> > 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

Did I say Chaucer? *blush* I meant to say Beowulf.

koala"no, really, I did"mom

....okay, okay, you caught me. The offspring informed me the other day that after age 24 your brain starts shrinking*. The Chaucer/Middle English connection must have been one of those facts that evaporated in the process. But the vowel shift thing is right! Honest! No, really!

koala"anyway the math majors out there probably probably bought it :-)"mom

*just one of the little perks of parenthood--free facts on how much you've deteriorated.