My only major complaint with your pronunciation is that you should've shifted the long vowels back to continental values. Otherwords, it was very nicely done..
Nice. why not try an eastern language... like bisaya, for example. there is a rift of sorts between the eastern and western dialects of the language. "He ate that there" would be "Gika'on niya kana anha" in west and "Gekaon nya kara ara" in east.
Not sure if it would be interesting to study for thine kind though.
@JimmyPi314 yes i agree, because 56 percent of modern english is derived from latin especially french, only around 30 percent of modern english is derived from old english, and a massive percentage of that has changed compared to it`s original text
@74stigma The way I see it, English is a Romance language with a lot of Germanic words. I don't often agree with language purists, but I find Old English much more beautiful and majestic than what we are usin and I wish we were speaking it instead. If only the English had won in 1066!
No English is still a Germanic language, esp for orthography and structure, not Romance. A glossary may have a lot of French-derived vocab in it but the language you speak to people at work, school is almost entirely germanic in vocab too. Look at most other Euro non-romance languages and they also have scads and scads of words from French and Latin- it's what the nobles and scholars used. Russian is still Slavic, Irish is Celtic and English Germanic despite their Latin vocab.
it's not hard to understand. you may not get 100% of the words bc they have diff meanings, but all in all, the only complicated thing about middle english is it hurts your head lol
@werewolf327 Modern English does still use the sound that thorn represented i.e the voiced and unvoiced dental fricatives. What Modern English doesn't have is the /x/ sound like in LoChness. Which in middle english was represented by spellings such as gh and ch; thus 'night' and 'knight' is not spelled 'nite' because the gh used to represent the 'ch sound' in those words, as it still does in German for instance 'knicht' and 'nacht
I originate from northern England ( Yorkshire) and find it interesting that the accent sounded far more northern English than southern English. I would be interested to know when & why this Germanic language lost its style of losing the way other Germanic languages pronounce the letter W . Was it the Norman French influence? Or is there another reason? For instance I have been told by Germans that English ( particularly southern English) is likened to speaking with a hot potato in your mouth
@malicant123 It most likely won't...at least not to the extent you probably fear. Languages change ALL the time...in 50 years alone, phrases such as "sup", "lol" and "omg" (esp. sup :P) won't be around because they won't be popular. Just like, for example, we don't say "hang loose" or "far out" anymore...:P
My teacher spent an entire class explaining the difference between early modern english and old english, because apparently they are often confused. She then went on to read many middle english poems and sounded like a viking. :) Helpful video, thanks for posting.
Very useful video. I'm currently writing two fantasy novels; one of them I wish to write in the most tradtional 'REAL' English and have considered Middle English and most definately Early Moder English which I would define as 'literate english' (since many of the words we use today make no literate sense.)
Are you pronouncing the "w" as a modern "w" or as a modern "v"? I can't quite tell, though it should certainly be as the modern "w" and not like e.g. the German variant.
How do you know that it is pronounced the way you said? I am just aking becouse i dont know. For example word naked how do we know they said it like you did? Is there certain linguistic law that define this. Mind that i am not native english but i am curious!
OK as a Proud English man I DEMAND all road signs to carry interpretations of an ancient language. ALL official documents to be translated into this ancient language NO one speaks.. Opps... sorry... Thought I was in Wales for a moment then.
You should apply for guru status, so you can have longer videos than 10 minutes. That way you won't have to rush. Very interesting by the way, thank you.
@stevesg92 There is an argument that Middle English (and later modern english) is actually an Old English/French pidgin that evolved into a Creole language. Most Creole languages have simplified grammar and structure. This may or may not be true in this case but it is a reasonable explanation.
@stevesg92 There is an argument that Middle English (and later modern english) is actually an Old English/Old Norman (Old French) pidgin that evolved into a Creole language. Most Creole languages have simplified grammar and structure. This may or may not be true in this case but it is a reasonable explanation.
this english seems better then the one we speak today. its more detailed and more clear at the same time. we should devolve english. then i get to be able to pronounce the rolling r's and the choking sounds.
I speak a German dialect that sounds a lot like this in accent, minus all the guttural sounds. Still if I didn't know English I would have no clue what that says, old English would make more sense to me.
My apologies, but I am making a presentation on Middle English for an English language studies class. I was interested in using this video in it, and am wondering if you would mind if I used this. It would serve as a great overview for the presentation- I would most certainly give credit.. A quick reply would be appreciated, and my thanks in advance.
@Mistreena Certainly you may also use it. In the course of doing so, if you can work it in smoothly, I would appreciate it if you could mention that it was made by someone who has plans for an intensive foreign language studies institute where languages and language learning skills will be taught in a special way. If enough people are pointed in the direction of my ideal institute, the idea may pick up momentum and become a reality.
@ProfASAr You make learning about languages so fascinating and interesting. I love hearing you read as well. I have never heard any other English variations spoken before I stumbled upon you channel. I am very interested in learning other languages as well, chiefly, and I have no idea why, Norwegian. I have watched your videos on Norwegian as well. I would like to know more about you ambitions with your foreign language studies institute. I think it's a pioneering first step!
What is with that sch sound???? sch and sc was just pronounced like sh in modern english. Also your accent sounds like Wormtounge from Lord of the rings. You need to open your mouth for the vowels - it sounds too nasal.
When 3 stands for a pronounced Gh, fairly obvious that Sch is spelling convention for modern Sh. English spelling changed to Norman conventions and Norman did not have the Sh sound, so there are several ways to write it -Sh, Sch, Ssh, occasionally the old A-S Sci. Capital V, small u is U, V or W.
I believe that native speakers of Spanish who endeaver to speak English with a Spanish accent have more authentic pronunciation to the way Elizabethan and King James English were spoken in their time. If you reverse the great English vowel shift, you end up with Spanish vowels. I think the pronunciation of English "thou" approximated the Spanish "tu", English "thy"-Spanish "tu" and/or "ti", English "thee"--Spanish "te" etc.
Thanks, Alexander. I'd been looking for a demonstration to answer the question how similar Ancient and Modern Greek are. I've definitely found it. I particularly appreciated your comment about the reconstructed sounds. The same is true in my field. It's more than a blind guess, but less than certain, though those who "work with with it," believe they have it right.
@lorax121323 When talking to a polyglot who mainly learns languages to be able to read them, the word "Speak" isn't very practical. You ought to define your question more carefully. In short, the answer to your actually question, I think the answer is about 10 fluently, of which only 3 or 4 near native level. In answer to the question you implied, how many can he interprete, understand, have an extremely great literary based knowledge of to almost perfection? I think 20 -40 languages.
@NatDemUK No.. lowland scots is derived from middle english mostly. Old english in southern scotland morphed along the same lines as the rest of the anglosphere, and scots language didnt appear until the early 1500s at least. The interaction between scotland and england peaked with the union of crowns, and lowland scots was the first stage of cultural devastation in scotland which resulted in the death of the true scottish language (gaelic) in most of the lowlands and partially in the highlands.
@NatDemUK I thought the Scots language is a form of Gaelic which is a Celtic language. English (old, middle and modern) is a Germanic language so they're not even related.
@dylangjones1 The Scots language is derived from a northern dialect of Middle English, not to be confused with Scots Gaelic which is an entirely different and unrelated language. If you don't believe me, then look it up
There are much more words in the middle English that come into the language from French as a result of the fall of the House of Wessex (1066) and the elevation of French by the Normans and their descendants and to a certain degree Latin by the medieval Church.
You struggle with the chi sound, it's a softer sound. you pronounce it like the dutch G, it's more like the german -ch in Ich. But no, well done, The American accent definitely disnae lend itself to middle english, but you did very well
The prof knows his stuff but he lacks a good feel for these for mideng. He uses his famous dnd voice. Where nomatter what language it is, sounds like an orc is singing to his cheiftan.
To suggest that Americans need to speak another language besides English is just...silly. Unless of course you are referring to the gradual rise of Spanish in the continental United States.
Anyways, great video ProfAsAr! Middle English pronunciations are quite fascinating when compared to Modern English. Too bad there is no video on Youtube with similar Anglo-Norman translations in audio!
Good video! Really brings the language back to life if you can hear it.
Another thing: Is it just me or does this video about Old English have nothing to do with the battle between the English and Americans ?! This video is about a language that existed before the Europeans set foot in North America, so why are you all talking about this ???!!!
I'm English and I live in America... My English teacher thought I was Australian. American English teachers can't even distinguish an accent from the country where the language they teach originated! I believe Americanisation is the biggest threat to the English language. I honestly don't understand why Americans felt the need to completely toss up our language. All Americans have done is made communication between nation more difficult by spelling everything wrong.
You crack me up! American's spell everything wrong? This series should've taught you that language is very fluid, and spelling, grammer, phonetics, etc. are in a constant state of flux. I know its the cool thing to blame the United States for everything, but language is always changing, everywhere, whether you like it or not.
The English are whiny people. I have nothing against them, but I wished they stop complaining about 'their' langauge being abuse. America is a former British colony so therefore we speak English! You can't blame us for that! Language will change because it is being USE.
Actually, the reason there is a difference in our accents is due mostly to the inception of the phonetic teaching of the English Alphabet. "Ay" for A "bee" for B etc.
An American invention that didn't exist in England before the late 1700s. The British used to send children to America to be schooled properly in English. Crazy no? The Americanization that tossed up your language was also the thing that allows it to be taught consistently today.
Actually, the reason there is a difference in our accents is due mostly to the inception of the phonetic teaching of the English Alphabet. "Ay" for A "bee" for B etc.
An American invention that didn't exist in England before the late 1700s. The British used to send children to America to be schooled properly in English. Crazy no? The Americanization that tossed up your language was also the thing that allows it to be taught consistently today.
Well I've been telling my fellow Americans we should adopt a new language. Not just so we don't butcher an existing language, but also so we can culturally independent from the Brits and stop having their corrupt government seeking to infiltrate our system.
In case you weren't aware, the British government is the most corrupt government in the whole fucking world.
They beat the Nazis, the Soviet Union, America during the Reagan Era, Iran, China, and North Korea by unmeasurable amounts.
@Tom101229 dude your crazy but a new language would be cool and i agree that it would help to give america its own unique culture rather than a bunch of people mixing their old cultures and that shit
You are clearly a very ignorant person and your ignorant comments only serve to alienate the US even further from the rest of the world. We (the brits) are one of your countries few true allies. Our 'corrupt' government has sided with your government's foreign policy in spite of it causing tensions between us and the other European powers, who, quite frankly, despise Americans. So, Id suggest that before you deride the UK you think about what you're actually saying.
You are clearly a very ignorant person and your ignorant comments only serve to alienate the US even further from the rest of the world. We (the brits) are one of your countries few true allies. Our 'corrupt' government has sided with your government's foreign policy in spite of it causing tensions between us and the other European powers, who, for the most part, despise Americans. So, Id suggest that before you deride the UK you think about what you're actually saying.
And if it was not for the unyeilding inginuity of the Brits in the first place, where the hell would America be? and where the hell would you be? The Brits are the reason why America is the way it is to this very day.
But oh no, many poeple don't want to admit that bare fact, so they cover it up.
@salsasnacker Why would change be a threat? Language has ALWAYS has been in a change. I'm sure you can speak Old English fluently, right? The language you're speaking right now was "tossed" up by years and years of influence of other languages and cultures by war and immigration. Your whole comment is a load of Sh**. Sorry, but it's true.
@salsasnacker Newsflash buddy, the dialect of English they speak in England isn't any less "tossed up" than American English is. Just tossed up differently
@jetdude101 actually: a) im not sure you should be so pompous as to say that the way americans speak is going to change english entirely. b) there are a LOT more than 25 dialects (there are at LEAST three in Ohio, where I live) c) slang isn't ppl being dumb it's natural language GROWTH d) the texting thing is negligible e) what it has in vocabulary it lacks in grammatical difficulty, and complexity not necessarily bad f) the swearing is the same as always it now holds a diff place in society
Agreed about overdoing the voiced glottal fricatives (?? might be wrong - long time since I did phonetics), also wouldn't the vowels be shifted, i.e. for "him" read "heem", for "to" read "toe", etc? I could be totally wrong.
Not scary, exciting! it doesn't matter to me what direction the evolution of English is going, as long as it DOES evolve, whatever the changes will be they will be perfectly natural as much as any other change that has taken place thus far. Think of it, the chance to study the evolution of language directly!.
Just a tangent, but I read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" my freshman year of college and really enjoyed it. (In modern English of course) My English prof. at the time read some of it to us in it's original 'middle' English and we all thought she was speaking in 'elvish'. (Yes, we were all pretty much LOTR geeks)
You're definitely over exaggerating the pronunciation of yogh. It makes it sound much worse. Listen to some modern German for a better idea of a less over done pronunciation of the velar fricative [x] and its allophones.
Thank you very much for this video. I'm reading Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer in Middle English, have also read Beowulf (parts of it in the original Anglo-Saxon). Specially, your pronunciation of the words was very helpful.
It would be great if you did a similar reading of the Prologue to Beowulf. Thanks again, Cheers!
i agree....a word of advice, ProfASAr: Listen to some audio clips of people speaking German. I think the "ch" sound is similar to your "fleghm" sound, and, as you will hear, is not nearly as exaggerated or strained as you interpret it.
Overall, however, your video is amazing and quite interesting. : )
My only major complaint with your pronunciation is that you should've shifted the long vowels back to continental values. Otherwords, it was very nicely done..
planetes1973 4 days ago
Is this how cough drops got invented?
abcmikke 2 weeks ago
i bet he is an awesome teacher, he really wants people to know this stuff. I am highly interested now.
moomoochacoo 2 weeks ago
@rbthelanguageguy well I would think english would have pronounced the a always as the o as modern spanish and romance language do
ANARCHYGOD2012 3 weeks ago
Nice. why not try an eastern language... like bisaya, for example. there is a rift of sorts between the eastern and western dialects of the language. "He ate that there" would be "Gika'on niya kana anha" in west and "Gekaon nya kara ara" in east.
Not sure if it would be interesting to study for thine kind though.
GarF1eId 1 month ago
It does look like foreign language to me. I think I can read french better than this text (and I'm not that good at french).
JimmyPi314 3 months ago
@JimmyPi314 yes i agree, because 56 percent of modern english is derived from latin especially french, only around 30 percent of modern english is derived from old english, and a massive percentage of that has changed compared to it`s original text
74stigma 1 month ago
@74stigma The way I see it, English is a Romance language with a lot of Germanic words. I don't often agree with language purists, but I find Old English much more beautiful and majestic than what we are usin and I wish we were speaking it instead. If only the English had won in 1066!
SubjectAlpha100 3 weeks ago
@SubjectAlpha100
No English is still a Germanic language, esp for orthography and structure, not Romance. A glossary may have a lot of French-derived vocab in it but the language you speak to people at work, school is almost entirely germanic in vocab too. Look at most other Euro non-romance languages and they also have scads and scads of words from French and Latin- it's what the nobles and scholars used. Russian is still Slavic, Irish is Celtic and English Germanic despite their Latin vocab.
ChuckyJJCthulhu 1 week ago
do you have to make that hacking noise when you speak middle english?
ThomasRowsell 3 months ago
I didnt realise Pat Sharp had been around so long ha ha
baceace 3 months ago
You know, the "ȝ" sound as in knyȝt is pronounced just like in Modern English?
DarthPetrit 4 months ago
I feel like I should understand this.
yummypieProductions 5 months ago
when he reads it it sounds sexxy
qounqer 5 months ago 2
thanks for putting this up. i really like how u try and help us :)
Rachulie 5 months ago
it's not hard to understand. you may not get 100% of the words bc they have diff meanings, but all in all, the only complicated thing about middle english is it hurts your head lol
Rachulie 5 months ago
@BladesPro Not really. We don't use that sound in modern English.
werewolf327 5 months ago
Is it hard to learn as a native english speaker?
leshark 5 months ago
@leshark no just more like reading a poem - you need to concentrate more and make yourself understand by through the the metaphor-like grammar
nesqualomimocho 3 months ago
@werewolf327 Modern English does still use the sound that thorn represented i.e the voiced and unvoiced dental fricatives. What Modern English doesn't have is the /x/ sound like in LoChness. Which in middle english was represented by spellings such as gh and ch; thus 'night' and 'knight' is not spelled 'nite' because the gh used to represent the 'ch sound' in those words, as it still does in German for instance 'knicht' and 'nacht
GodOfUnbelief 5 months ago
@GodOfUnbelief
It survived in the Scots language, mind you.
MarvellousMuffin 3 months ago
Try to scream "schalk schyndered"..XD
Herik77 6 months ago 3
I originate from northern England ( Yorkshire) and find it interesting that the accent sounded far more northern English than southern English. I would be interested to know when & why this Germanic language lost its style of losing the way other Germanic languages pronounce the letter W . Was it the Norman French influence? Or is there another reason? For instance I have been told by Germans that English ( particularly southern English) is likened to speaking with a hot potato in your mouth
ALBIONTYKE 7 months ago
Any living language is in a state of continual change; if it's not, it means the language is either very rare or no longer alive.
211Anon 7 months ago
oh wow old english and middle english both sound a lot like german but modern english doesnt
FredTF2 7 months ago
Wow, English sounded even uglier back than then it does now.
zOMGLaserGunzPewPew 7 months ago
did everyone speak english so sinisterly 600 years ago?
VideoFreeMichael 8 months ago
@VideoFreeMichael Sinister? Could you clarify?
JohnMatrix89 7 months ago
I wonder what English will look/sound like in 500 years. I dread to think that all the internet colloquialisms will infect it :(
malicant123 9 months ago 3
@malicant123 It will :( English in 500 years: OMG SUP LOL!
tontsa911 9 months ago
@malicant123 It most likely won't...at least not to the extent you probably fear. Languages change ALL the time...in 50 years alone, phrases such as "sup", "lol" and "omg" (esp. sup :P) won't be around because they won't be popular. Just like, for example, we don't say "hang loose" or "far out" anymore...:P
italianoperamask 8 months ago
@malicant123 I rly h0pe not. b cuz tht wud b 2 dumb 2 take...
ToBeFedVideos 5 months ago
My teacher spent an entire class explaining the difference between early modern english and old english, because apparently they are often confused. She then went on to read many middle english poems and sounded like a viking. :) Helpful video, thanks for posting.
kira25queenkid 9 months ago
@kira25queenkid Yes, they are often confused.
yurismir1 7 months ago
*lol* This is closer to modern German than to English.
HesseJamez 9 months ago
does that ch/kh happen in any other Germanic languages
xXDominoXx 9 months ago
@xXDominoXx
the german "ch"-noise is also used in Dutch and Yiddish and many other non-germanic languages like Greek, Arabic, Irish or Russian.
HesseJamez 9 months ago
I wonder if you can learn to speak this still? That would be awesome if people still used old or middle english.
E3Harrison 9 months ago
Very useful video. I'm currently writing two fantasy novels; one of them I wish to write in the most tradtional 'REAL' English and have considered Middle English and most definately Early Moder English which I would define as 'literate english' (since many of the words we use today make no literate sense.)
Any1 have any suggestions of which I should use?
MrSweatyDrummer 9 months ago
Why does old English (Not Old English with a capital O) sound so much better than modern English?
MegaRabbitPower 9 months ago
@MegaRabbitPower
I blame the Frænch LOL - French speaking Norman aristocrats finally having to learn E and getting their
vowels all wrong - aka, the Great Vowel Shift ;o)
Bjowolf2 9 months ago
This sounds like Scots.
Crazygreeklad 10 months ago
Are you pronouncing the "w" as a modern "w" or as a modern "v"? I can't quite tell, though it should certainly be as the modern "w" and not like e.g. the German variant.
ALG1804 10 months ago
it kinda sounds arabic in some way...
allxtar 10 months ago
That sounds like someone threw German and Gaelic in a pot and made Gaeman...
buddy767 10 months ago 2
What happened to the semantic shift chart that was mentioned early on in the video? I was looking forward to that.
Lym0re 11 months ago
How do you know that it is pronounced the way you said? I am just aking becouse i dont know. For example word naked how do we know they said it like you did? Is there certain linguistic law that define this. Mind that i am not native english but i am curious!
Voodoozeko 11 months ago
OK as a Proud English man I DEMAND all road signs to carry interpretations of an ancient language. ALL official documents to be translated into this ancient language NO one speaks.. Opps... sorry... Thought I was in Wales for a moment then.
oscarfish38 11 months ago 2
which lines of sir gawain and the green knight are read here?
Naayu 11 months ago
which lines are read from gawain and the green knight?
Naayu 11 months ago
sounds scottish haha
steffxdarling123 11 months ago
@FreeThinkify Damn germanic peoples. Screwing indoeuropean protolanguage like that...
Lardawan 1 year ago
That totally sounds like Michelle from Gilmore Girls...
Lardawan 1 year ago
so.. is the english we speak today even a language?... or just a cluster of different languages?
buddy767 1 year ago
@buddy767 Some scholars indeed do consider english to be hybrid (like Yiddish for example) language rather than germanic...
Lardawan 1 year ago
You should apply for guru status, so you can have longer videos than 10 minutes. That way you won't have to rush. Very interesting by the way, thank you.
Sublue 1 year ago
This is amazing what youre doing, all the comparison! This is also my secret passion. BTW What caught my eyes are all the 'naked' ^^
hanukikanker 1 year ago
This is really cool...
alicesnowchan 1 year ago
excellent. very informative
diraf777 1 year ago
So why was/is English so simplified?
stevesg92 1 year ago
@stevesg92 There is an argument that Middle English (and later modern english) is actually an Old English/French pidgin that evolved into a Creole language. Most Creole languages have simplified grammar and structure. This may or may not be true in this case but it is a reasonable explanation.
planetes1973 1 year ago
@stevesg92 There is an argument that Middle English (and later modern english) is actually an Old English/Old Norman (Old French) pidgin that evolved into a Creole language. Most Creole languages have simplified grammar and structure. This may or may not be true in this case but it is a reasonable explanation.
planetes1973 1 year ago
Thank you for all your work
12thSTARvideo 1 year ago
Why is it when I hear modern Anglophones attempting to pronounce Anglo-Saxon or Middle English they adopt a Scottish accent?
cristobalito66 1 year ago
It sounds a bit like Geordie English, probably because Newcastle is so isolated and had more of a viking influence.
Prof have you ever done a video on different varieties of English?
Coffeecrab 1 year ago 2
this english seems better then the one we speak today. its more detailed and more clear at the same time. we should devolve english. then i get to be able to pronounce the rolling r's and the choking sounds.
theapocilip 1 year ago
@theapocilip Yeah and the letter thorn (Þ) would be really useful to have aswell, shorter than writing 'th' for everything.
thundernuts0 1 year ago
@thundernuts0
If you select an Icelandic setting for your keyboard, you can have both eth and thorn -
as well as "æ", whcih we still use her in Denmark ( + Norway, Faroe Islands and Iceland )
Bjowolf2 9 months ago
i actually understood part of that before you read it in Modern English,but only the part about the Green Knight getting hi head cut off with an axe.
Banshee617 1 year ago
I speak a German dialect that sounds a lot like this in accent, minus all the guttural sounds. Still if I didn't know English I would have no clue what that says, old English would make more sense to me.
HojoOSanagi 1 year ago
If a time machine is invented and I decided to travel back then, you're coming with me.
FrostedLane 1 year ago
Sir Gawain is really a good read, the middle english though it is a bit hard :/
noxnocturne 1 year ago
This is how people from Lancashire, England talk normally
TehCacti 1 year ago 2
My apologies, but I am making a presentation on Middle English for an English language studies class. I was interested in using this video in it, and am wondering if you would mind if I used this. It would serve as a great overview for the presentation- I would most certainly give credit.. A quick reply would be appreciated, and my thanks in advance.
MeaganHasGotFinesse 1 year ago 12
@MeaganHasGotFinesse Certainly you may use it.
ProfASAr 1 year ago 20
@ProfASAr
I may also use this for a presentation in my History of the English Language class, if that is alright.
Thank you for posting this!
Mistreena 1 year ago 7
@Mistreena Certainly you may also use it. In the course of doing so, if you can work it in smoothly, I would appreciate it if you could mention that it was made by someone who has plans for an intensive foreign language studies institute where languages and language learning skills will be taught in a special way. If enough people are pointed in the direction of my ideal institute, the idea may pick up momentum and become a reality.
ProfASAr 1 year ago 27
@ProfASAr You make learning about languages so fascinating and interesting. I love hearing you read as well. I have never heard any other English variations spoken before I stumbled upon you channel. I am very interested in learning other languages as well, chiefly, and I have no idea why, Norwegian. I have watched your videos on Norwegian as well. I would like to know more about you ambitions with your foreign language studies institute. I think it's a pioneering first step!
RobNike76 9 months ago
What is with that sch sound???? sch and sc was just pronounced like sh in modern english. Also your accent sounds like Wormtounge from Lord of the rings. You need to open your mouth for the vowels - it sounds too nasal.
billps34 1 year ago
for some reason it sounds scottish or something
AFNYOAQIS 1 year ago
When 3 stands for a pronounced Gh, fairly obvious that Sch is spelling convention for modern Sh. English spelling changed to Norman conventions and Norman did not have the Sh sound, so there are several ways to write it -Sh, Sch, Ssh, occasionally the old A-S Sci. Capital V, small u is U, V or W.
Saiaton 1 year ago
:( My Hw
defender55 1 year ago
That's interesting. Thanks, dude.
toshkozfree 1 year ago
I can see a little German in this in these...
HerrSpieldose 1 year ago
Your videos are wonderful!
DemonFoxDeity 1 year ago
I believe that native speakers of Spanish who endeaver to speak English with a Spanish accent have more authentic pronunciation to the way Elizabethan and King James English were spoken in their time. If you reverse the great English vowel shift, you end up with Spanish vowels. I think the pronunciation of English "thou" approximated the Spanish "tu", English "thy"-Spanish "tu" and/or "ti", English "thee"--Spanish "te" etc.
rbthelanguageguy 1 year ago
@rbthelanguageguy endeavour
or endeavor
seanoo123 1 year ago
@ChaosDynamics which would be early modern english
seanoo123 1 year ago
The pronunciation sounds scandinavian.
MrGooseberries 1 year ago
Comment removed
NewYorkFlavour 1 year ago
Thanks, Alexander. I'd been looking for a demonstration to answer the question how similar Ancient and Modern Greek are. I've definitely found it. I particularly appreciated your comment about the reconstructed sounds. The same is true in my field. It's more than a blind guess, but less than certain, though those who "work with with it," believe they have it right.
dagrote 1 year ago
Hi, just a quick question. Where do you get all these texts with all their original letterings and with accents.
neipsters123 1 year ago
How do you know all of these languages? What is your profession? What do you do for a living?
TheSexymonkey567 1 year ago
I am english, for me this is a foreign langauage. I can understand spanish and italian easier than this
joy2559 1 year ago
Comment removed
jjay75 1 year ago
@jjay75 No, I most certainly am not conversational in 58 languages!
ProfASAr 1 year ago
@ProfASAr Well thats reassuring, still amazing stuff on your channel :)
jjay75 1 year ago
@ProfASAr How many languages do you speak?
lorax121323 1 year ago
@lorax121323 When talking to a polyglot who mainly learns languages to be able to read them, the word "Speak" isn't very practical. You ought to define your question more carefully. In short, the answer to your actually question, I think the answer is about 10 fluently, of which only 3 or 4 near native level. In answer to the question you implied, how many can he interprete, understand, have an extremely great literary based knowledge of to almost perfection? I think 20 -40 languages.
Olekander 1 year ago
@lorax121323
que? :-)
Bjowolf2 9 months ago
Ever heard of the Scots language? That is derived from the Old English language.
NatDemUK 1 year ago
@NatDemUK No.. lowland scots is derived from middle english mostly. Old english in southern scotland morphed along the same lines as the rest of the anglosphere, and scots language didnt appear until the early 1500s at least. The interaction between scotland and england peaked with the union of crowns, and lowland scots was the first stage of cultural devastation in scotland which resulted in the death of the true scottish language (gaelic) in most of the lowlands and partially in the highlands.
Pawnbroker00 1 year ago
@NatDemUK I thought the Scots language is a form of Gaelic which is a Celtic language. English (old, middle and modern) is a Germanic language so they're not even related.
dylangjones1 1 year ago
@dylangjones1 The Scots language is derived from a northern dialect of Middle English, not to be confused with Scots Gaelic which is an entirely different and unrelated language. If you don't believe me, then look it up
DLBBAM 1 year ago 2
Sound like a scotsman tbh
Strangething90 1 year ago
LMAO im glad english didnt keep those proto germanic sounds
JaimeraiJomaar 1 year ago 2
There are much more words in the middle English that come into the language from French as a result of the fall of the House of Wessex (1066) and the elevation of French by the Normans and their descendants and to a certain degree Latin by the medieval Church.
philsaspiezone 1 year ago
Brilliant show last night, I just had to watch it again online at lastnightstvshows (.) com
momentousnation 1 year ago
I really like you reading that. Sounds really good.
WaterFor3st 1 year ago
I think this sounds a little bit like Frisian.
Sonttuu 1 year ago
@Sonttuu you are right Frisian and middle English are almost the same
smskinner1001 1 year ago
I like your speaking! Your voice is great as well!!!
Aueen 1 year ago
Screw being persnickety those who complain.
drewskione 1 year ago
You struggle with the chi sound, it's a softer sound. you pronounce it like the dutch G, it's more like the german -ch in Ich. But no, well done, The American accent definitely disnae lend itself to middle english, but you did very well
Grayseff 1 year ago 2
Is it normal for me to understand it? o.o I think I can get the jest of it...
ZodiacDream101 1 year ago
That's because anyone who speaks modern English can easily understand most of this.
Gheydolf 1 year ago
Lmao honestly i love this , i want to learn how to speak many forms of english as well as also some root languages, like Latin, and Mandrin...
5DragonProduction 1 year ago
I think it sounds like Dutch myself...
BGManofID 1 year ago
This sounds like Saruman casting a spell of doom.
LaughingMage 1 year ago
That is the ugliest sounding language! The Old English was very smooth, this one is vile.
matt3sd 1 year ago
I know! Uh. . .
Melvyn Bragg Does a reading of late middle english, it sounds BEAUTIFUL!!!!
It sounds very much like swedish, but with some french words
Christieaux 1 year ago
Yup... sounds a lot like Dutch...
DrCorvinus 1 year ago 2
The prof knows his stuff but he lacks a good feel for these for mideng. He uses his famous dnd voice. Where nomatter what language it is, sounds like an orc is singing to his cheiftan.
MikDonsen 1 year ago 17
To suggest that Americans need to speak another language besides English is just...silly. Unless of course you are referring to the gradual rise of Spanish in the continental United States.
Anyways, great video ProfAsAr! Middle English pronunciations are quite fascinating when compared to Modern English. Too bad there is no video on Youtube with similar Anglo-Norman translations in audio!
EricMetalGuitarist 2 years ago
Good video! Really brings the language back to life if you can hear it.
Another thing: Is it just me or does this video about Old English have nothing to do with the battle between the English and Americans ?! This video is about a language that existed before the Europeans set foot in North America, so why are you all talking about this ???!!!
GGittaa 2 years ago 2
Very interesting stuff
unhooked25 2 years ago
Sounds Irish!! How cool!
sharpspike06 2 years ago
En ither wirds ee pet ee's naper oan eih grunn!!
kintakintyea 2 years ago
wow i can only grieve what my beloved language is going to be twister into next
americanisation
globalisation (theres 25 world wide dialects)
slang ( dumbass rappers raping language )
texting (c U l8er U m0ron)
complexity ( english has 5 times more words than is 1600)
bad tongue ( theres alot more swearing in today)
jetdude101 2 years ago
I'm English and I live in America... My English teacher thought I was Australian. American English teachers can't even distinguish an accent from the country where the language they teach originated! I believe Americanisation is the biggest threat to the English language. I honestly don't understand why Americans felt the need to completely toss up our language. All Americans have done is made communication between nation more difficult by spelling everything wrong.
salsasnacker 2 years ago
In what way do you believe English has been tossed up?
inkstersco 2 years ago
@inkstersco
You crack me up! American's spell everything wrong? This series should've taught you that language is very fluid, and spelling, grammer, phonetics, etc. are in a constant state of flux. I know its the cool thing to blame the United States for everything, but language is always changing, everywhere, whether you like it or not.
TheHistoryinMotion 2 years ago 21
The English are whiny people. I have nothing against them, but I wished they stop complaining about 'their' langauge being abuse. America is a former British colony so therefore we speak English! You can't blame us for that! Language will change because it is being USE.
flyonthewall37 2 years ago
Well, at least they can spell "color" and "honor" correctly ;-)
( according to their Latin roots )
Bjowolf2 2 years ago
@TheHistoryinMotion.Grammar surely?
bbcisrubbish 1 year ago
@TheHistoryinMotion
There is no apostrophe in "Americans". There is an apostrophe in it's "I know it's the cool thing". You spelled grammar incorrectly.
kdsf12 1 year ago
@inkstersco oops, that was meant for the comment above.
TheHistoryinMotion 2 years ago
Actually, the reason there is a difference in our accents is due mostly to the inception of the phonetic teaching of the English Alphabet. "Ay" for A "bee" for B etc.
An American invention that didn't exist in England before the late 1700s. The British used to send children to America to be schooled properly in English. Crazy no? The Americanization that tossed up your language was also the thing that allows it to be taught consistently today.
P.S.: Your teacher is a first class nit-wit.
iwhisperwolf 2 years ago
Actually, the reason there is a difference in our accents is due mostly to the inception of the phonetic teaching of the English Alphabet. "Ay" for A "bee" for B etc.
An American invention that didn't exist in England before the late 1700s. The British used to send children to America to be schooled properly in English. Crazy no? The Americanization that tossed up your language was also the thing that allows it to be taught consistently today.
P.S.: Your teacher is a first class nit-wit.
iwhisperwolf 2 years ago
Well I've been telling my fellow Americans we should adopt a new language. Not just so we don't butcher an existing language, but also so we can culturally independent from the Brits and stop having their corrupt government seeking to infiltrate our system.
In case you weren't aware, the British government is the most corrupt government in the whole fucking world.
They beat the Nazis, the Soviet Union, America during the Reagan Era, Iran, China, and North Korea by unmeasurable amounts.
Tom101229 2 years ago
@Tom101229 dude your crazy but a new language would be cool and i agree that it would help to give america its own unique culture rather than a bunch of people mixing their old cultures and that shit
harrysunb 2 years ago
You are clearly a very ignorant person and your ignorant comments only serve to alienate the US even further from the rest of the world. We (the brits) are one of your countries few true allies. Our 'corrupt' government has sided with your government's foreign policy in spite of it causing tensions between us and the other European powers, who, quite frankly, despise Americans. So, Id suggest that before you deride the UK you think about what you're actually saying.
glwq237 2 years ago 3
You are clearly a very ignorant person and your ignorant comments only serve to alienate the US even further from the rest of the world. We (the brits) are one of your countries few true allies. Our 'corrupt' government has sided with your government's foreign policy in spite of it causing tensions between us and the other European powers, who, for the most part, despise Americans. So, Id suggest that before you deride the UK you think about what you're actually saying.
glwq237 2 years ago
proof?
JonnyJ125 2 years ago
And if it was not for the unyeilding inginuity of the Brits in the first place, where the hell would America be? and where the hell would you be? The Brits are the reason why America is the way it is to this very day.
But oh no, many poeple don't want to admit that bare fact, so they cover it up.
unhooked25 2 years ago
couldn't agree more, salsa.
UltimateVenom 2 years ago
@salsasnacker Why would change be a threat? Language has ALWAYS has been in a change. I'm sure you can speak Old English fluently, right? The language you're speaking right now was "tossed" up by years and years of influence of other languages and cultures by war and immigration. Your whole comment is a load of Sh**. Sorry, but it's true.
Jirkenz131 1 year ago 2
@salsasnacker Newsflash buddy, the dialect of English they speak in England isn't any less "tossed up" than American English is. Just tossed up differently
BroadwayRonMexico 1 year ago 2
@jetdude101 actually: a) im not sure you should be so pompous as to say that the way americans speak is going to change english entirely. b) there are a LOT more than 25 dialects (there are at LEAST three in Ohio, where I live) c) slang isn't ppl being dumb it's natural language GROWTH d) the texting thing is negligible e) what it has in vocabulary it lacks in grammatical difficulty, and complexity not necessarily bad f) the swearing is the same as always it now holds a diff place in society
mrlanguageguy 2 years ago
middle english kinda sounds like scots. i guess thats buecause the great vowel shift is less prominent in scots
sharkmen007 2 years ago 3
Wonderful! Thank you!
jlmatterer2 2 years ago
So, the sounds or phonemes are just a guess of how they would have sounded?
I always wondered how professors know how to pronounce the words when there's no recorded sounds to imitate them.
atilaship 2 years ago
the last lines are really a tongue twister
hxasmirl 2 years ago
This is so cool.
wokabomb 2 years ago
Agreed about overdoing the voiced glottal fricatives (?? might be wrong - long time since I did phonetics), also wouldn't the vowels be shifted, i.e. for "him" read "heem", for "to" read "toe", etc? I could be totally wrong.
pidgin 2 years ago
Alexander. I dig your thoroughness. You teach well. Thank you.
TruthAxe 2 years ago
Not scary, exciting! it doesn't matter to me what direction the evolution of English is going, as long as it DOES evolve, whatever the changes will be they will be perfectly natural as much as any other change that has taken place thus far. Think of it, the chance to study the evolution of language directly!.
elvisheepofdoom 2 years ago
all the middle english readings sound like a cross of irish and jamaican. this one is a little less so,,,,with his KCHKHC sounds
creamyfilling102 2 years ago
Just a tangent, but I read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" my freshman year of college and really enjoyed it. (In modern English of course) My English prof. at the time read some of it to us in it's original 'middle' English and we all thought she was speaking in 'elvish'. (Yes, we were all pretty much LOTR geeks)
magikalme 2 years ago
You're definitely over exaggerating the pronunciation of yogh. It makes it sound much worse. Listen to some modern German for a better idea of a less over done pronunciation of the velar fricative [x] and its allophones.
westchester93301 2 years ago
My deliberately trite definition of English:
"Badly spelled and pronounced Dutch ... except when it's badly spelled and pronounced French!"
:D
lenarends 2 years ago
When I saw this link I thought it said 'Modern English'. And I was thinking 'Gee, I wonder what Modern English is like...'
Freshbott2 2 years ago
Barbaric picaresque language.
PrincessShittyBottom 2 years ago
Those must be really bad dictionaries. You should stick with Oxford English. ;)
jmichaelrout 2 years ago
Thank you very much for this video. I'm reading Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer in Middle English, have also read Beowulf (parts of it in the original Anglo-Saxon). Specially, your pronunciation of the words was very helpful.
It would be great if you did a similar reading of the Prologue to Beowulf. Thanks again, Cheers!
GeatishBeowulf 2 years ago
Thanks for another fascinating video - I only wish it could have been longer.
017524062 2 years ago
The reading is absolutely beautiful!
VictoryCough 2 years ago 25
Your flemmy noises don't sound very good. You're over exaggerating it and it sounds weird.
Freshbott2 2 years ago 25
i agree....a word of advice, ProfASAr: Listen to some audio clips of people speaking German. I think the "ch" sound is similar to your "fleghm" sound, and, as you will hear, is not nearly as exaggerated or strained as you interpret it.
Overall, however, your video is amazing and quite interesting. : )
thescribe13 2 years ago
@Freshbott2 I agree. I don't think that it would have sounded as harsh. Maybe like the Geman ch ligature.
twilightFAN26492 1 year ago