which is older English or Arabic?

Question

Can today's English people understand English spoken1000 years ago?

Answer 1

Arabic and no. Not by any means. With slangs and geographical moves changing people the language changes too. I can't hardly understand the British sometimes... hell I can't understand southerners at times!

Answer 2

English speakers of the present couln't understand the English of as little as 500 years ago. The language of 1000 years ago might not have been called English.

Arabic also develops over time. The changes are more rapid in a technological society as new words have to be created for new concepts. (the word for air travel and long distance communication 1000 years ago was probably "magic.") Arabic is a semetic language, such as Aramaic and Hebrew. These languages have common root.

Modern English, on the other hand is a mix of several languages, primarily that of the Angles, Germanic and with a generous helping of the Romance languages. Germanic and Nordic languages may have a common root, but this root is a different root from that of the Romance languages like French, Italian and Spanish. The root for these is Latin.

Tracing the ancestries of English and Arabic suggests the purer form of Arabic has been spoken longer.

Answer 3

To answer that question we have to look at the origins of each language.
First of all English, has been widely used in modern times, and as well, can trace a lot of it's words and phrases back to Roman times, as well, it's ability to assimilate words from other languages.
sometimes, you don't know how much is what, until you find a biluingal box, and see what words match...and how close they really are.
English also has shared with some other languages, Spanish for example, futbol, it pretty obvious, on what it comes from.
Arabic, for it's purposes, has been around a long time as well, a form of several middle eastern languages. However, Arabic, does have a multitude of dialects, similar to chinese, and other multiple regionalities.
Arabic, can be traced to the holy lands, along with Aramic, and other dialects that existed, and some that are no longer in effect....or, very rarely spoken, to put it bluntly.
As for your two questions, Arabic, in it's different forms, would be older....but for your second question, I'd say yes...simply, because some things don't change a lot....and as well, I'd imagine you wouldn't put a rapper into the 10th century....he'd probably end up burned as a heretic.
However, lets open this up....would an arabic person in bible times understand primitive Arabic, since certian nationalistic variants didn't arrive until the 14th century?

Answer 4

Arabic

Answer 5

Arabic

Answer 6

Arabic

Answer 7

Arabic

Answer 8

Today's English speakers have a hard time understanding Old English, it's essentially a different language. Arabic is a century younger than English, I believe. English began around the 5th century CE, and Arabic began around the 6th, I think.

Answer 9

Arabic is older but a different sort of Arabic... as a matter of fact... some English derives from Arabic. But the original form of English began and was developed through a combination of Moorish (I am not 100% sure the Moore's language is referenced by this title) and Phoenician dialects. These two groups of people were of middle eastern decent and Arabic is a grouping of a language made up from a combination of Middle eastern languages.

Answer 10

Today's English speakers cannot understand English of 1000 years ago unless they learn it as a second language, then they can. Today's "Arabic" speakers are in EXACTLY the same boat, however. ALL speakers of the modern Arabic LANGUAGES do not learn Arabic of 1000 years ago. They learn their modern languages just like English speakers do. The Arabic of the Koran they MUST learn as a second language. But since they are exposed to that language regularly in Koran readings, on TV, etc. they learn it as a child, so it is easier for them. If Chaucer were read daily on US television, then American children would be just as fluent in Middle English as children in the Arab world are fluent in their second language--Modern Standard Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic is NO ONE's native language, it is EVERYONE's second language only. So English and any of the modern Arabic languages (there are between 4 and 20 of them depending on how you count) are ALL the same age.

Answer 11

Arabic!