Can Germans understand Old English? | Language Challenge | Part 2 | Feat. @simonroper9218

This is a continuation of our Old English language challenge. We're trying to find out if German speakers can understand Old English. As usual big thanks to @simonroper9218 for coming back to the channel and sharing his Old English expertise with us all. Check out his channel if you want to learn more about historic linguistics.

In this episode of the Germanic languages comparison series we focus on understanding mostly the spoken language.

🤗 Big thanks to:

🏋️‍♀️ Support my Work:
My name is Norbert Wierzbicki and I am the creator of @Ecolinguist channel. You can support my work by volunteering to participate in the future videos or donating to the project.

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🤗 Big hug for everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻

#languagechallenge

[amancalledjim]

Never felt so foreign as an English speaker listening to old English.

[fablb]

As a french speaker I understand 0% of old english

[ricoelbomba]

As a german native speaker i can say i 100% unterstand german

[JesseTate]

May I just say, they all acted extremely German in the most delightful way

[liverturcxdanpavs]

As a Dutchman I had trouble with understanding by sound alone but reading it I can translate it correctly up to a 100%.

[claudioristagno]

For me as a former linguistics student who speaks English, German and Dutch it was so interesting

[nigethesassenach]

I’m English but I also speak a little German. I managed to understand the odd word here and there but always from my knowledge of German not modern English.
I’m glad you had a Frisian speaker on your panel, very enlightening, along with the Danish input.

[antjea.]

Did I just witness a well-moderated healthy conversation and learning experience online?
Wow!
Thanks, YouTube automatism;
Thanks, Ecolinguist&Co!

[fractal_gate]

This guy has now, for better or worse, become the face of an Old English native in my mind. If I travel back in time, I expect all the people there to look like him.

[Patrickbatemanharvard]

When Germans and Dutch can understand it better than native speakers 😁😁

[gothia]

German also evolved away from its roots alot which makes this quite hard. Erik here who can speak frisian which hasnt changed as much as german understands old english quite well.
But its really fascinating. Im a native german speaker too and i understand a few words in between.

[ihsahnakerfeldt]

Wow those remarks by Moritz about the "goose"/"Gans" phenomenon and the fact that sand in Danish means truth and the way he connected all of this to the old English word were amazing.

[juwen]

Hey Norbert, you should try this with one english speaker, one dutch speaker, one low german speaker and maybe one norwegian speaker. That would be very interesting, cause maybe we could see the steps of changing.
Btw you have a great chanel! Very enjoyable to learn about the relationship between these 4 languages.
Greetings from Berlin 😎

[HiddenXTube]

As a speaker of German, English and Wesphalian Plattdütsch I really like these challenges.

[ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR]

I absolutely love these language nerds they are keeping the old languages alive 👍😃

[XD-crdu]

I'm suprised that as a Dutch person it's actualy quite easy to guess what is meant with old English in most cases.

[sarahkaroline]

I studied modern and old Germanic languages a long time ago. Old English wasn't a module offered, so I'm particularly happy when this comes up. Thank you to Simon for sharing his knowledge and interest! On the subject of "soþlice" possibly being related to Danish "sand" (truthful) - Norwegian and Swedish "sann", I also thought it might be related to English "sooth" as in "sooth-sayer". I looked up the etymology of "sann" in the Swedish etymological dictioary (SAOB: Svenska Akadamiens Ordbok) and it looks like it is :

Old Swedish: "sander"; compare with Danish "sand", Norwegian "sann", Old West Norse "sannr, saðr" even English "sooth"; Gothic "sunjis", Sanskrit "satyaḥ" (true, real) and shares a root with Latin "sum" (I am) .

[I don't know if I can post a link, so I've just pasted and partially translated the text.]

[daveingram]

Fascinating .. Years ago I worked in Nordrhein Westfalen as a village postman for a few months and there this old guy that could speak Plattdeutsch as a living language and we tested a few sentences both ways from English via Dutch and Frisian to platt deutsch and back again... It was fascinating to see how close the languages were in each step....

[sjefkerolleman]

As a Dutch Frisian I understand it clearly

[sebaestschn]

With Austrian / South German, it is very difficult to get the connections to Old English. But around 20% was understandable. Very interesting.