• PugJesus@piefed.socialOPM
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    5 days ago

    Explanation: Arabic has maintained a great literary continuity through the centuries, in part due to the importance of the Quran as the literal written word of the Divine. A translation of the Quran is only a commentary - nothing more - meaning that written Arabic has had a sort of ‘hard standard’ that has bound together diverse locales with a common written form of the tongue. Spoken dialects are somewhat more diverse.

    As an English speaker, I can confirm that reading the 14th century AD poet Chaucer without additional notes or translation is a struggle, and not necessarily a victorious one.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      As an English speaker, I can confirm that reading the 14th century AD poet Chaucer without additional notes or translation is a struggle, and not necessarily a victorious one.

      fucking shakespere is a bitch to understand, and he’s more recent

      • CXORA@aussie.zone
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        5 days ago

        Yeah, but thats all a drift in slang and culture.

        Chaucer uses castly different spelling and grammar than we do now.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          5 days ago

          It’s the one thing they always get wrong in time travel stories. They go back in time to the mediaeval era and everyone just speaks modern English.