You know the form of language, too, can change.
Within a thousand years, even the words
that were most precious then, seem strange
and foolish to us; yet they spoke them so
and did no worse in love than we now do.
You know the form of language, too, can change.
Within a thousand years, even the words
that were most precious then, seem strange
and foolish to us; yet they spoke them so
and did no worse in love than we now do.
Afaiu Chaucer wrote in vernacular English, which at the time still had many Germanic words that were replaced by Anglo-Norman vocabulary in more highbrow arts and politics. The fully Germanic Old English is nearly completely incomprehensible to a modern reader, though that includes changes in grammar as well as further changes in vocabulary.
You’d think that would make it easier on me, a German, but I happen to know that the Germanic of Old English is based on the languages of the old saxons and angles, which are the ancestor of today’s Low German which I don’t understand, either lol