Cool, did not know that. The one we get to hear most often is the ghoti = fish example for unphoneticness of English.

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
How about Ladle Rat Rotten Hut?

Your point about the sounds shifting is interesting, I've noticed that if I watch a long enough (subtitled!) Dutch movie, by the end I can pick up a few words which are similar or the same as English once a few sounds are changed a little.
In reply to this comment by DerHasisttot:
I've onyl read ballads and such from these periods, I can read middle english Ok, old english: Not really, only if I really get into it and learn some symbols again. Reading frisian is far easier than understanding it by hearing, the same probably goes for swabian. Most of the times you just have to shift some different sounds to certain letters and you've got an approximation of a more standard german.
The northern german intonation (of their dialect) however is hell for me to understand, that's completely different, as you said. Swabian is spoken more softly and sonorant in the back of the throat, whereas northern german sounds 'headier' and nasal to me.

How about Ladle Rat Rotten Hut?

Your point about the sounds shifting is interesting, I've noticed that if I watch a long enough (subtitled!) Dutch movie, by the end I can pick up a few words which are similar or the same as English once a few sounds are changed a little.
In reply to this comment by DerHasisttot:
I've onyl read ballads and such from these periods, I can read middle english Ok, old english: Not really, only if I really get into it and learn some symbols again. Reading frisian is far easier than understanding it by hearing, the same probably goes for swabian. Most of the times you just have to shift some different sounds to certain letters and you've got an approximation of a more standard german.
The northern german intonation (of their dialect) however is hell for me to understand, that's completely different, as you said. Swabian is spoken more softly and sonorant in the back of the throat, whereas northern german sounds 'headier' and nasal to me.

>> ^oritteropo:

Have you ever read any old or middle English? I studied "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", which is middle English, but old English should be a bit closer to Frisian... which as I read it would be about as far from swabian as you can get?
In reply to this comment by DerHasisttot:
Hehe. I had to think about it for a second before I knew what he meant with "gopfertamti." A northern german would have been unlikely to understand the phrase, but my dialect (swabian) and his dialect (high alemannic) are related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alemannic_German (It's funny to hear french people from the Alsace with a related dialect in a different language.)
That's also why you can't get a translation from the internet, it's more of a dialect than a variant.
[...]


I've onyl read ballads and such from these periods, I can read middle english Ok, old english: Not really, only if I really get into it and learn some symbols again. Reading frisian is far easier than understanding it by hearing, the same probably goes for swabian. Most of the times you just have to shift some different sounds to certain letters and you've got an approximation of a more standard german.
The northern german intonation (of their dialect) however is hell for me to understand, that's completely different, as you said. Swabian is spoken more softly and sonorant in the back of the throat, whereas northern german sounds 'headier' and nasal to me.

Have you ever read any old or middle English? I studied "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", which is middle English, but old English should be a bit closer to Frisian... which as I read it would be about as far from swabian as you can get?

In reply to this comment by DerHasisttot:
Hehe. I had to think about it for a second before I knew what he meant with "gopfertamti." A northern german would have been unlikely to understand the phrase, but my dialect (swabian) and his dialect (high alemannic) are related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alemannic_German (It's funny to hear french people from the Alsace with a related dialect in a different language.)
That's also why you can't get a translation from the internet, it's more of a dialect than a variant.
[...]

>> ^MarineGunrock:

Very cool, but having a garden does not make one a farmer.


Well, according to the English language, yes it does

Main Entry: farm·er
Pronunciation: \ˈfär-mər\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 : a person who pays a fixed sum for some privilege or source of income
2 : a person who cultivates land or crops or raises animals (as livestock or fish)


And what is a "Farm" you may ask?

Main Entry: 1farm
Pronunciation: \ˈfärm\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English ferme, from Anglo-French, from fermer to fix, rent, from Latin firmare to make firm, from firmus firm
Date: 14th century
4 : a tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes
5 a : a plot of land devoted to the raising of animals and especially domestic livestock b : a tract of water reserved for the artificial cultivation of some aquatic life form (a fish farm)


But you're probably wanting to use the lesser-term "Gardener" for what these people are doing, which is historically inaccurate. See, everywhere else on the planet other than good ole USA, a "garden" is a yard. And the actual term "Gardener" really means:

Gardener
Function: noun
Date: circa 1763
: a person who is engaged in the development and decorative planting of gardens and grounds


Yep, decorative planting of gardens and grounds. Not the cultivation of food and livestock/fish.

technically speaking, the song is "Sumer Is Icumen In" and it is written/sung in Middle English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer_Is_Icumen_In

funnily enough the use ov 'ax' for ask goes all the way back to Old English:
[quote]the Old English verb áscian also appeared as acsian, and both forms continued into Middle English. The two forms co-existed and evolved separately in various regions of England, and later America. The variant ascian gives us the modern standard English ask, but the form "axe", probably derived from Old English acsian, appears in Chaucer: "I axe, why the fyfte man Was nought housband to the Samaritan?" (Wife of Bath's Prologue, 1386.) It was considered acceptable in literary English until about 1600 [13] and can still be found in some dialects of English including, of course, African American Vernacular English. It is, however, one of the most stigmatized features of AAVE, often commented on by teachers. It also persists in Ulster Scots as /aks/ and Jamaican English as /aːks/, from where it has entered the London dialect of British English as /ɑːks/.[/quote]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonant_clusters

A <a rel="nofollow" href=http://www.answers.com/topic/juke">juke is a feint used to fake out an opponent, generally in sports but also in other areas like aerial dogfighting. Answers.com tells us it comes from the Middle English word "jowken", meaning to bend in a supple way.

Jook is a popular Chinese breakfast dish that is more commonly known in English-speaking countries as "rice congee".

Woo-hoo! Huzzah for Middle English!