Can you read your language from 500 years ago?

I can mostly read. Some are a bit too cursive though

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=wC_BTrC_uNU
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjitai
justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1559/front_matter_1559.htm
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Yes.

>English
The words they used and the way they structure their sentences is both different and comical, but it's easy to understand for the most part.

>French
The French I speak is already old French, so yes.

500 years ago? no, maybe you could guess the general meaning of a passage but you wouldn't really be understanding it.

400 years ago? definitely, shakespeare is taught to even middle school students

>your

Japanese were not literate until the 500’s though.

Yes

they were not literate until after ww2 when when we brought western technologies and education there.

Yes, there's some archaic forms but it's perfectly intelligible

Yes I can read it easily. For middle french though, old french is harder

>le "québécois is older french" meme
Lmao

Yeah

Yes, I can read Swedish

500? The majority can't read shit from 100 years ago. The majority can't read properly.

Yes I can read Seminole
There are some archaic words but mostly quite easy.

菜真

Yes. About 4000 years, although that requires years of study.

English from 1517 is really messed-up. A lot of the vocabulary has different meanings, or has changed. It's actually easier for me to read old Spanish texts like Cantar de Mio Cid than older English. Here, try to make sense of this "English" poem from the 1200's:

>Svmer is icumen in
>Lhude sing cuccu
>Groweþ sed
>and bloweþ med
>and springþ þe wde nu
>Sing cuccu
>Awe bleteþ after lomb
>lhouþ after calue cu
>Bulluc sterteþ
>bucke uerteþ
>murie sing cuccu
>Cuccu cuccu
>Wel singes þu cuccu
>ne swik þu nauer nu
>Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu.
>Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu!

I'll provide a translation in the next post.

Literal translation:

>Summer is a-comin' in
>Loud sing [sing loud], cuckoo!
>Groweth, seed
>and bloweth (bloom) meadow
>and springeth the wood now [ie, leaves appear]
>Sing cuckoo
>Ewe bleateth after lamb
>Loweth after calf, cow (ie, the cow lows for its calf)
>Bullock strutteth
>Buck farteth (ie, the goat makes goofy noises)
>Merry sing cuckoo
>Cuckoo, cuckoo
>Well sings you, cuckoo
>No swick (ie, trick) us ever, now (ie, don't stop being summer)
>Sing cuckoo; sing cuckoo
>Sing cuckoo; sing cuckoo now!

Modern translation with modern grammar:

>Summer has arrived,
>Sing loudly, cuckoo!
>The seed is growing
>And the meadow is blooming,
>And the trees are growing leaves now,
>Sing, cuckoo!
>The ewe (female sheep) is bleating for her lamb,
>The cow is lowing (mooing) after her calf;
>The young bull is prancing,
>The billy-goat is being silly,
>Sing merrily, cuckoo!
>Cuckoo, cuckoo,
>You sing well, cuckoo,
>Never stop now.
>Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo;
>Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now!

If we say 1200 years ago, then fuck no. Looking at texts from that age, it more resembles pseudo-Italian (even though of course at that point it had diverged from other IE languages such as Latin long ago and had been clearly Germanic, but still)
youtube.com/watch?v=wC_BTrC_uNU

1,000 years ago, yea.

i cum in swimmer
loudly singing cuckoo
grow some balls
and blow /meds/
in spring we will walk naked
sing cuckoo
never mind the bullocks
buckle up
murican cuckolds sing cuckoo
we cuckolds sing cuckoo

about right?

>Quebecois
>The French I speak is already old French, so yes.
Hmmm.
Seriously though. Is Quebecois and Cajun French more conservative than Metropolitan French?

I can read texts in spanish from 900ad+ I can read el cid from 1200ad with no issues.

Yes.

>500years ago
easy as fuck
>2000years ago
can still recognize some

You use simplified Chinese. I doubt you can read shit from 100 years ago kek

汝倭人之愚亦甚矣,実夏蟲不可語冰也。

>being this ignorant

Sinplified only changed 5% of thr characters.

*和人

Don't you simplify a lot too? (assuming the small chance you're a bona fide Jap not some English teacher/proxy/stationed US soldier in Okinawa)

you're tribal? do you run a casino?

They how come most Japanese can't read shit in mainland China but can function in Taiwan ?

If the 5% is true, it's 5% of most used characters dummy!

Must be nice to speak an ancient language in modern times. I wish English would replace 'th' with your thorn.

>tfw no written langage till 1841
I'm just gonna say I can probably understand speaking, because the other languages in the family are fairly understandable to a degree even today

Because most Japs are dumb as rocks.

Chinese and educted Japanese communicate just fine.

Kek

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjitai
>Shinjitai (Japanese: 新字体, "new character form") are the forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese

>We

You Westerners have no idea about the scale of simplifications.

It's funny actually

Please read this picture for me

It is proof that Japan has simplified their kanji a lot. Just like China.

Lazarillo de Tormes is a Spanish novel, whose oldest known issues date back to 1554. And it is something that they make you read in the school. It's language is a little old fashioned, but it is understandable.

Sort of. Shakespeare (1600s) is mostly understandable, but earlier stuff is hard. Chaucer (1300s) is not comprehensible unless one has a particular knowledge of Middle English.

Read thisJapan has simplified its Kanji 4 times since 1868.

I can sort of understand.

I can sort of understand Beowulf in old English. Then again, I’m an English major and love older books.

The problem is that even that is simplified and written in 900ad.

おまえ、画像の文読めるの?
賢くね?古文の成績よっぽどよかったんだな

READ THIS FAGGIT

Don't lose your cool chinks!

>tfw i can read my language from 2000 years ago
HOW CAN OTHER LANGUAGE EVEN COMPETE?

English from the 1200s is completely different as the Norman influence wasn't present in the language yet.

Here is an excerpt from the 1559 Book of common prayer, which is far closer to 500 years ago than the 13th century.

> WHERE at the death of oure late Soveraigne lord King Edward the sixt, there remained one uniforme order of common service and prayer, and of the administracion of Sacramentes, Rites, and Ceremonies, in the churche of Englande, whiche was set furth in one booke entituled: The booke of common prayer, and administracion of Sacramentes, and other Rites and ceremonies in the churche of Englande, aucthorised by Act of Parliament, holden in the fift [fifth] and sixt yeres of our saied late Soueraigne lorde kyng Edward the sixte, intituled An acte for the uniformitie of Common prayer, and administracion of the Sacramentes, the which was repealed and taken away by acte of parliament, in the first yere of the raygne of our late Soveraigne Ladye Quene Marye, to the great decaye of the due honour of God, and discomfort to the professours of the trueth of Christes religion :

justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1559/front_matter_1559.htm

Yeah I can without too much difficulty

>ki
isn't that part of your modern langage sms? back to the origins.

Yeah I've seen it sometimes, mostly in poorly written French memes, like the English ones where people write "u" instead of "you" etc

500 years ago it's pretty much exactly the same.
I can easily read from 2000 years ago.
Can somewhat read from 2500 years ago.

Yes and with almost no problems at all. But reading from 1200 like El Cid Campeador is considerably harder, kinda like reading Portuguese or another closely related language.

Armenian
yes.

>American education

قِـفَـا نَـبْـكِ مِـنْ ذِكْـرَى حَـبِـيبٍ ومَنْزِلِ بِسِـقْطِ اللِّـوَى بَيــْنَ الدَّخُـول فَحَـوْمَلِ
فَـتُـوْضِـحَ فَــالمِـقْـراةِ لـمْ يَـعْـفُ رَسْمُها لِـمَـا نَـسَـجَـتْـهَـا مِـنْ جَـنُـوبٍ وشَمْـألِ
تَـرَى بَــعَــرَ الأرْآمِ فِــي عَــرَصَـاتِـهَــا وَقِـيْــعَــانِــهَــا كَــأنَّــهُ حَــبُّ فُــلْــفُــلِ
كَـــأنِّــي غَــدَاةَ الـبَــيْـنِ يَــوْمَ تَـحَـمَّـلُـوا لَـدَى سَـمُــرَاتِ الـحَـيِّ نَـاقِـفُ حَنْـظَلِ
وُقُـــوْفـاً بِـهَـا صَـحْـبِـي عَـلَّي مَـطِـيَّـهُـمُ يَــقُـوْلُـوْنَ:لاَ تَــهْـلِـكْ أَسَـىً وَتَـجَــمَّـلِ
وإِنَّ شِــــفــائِــي عَـــبْـــرَةٌ مهراقة فَــهَـلْ عِـنْدَ رَسْــمٍ دَارِسٍ مِـنْ مُعَوَّلِ؟
كَـــدَأْبِــكَ مِــنْ أُمِّ الــحُـــوَيْـرِثِ قَــبْـلَهَا وَجَـــارَتِــهَــا أُمِّ الــرَّبَــابِ بِــمَــأْسَــلِ


This is 1500 years old, and I can read it easily and understand like 90%. Arabic hasn't changed much, I even googled some Nabataean poetry 2300 years old and still can understand that shit.

I understand this, but it sound like it was written by someone with severe brain damage.

De los sos ojos tan fuertemientre lorando
tornava la cabeça i estávalos catando.
Vio puertas abiertas e uços sin cannados,
alcándaras vazías sin pielles e sin mantos
e sin falcones e sin adtores mudados.

This is Spanish from 1200. How much can Spanish speakers understand?

75%

its talking about the body parts of a type of animal.

t:american high school language education

Here's what I'm getting:

From his eyes so strongly ???
Turned his head and they were singing
Saw open doors and ??? without locks
Empty ??? without ????????
And without falcons and without moved speakers?

never mind its comparing someone to a falcon?

Todo

Lorando sounds modern, but I don't know it. I have no idea what ucos and alcandaras are.

Yeah, we actually can. Most of us have to do it for school. Its obligatory to read Cabral's letters to Portugal king about the discovery of Brasil.

Ι literally recognise all the characters.

Jokes on you

...

Uço is probably modern Spanish huzo. Alcándara is a rare word, but it does exist in modern Spanish.

I don't get the whole text, what I get is that the guy is crying as he sees some empty place.

Can't believe I didn't notice that lorando is llorando. Now it makes more sense.

Middle English is hard
Old English is more like a Norse language

shut up

don't talk to me like that outside the general

90%. Now put something in that weird language of you guys, "chileno".

yea

Ok.

No las damas, amor, no gentilezas
de caballeros canto enamorados,
ni las muestras, regalos y ternezas
de amorosos afectos y cuidados;
mas el valor, los hechos, las proezas
de aquellos españoles esforzados,
que a la cerviz de Arauco no domada
pusieron duro yugo por la espada.

Written in Chile in 1560s. How much can Spanish speakers understand?

Swedish yea, but 500 years isn't much at all lel.

>Tu skalt inga andra Gudhar haffua jemte mig.
>Tu skalt icke misbruka Harran tins Gudz nampn ty
>Herran skal icke läta honom bliffua ostraffat som hans nampn misbrukar.
>Tenck vppå Sabbaths dag at du helghar honom.
>Sex daghar skalt tu arbeta och göra alla tina gerning.
>Men på siwnde daghenom är Herran tins Gudz Sabbath
>Tå skalt tu intit arbete göra/ ey heller tin son/ ey heller tijn dotter/
>Ey heller tin tienare/ ey heller tijn tienerinna/ ey heller tin öök/
>Ey heller tin fremling som innan tins stadzport är.


yep pretty easy just looks like the author was dyslexic

Not the ladies, love, not gentleladies?
Of bachelors sing in love
Not even the ???, gifts and ???
of loving ?????
More the valor, ???, the ???
Of those strong Spaniards
No idea
Put hard ??? through the sword

>Ι literally recognise all the characters.
>Jokes on you

Apparently there was more than one written language. Also Luther's bible is around 500 years old. I can barely read it. The grammar is different and some words don't mean the same as they do today.

It's some amalgam between old French and English. It's like if you gave an old French book to an Englishman and he had to learn by himself. At least, that's how it feel to me.

For your information, 70% of kanji compounds (熟語)that are used in china now was made in Japan in the Meiji Period. Until then china didn't have even these general idea. The same goes for korea.
for example, these words are all japanese made

物質(material object)、元素(element)、分子(molecule)、引力(gravity)、主観(subjective view)、客観(object)、定義(definition)、民主主義(democracy)、共産主義(communism)、銀行(bank)、概念(concept)、唯物論(materialism)、文明(civilization)、交通(traffic)、会話(conversation)、原則(doctrine)、情報(information)、環境(circumstance)、科学(science)、etc.

Seeing miserable state of Asian countries that are colonized by European countries, Japan decided to modernized itself in a hurry,and adopted aspects of Western systems and culture items. In the process, Japan translated the main western concepts into kanj words.

Oppe nyt wanha / ia noori /
joilla ombi Sydhen toori.
Jumalan keskyt / ia mielen /
iotca taidhat Somen kielen.
Laki / se Sielun hirmutta /
mutt Cristus sen tas lodhutta.
Lue sijs hyue Lapsi teste /
Alcu oppi ilman este.
Nijte muista Elemes aina /
nin Jesus sinun Armons laina.

Yes it sounds like some dialect old people might talk

Not (about) the ladies, love or kindness
Of enamoured sirs I sing,
Nor (about) the examples, gifts or tenderness (?)
Of lovely emotions and cares,
But about the bravery, facts and deeds
Of those strong Spaniards
That to the neck of unconquered Arauco
Put a hard yoke by the sword.

Ottoman Turkish? no

Raw Turkish that was spoken by regular Turks? Yes but sadly there's not much written stuff in Raw Turkish.

Are we the only ones who can't read any medieval texts without extra training

Shakespeare takes a glossary to read. The slang terms and figures of speech are unrecognizable in modern English

I'd translate it poetically as:

De los sos ojos tan fuertemientre lorando
tornava la cabeça i estávalos catando.
Vio puertas abiertas e uços sin cannados,
alcándaras vazías sin pielles e sin mantos
e sin falcones e sin adtores mudados.

>With his eyes captured by sobs,
>Turning his head and gazing upon them

(note - I'm assuming "catando" is NOT related to "cantar," but is related to "catadura," or the look of something. So I assume this is about him looking or gazing rather than singing).

>Seeing open doorways and uços unclasped

(note - from the context, I'm assuming an "uço" is some kind of door or portal, since I'm assuming "cannado" is related to candados, or locks).

>perches empty, robeless, coatless

(note - I'm assuming "manto" is kind of like "pelaje" in this context. Maybe "perch" isn't quite right either; it seems more like he's talking about pegs or something.)

>And bereft of falcons or molting hawks

(note - I'm assuming "adtores" is an old form of "un azor," the bird of prey. I think an azor is some kind of hawk, but it probably has a more precise English term I'd have to look up).

That's the best I can do.

Are you sure not even a really smart person could read it without a glossary?

Smoke signals are easy to learn.

Then describe them. I have the original translated source. Please go right ahead and show us you knowledge.

De loh soh ojoh tan fuertemientre lorando

Most of the Korean written 500 years ago is an high class dialect of Korean in Seoul. Modern Korean dialect stemmed from the late 19th century 'transition-from-lower-class-to-middle-class' dialect in Seoul.

So, I understand a quarter of the text 500 years ago.

Yes. And much of that is simplified from middle Japanese which is based upon Chinese character pronunciation of Japonic in old Japanese during the 500’s.

I can read this fine, am I god?

You guys can’t read anything written before 1850. It is all translated.

Kind of sad.

What?
You do know they've had a thriving scholastic community, even before you fucking gaijin scum.

Not unless you already knew how the meanings of a lot of words have changed over time, even though they are spelled the same way. For example, jobs or occupations used to be called "qualities." "How shall he maintain his quality?" didn't mean "How will he stay good at something?," it meant "How will he keep his job?" There are a lot of usage-shifts like that that you would probably never catch without a guide.

...

Lies.

Everything was written in Hanja

That's why you can't read anything before 1980 lol ol

>ywn you get cucked by china first then cuck it back