You know the form of language, too, can change.
Within a thousand years, even the words
that were most precious then, seem strange
and foolish to us; yet they spoke them so
and did no worse in love than we now do.
this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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Afaiu Chaucer wrote in vernacular English, which at the time still had many Germanic words that were replaced by Anglo-Norman vocabulary in more highbrow arts and politics. The fully Germanic Old English is nearly completely incomprehensible to a modern reader, though that includes changes in grammar as well as further changes in vocabulary.
You'd think that would make it easier on me, a German, but I happen to know that the Germanic of Old English is based on the languages of the old saxons and angles, which are the ancestor of today's Low German which I don't understand, either lol