Two old English guys shooting the breeze.

[rug]

[trueblue2007]

1. what r theysaying ???

[rug]

2. No one since 1150, outside a university, knows.

Sounds odd, eh? I bet the Norman invasion smoothed out the sound of the language.

[pinboy3niner]

3. My junior high English teacher knew

He did readings in Old Engilsh, I kid you not. But he was one of those guys who had white flecks of spittle at the corners of his lips, so what would you expect?

[rug]

5. Well, he could have spitting Danish for all anyone knew.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Some of it is understandable.

One of them asks the other, "Are you a Chistian?" The other answers, "Yes, I believe in Christ. You?" "No, I believe in Wodin." There was also something about shields and broadaxes. If you know some German it helps. Probably knowing Icelandic might be useful as well.

[rug]

6. Wow. I'll heve to listen again more closely.

[oldandhappy]

7. Fun! Thank you.

[Ron Obvious]

8. I've no trouble understanding this at all...

It really shows you that old English is in fact, a Germanic language.

I always enjoyed Tolkien as well, and I ranted against the movie when they referred to a shortcut as a "detour". Ugh... So wrong. Hobbitses wouldn't use bloody French words!

They sound exactly like my Frisian father.

[rug]

9. I commend you. I listened to it a half dozen times and I'm stil lost.

For understanding, I grasp at their tone of voice like a drowning man reaching for an oar.

[Ron Obvious]

10. Play it for small children if you get a chance...

I bet they get the gist of it. That's how I learnt Frisian as a child. I can't speak it, but I understood it easily enough when my aunts and uncles addressed me in it.

It's the tone and the rhythim that conveys half the message.

Hell, look at that word: rhythim. Doesn't it look foreign? Nordic even?

[rug]

11. That's a good idea. My youngest is 14, probably too old.

Rhythm is Greek.(I had to check.)