--- On Fri, 12/19/08, Eugen Leitl <[email protected]> wrote: > > >(As Aelfric's Colloquy put it, back in the > 10th century, "Wé cildra > > >biddaþ þé, éalá láréow, > > >þæt þú taéce ús sprecan rihte, forþám > ungelaérede wé sindon, and > > gewæmmodlíce we sprecaþ," > > Hmm, I can kinda understand that.
Since you speak both German and English fluently, this is not surprising. It's Old English, which at that point was definitely a Germanic language. I suspect that if you heard it spoken today, you'd be able to grasp the flow of the conversation pretty quickly. Actually, when spoken aloud, a lot of the words sound similar to the modern equivalents to be understandable: We, children, thee, that, thou, teach, us, right, for, unlearned... cheers, Divya
