English, the Language.

[iBender]

My mother tounge.
I can comprehend;

The Queen's English (Like Australia & Canada too...)
American English
& Patois Broken English...
And maybe any other form of English going.

I don't know Olde English though.
That's Shakespeare, I don't know my Shakespearean English, much. (Maybe two words, if that...)

 

[Finn]

Okay

 

[SG-17]

Shakespearean English (Early Modern actually) is pretty easy to understand once you understand the context.

 

[iBender]

Olde English is... Hard. (I think) I mean, Let (Lett) or WHATEVER; Means the opisit of what it does today, I think 'let' in old English means; To stop/dis-allow something.
The only reason I had to learn Shakespeare was because his works connect to the origins of the English Language, only reason why it's forced upon us at school. I'm sure, if you adore the works of William Shakespeare, then Olde English might seem like a walk in the park. Sadily, I only know like a hand full of Olde English words. (Olde being one of them.)

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Um ... OK? TITS? What are you going for here?

 

[iBender]

I 'personally' want to see how many forms of English are going, everywhere, ya dig?

 

[Count Zero]

English isn't my mother tongue and sometimes I struggle to understand the natives of the British isles (on TV and in real life) but I understand Shakespearean English just fine.
There's also more to Shakespeare than just being old. His works are full of truths still valid today.

 

[Skellington]

Shakespearian English is actually relatively modern, thanks to Shakespeare helping to standardise the language as well as inventing half of it .

If you want real Olde English, check out Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales from the late 14th century.

 

[iBender]

This is one of my favourite songs.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgwFn-GMWzI[/yt]
This, Australia and USA make me feel proud about my language.

*Hides.

 

[Canadave]

This is one of my favourite songs.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgwFn-GMWzI[/yt]
This, Australia and USA make me feel proud about my language.

*Hides.

*blinks* Okay, I don't get it.

Also, how can you be proud of a language? It's just a method of communication... I'm not proud of my Twitter account or anything.

 

[iBender]

What don't you get, the song or something else?

 

[Canadave]

^ Well, just how it fits into the thread. Also, my edit about being proud...

 

[iBender]

Oh, lol, the pride. That's just a hapiness from hearing the oringal cast on DVDs I own. Hehe.

Canada too! I have the Are You Afraid of the Dark? Boxsets.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Shakespearian English is actually relatively modern, thanks to Shakespeare helping to standardise the language as well as inventing half of it .

If you want real Olde English, check out Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales from the late 14th century.

Chaucer is really the go-to guy for crass Medieval toilet humor.

 

[Holdfast]

...sometimes I struggle to understand the natives of the British isles...

We speak in mysterious secret ways, unknown to outsiders...

 

[trekkiedane]

I still don't get what this thread is about, but I find Engrish a funny language -well kinda funny; it's actually pretty smart, a not too complicated language that everyone understands.

 

[Holdfast]

To answer semi-seriously, I really love English. Its capacity for imagery through wordplay is wonderful. I bet there's no other language that offers quite as much scope for punning, cryptics, and other similar word/meaning-bending and innovating. It's a very playful language; it can do metaphor and similie just fine, but for me it really shines when it uses homophones, synonyms and rhymes.

 

[scotpens]

Shakespearian English is actually relatively modern, thanks to Shakespeare helping to standardise the language as well as inventing half of it .

If you want real Olde English, check out Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales from the late 14th century.

Shakespeare belongs to the Modern English period. With a few annotations and footnotes to explain now-obsolete words, words whose meanings have changed, and puns that are lost to modern readers because of pronunciation changes, Shakespeare remains fairly accessible today.

By contrast, Chaucer's Middle English of just two centuries earlier is quite difficult to understand without a side-by-side modern translation. And actual Old English is like a completely different language.

. . . It's a very playful language; it can do metaphor and simile just fine, but for me it really shines when it uses homophones, synonyms and rhymes.

And it really sucks when people use the wrong homophone ("principle" and "principal," "affect" and "effect," "bear" and "bare" . . . Don't get me started.)

 

[TerokNor]

I find it a beautiful language. It has a certain charme... especially this cockney accent... or a scottish accent is nice too. Someone talking to me that way I fall in love with instantly (though I may not understand a word)!

Those homophones...they get spoken the same? Oh... I´ve always read those words you wrote down quite different from each other. PRINciple but princiPAL for example. Thats wrong? Damn. Besides being beautiful English can also be annoying.

TerokNor

 

[scotpens]

Those homophones...they get spoken the same? Oh... I´ve always read those words you wrote down quite different from each other. PRINciple but princiPAL for example. Thats wrong? Damn. Besides being beautiful English can also be annoying.

Homophones are words that have different meanings and different spellings, but sound exactly the same. English has hundreds, maybe thousands of them. And yes, they can be quite irritating to someone trying to learn the language. Almost as irritating as the crazy, screwed-up spelling.