Old stuff I still knowOur Ginger Fuhrer says that he could still code up a simple game idea in Amstrad Basic, while I'm your man if you ever need to rebuild the suspension on an Austin Allegro (1750 Equipe version). This stuff doesn't leave your mind - tell us about obsolete talents you still have.
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Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 17:04)
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I went on the Anglo Saxon wikipedia to have a look aroundSee what I could get of it. There was one word, land, neuter? and even in what seemed to be nominative (I'm not very good with cases) the article for the word altered from [wiki-]article to article.
Is this a time based thing? - People who've learnt Anglo Saxon mostly from writings from one period rather than another. Or is it just wrong?
I'll try and find an example.
(, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 17:59, closed)
YesIt varies by region and time. There's certain stuff that stays the same - core vocabulary - but there is lots of variation, and later on, as it blurs into Middle English, the way tenses work changes.
It's a bit difficult as a result, because each time you start reading a new text you have to adjust to the style of the author. It's not so much a question of 'correct' either. There was no standardised spelling and people happily write in dialect, so how people construct sentences and the vocab they use varies from region to region and even just writer to writer. Then of course, there's poetry, which is bizarre - it's written in alliterative verse and a lot of words are omitted to make the lines work, as well as there being no punctuation, so it looks like this:
Oft ic sceolde ana uhtna gehwylce
mine ceare cwiþan Nis nu cwicra nan
þe ic him modsefan minne durre
sweotule asecgan
Most people who learn it learn the very old forms first - reading Beowulf and stuff like that - as it tends to get less alien as you go later, so it's easiest to start with the hardest bit.
(, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:58, closed)
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