Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/01/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 1/30/01 3:45 PM, Paul Chefurka at Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com wrote: > On the topic of languages evolving, a friend just gave me this wonderful > example: > "Seo sprac na gehweorfe? nawiht." > > It's in English, believe it or not. the translation to modern English reads: > "The language doesn't change nohow." It's in Old English, not Modern English. These are radically different languages. OE is really closer to Modern German than Modern English because it lacks the Norman French and the Renaissance Latinisms that are now a fundamental part of the language, plus it retains double negatives for intensification and a Germanic word order and case structure (I think). Someone who speaks better German than I can point out the similarities in the above, but the connection between that sentence and Modern English is perhaps more apparent if I translate it as: The speech not a-warps no whit! - -- Johnny Deadman http://www.pinkheadedbug.com