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forsbergisgod t1_j18njyg wrote

Shakespeare is modern English

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electric_ranger t1_j194o7l wrote

THANK YOU. I came in here to "Well Ackshually" haha.

Old English (Beowulf):

>Hƿæt! ƿē Gār-Dena in ġeār-dagum,
>
>þēod-cyninga, þrym ġefrūnon,
>
>hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Middle English (Chaucer):

>Whan that April with his showres soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flowr

Modern English (Shakespeare):

>Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

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K3R3G3 OP t1_j1c17n9 wrote

I'll take the correction, but it seems your caps lock thank you indicates this is very important to you. It wasn't really the point of the post, which was The Fresh Prince thing being amusing -- I just meant whatever it is when shit is written this way. That's what I was looking at, where text is that way. I'll accept that that isn't Old English, but it's also not as clear as your example.

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ThaddyG t1_j1iv0qy wrote

That's more of a difference of spelling and typography, the letters that look like f are actually s, it's just how a lot of things were written back then. Combined with spelling being less codified back then so you get stuff like fleepe = sleepe = sleep.

Old English, Middle English, and Modern English are technical linguistic terms and ways of categorizing the historical changes in the language

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