Damn, this guy had to live for 7 centuries just to record this video. what a legend

@slicksnewonenow

Жыл бұрын

😅😂🤣 EXCELLENT!

@slaydog5102

Жыл бұрын

Wow such an original joke!

@bruce8429

Жыл бұрын

Does anyone know where his fountain of youth is? I've been looking for it forever.

@smellsliketheonlynirvanasongyk

Жыл бұрын

1k likes? You guys are crazy lol

@technox8166

Жыл бұрын

Not through 7 centuries, more like the 70s. Horrible sideburns and extremely unmaintained hair as typical with someone who does a video like this.

I’m from 14th century London I can confirm this is accurate

@bobsmith5441

5 ай бұрын

It is great to have an actual testimonial from the time period to confirm. Thank you

@Paul20661

4 ай бұрын

XD

@thecamocampaindude5167

4 ай бұрын

Im from the 19th, how are you kind sir?

@OakwiseBecoming

4 ай бұрын

Must break your heart to see the ethnocide of your people taking place in real time.

@zakme5638

4 ай бұрын

😂

It’s crazy how you do all this and don’t consider yourself a linguist yet. This is incredible work.

@scooterlibbie

2 ай бұрын

Well you can't just declare yourself a linguist. You gotta have a degree

@snake_eater1963

Ай бұрын

linguistics hire this man

@WonkelDee

21 күн бұрын

@@scooterlibbiethat’s bullshit

@scooterlibbie

21 күн бұрын

@@WonkelDee tell me more, Dr. Wonkel

@WonkelDee

21 күн бұрын

@@scooterlibbieNot every title requires a degree. A linguist is anyone who studies languages or is skilled at one.

The effortless delivery of these monologues is what's the most astonishing here. Pure mastery

This sounds like my Welsh uncle sobering up when he comes over on Christmas Day every year

@babbabooey1176

2 жыл бұрын

Lmao

@unbabunga229

2 жыл бұрын

😅😅😅😅

@Josh-by8er

2 жыл бұрын

as a welshman, i can confirm that we all sound like this through the course of a night out

@jamiehinch9239

2 жыл бұрын

😂😂

@joederbo6151

2 жыл бұрын

Oh yes, every stage of it... 😂💯

You can really hear how Germanic English really is with the 1406 version.

@bismanaufa5618

2 жыл бұрын

11 days ago 111 likes

@flyingorange4493

2 жыл бұрын

@@bismanaufa5618 >11 hours ago

@greathornedowl1783

2 жыл бұрын

English still sounds really germanic and doesn't actually sound all that different today. Watch what english sounds like to foreigners.

@flyingorange4493

2 жыл бұрын

@@greathornedowl1783 Yeah that's a cool video. I think both are good demonstrations of that.

@Ultrajamz

2 жыл бұрын

Almost irish sounding

1946 sounds soo much like how my great grandmother used to speak. I was born in southeast London and the accent is spot on.

i love how he speaks in these accents and dialects naturally with stuttering or slips and tone changes rather than a robotic script like a lot of other language channels do it feels really real

I'd love to see a period drama set in England using the actual language of the time

@christinawatkinsyoutube

Жыл бұрын

Me too! Fed up with all these posh accents haha

@nimeshajayatunge4007

Жыл бұрын

The VVitch!

@TheSatsumaman

Жыл бұрын

Akenfield is a drama from the 70s that is famous for having recorded dead dialects in suffolk

@56postoffice

Жыл бұрын

If I remember, *"Ripper Street"* used language spoken by Victorian Londoners of the late 1880s.

@focalpointsound

Жыл бұрын

Not quite what you asked for but The Witch by Robert Eggers uses New England language.

as a swedish and english speaker, the 1406 accent is so trippy; my ears can't decide wether to process it as english or as swedish.

@daviddesert3132

3 жыл бұрын

Yes. I have been in Sweden 30 years and got the same trip!

@andersbodin1551

3 жыл бұрын

@@daviddesert3132 its kindof like one of thouse ilusions where you can ether see an old man or a young lady but not at the same time, but for your ears.

@drott150

3 жыл бұрын

Engage Swenglish mode and it'll be fine.

@Annawe

3 жыл бұрын

It reminded me of my Grandparents when they spoke (They were Dutch). Very trippy.

@per6605

3 жыл бұрын

To me it sounds like icelandic

People don't say it enough here, but THANK YOU so much for not running ads on your videos

@jtperez657

Ай бұрын

Just use brave browser. No ads on anything

Endlessly fascinated by how the English language has changed over the centuries. I was reading Chaucer about a year ago and was having a hard time understanding it. Then I started to read it out loud and then I realized that he was writing phonetically and that the words hadn't really changed that much. Thanks for doing this. I was born in Puerto Rico, raised in Arizona spent my life living in New York City and Los Angeles. I'm a dark skinned Hispanic that is endlessly fascinated with Ango-Saxon culture. I do hope you were able to make that film.

As a non-native English speaker, this is an ultimate listening test

@milesolszko2062

Жыл бұрын

As a native English speaker I can barely make sense of the first one without subtitles.

@Youtube_Stole_My_Handle_Too

Жыл бұрын

@@milesolszko2062 For those who know Norwegian, this couldn't be a test unless it was woke and made to get only winners. Probably because of Viking influence five hundred years before.

@flavanone9884

Жыл бұрын

As a native, I can’t really understand anything until the 1500s

@giraffesinc.2193

Жыл бұрын

As a NATIVE English speaker, this is an ultimate listening test.

@LydiaMoMydia

Жыл бұрын

as a native speaker i cant understand anything from the 1300s, i can vaguely understand the 1400s and can almost perfectly understand the 1460s

As an Aussie I can hear how the 1800s London accent influenced ours

@treblerebel2362

Жыл бұрын

That's because it was all our London jails were full so they sent us cockneys to Australia

@MakhalanyaneMotaung

Жыл бұрын

@@treblerebel2362 exactly right mate

@stcovel

Жыл бұрын

Interesting - the late 1700s / 1800s sound a bit closer to American to me

@haveyoumettess

Жыл бұрын

As an American, the 1706 one sound not far off from a “typical” American accent and I am SHOOK

@MakhalanyaneMotaung

Жыл бұрын

@@haveyoumettess like our respective accents are frozen time capsules of England when they invaded these lands

The second section is astonishingly Nordic-sounding. And the change from the mid 17th to the early 18th century is just extraordinary! Marvellous video, thank you!

I'm just so impressed that you took on this challenge in the first place - and executed it perfectly. Utterly fascinating. And I love that, just to be kind, you added your family's Etsy shop links.

Everyone is talking about the amazing quality if the accents, but no one is talking about the amazing "time period appropriate" monologues being spoken! Maybe they were taken from diaries or something from real people of the time, but if these were written as scripts to be read from, then massive kudos. Each monologue felt like a real snapshot story from the past

@BencsikZs

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly same thoughts. My favourite one is the 1706.

@gregorytrotter6657

2 жыл бұрын

The accompanying text describes pronunciation practices for each time period and how they came to be. They seem mostly to have been arrived at from the ways words were spelled by representative writers from the different periods.

@ThorfinnMacbeth

2 жыл бұрын

@@gregorytrotter6657 agreed!

@ZeR0W1

2 жыл бұрын

I liked the one about the great London fire

@Y-two-K

2 жыл бұрын

@@BencsikZs the rhotic 'r's make it sound a bit American. which makes sense because British didn't ditch rhotic 'r's until later

The 1706 and 1766 accents give you an idea also of how the American colonists of the time sounded. I'm always amused when movies about the American Revolution depict the British soldiers with posh, non rhotic pronunciation. The reality is they wouldn't have sounded much different from the American colonists they were fighting.

@j.franknorris2346

2 жыл бұрын

I noticed that too. Absolutely mind blowing when you think about it

@G1CAAAAEO

2 жыл бұрын

Hollywood propaganda, as usual.

@NLSBLN

2 жыл бұрын

@@j.franknorris2346 I am german, but i just thought about that right now. I`m so happy that i`ve just found a video about the sounds!! unbelievable (or however you write that xD)

@NLSBLN

2 жыл бұрын

Oh i wrote that right, lol

@angelwings9500

2 жыл бұрын

I hear how similarly Americans now sound a bit like the 1700s.

The early accents have so many similarities to Scots you would hear in the Ayrshire twang of my grandparents.

In doing my family genealogy, I found the earliest immigrant to America was in 1650ish. I often wondered what he sounded like. You gave me a clearer idea of how he may have sounded. He seems even more real to me now.

1400s: yiddish grandpa 1500s: nordic lad 1600s: german grandma/posh irishman 1700s: an american immigrant 1800s: an australian immigrant 1900s: an audio book

@tander101

2 жыл бұрын

Every one of the accents sounds Scandinavian to me, but I'm Canadian.

@assassinaria

2 жыл бұрын

@@tander101 I feel like it's just the intonation of the speaker's voice. Unfortunately, it's unavoidable. He sounds Irish in some instances. If you listen to some audio recordings from the mid-late 1800s, it doesn't sound very much like that.

@eethvamp

2 жыл бұрын

I heard German, Scottish, Irish, and Australian.

@AbcdEfgh-sq2tf

2 жыл бұрын

Lol so the current american accent is just 1700s british accent?

@polinttalu7102

2 жыл бұрын

@@AbcdEfgh-sq2tf yes

As an American, it's fascinating to hear it get closer to a North American accent through the late 1700s, and then diverge after that.

@StratocastRS

2 жыл бұрын

may be why tidewater accents and west/virginia accents sound very similar

@StratocastRS

2 жыл бұрын

also southern US and Western english accents

@GreatGreebo

2 жыл бұрын

After hearing this it now makes sense HOW Yanks ended up sounding like they do considering when the bulk of people emigrated from the UK to the USA…it’s fascinating! I love this video.

@mausiwerner

2 жыл бұрын

I genuinely don’t see how that sounds like a North American accent to be honest. It still sounds significantly British.

@GreatGreebo

2 жыл бұрын

@@mausiwerner I can see if you don’t hear UK accents very often then it probably does sound VERY British (or Irish to be exact) but if you’re exposed to British accents all day, every day then it sounds so VERY North American!

I particularly loved the beautifully non-intrusive “ad” at the end , I might actually check that out.

This is so informative and interesting. To hear the voices, two generations at a time, really makes historical people feel real.

I’m Scottish and understood the early accents quite well.

@janfvideoblog

Жыл бұрын

As a non-native speaker, this is what hit me first. Earliest accents sound a lot like scottish english to me. Don't know why.

@danielgriffin9986

Жыл бұрын

this is what i said 'As a scottish man, I guess this is how we sound to other english speakers lmao. From the early english i could understand most of what was being said because it sounds a lot like the slang we use today but still very difficult' it is funny how scottish the early language sounds

@geordie114

Жыл бұрын

Same as here in Geordie Northumberland.

@beslemeto

Жыл бұрын

@@geordie114 Probably they changed the pronunciation mostly in London...

@jemima4242

Жыл бұрын

& here in Cumbria! Sounds like what we think ‘traveller’ accent. They have it right - want to become self sufficient miself!

They all sound like Ozzy Osbourne at different stages of drunk

@rott5533

3 жыл бұрын

SHAROOOOOOOOOON

@ThePimpedOutwaffle

3 жыл бұрын

😂😂

@thatchonkyfonky3327

3 жыл бұрын

SOMEONES GONE IN MY ROOM AND TAKEN MY BEERS OUT OF MY ROOM

@rott5533

3 жыл бұрын

@@thatchonkyfonky3327 WHO IS THE BEER THIEF

@user-sl7ki4ip7v

3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂

This is amazing! My dad was a geordie and I can hear something like his accent in that very first recording. "Hoose"! Didn't think I'd be able to follow these stories but I could, quite easily. What a wonderful video. Well done and thank you!

What an extraordinary video and channel. I’m looking forward to watching them all.

"He was SPOOKED and he RAN OFF into the WODES" I felt that

@anatolydyatlov963

3 жыл бұрын

Happens to me every damn time. It's like an instinct.

@themountainsandthesea4121

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah,me too.

@ezzie9167

3 жыл бұрын

Mood

@hannahzwic5975

3 жыл бұрын

Paul from 90 day fiance

@hanz090

3 жыл бұрын

@Hannah zwic 💀😂

You are a true amateur, from the original French word l’amour, meaning a lover of something. No one is paying you to do this, it’s not in your job description, you just love it. Good on you man, this is fantastic!

@simonroper9218

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! That's very kind :)

@diogeneslantern18

3 жыл бұрын

I believe the great Bobby Jones was also once quoted as saying (and I paraphrase) "to be an amateur is to have a love of the game [golf], to play for money is to lose that love and replace it"

@clairegranier2428

3 жыл бұрын

L’amour means love, but it is close enough :)

@clairegranier2428

3 жыл бұрын

Lover is l’amant or l’amoureux

@FannomacritaireSuomi

3 жыл бұрын

Amateur comes through Old French yes, but not from the noun _amour_ (love), instead of the Italian verb _amare_ (or as they say "amatore"). Always check your sources.

Simon, this is a work of art. Congrats from Italy!

Thank you so much for doing this, Simon. This is truly amazing.

Linguist here; you ARE a linguist.

@blllllllllllllllllllrlrlrl7059

3 жыл бұрын

Fuckin' Tremendous.

@lewishunt6133

3 жыл бұрын

Blue cheese with wings

@Laura-sg6ss

3 жыл бұрын

@@lewishunt6133 with wingsss🤣🤣🤣 what does this meannn

@lewishunt6133

3 жыл бұрын

@@Laura-sg6ss type in Joey Diaz blue cheese

@Laura-sg6ss

3 жыл бұрын

@@lewishunt6133 eheheh okayyy

As someone born in 1683 I can confidently say you nailed them all. Edit: I had no idea this had so many likes😭 thank y’all for all of them lol.

@RO-st8wh

Жыл бұрын

🤣🤣 underated comment

@nialllambert3194

Жыл бұрын

I came to Europe from the Bronx in 1492, and you guys sure spoke some jive.

@marinam1660

Жыл бұрын

It’s an idea of how people spoke

@timestima

Жыл бұрын

Vampire?

@ois9

Жыл бұрын

Oh how nice. I was born in 1684 myself.

This is literally one of my favorite videos on here. Thank you.

This is so amazing.... Thank you, it was so interresting to listen.... Not just how they spoke, but also the stories they told were so interresting...

So my accent has nothing to do with my being Turkish. I just learnt the language in 1706.

@hannyhawkins7804

3 жыл бұрын

But I’ll bet it’s better English than my Turkish, or most other people on this YT.

@kutukteyiz408

3 жыл бұрын

@@hannyhawkins7804 Most probably but it’s definitely not your fault. :) Turkish is tough to learn for Native speakers of European languages. It is originated from Altai mountains and has a very different structure. İ.e. My Korean friends learn Turkish easier than they learn English.

@-dogu-5231

3 жыл бұрын

krallll

@kab1r

3 жыл бұрын

@@kutukteyiz408 that's interesting thanks for sharing

@GorillaFlakes

3 жыл бұрын

Yh ur white basically

To me as a german, the older ones really do sound a bit closer to our language. Even sounds a little dutch from time to time. Super interesting.

@jemand7488

Жыл бұрын

Dutch has always sounded like the bridge between English and german to me

@joeynyesss1286

Жыл бұрын

That’s because old English’s closest relation is Frisian which is a Germanic lanagauge. I’m from England but speak some German and it was my first thought also. It has a German flow to it if that makes sense.

@jorex6816

Жыл бұрын

Ja, klingt wirklich sehr stark nach Plattdeutsch

@burn5011

Жыл бұрын

English is a Germanic language

@Yow531

Жыл бұрын

True, the oldest ones sound Dutch

Absolutely fascinating!!! I've only just come across this. It's amazing to hear how the Great Vowel Change changed speech so much, and those voices are so spellbinding, it's as if we're sitting with those folks and chatting with them all those centuries ago. I lived in Cumbria for much of my life and it really strikes me how the early 18th century voice sounds so much like some people I've met from the most rural parts of Cumbria.

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for taking the time to make this.

As a gentleman growing up in the 1400's, one can confirm this is accurate to the most acute degree

@tselengbotlhole750

3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂

@jahermos

3 жыл бұрын

Hahahaha

@Oscuros

3 жыл бұрын

Why would someone from the 15th Century use Victorian language like "acute"? You're clearly just a modern American.

@tselengbotlhole750

3 жыл бұрын

Oscuros jeez loosen up, this is a joke 😂😂😂 really man are you serious?😂😂😂

@Eire_Aontaithe

3 жыл бұрын

@@tselengbotlhole750 He is right.

My great-grandmother (born in the early 1920s) has lived in rural Tasmania all her life and was descended from London convicts of the mid-1800s, and I recognized the 1886 English accent immediately as the one she imitates when telling stories of her own grandparents or uncles or aunts born at that time.

@agneseditsstuff

Жыл бұрын

that's fantastic!

@Bpl541

10 ай бұрын

That’s very interesting. Thankyou🙏

@willem1113

10 ай бұрын

Fellow Tasmanian?

@jaif7327

10 ай бұрын

god bless your great grandmother

@bacicinvatteneaca

9 ай бұрын

One of the few languages in the world that lacks both m and n does use m, but only as an alternative for another sound when you want to sound ancient

Farmers in Northern Ireland still talk like it’s the 14th century, and I can understand this video better 😂

Amazing. My grandmother's passion was genealogy and traced our families back to the 10th century. Hard to go any further, and even then there's a lot of inferred "facts". And I remember her telling me that even though I speak English, I would not be able to speak with native Britannia because of how different the English language was back then. I never really believed that until now. Seeing this, rather, hearing this video has convinced me she was right. Well played sir. No better feeling than to have doubts vanquished!

Actors in period films can be more precise by research like this.

@arkle519

3 жыл бұрын

If you're interested, a TV series named John Adams is set during early parts of American history and it does a good job of recreating accents from those times.

@georgie3593

3 жыл бұрын

They have no excuse when info like this is free on the internet lol

@banjopink4409

3 жыл бұрын

'Incomprehensible', you mean.

@tarawhittington5686

3 жыл бұрын

@@banjopink4409 I have to agree with Banjo Pink on this. I have no knowledge of linguistics. if I heard this, I'd not only fail to understand half of it but also think it was a butchered attempt at accents I better recognise. It sounds really inconsistent to me so I'd think the actor had done very little research and spliced together bits of everything

@geekygalaxy4307

3 жыл бұрын

I think it's like when you watch an English film set in France, for example. The actors are speaking English because the main audience will be able to understand it even though they should be speaking French. Same as if you have a film set in 1300s England, you're not really going to be able to understand it unless you're concentrating really hard

I don't know why KZread put this in my recommendations but I'm glad it did.

@cathjj840

3 жыл бұрын

Join the club! See his number of subs? Half of them at least had your same thought.

@alexhek

3 жыл бұрын

Same here

@cubedtothex

3 жыл бұрын

Same

@jamiejudd7146

3 жыл бұрын

Me too!

@bublechick

3 жыл бұрын

Same here!

Simon, you may be an amateur linguist in the sense of not having the coursework and credentials, but you're a very good amateur. You've proven what you can do with access to the university library, and it's amazing. I first saw this video the month you released it, and it's one that I have reviewed many times since then.

Wow that was instructive ! As a non-english--first-language person, I had to start by the 2006 accent and go backway, to understand what was talked about. But I am amazed at the amount of research that went into this ! Bravo.

It’s amazing how the standard American accent has a lot more in common with the 1706 accent than any other.

@iceomistar4302

Жыл бұрын

Makes sense, Colonial America was settled in this time, Londoners still spoke with a post vocalic /r/ and the great vowel shift was still taking place so the vowels show more phonemic contrasts than let's say the modern London accents.

@frost1183

Жыл бұрын

It’s so crazy it’s awesome once I heard the old accents of the 1700s I was like. WHAT? That sounds like my grandparents here in America! This is why I’ve heard that American and Irish English sounds like original English.

@danielavelar4109

Жыл бұрын

I believe they were the same but after the Industrial Revolution, there were a small amount of rich folks who wanted to distinguish themselves. They ended up emphasizing their accents in order to distinguish themselves from “commoners”

@thomsboys77

Жыл бұрын

@@frost1183It still isn’t “original English”. There are many regional English accents that predate the discovery of America

@MikehMike01

Жыл бұрын

1766 sounds significantly more American but neither sounds American

im an icelandic speaker and its really crazy how similar the 14th-17th century accents sound to what you can expect from alot of nordic languages

@andyc9902

Жыл бұрын

Crazy innit

@stephenfox6943

Жыл бұрын

I thought it sounds more dutch. Ya gett Mae bro

@sandravanderveek239

Жыл бұрын

I think when you go back a couple more centuries , Germanic languages all sounded the same

@eternity68

Жыл бұрын

Viking heritage, im swedish and heard it too

@Prince_Sharming

Жыл бұрын

That's William the Conqueror for you.

Amazing! I didn't expect I'll listen through the whole thing and enjoy it so much !!!!

What a amazing video, I am impressed by your research, well done! Bravo! As a South European that lived in London for years, I am mesmerized by the really "harsh" but super cool sounds of english, especially 1406 - 1646!

I'm hearing massive Welsh / Cymraeg / Celtic / Gaelic / Scottish in the earliest two sections. Absolutely incredible research and application. Well done Sir!

@Unicorn-zb1mu

11 ай бұрын

I hear my Scottish accent 😮

@AngryBulldogg

11 ай бұрын

I was getting Scottish and Geordie, with a Welsh twang on the end of words

@ieuancilgwri3230

10 ай бұрын

Sounds germanic / north east to me - not welsh at all

@I_Kan

10 ай бұрын

I hear Welsh a slight Plymouth accent too

@Joolzratbag

10 ай бұрын

I heard Irish in the first one

It is so incredibly interesting how groups that immigrated out of England somewhat bookmarked the London accent of the time they left

@penderyn8794

10 ай бұрын

Not all migrants from Britain came from London though

@rastaisfuture8630

5 ай бұрын

Also slave plantion descendants everywhere. Like the carribean, simetimes a mix of 1600 english and some african tongue. Lool into Patois in Jamaica for example

@TheOmniCuriousCanvas

5 ай бұрын

They came from all over the lower part of England, but mostly the middle and east of England/

@Jurassic_Fart

5 ай бұрын

Yeah like Australians and South Africans

@adenwellsmith6908

4 ай бұрын

I think that's correct. What also is interesting is you could very easily transition from 21st century, to 1350's English. Some word changes, but understandable. Grandsire - Grandson. Other's are purely accent but the grammar is there.

Absolutely amazing work. Loved it!!

This is precisely why I've yearned for a time machine. Thank you, Simon, this is gold.

The older, the more it sounds Scandinavian, old'ish, mainly Swedish / Norwegian. Really interesting !

@hadeurmom5796

3 жыл бұрын

norse vikings would've been able to hold some simple conversations with the anglo saxons! so yes they were quite similar quite literally not just accent wise

@englishmaninmedellin7294

3 жыл бұрын

It sounded a bit Scottish/Irish to me, with the earlier speech around 1400-1600. Is that more similar to Scandinavian? Are scots and Irish easier to understand for you guys? Fascinating, if so.

@VICKY08TZ

3 жыл бұрын

I got the same feeling! And I am not Scandinavian nor English. I thought it sounded completely Swedish/Norwegian. You can finally hear the germanic origin of English language.

@AngelofSin666666

3 жыл бұрын

@@hadeurmom5796 Actually this is something I have been really wondering while watching these Vikings/Last Kingdom shows. Since the Saxons and Norse languages have a common root, is it known to what extent they were able to understand each other, and how long it would take a Saxon "captured by Vikings" to learn their language to some extent?

@hadeurmom5796

3 жыл бұрын

@@AngelofSin666666 they would’ve only really been able to just about understand. i wouldn’t say complex conversations would’ve been very common due to just cultural terms and words and pronunciation. saxons captured or even saxons living amongst vikings, which was common in a lot of places, would’ve slowly been able to understand each-other more and more accurately

17th century: i shall nev'r give thee up, i shall nev'r let thee down! 21st century: *bo'ohw'o'wo'er*

@hagayuyu2941

2 жыл бұрын

Is it just me or did someone just Rick rolled me in 17th century England style

@carlosandleon

2 жыл бұрын

lmao took me a while to get the 21st century one

@smittywerbenjaegermanjense2350

2 жыл бұрын

@@carlosandleon I still can't get it🤣🤣

@carlosandleon

2 жыл бұрын

@@smittywerbenjaegermanjense2350 bottle of water

@urphakeandgey6308

2 жыл бұрын

It says "bo'll of wo'er," but all I see is "Boomhower." (I know it's "Boomhauer.")

I started to very gradually understand what was being said from 1466 up until 1586 where I could understand a significant amount. After that I could understand most of it up until 1706 from where I could understand everything being said from there on in ... so the time leading immediately up to 1706 is the most important for me personally in the context of this historical video clip. Well done for making this!

This was fun. Aside from listening to the accents, which was really fascinating, I liked hearing the stories from Christmases long, long ago!

My favorite thing about this (besides your voice) is how instead of just talking randomly you made it like a story- each man talking is supposed to be the grandson of the previous man talking. That was just a really cool thing to do.

@kaiabeatty9355

3 жыл бұрын

And then there's the one man reciting nursery rhymes lmao

@meganhartmann180

3 жыл бұрын

@@kaiabeatty9355 That's my favorite! I'm like, "Hey, I know this one!" Lol

@GargoyleBard

3 жыл бұрын

And then the next guy talks about how his grandfather would read books and poems to them...loved that detail

@kevinyoung42

3 жыл бұрын

Creative, interesting and entertaining 👍🏽

@TheRealShedLife

2 жыл бұрын

And they seem relevant to the times depicted - the worries or problems of folk in each era. And it sounds like I went back in time and am standing there, listening to some dude talk to me and in the early ones there was little to understand. The listener also thinks: what's this dude from the 14th century going to think when I start talking? Not to mention the time machine.

16th century really reminds me of some irish dialects

@SM_zzz

3 жыл бұрын

Which dialects?

@andyhall7032

3 жыл бұрын

@@bbclaus1716 see the 1706 section...perhaps the author just wished to add some variation...I'm not sure we see any great irish immigration until the 19th century

@andyhall7032

3 жыл бұрын

@De Bergin oh I'm sure they'd love that story !! take on cromwell's accent ?? unlikely...

@Mikamichae

3 жыл бұрын

@Seamus Mac Cathmhaoil the problem is you can break your penis. If the penis is violently twisted when erect, it can break. ... Men have several night-time erections. ... Penis length is not linked to foot size. ... Small penises make big erections. ... The penis is not a muscle.

@jackpants1832

3 жыл бұрын

Ye we left em behind haha lol

That's incredible. It wasn't until you got to 1706 that I could understand everything. Before that it was only maybe 3 words out of 10, and those other 7 sounded completely foreign.

This is incredible. Thank you so much for making this video

The 1766 accent sounds the most similar to the modern North American accent, which makes a lot of sense.

@paulryan94

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds nothing like the north American accent. What are you guys all on about.

@anglishbookcraft1516

2 жыл бұрын

@@paulryan94 I think you’re the one missing it, sounds just like American speech.

@nick15684

2 жыл бұрын

@@paulryan94 It sounds quite similar to a standard North American accent, a little different, no doubt, but by far the closest.

@willjackson6522

2 жыл бұрын

I think a funny thing to take from this is that the claim of many Americans knowing this information that they are speaking the “original English” is bullshit. The American-sounding era of British English was just that, a phase. Just as the German, Welsh and Scottish eras were. So they have just as much validity in saying they are speaking it correctly as Scottish people do. The British English accent never stops changing, the other English-speaking countries are essentially time capsules of what the then-British English accent sounded like.

@agitatorjr

2 жыл бұрын

@@willjackson6522 nice strawman. Who's saying original English?

As a professional linguist I can vouchsafe that Simon is using reliable sources, is a discernible reader, but also has an undeniable talent for accent work. In short, I recommend his clips to my students and also delight in them myself.

@onur4739

Жыл бұрын

You're not a professional linguist.

@Notemug

Жыл бұрын

@@onur4739 I can assure you that I am.

@alrightalright4585

Жыл бұрын

Why is every comment the same dudes talking smack? 🤣 just chill guys

@TheLunnyBear

Жыл бұрын

@@Notemug you're not

A Christmas classic, watch this every year with my family

Even with the most difficult of speech patterns, once you've heard two or three sentences, it is not difficult to very rapidly begin putting it all together in even an unconscious way. The things that make your own tongue so automatically understood will also be those same things that will quickly make what was initially unintelligible just as comfortable to understand.

I’m really confused how the London accent wavered around a Germanic-Celtic accent for 400 years and then, in the space of 50 years in the Victorian period, went from that to a recognisable east end accent!!

@RazorEdge2006

2 жыл бұрын

Industrial Revolution

@KHANSTER1029

2 жыл бұрын

Yup industrial revolution. To clarify it further, when the industrial revolution happened, people from many different cities with varying accents travelled to find work in big industrial cities like London and I think Birmingham. This intermingling of accents and speech styles rapidly changed the way the standard London accent was

@mariekatherine5238

2 жыл бұрын

Most likely globalization caused by the Industrial Revolution. We’re still on this trajectory with the internet. Worldwide and regional accents are disappearing.

@riotgrrrrl167

2 жыл бұрын

They started taking with Americans lol But tourists change accents do to pronunciation immigrants is really what im looking for.

@carlosandleon

2 жыл бұрын

@@mariekatherine5238 standard "american" is the accent most international students default to kinda

The early ones sound Dutch, you can hear the similarity with Germanic languages

@ainsleygritter7552

2 жыл бұрын

Yes! I heard the same thing!

@Likes_Trains

2 жыл бұрын

sounds more Frisian than Dutch :)

@JudgeJulieLit

2 жыл бұрын

Anglo Saxon, Old English, was a Germanic language.

@merlin2627

2 жыл бұрын

@@Likes_Trains totally right, English is part of the Anglo-Frisian branch, so English is nearer to Frisian than Dutch.

@lil_weasel219

2 жыл бұрын

ot is a germanic language

This was an incredible watch! I’ve been reading through Shakespeare’s histories lately and it’s fascinating to think that not only did his actors speak quite differently from how we do today, but the figures he was writing about would’ve spoken completely differently from him and his actors! I wish I could live a couple hundred years to see where English ends up going in the future!

I loved this video!!! My ancestors were from Denchworth, England in the 1400’s. I could picture them speaking these dialects. Thank you from America.

I laughed at the disclaimer that said, "these are reconstructions and not actual recordings from the time." Anyone who thinks there are actual recordings of 14th Century people speaking English have been watching too much Doctor Who!

@russellszabadosaka5-pindin849

3 жыл бұрын

Kalinysta Zvoruna those are the same people who’ll spend lots of money on an “ancient” coin dated 56 BC.

@kalinystazvoruna8702

3 жыл бұрын

@@russellszabadosaka5-pindin849 Yep. Although a former boss of mine had gone to Jerusalem and came back with a "present" for me. It was a piece of pottery he said dated to the Roman era. He said he just picked it up off the ground as stuff like that was just lying around. Don't know if it's real or not, but I still have it. Reminded me of a Mayan friend I had who told me that in her ancestral homeland, which she occasionally visited to see relatives, they'd find Mayan artefacts lying around their backyard. ::shrugs::

@thisisme2681

3 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣

@ayla5930

3 жыл бұрын

@@kalinystazvoruna8702 don’t know about the people you know but there are places that just have artifacts lying around in fact there’s places like that to this day out west in the desert and in some of the National parks although if you were to remove anything I’m sure you’d be given an extremely large fine

@kalinystazvoruna8702

3 жыл бұрын

@@ayla5930 Wouldn't be surprised in the least. I met my Mayan friend back in the 1970s and, as I said, when she went back to her ancestral home, she'd find these artefacts in the backyard. Unfortunately, I lost touch with her in the late 1970s.

Can’t believe you actually needed to tell folk they are not actually recordings of folk from before recording existed😂😂

@twiglet2214

2 жыл бұрын

Yep - i saw one recently where the narrator said " ...and of course there was no electricity then.." referring back to 600 years ago ! And then there was the plastic self assembly dog kennel for sale with a picture on the box it came in of a retriever by the kennel and the caveat " dog not included " !

@tamsinwood2

2 жыл бұрын

🤣

@bigsteve6729

2 жыл бұрын

They've actually played back sounds that were accidentally etched into clay pots as the sounds made at the time etched sound waves into the clay as they were moulding them with some sort of brush tool on the wheel and the vibrations were etched into it. Google it pretty interesting, so there kind of is recordings that exist before recordings 😁👍😂

@twiglet2214

2 жыл бұрын

@@bigsteve6729 Absolutely correct - they discovered small engines fitted to the clay receptacles and they think they were discarded because it drove them potty.They used them in Colchester where i live - Britains oldest recorded town - so yet again factually correct - they were known as clayers which is where the word players has it's origins.

@SubrosaJoe

2 жыл бұрын

Folk

I really appreciate the work that went into this. I love learning about speech and the evolution of language. I also write lots of historical fiction. Some of which are from london. So it's nice to hear what my victorian OCs may have sounded like compared to the modern englush accent. Thank you for this

This is brilliant it sounds like a mix between Scottish, Scandinavian, Irish and a lot of other modern English accents, sounds very accurate

note to self... don't set the time machine any earlier than the 1600's, or you will not understand jack shit.

@user-no9im9px6e

3 жыл бұрын

This is what i always think... will i be able to speak to english (or dutch) people if i go far back in time XP

@glenamw

3 жыл бұрын

LOL, omg, you are too funny

@conciseenglish7486

3 жыл бұрын

The trick is to just try to think of written English completely phonetically. For example, they used to pronounce "said" like "sah-eed" instead of "sed"

@Why_did_YouTube_add_handles

3 жыл бұрын

@@conciseenglish7486 ur actually smart ngl

@InfernosReaper

3 жыл бұрын

I could get the hang of it, but for awhile, I'd be a might bit sodded...

This is the story of a bunch of Irishmen recovering from a drunken party and trying to put up a London accent at the end.

@thomashernandez8700

3 жыл бұрын

The letter "R" use to be Rhotic, not non-Rhotic . The change was a result of some posh Southern Englanders, I suppose. I think Beau Brummel was credited with this at one point. Watch the youtube videos on Shakespeare's pronounciation in his lifetime. American here. Yes, we pronounce our R's.

@b43xoit

3 жыл бұрын

@A S Yeah, I've also heard some non-rhotic speech in Georgia, US. But not necessarily from everyone there.

@foelancer7625

3 жыл бұрын

@@thomashernandez8700 there are rhotic accents in the UK as well

@bacicinvatteneaca

3 жыл бұрын

@@foelancer7625 and then there's Jamaican, where rhoticity has no consistent rules whatsoever and it goes on a word by word basis

@missmisery8612

3 жыл бұрын

@A S Yep haha. I've actually kind of noticed a difference between Massachusetts and Maine (I'm from ME) where Mass folks will say "lobstah" and mainers will say "lobstuh".

I love these videos so much , so interesting and so different. Your an extremely intelligent person

Just came across this. Wow. I am from London and this is a breathtaking undertaking, like init. Congrats mate.

Can I just say, not only is this a brilliant way to show the evolution of a language, but such a difficult concept to pull off? I can hardly imitate an Australian accent even with the ability to listen to clips of Australians speaking as much as I want. To do this with just study and books? To move through time with your speech and be able to do so consistently enough to tell a unique story in each pronunciation? That's some crazy impressive stuff right there, mate. Kudos!

@simonroper9218

3 жыл бұрын

I'll definitely have made some mistakes, but thank you! :)

@glakshay2475

2 жыл бұрын

@@simonroper9218 that is some serious modesty level Simon.

@alickroberts5194

2 жыл бұрын

@@glakshay2475 well it is slighly easier to imitate an accent when no one actually currently uses it and can gainsay your guess.

@iwontlikeyourcomment5487

2 жыл бұрын

I’m Australian and even I can’t intimidate the one of those stereotypical Australian accents

@Ublivion01

2 жыл бұрын

@@iwontlikeyourcomment5487 well when I try to sound Australian I make my voice more nasally and less deep alongside the accent itself. Maybe try to deepen your voice a bit not too much and open your mouth more roundly instead of horizontally, but nothing extremely noticeable. This may not work at all, but I’m an American so I have no idea how I make my accent.

I have a linguistics degree, but I'm not doing the work this man is doing. HE IS A TRUE LINGUIST

@sylamy7457

3 жыл бұрын

Did you get the degree because you actually enjoy linguistics? Just wondering

@danielasanchez4674

3 жыл бұрын

@@sylamy7457 yeah, I spend my free time learning about languages so linguistics was what I chose lol. You dont have to get a career based on your degree though lol

@jessicaeasterlyfriel5699

3 жыл бұрын

Same here. I have a degree in lit/linguistics and I'm not doing this work.

I only managed to understand something from 1766 onwards. And I'm a fluent English speaker! Incredible how a language evolves over time, almost to make it seem like a different language. Thank you for this wonderful video.

Wow this is freaking incredible. Bravo, young man!

the way my grandmother sounded basically the exact same as 1946 has me deep in my feels

@alfredestrada2729

Жыл бұрын

You remember a voice from 1946? 😳

@redadamearth

Жыл бұрын

@@alfredestrada2729 If you want to know how people sounded in England in 1946, just watch a British movie made in '46.

@alfredestrada2729

Жыл бұрын

@@redadamearth I know invisible man 1933

@irishcountrygirl78

Жыл бұрын

@@redadamearth or news report .

@brucetucker4847

Жыл бұрын

@@irishcountrygirl78 News reports would be RP, wouldn't they?

up until 1600 the accents sound like a geordie 5 pints deep

@neonskyline1

2 жыл бұрын

yeh i've just commented that, anglo saxon

@leahjsmith5484

2 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣😂😂

@claredyson9936

2 жыл бұрын

Damn I thought I would be smart and comment like that! I live above Newcastle and they do talk like that 🤣

@ShiloStorm

2 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂

@sarahfender8400

2 жыл бұрын

especially 1346 ... to be honest doens't sound much different from the older blokes in my family

Thank you for this. All the best. Always.

This is so interesting! It's amazing how you can detect regional accents as the years pass, despite it being a London accent. Thanks, Simon 😃

I feel like the earlier accents are what English would sound like if I didn’t know it

@bigfenix8272

3 жыл бұрын

I can pick out words and generally follow what's going on, but, it feels like I am on the "beginner conversation" bit of the language

@465marko

3 жыл бұрын

It's llike 'name one thing in this picture' - it sounds right, but I can't pick out any words

@paigerasmussen5212

3 жыл бұрын

I'm from DC. The earlier ones are what a guy whom I knew in college up North sounded like when drunk (to ME, minus the trilled Rs and sing-songyness). A lot of kids would let their hyper-local accents out when drunk; he'd spent his summers working on the docks somewhere in Maine. There were other Northern kids who had no problem understanding what he said but I felt like I was just barely making out that it was English he was speaking vs. a Norwegian tongue. So while I was blown away by how similar the 1806 clip sounds to what I and most of the US speaks, it's those very early ones that represent whatever is going on in our more cloistered areas -- and we have a few.

Ok memo to myself: Don't travel further back than 1466

@cheeky1178

3 жыл бұрын

Kudos to you I can't go back further then the 1700s or I'll be the village idiot.

@originaluddite

3 жыл бұрын

Likely we would each be fine after a few weeks or even days of exposure to it.

@Sylkenwolf

3 жыл бұрын

I'd be ok in 1300's but not 1400's. Lol. I'll never meet Jamie Frasier

@SerenaYip

3 жыл бұрын

@@Sylkenwolf but Claire meets him in 1743?

@PeteLogan101

3 жыл бұрын

😆

Thanks Simon, great work.

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much and cheers from France !

You may not have degrees or professional qualifications in linguists but you're DOING THE WORK, SIR. I sincerely hope that professional linguists take delight in your enthusiastic and quite scholarly, if technically amateur, contributions to society's understanding of the field. Viewers with no notion of linguistics whatsoever will stumble on your videos, become intrigued, and some percentage of those people may actually get into linguistics professionally. You're a great contributor to the field of study in that way. This is absolutely lovely. Bravo and Merry Christmas.

@jamiel6005

3 жыл бұрын

For someone who is in secondary school, and looking to get into (probably historical?) linguistics, what would be beneficial to study/what paths can I take? Sorry if it’s a hard question, I just have absolutely no idea how to go into linguistics professionally.

@swevixeh

3 жыл бұрын

"People ask not what you know but what you have studied" -Some famous ethnic German statesman

@joewood487

3 жыл бұрын

@@jamiel6005 I have no idea but the best place to start if you don't get a reply on here would be to look at a few different linguistics degrees and see what entry requirements they have. Also don't be shy to phone up a university linguistics department and just ask them. Ask to speak to the course head. You'll find many of them are friendly people very happy to talk about their course. Sorry I couldn't be more useful! Good luck!

@AngelEarth2011

3 жыл бұрын

@@jamiel6005 You might consider starting with a degree in literature, or history (or a joint degree in literature and history), with your final dissertation focusing on historical linguistics in relation to some historical period or literature of a historical period. After that, you could do a Masters degree in linguistics, if possible one that has historical linguistics as a key component, and ending in a thesis that focuses on historical linguistics. And if you want to pursue an academic career, or simply want the intellectual challenge, you could commit 3-4 years to doing a PhD.

@Matty002

3 жыл бұрын

i wish there was more citizen science in the field of linguistics. the only one that comes to mind is the fourth floor stuff with labov but that of course doesnt technically count

21st century: u fookin wot m8??

@cyanscrewdriver2092

2 жыл бұрын

“Oi bruv wot u sayin”

@acutetriangle8923

2 жыл бұрын

@verb8m HAHAHAHAHAHHA SO FUCKING FUNNY LOL YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS 😐

@brian.8712

2 жыл бұрын

@@acutetriangle8923 ahlie

@tiaan8551

2 жыл бұрын

@@acutetriangle8923 ware droe knot jy

@travelbugse2829

2 жыл бұрын

@@acutetriangle8923 This is all Greek to me.

I think the Southeastern accent from 1406 is officially my favorite accent. Of all of them. Of all languages. You made that sound so natural

1586 is somewhat comparable to certain accents of Northern England; and I find that incredibly interesting! I love this video, it really shows you how much this language I know and love has changed over the years - especially compared to neighbouring languages such as French.

For every 2-3 shots of vodka my English appears to travel 50 years back in time, and around the 15th I start speaking Indo-European

@brihqnnq

3 жыл бұрын

😂

@Logined85

3 жыл бұрын

If you were not squatting it wasn’t vodka

@hwlsgrl

2 жыл бұрын

@@Logined85 lmaooo

@fifacolourcommentary2332

2 жыл бұрын

I used to speak my own language as a kid, don't ask me why but I did, yes it's weird

@mpgnz73

2 жыл бұрын

My drinking is even worse. I start speaking "cave man" dialect.

I’m sure some of the Scottish highlands still speak in 1406

@liamhemmings9039

3 жыл бұрын

Reminds me of accents from around Thurso and Wick.

@tomimpala

3 жыл бұрын

It sounds more Welsh but

@hiimpaul5171

3 жыл бұрын

@@tomimpala ​Google global truth project and read "the Present" to see the truth about life/death. Nothing is more important than checking it is true, especially pgs 1-4

@charmedprince

3 жыл бұрын

Looking For Love your profile pic is everything!

@denierdev9723

3 жыл бұрын

@@hiimpaul5171 The fuck does that have to do with anything?

It's crazy how much knowledge there is to be had in this little old world

It’s astonishing to me the story you tell at 1706.. my grandfather was mayor of London.. 1666 I’m his direct descendant. What’s wild to me is hearing this and gathering all details for the experience lol very well done

@DM-ur8vc

Ай бұрын

Your grandfather was mayor in 1666? How old are you!!!???...

@surfinairwaves9284

Ай бұрын

@@DM-ur8vc do you presume im older? Why do you ask lol

@DM-ur8vc

Ай бұрын

@@surfinairwaves9284 If you grandfather was alive in 1666, that makes you at least 300 years old.

@surfinairwaves9284

Ай бұрын

@@DM-ur8vc you do realize you have a grandfather from 1666 as well right? You have parents and they all had parents all the way since the beginning of time to Adam and Eve..

@DM-ur8vc

Ай бұрын

@@surfinairwaves9284 No - we had ancestors. Grandfather(s) are our parent's parent(s). Further back you would need to apply great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, great-great-great-grandfather and so on.