Are you sure you speak English?

zwiebel

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At the link is a recording of a modern-day linguist reading a 500-year-old, funny poem about a parrot. It's in English but a person would hardly recognize the language. If you understand a little Latin, French or German it might help...or not. Perhaps that's why it's called 'Speke Parrot'.

I've tried it looking at the subtitles and with my eyes closed and have concluded that if that's English, I don't speak it!

Have a try, see if you can understand 500-year-old spoken English/AKA Speke Parrot. Anyone who comes up with a translation gets a gold star! And no, I don't know how they've figured out the pronunciation.

http://i100.independent.co.uk/artic...guage-sounded-like-500-years-ago--b1leV6aXmLg
 
Zwiebel extra thanks for this. I've actually been following surveys done at Penn and other places that explain how accents change.

Interesting is how they found women who have gone to private Catholic High schools are more apt to change it. Also how signing in American Sign Language changes with it.

Sorry to derail, but it is fascinating. Youse all have a good one. I'm gonna check on the Iggles stats and have a glass of wudder.
 
It sounds like more of a Scottish or Welsh accent - not a sniff of English english intonation!
I found this article that mentions the video was created by Dutch university students who asked their professor of Medieval English to read it for the video “…Sobecki, who says a huge body of research makes it possible to recreate the sounds with relative accuracy.” I guess this is what our English ancestors probably sounded like 500 years ago!


#BBCtrending: The 500-year-old poem that captivated Reddit
 

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