Beowulf was somewhere between 700 and 1000, so that’s Old English.
Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, so he used Early Modern English.
The King James Bible is from 1611 and it’s counted as Early Modern English.
And the Epic of Gilgamesh was written between 2100-1200 BC in Mesopotamia which is on a different continent than England (today it’s mostly Syria and Iraq).
English back then was spoken quite differently. I know that, at the Globe Theater in London, they give some performances in what is considered to be an historically-accurate accent and dialect for Shakespeare’s time (early-mid 17th century), and it can be difficult to understand at times. IIRC, there’s a video of a father and son team who worked it all out explaining it on YouTube. Sorry, I’m on mobile, or I’d link it.
A good three quarters of Shakespeare (and most contemporaries) is topical humour and references to current events. The puns and toilet humour are eternal though
Wouldn’t they just speak renaissance English?
Middle or old english?
Old English is ~650-1066
Middle English is ~1066-1500
Early Modern English is ~1500-1650
Modern English is ~1650-now
Beowulf was somewhere between 700 and 1000, so that’s Old English.
Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, so he used Early Modern English.
The King James Bible is from 1611 and it’s counted as Early Modern English.
And the Epic of Gilgamesh was written between 2100-1200 BC in Mesopotamia which is on a different continent than England (today it’s mostly Syria and Iraq).
People must have been so confused when the languages switched after the Battle of Hastings.
All these cut-offs between different stages of a language are lines drawn in the sand, centuries after the fact.
And the Normans invading England had a massive influence on the language. Of course not immediately, but really fast.
I didn’t invent that, I just took that from Wikipedia. According to Wiki, some people put the cut-off at ~1100, which would make sense too.
English back then was spoken quite differently. I know that, at the Globe Theater in London, they give some performances in what is considered to be an historically-accurate accent and dialect for Shakespeare’s time (early-mid 17th century), and it can be difficult to understand at times. IIRC, there’s a video of a father and son team who worked it all out explaining it on YouTube. Sorry, I’m on mobile, or I’d link it.
A good three quarters of Shakespeare (and most contemporaries) is topical humour and references to current events. The puns and toilet humour are eternal though