history - How far back in time could I travel and still be understood?


I have seen several times on TV documentaries where the presenter is taken to something like a library archive, and shown a book which they proceed to read an excerpt from.


On a couple of occasions the camera has shown the text they were reading and generally I have thought that I would struggle to read the words because of how the letters were formed (e.g. The thorn, or long S).


This got me to wondering about how pronunciation and sentence formation may have changed over time as well, and how far back in time could I travel and still be understood while speaking my "modern" English in England (while obviously not talking about modern concepts like mobile phones or space travel)?



Answer



It largely depends on your current dialect. Regions of the English-speaking world vary in pronunciation to the point where communication can be impossible. For example, my Canadian-influenced Upstate New York dialect often goes with a lot of blank expressions in West Virginia. Even in Boston, I'm sometimes caught in a loop of both speakers asking to repeat each other.


So, adding time into the change of the language, it's not impossible to say that even one hundred years back in time would be immensely difficult, depending on where you go. Supposing you only needed to speak to one or few English speaking persons, and you had foresight on where to travel, you'd be in much better shape.


You'd probably be hard-pressed to understand anyone at first in Shakespearian times, though, unless you speak a rural dialect in England - the language we associate with Shakespeare is a highly Romanticized ideal of England that came out of the 19th century. In fact it's closer to what we might think of as an Irish accent (Check around minute 2 in this video for a comparison of Received vs Original English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-rejaoP7U)


Bear in mind that Shakespeare wrote beautifully, and everything fell into place, ultimately shaping the whole language that came after him. The commoners did not have his eloquence. Top it off with the slang of the day that never became canonized by print (there was a lot), you'd have your work cut out for you any time before, say, 1700.


Any time before the Norman Invasion, and you would be speaking an entirely foreign language.


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