Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
That's fascinating. There are enough similarities between modern Danish and old Norse that you can get some sense of it?
I can somewhat make my way through old English, but it will be limited, and a glossary will be advisable. The structure of teh language will be similar, but the vocabulary will not.
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Dennis
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I can get some
sense - but it does help to know the story beforehand, it gives you some pointers. In comparison to others I know, I seem to have a natural sense of language, of being able to understand words that are only vaguely 'like' words I know. I can get the point of a Dutch text, even if I only know German and Danish.
To me, it's a question of recognising the words, or just parts of them - enough to get to an earlier root word. Not ancient of course, but it's quite interesting how many English words that are rather like their Danish counterparts
And there's lots of words I don't know, but this is where knowing the story helps. After all, I learned most of my English vocabulary and grammar from "just" reading English. I learned very little in school (my mother, an English teacher, but not mine, can confirm so
)