazy for non English people and this old English have that sound everywhere and much harder to pronounce. But at least they have normal R, today silent English R is also nightmare for us.

[@gunnara.7860]

Yeah, for example, the word "dēor" seems to be used in the same way as Swedish "djur".

[@blckroseimmortal]

I'm studying Danish and it definitely helped a lot. I understood like 70-80% of it.

[@aleksandraleksandrov4740]

@@Pidalin This Czech letter "ř' is also a nightmare for learners. Every language has its own difficulties.

[@caim3465]

Related with English grandma?

[@derbdep]

i loved the chemistry between you all in this vid! hope the same guests can come back for round 3! The old english was surprisingly easy to understand in some places. I'm a native speaker and learnt some German though :)

[@kaizerdestiny2947]

This is definitely not something I should have in my feed...... So why is this content so addictive! I love this.

[@Alexander_Fuscinianus]

I hope to something like this with slavic languages. For example, could Russian, Slovenian and Bulgarian speakers understand Old Church Slavonic

[@zrinkakovacevic5492]

Александр Черных they might be able to guess, especially if they have the knowledge of more than one slavic language.

[@samvodopianov9399]

It is much easier for a Pole to understand a Russian than for an Englishman to understand a Swede

[@irynaestrella5015]

Болгары поймут лучше всех церковнославянский

[@milosbulatovic2578]

Постоји меджуславјански/међусловенски језик који је још у развоју који је изведен из старо црквенословенског. Норберт је урадио 2 видеа са меджуславјанским, па видите и разумећете минимум 90% што на видео снимку причају, забавани снимци.

[@AlexxHO]

There were already some.

[@s.g.3042]

Being half german, half swedish, I understand him 100%

[@dieenttauschung4124]

Of you're Dutch you can also understand all of it, it's almost the exact same, even the pronunciation

[@ihavenoidea2736]

Being half Hungarian, and half Hungarian, understood all of those things

[@pigeonarmstrong]

I appreciate this channel!

[@arttusepanheimo4909]

I'm a non-native english speaker and I'm extremely excited I understood the first two perfectly.

[@ProstyChlopiec]

I like the old English letter "R". It sounds distinctly, clearly, as in the Slavic languages.

[@kijul468]

Yeah. Very few dialects retain that pronunciation. Where I come from, it's not a tap (although some letters are pronounced that way depending on context), and I don't know what it would be called, but it's made with my top teeth on my bottom lip, but the teeth lower down the bottom lip compared to 'V' and on the inside of the lip.

[@Mr.Nichan]

@@kijul468 I've heard of this. I'm guessing you're from London or maybe somewhere else in Southern England. That would probably be called a labiodental approximant [ʋ]. This is actually a pretty common sound in the the worlds languages, just not usually connected to the letter "R". I believe it's a common Dutch realization of " W" and is the Hindi sound transliterated with "V".

[@kijul468]

@@Mr.Nichan I'm from the Midlands. But the thing is, my top teeth are actually touching the inside of my bottom lip so it definitly isn't an aoproximant.

[@mortenreippuertknudsen3576]

that R exist in swedish as well

[@RetroSmoo]

They should use this language whenever they make historical movies to make them more believable

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Agreed. All historical movies should be in the language of the time, with subtitles, to make them more immersive.

[@dylanflynn1895]

Except for the fact that subtitles ruin immersion. More specifically they interfere with vera-similitude which is quintessential immersion

[@reliposkar6963]

Yes instead of using British accents hahah

[@user-zv6dv3rx3d]

As much as I like the idea I find subtitles to be the opposite, I find myself reading them instead of getting fully immersed in the movie.

[@gogoprofit]

Lazy Americans don't like anything that's not English so that wouldn't work

[@MediocrityInMotion]

Today I learned the king's deer you weren't allowed to hunt in the kings forest meant any animal.

[@Lichfeldian--Suttonian]

This is fascinating. Many thanks!

[@69luca_33]

The old English word for speak (sprecan) is pretty similar to the german word sprechen (speak)

[@LLiivveeeevviiLL]

A bit older Swedish: "språka"

[@anniek4681]

And the dutch word spreken

[@jonomoth2581]

The majority of English, German, Dutch and other European languages all come from a common ancestor. Of course a lot of other vocab has been added (especially in English) and a lot has been changed but many of the basic words are the still very similar: (English, German, Dutch) I, ich, ik. Have, haben, hebben. Hello, hallo, hallo. Father, Vater, Vader.

[@anniek4681]

@@jonomoth2581 Water, wasser, water. School, Shule School😁

[@LLiivveeeevviiLL]

@@jonomoth2581 Jag (medevial: iag), Har, Hallå, Fader (Swe)

[@ggevorgyan99]

Simon and Norbert making a collab? My day just got better.

[@kellydavis275]

THIS WAS AWESOME! On the edge of my seat yelling at the screen. I got deer and failed miserably on the rest. Well done. I must have more

[@tarynhathaway4269]

This was amazing!

[@paulah.l.]

As someone who has studied Swedish, German and English at school in addition to my non-Germanic mother tongue, Old English is weirdly easy to understand.

[@Sophia-ql4md]

I studied the same set of languages, and can confirm it was strangely easy

[@daidiary4748]

Is that not because Old English is actually Old German language?

[@Sophia-ql4md]

Dai Diary it is because Scandinavian languages, German, Old English and modern English are all in the Germanic language family. Still, it was surprising to see that Old English is more similar to Swedish/Norwegian than it is to modern English

[@floatingsara]

I guess Swedish is the key, I speak English and German and I am as out of track as the guys in the video.

[@Ari33sa]

Yeah I feel the same with just german and english, though i have some difficulty... Weirdly enough though, in between I didn't know where I pulled my associations from. Like, which language a word reminded me of. When they said 'beorcan' for example I immediately understood what it meant, but I somehow thought, I pulled the meaning from german 'birke' (which I assume might share a common word root) but in any way Birke of course is 'birch' not 'bark'... So I immediately knew that 'beorcan' has to be 'bark', but because I thought that association came from 'birke' I was half convinced for a hot minute, hat 'Birke' also means 'bark' before I remembered it's actual meaning.... if this makes any sense.

[@frankrault3190]

In modern Dutch "deer" (written like "dier") still is an animal, whatever the species.

[@hieratics]

And if I am not mistaken, "dear" in English has the same origin of the Dutch "duur", that means something expensive rather than something endearing

[@gwhats]

In German the d becomes a T

[@frankrault3190]

@@hieratics Yep, that's correct! It also is related to Dutch: "dier"-baar, which means dear, like precious. ("I hold you dear" = I hold you "expensive") It's funny to see how the world of money and the world of love are intertwined, in terms of language

[@frankrault3190]

@@AndersGehtsdochauch Next to "teuer", There probably exists a German variation which can be pronounced like "Dear" (oder Deutch-phonetisch: dier). It gets visible in Yiddish: "Diregeldt" (German: "Miete", English: "rent") I'm saying because Yiddish as a language is so very close to German and also derived from German..

[@Terrus_38]

The same with German "Tier".

[@SoB413]

Yep, I speak a little Dutch, German and Plattdeutsch and a lot was actually understandable... Loved the video, pls do another one🤙

[@littlesnowflakepunk855]

Absolutely adore the way you can kind of tell where "old-timey" sentence structure comes from - a good amount of this is preserved in appalachian english, interestingly enough. just in his introductory few sentences, we have "here we have [introduces guests]," which would in most modern dialects be something like "i'm here with [guests]" "and today, speak we/i in old english" the hints of this structure can be seen, i think, in old people in Westerns adding "says I," to the end of their sentences.

[@greham]

"Et dyr" in Norwegian, or "ein Tier" in German, still mean "an animal".

[@krimhildpl6688]

"Djur" in Swedish as well. :)

[@hrivefiryasessrumnir8451]

"Een dier" in Dutch

[@catalina6]

@Table-Country pinxing THRYM Firearms 27 ;)

[@NICEFINENEWROBOT]

@Table-Country pinxing THRYM Firearms 27 Do deer in SD have only one food? So they have less feed than a chicken?

[@JorenVerspeurt]

Dutch speaker here, I didn't have too much trouble understanding the old English, especially with the transcription, pretty interesting!

[@lmo2071]

That is really interesting! I understand one to two sentences in Old English in each description as a British English speaker.

[@IchliebeHunde58]

I speak English and German, and I was able to understand about 75% of what he was saying in Old English. I found it fascinating how Old English feels like a mix of High German (sprecan, dæg etc.); modern English (from, we etc.); and then spoken with what sounds to me like a Scandinavian accent haha really neat. Thank you so much for posting this kind of content…it is exactly the kind of stuff I enjoy geeking out on.

[@snopure]

"Animal" is indeed Latin, referring to things that move, like in "animated."

[@quentinbobin2549]

In deed, in modern italian, Anima means Soul, and Animale means Animal

[@hoathanatos6179]

Well Anima in Latin meant soul, heart, mind, passion, emotions, etc... and its male equivalent animus meant rationality, sensibility, consciousness. The French âme (anme in Old French) also means soul and the Romanian inimă means heart.

[@yoshikagekira5747]

so paralyzed people who can't move aren't animals?

[@IggyWhite]

Only if they fall off their wheelchairs.

[@valenesco45]

Yea, English also has many words from latin, because of the roman domination...and got the latin alphabet aswell

[@brianortiz9502]

This makes want to learn the old English

[@BETOETE]

I'm truly sad how the English tongue, NOT language (that's latin french) was almost wiped out by the Normans.

[@kvonribbenburg]

I'm Dutch and when I heard the first few sentences in Old English it reminded me of when I first heard Afrikaans.

[@vastaria1830]

Enjoying these sessions!

[@55oblivion55]

The old English word for Bird was "fogel". The current German word for Bird is "Vogel" Crazy how connected everything is/was :)

[@aaronschmidt5372]

I think the same word, etymologically speaking, has managed to stay preserved in modern English as 'fowl'.

[@blakkdeaff4460]

And the current swedish word for bird is ”fågel” (pronounced kind of like faagel)

[@capoz33]

The word in Swedish is fågel

[@gerhardrobertbieber4129]

@Srithor i agree/ meine Rede

[@user-fs5fc1vv7y]

In Danish “dyr”, which sounds alot like the old word, means “animals”. Also fugl means bird which spunses alot like fogul. They way the sentences are structured Reminds me of german

[@clevaconley2221]

Somewhat similar to Swedish too.

[@erikslots6980]

phonetically they're the same in Dutch; "dyr" would be "dier" ("dieren" plural) and fugl "vogel". the sentence structure I think is more like Dutch (and especially the second one is almost "normal" Dutch written by someone with dyslexia :)

[@nikolaytekuchev136]

Yeah, and in german it is "Tier" and "Vogel".

[@ikanhazw1n]

Older Englishes are much more obviously Germanic in syntax

[@InterFelix]

Exactly. The syntax seems very familiar to me as a German native speaker. Also, a lot of words are recognizable, but way closer to the danish ones (I know a bit of danish).

[@Correctrix]

I'm pleased that I understood everything Simon said.

[@mmneander1316]

Very nice chemistry between the participants.

[@flamingmuffin666]

Sciella - “scale”, but also sounds incredibly close to shield - if that’s the origin, then that’s an incredible example of natural language evolution of transplanted definitions to different nouns which functionally do the same thing. And makes me feel warm inside.

[@riffers]

Googling the etymology of each word shows they both come from the same root word meaning to divide or separate.

[@jof1953]

I'd say its related to 'shell'.

[@dislexyc]

I went for shield maiden because of thinking it was hair and shield

[@greeniegogo]

It actually reminds me of the scientific word cilia (usually referring to small, hair-like structures). I picked up that it was related to and contrasted to haer/hair, but didn't figure out exactly what it was.

[@deltav864]

@@riffers Hmm interesting... I was once taught that the word "shield" has it's origins in the Dutch word "schilderen" (and the Germanic equivalents) which means "to paint" and they called them that because they more often than not painted their shields.

[@DerWaidmann_]

When you know German it's so much easier to understand Old English

[@michaelgrabner8977]

Old German and Old English are very similar... There is a reason why most of the christianisation on german/austrian/swiss soil was done very often by english saxon priests/monks round about the 6th till 8th century because the language barrier was very small at that time and those clericals simply got understood besides the fact that those anglo saxon clericals were the most educated clericals of that particular time period..

[@saoirse7167]

The second one was really easy. ‘Grinder teeth’. ‘Wir essen mit...’

[@Mi_Ke27]

Exactly, if you know English and German and go with your gut feeling after hearing the words (I felt like reading them threw me off sometimes) it is somewhat understandable

[@BellambiFredRoberts]

Sounds like Icelandic + german

[@CowmanCowman]

I am now kind of wishing that I got to learn German in school instead of french.

[@audhumbla6927]

This is so much fun! Im swedish and I understand quite alot here, not all but more then the guys. So cool! Nice video.

[@kevinkgillette]

Really, really great stuff - thanks so much for posting this! As a former student of German, I found a lot of it to be intelligible, although I confess I read the verbiage as well as listening to the sounds, so that's sort of cheating.

[@pkpakshin]

Two ideas: 1. Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian speakers try to guess the Old-Slavonic language 2. Russian, Byelorussian, Ukranian and Ruthenian speakers try to guess Old Russian language

[@indoorspecies]

Great idea!

[@Pidalin]

But who can speak old slavonic?

[@edellmann3385]

@@Pidalin I am sure there are some linguists who can speak Old Slavonic. But besides this, Norbert can call people who know Church Slavonic. In Russia there are quite a lot of such people, among priests. When I was little, I went to church and there were people who could speak Church Slavonic, so I think Norbert will not be difficult to find such people.

[@polskiszlachcic3648]

But can they pronounce the nasal vowels of Old Church Slavonic?

[@LyrixTheDj]

​@@polskiszlachcic3648 , when i tried to read the Old Church Slavonic, i took some sounds from Polish, Serbian. It was difficult to pronounce reduction vowels. But it was so fun, like speedup drunk russian lang, and some names of Russians knyaz's (prince) from chronicle sounds more like Germanic then Slavic :)

[@Canguroenglish]

Thanks so much for inviting me! I had a great time and I can't wait to see part 2!

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

Mate, they need to invite you to establish contact with unknown civilizations, or with time travellers. You've even bloody got the etymology of "animal". Mad skills!

[@StaraptorEagle]

Please do more of these, they’re interesting!

[@paulcoffey1837]

I actually was right on words 2 & 3, this was really fun to play along with