> >
> > (I'm also told that the American accent is more similar to that spoken in Shakespeare's day, too, but I'm doubtful about how anyone would know.)
> >
> >
> > In a linguistics class I once heard a demonstration of Old English (think Chaucer instead of Shakespeare). It was not intelligible.
>
> No, Chaucer is Middle English, which is intelligible to the average speaker of modern English. Old English is not. It's a different language. Think Beowulf instead of Chaucer. ;-)
>
> Brunnen-"it's not hard to learn, though"G

True, I'm reading Malory for a class in the original Middle English. The words are spelled weird, but you get used to it. And our professor read some of it out loud. It sounded kind of silly but I understood him perfectly. The major diffrence I found was that they pronouned every letter in a word. So knight doesn't sound like the same word as night. Ka-ni-ghtee is kinda how is sounds.

Speed'Yen som men say in many pys of Inglonde that kynge Arthure ys nat dede, but h by the wyll of oure Lorde Jesu into another place; and men say that he shall com agayne, and he shall wynne the Holy Crosse'ball