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.
[...]

>> ^marinara:

just found the torrent of this show
"Eddie Izzard presents: Mongrel Nation"


http://videosift.com/video/Mongrel-Nation-Eddie-Izzard-on-Old-English-and-Old-England

Milked it for cheese, I hear.>> ^mxxcon:

Eddie Izzard is awesome!
So what did he do w/ that cow?

I really really like this one: http://videosift.com/video/Voices-from-the-Field

Sometimes I watch it to be happy that there are differences made by better people than me.

Edit: And this I really like, because without the sift I wouldn't have seen it: http://videosift.com/video/Mongrel-Nation-Eddie-Izzard-on-Old-English-and-Old-England

Huzzah! Ye Olde English for SCHWING!

Looks surprisingly not bad. No speaking in fake olde Englishe, and they're not using a super-noble type Thor. Maybe it won't suck.

Oh yes, it's VERY clear, that's what they were trying to do

>> ^thinker247:

If you arrange the letters of both NUJV and HELP into alphabetical order you have JNUV and EHLP. If you convert them to their ordinal rank, you have 10,14,21,22 and 5,8,12,16. If you subtract the numbers of the second set from the numbers of the first set you have 5,6,9,6. Transform that back into letters and you spell EFIF. Spelled backward, that is fife, which is the Old English word for five. It's plain to see that the Beatles were mentioning their manager (and so-called fifth Beatle), Brian Epstein.

If you arrange the letters of both NUJV and HELP into alphabetical order you have JNUV and EHLP. If you convert them to their ordinal rank, you have 10,14,21,22 and 5,8,12,16. If you subtract the numbers of the second set from the numbers of the first set you have 5,6,9,6. Transform that back into letters and you spell EFIF. Spelled backward, that is fife, which is the Old English word for five. It's plain to see that the Beatles were mentioning their manager (and so-called fifth Beatle), Brian Epstein.

More power to you, I am not sure if either version of the song is "as old as the hills" or one of those "when I was your age" uphill, snow, man eating rabbits stories that some how is supposed to make the story true because it might be old.

Hope you at least checked out the animated version before deciding. Personally I look at it like paid performer Bob Saget ran out of material, so I hope the song is old or he's not giving someone credit.

>> ^dannym3141:

>> ^Porksandwich:
Reminds me of.....which with the animation is a better version.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/460854

Ugh sorry to be picky, but when i hear someone say that an animated, modernised version of a folk song posted on newgrounds is better than a man sat singing a song as old as the hills to a crowd of laughing people using an instrument as old as the hills, i die a little inside

>> ^Porksandwich:

Reminds me of.....which with the animation is a better version.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/460854


Ugh sorry to be picky, but when i hear someone say that an animated, modernised version of a folk song posted on newgrounds is better than a man sat singing a song as old as the hills to a crowd of laughing people using an instrument as old as the hills, i die a little inside

Your video, Bob Saget Does An Old English Folk Song, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^spoco2:

Man, I was sure this would have been here... kudos for making it so


I'm positive that I've seen it here before. Maybe it was killed at some point.