How does Middle English sound to you?

[Jackson]

I've only studied Middle English quite briefly in college(6th form), but find i can understand many parts of it relatively easily, as it is quite similar to modern English in many respects. How does it sound to you, and how easy or hard is it to understand for you?

[YOUTUBE]QE0MtENfOMU[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]VplHUpcukmc[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]ax6sXDxhc4s[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]6a_XncwDn9Y[/YOUTUBE]

[Graus]

Sounds a little bit Frisian and Scottish to me.

[Duke]

like when you hear dwarves in movies or videogames

[Jackson]

like when you hear dwarves in movies or videogames

INTO THE MINES!

Sounds a little bit Frisian and Scottish to me.

Yeah i can see where this is coming from. It's interesting because Frisian (or Old Frisian) is the closest relative to it's predecessor Old English, and also it seems that the (Lowland) Scots language and accent(s) best preserve what English sounded like in the Middle Ages.

[Duke]

what i noticed also, you guys pronounced letters more like us back then, then you do now

[Onur]

It sounds like something between Dutch/Flemish and Scandinavian languages.

Tough, i think the language in these videos still contains considerable Latin/French influences with the words like "departed, liquid" and more. So, i don't think this is the pure old English. In order to listen pure old English, we need to hear transliteration of original runic texts.

[Rouxinol]

Gutural, similar to Dutch, but with a Norwegian or Swedish intonation.

[Jackson]

It sounds like something between Dutch/Flemish and Scandinavian languages.

Tough, i think the language in these videos still contains Latin/French influences with the words like "departed, liquid" and more. So, i don't think this was the pure old English.

Yeah you are right, this is 250-400 years after the Norman conquest, so i don't doubt that there been a big influx of French Norman words by this time, at least among the literate people, and among people who you could consider middle and upper class by today's standards, merchants, successful tradesmen all the way up to aristocrats and monarchy.

One big difference between this and Old English is the the shift in word order (or at least according to one new professor, and a few that had expressed this idea before, was caused through a language shift to a north Germanic language prior to the Norman invasion), this change in word order and the inclusion of some Latin/French words makes it easier to understand than old English.

[Onur]

Probably this is more closer to the original English. Original text of Beauwulf;

[YOUTUBE]dYsD4DPg4ls[/YOUTUBE]

This sounds like more Scandinavian, less Flemish comparing with the videos in the first message.

Imho, the language in Beowulf is unrecognizable. This proves that Norman French influence changed English beyond recognition and created a new language.

One big difference between this and Old English is the the shift in word order (or at least according to one new professor, and a few that had expressed this idea before, was caused through a language shift to a north Germanic language prior to the Norman invasion), this change in word order and the inclusion of some Latin/French words makes it easier to understand than old English.

What was the word order of true old English? SOV?

[Smaug]

Sounds like a transition between Modern English and Olde Ænglisc, tending more towards the latter. Awesome! Sounds like every descent Germanic language should sound, and it also sounds like some language from Middle Earth