"Which modern language most like Anglo Saxon?" Topic

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Basque!

You're writing in it.

Allen

You're reading it.

Seriously, it's probably English, despite the borrowed words and all the French stuff and the changed or lost letters and phonetics, etc., etc.

The only other real contenders are Scots and Frisian. But if you look at The Lord's Prayer in Frisian and the Lord's Prayer in Old English (which is Anglo-Saxon), they look nothing alike and sound nothing alike.

A good test is to look at Wikipedia's text of a letter from King Cnut (Canute) to an earl named Thorkell:

Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopas and his leod-biscopas and Žurcyl eorl and ealle his eorlas and ealne his žeodscype, twelfhynde and twyhynde, gehadode and lęwede, on Englalande freondlice

Even if you don't speak Old English, a modern English reader can work out some of this, especially once you know that a "c" is pronounced like a "k", a "y" like a short "i" or "e", and that the symbol "ž" is pronounced like "th" in "the." : "Cnut, king, greets his archbishop and his lord-bishop and Thorkell, Earl, and all his earls and (also?) his (?), twelve-? and two-?, ? and ? on England (friendly?)" So not all, but quite a bit can be guessed at— and I'm just doing the guessing, not looking at the translation.

Try that with any other language.

Great minds, Allen!

Good example!

For the kids, I usually pull examples from the "Maxims", especially the short, pithy ones that describe the nature of things:

Forst sceal freosan = frost shall freeze

fyr wudu meltan = fire burns wood

eorže growan = the earth grows

Allen

I saw a programme with eddie izzard ( mongrel nation I think) where he learned some simple anglo-saxon and went to flanders ( i think) and bought/traded for a milk cow with one of the locals with very little difficulty. It seemed odd how much of the conversation you could understand, and a lot of the differences where in pronunciation. Interesting programme.

Phil

Flemish is quite close.

I saw a TV series about the development of the english language years ago which went into this stuff in minute detail.

Bear in mind that the grammatical structure of Anglo Saxon is an inflected Germanic style rather than what passes for grammar in English.

Old English isn't Anglo-Saxon – I think it's got the Norman-French bits added.

I'd say Frisian. I've got a Dutch friend who speaks it, and many words in that language and in my Suffolk-accented English are identical.

But we've a millenia of grammatical changes to get in the way of making it an easy language to learn.

I did learn a bit of A-S when I was a re-enactor. I've been reading a book about re-enacting (buried somewhere while we decorate*), a sort of living history version of 'Achtung Sweinhund, and in it there is some old Norse, and I found myself reading it phonetically correctly – it wasn't until I hit the English again I realised what I'd done.

I always found A-S to be a bit like listening to a geordie when a bit drunk.

I did wonder about things like Flemish etc – like A-S I've found travelling through the Low Countried just on the cusp of understanding – feeling understanding was just out of grasp.

*ie she does the difficult bit of choosing the colours, while I do the nice simple moving furniture about, masking stuff off, and making sure it goes on nicely