• 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.