Well it’s possible to read Shakespeare without translating - I don’t know how much pronunciation has changed over time but modern English speakers could probably communicate (with varying degrees of difficulty) with any English speaker from US history that could read and write, probably even back to the first colonies. So around 500 years, give or take. I’m curious what it’s like for other countries.
I feel like there is some nuance that’s being lost here. Yes, we can read the words of Shakespeare, but most of the cultural context, and word interplay is lost on all but the most avid fans of Shakespeare.
There’s plenty of times I have been completely lost listening to a conversation between two people that are a couple decades younger than me.
I have no doubt that going back 500 years, I would recognize the words being spoken, but since languages are alive and grow/change constantly, I wouldn’t count on being able to converse with someone easily.
I definitely don’t think you could go back 500 years and talk with people as easily as you could someone today; but, in terms of being able to have basic communication, you don’t really need nuance. I’ve spoken through text with people on the other side of the world whose English is more difficult to understand than early modern English and communicated just fine, even made some real friends. While there would certainly be complexity lost trying to communicate with someone 500 years away, outside of things like complicated conceptual conversations and skilled writing like Shakespeare I really think the majority of communication would be understood well enough by both parties to talk freelyish.
Of course that’s not really including cultural stuff; I’m sure there are plenty of things they could talk about that would go completely over my head and vise versa, particularly younger people with varied slang and trends. But with how a conversation between two young people today can be absolutely baffling, yet I can communicate with them just fine in a different context, I don’t see it being much different for talking with people 500 years ago.
(also, to be clear, I’m talking mainly in regards to text since that’s the only English from 500 years ago I have experience with; I have absolutely no idea how much has changed verbally. if you happen to have any recommendations for resources on pronunciation please let me know, this conversation has me interested!)
Well it’s possible to read Shakespeare without translating - I don’t know how much pronunciation has changed over time but modern English speakers could probably communicate (with varying degrees of difficulty) with any English speaker from US history that could read and write, probably even back to the first colonies. So around 500 years, give or take. I’m curious what it’s like for other countries.
I feel like there is some nuance that’s being lost here. Yes, we can read the words of Shakespeare, but most of the cultural context, and word interplay is lost on all but the most avid fans of Shakespeare.
There’s plenty of times I have been completely lost listening to a conversation between two people that are a couple decades younger than me.
I have no doubt that going back 500 years, I would recognize the words being spoken, but since languages are alive and grow/change constantly, I wouldn’t count on being able to converse with someone easily.
I definitely don’t think you could go back 500 years and talk with people as easily as you could someone today; but, in terms of being able to have basic communication, you don’t really need nuance. I’ve spoken through text with people on the other side of the world whose English is more difficult to understand than early modern English and communicated just fine, even made some real friends. While there would certainly be complexity lost trying to communicate with someone 500 years away, outside of things like complicated conceptual conversations and skilled writing like Shakespeare I really think the majority of communication would be understood well enough by both parties to talk freelyish.
Of course that’s not really including cultural stuff; I’m sure there are plenty of things they could talk about that would go completely over my head and vise versa, particularly younger people with varied slang and trends. But with how a conversation between two young people today can be absolutely baffling, yet I can communicate with them just fine in a different context, I don’t see it being much different for talking with people 500 years ago.
(also, to be clear, I’m talking mainly in regards to text since that’s the only English from 500 years ago I have experience with; I have absolutely no idea how much has changed verbally. if you happen to have any recommendations for resources on pronunciation please let me know, this conversation has me interested!)