Old English was more mutually understandable with Old Norse than German and Dutch are today as I recall. Northern English dialects still show the influence of Old Norse on the English they spoke not just in location names but in vocabulary and some grammar. It’s been years since I studied this in grad school, so please take it with a grain of salt.
I am conversational in Norwegian (basically Danish in written form) and fluent in English (my native language) Dutch, when you figure out the pronunciation and do a bit of mental figuring, is about 40% for me. I know the gist of what is being written (less of what is being said).
There’s a guy on YouTube who, among other things, makes language intelligibility videos. Here’s the one he did on how well German speakers can understand Old English
Interesting, knowing German and modern English makes this about as decipherable as Dutch.
Old English was more mutually understandable with Old Norse than German and Dutch are today as I recall. Northern English dialects still show the influence of Old Norse on the English they spoke not just in location names but in vocabulary and some grammar. It’s been years since I studied this in grad school, so please take it with a grain of salt.
As a Dutch person, I disagree ;)
But yeah, knowing Dutch, English and German makes this pretty understandable, right up until someone starts to speak it.
The same applies to Danish. Sorta kinda readable, impossible to understand when spoken.
@[email protected] and to you,
in archaic Dutch it’d be “Du/doe staatst voor den koning(e)”. Some dialects still use “du”. But standard would be “Je staat voor de koning”.
I am conversational in Norwegian (basically Danish in written form) and fluent in English (my native language) Dutch, when you figure out the pronunciation and do a bit of mental figuring, is about 40% for me. I know the gist of what is being written (less of what is being said).
Well, as a German I understand about as much old English as I would Dutch.
There’s a guy on YouTube who, among other things, makes language intelligibility videos. Here’s the one he did on how well German speakers can understand Old English