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Was the previous version of English easier than the current version?

di ceigered, 30 aprile 2009

Messaggi: 18

Lingua: English

ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 08:27:51

Cxu la antauxa versio de la angla lingvo estis pli facila ol la nuntempa versio?

I was having a read of the 1560 Geneva bible (as shown on Amazon) and I noticed when reading the text that there were some conventions that were notably more easier to understand than our current version of English, some of them resembling features found in Esperanto.
For example in most cases the differences between verbs, adjectives and nouns were much more notable (adjectives often had '-e' at the end, and of course verbs were conjugated per person).

And no doubt the writing system was much more comprehensible and true to the language spare a few old conventions such as 'i' instead of 'j' and 'u' instead of 'v' (but that's not really as bigger issue as grammar lango.gif)

So any thoughts on this? I'm personally curious as to what the difference would be like if we reverted back to an older form of the language/if we still used the older form of the language.

1Guy1 (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 09:16:27

ceigered:
So any thoughts on this? I'm personally curious as to what the difference would be like if we reverted back to an older form of the language/if we still used the older form of the language.
From my ageing memory, English of this period was far less standardised. There were more pronounced regional variations and many spelling variants, even for personal names.

ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 10:00:23

@ 1Guy1
Ah I forgot that, now that would be very interesting to see nowadays (although I believe the legacy of this exists even nowadays with various British dialects and with the oft debated Scots/English linguistic distinction).
Cheers 1Guy1 for reminding me of this rideto.gif

I wonder if the lack of standardisation was better or worse... Maybe it would have been more flexible yet more confusing.... mmm.. interesting...

jan aleksan (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 10:33:41

I prefer to wait for the version 3.0 ^^

ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 10:56:01

jan aleksan:I prefer to wait for the version 3.0 ^^
Soz its currently in Alpha stage so ull hafta w8 4 it bcoz its a bit buggy atm n there r 2 many probs btween the developers.
(English v2.97.10c Alpha)

lango.gif

Mi bedaŭras, ĝi nuntempe estas alfa-a tial vi devas atendi ĉar ĝi estas tro erarema nuntempe kaj estas tro multaj problemoj inter la evoluigantoj

Ironchef (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 16:58:00

ceigered: you and I have touched on "CONLANGS" before (constructed languages), have you ever seen those that "pretend" that Latin and French did not come to the British Isles and the language there developed along more Celtic lines? Brithenig tries to recreate what "English" would have been like in alternative circumstances, mostly for fantasy/game/curiosity purposes.

Ironchef (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 16:59:10

jan aleksan:I prefer to wait for the version 3.0 ^^
Yes, I'm still waiting for the bug fix for the "ough" problem that was supposed to be fixed by now ridulo.gif

jan aleksan (Mostra il profilo) 30 aprile 2009 17:10:03

ceigered:
jan aleksan:I prefer to wait for the version 3.0 ^^
Soz its currently in Alpha stage so ull hafta w8 4 it bcoz its a bit buggy atm n there r 2 many probs btween the developers.
(English v2.97.10c Alpha)

lango.gif

Mi bedaŭras, ĝi nuntempe estas alfa-a tial vi devas atendi ĉar ĝi estas tro erarema nuntempe kaj estas tro multaj problemoj inter la evoluigantoj
o mai gode! Frensh pipol ar kurenteli divilopingue eu GNU! ouate eu mèsse!

jchthys (Mostra il profilo) 01 maggio 2009 01:11:54

I believe it was harder back then. The Geneva Bible used standard, scholarly English, but the regional dialects must have been even more far-fetched than today’s slang. In addition, the conjugation of verbs makes it slightly harder (I am, thou art, he is, we are, ye are, they are).
One can download the entire text of the Geneva 1599 from e-sword. There is a modern-spelling in print now too, but I don’t know if Amazon sells it.

ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 01 maggio 2009 08:44:38

jan aleksan:
o mai gode! Frensh pipol ar kurenteli divilopingue eu GNU! ouate eu mèsse!
eu GNU? ouate du yu mien bai GNU?

and at @ jchthys:
I was actually thinking though that regional dialects could have made the language easier - at least then, you had more options about pronunciation etc.

And unfortunately I have Mac so I can't run e-sword malgajo.gif But thanks for the link, that will no doubt be useful for any wishing to follow up some of the discussions on this thread. I myself, from a linguistic perspective, wouldn't get the modern-spelling version simply because it doesn't have the historical value of seeing how they spelt it... I know, very traditional of me ridulo.gif

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