what was so important about Old English and Middle English that we felt the need to label them and what are the main differences?
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You likely wouldn’t be able to understand either language spoken. Maybe you could read some Middle English – but you’d understand it like maybe someone who speaks Italian can understand some Spanish. The languages are related, but dissimilar enough that communication is hard without some study.
They are completey different languages.
It really is kinda that simple, as far as your question goes. Middle english is like a sort of related language, like cantonese vs mandarin, where rher is _some_ shared vocab and syntax, but onthe whole you can’t really interhcange them.
Old English is as foreign to modern english as modern english is to Norwegian, for non linguitic purposes.
They are completey different languages.
It really is kinda that simple, as far as your question goes. Middle english is like a sort of related language, like cantonese vs mandarin, where rher is _some_ shared vocab and syntax, but onthe whole you can’t really interhcange them.
Old English is as foreign to modern english as modern english is to Norwegian, for non linguitic purposes.
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We label things. It’s much easier to talk about something if you give it a name.
People who read things written in Latin tend to separate Early Latin from Late Latin and often include a Middle Latin as well. (Plus a “non-native speaker” Latin that is sometimes called Medieval Latin and maybe even a Renaissance Latin.) Just because they’re different enough to cause difficulties if you just rush in assuming they’re the same.
The main differences have been discussed in general, but the main idea is that Old English is Germanic, Middle English is a Germanic/French mishmash.
Modern is what we speak now. You want to make distinctions where things before the break are pretty much the same, and then in the next pigeonhole they’re pretty much the same, but different from the previous pigeonhole. I would imagine that, from the point of view of 31st century English speakers, they speak “Modern English”. Beowulf was in Old English, Chaucer in Early Middle English, Shakespeare to the 23rd century is High Middle English, 23rd to 28th century is Late Middle English.
We label things. It’s much easier to talk about something if you give it a name.
People who read things written in Latin tend to separate Early Latin from Late Latin and often include a Middle Latin as well. (Plus a “non-native speaker” Latin that is sometimes called Medieval Latin and maybe even a Renaissance Latin.) Just because they’re different enough to cause difficulties if you just rush in assuming they’re the same.
The main differences have been discussed in general, but the main idea is that Old English is Germanic, Middle English is a Germanic/French mishmash.
Modern is what we speak now. You want to make distinctions where things before the break are pretty much the same, and then in the next pigeonhole they’re pretty much the same, but different from the previous pigeonhole. I would imagine that, from the point of view of 31st century English speakers, they speak “Modern English”. Beowulf was in Old English, Chaucer in Early Middle English, Shakespeare to the 23rd century is High Middle English, 23rd to 28th century is Late Middle English.
We label things. It’s much easier to talk about something if you give it a name.
People who read things written in Latin tend to separate Early Latin from Late Latin and often include a Middle Latin as well. (Plus a “non-native speaker” Latin that is sometimes called Medieval Latin and maybe even a Renaissance Latin.) Just because they’re different enough to cause difficulties if you just rush in assuming they’re the same.
The main differences have been discussed in general, but the main idea is that Old English is Germanic, Middle English is a Germanic/French mishmash.
Modern is what we speak now. You want to make distinctions where things before the break are pretty much the same, and then in the next pigeonhole they’re pretty much the same, but different from the previous pigeonhole. I would imagine that, from the point of view of 31st century English speakers, they speak “Modern English”. Beowulf was in Old English, Chaucer in Early Middle English, Shakespeare to the 23rd century is High Middle English, 23rd to 28th century is Late Middle English.
Old English really isnt English Its Anglo Saxon. So its more old German. Middle English is Anglo Saxon. Norse and Norman French. After a few hundred years it evolved into modern English. Widespread printing helped standardize a lot of things
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