Why is Old English hardly similar to Modern English? I can't even recognize it?

Question

Is Old English the same as Anglo-Saxon?
Is it taught in any colleges?

Answer 1

Yes, Old English is the same as Anglo-Saxon; it's the language spoken in England from when the Anglo-Saxons moved in (5th or 6th century) until, let's say, 1066 when the French moved in.

The main grammatical difference is that Old English had a lot of case endings. I believe that meant word order was not as strict.
And obviously a lot of the words they used have changed meaning or fallen into disuse (replaced by French words brought by the Normans). Words like "night" and "might" were really pronounced with a throat-clearing sound where the "gh" are.

Yeah it's taught here and there.

Answer 2

One of the most important differences is that there was a major change in the way English was spelled between Old English and Middle English. Old English was spelled following typical Germanic patterns, where c represented k or ch. But after the Norman invasion, French patterns replaced the Germanic patterns so that c represented s or k and ch represented ch. The vowels were also recast so that u in Old English was respelled in Middle English with ou. There were about a dozen major changes in the spelling system that made Old English look different than Middle English, even though the pronounciation remained quite steady except for some restructuring of the vowels.

And Old English is taught at MANY colleges and universities in the English department. If you are interested, I have tutored Old English at my university on many occasions.

Answer 3

Language is a living thing. It grows and changes. It adopts words from other languages to more accurately express thoughts and feelings. Anglo-Saxon is a predecessor of Old English, Modern English is a descendent of Old English. The reason Old English is hard to read is that certain words and forms of words have fallen out of use and others have replaced them. Also, at that time spelling was not standardized. People who could write (very few) spelled words as they felt the words sounded. The advent of the printing press lead to standardized spelling as literature began to be distributed widely outside of the area it was written in. An example of the way words and usage change is found in the word "spelled" above. At one time, the past tense of "spell" would have been "spelt". This form is still occasionally used, but is almost obsolete.

Answer 4

i feel the same, except i don't know if anglo-saxon is same as Old English.. it aint' taught at my college...

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Old English is quite different, more difficult.

Answer 7

I'm Japanese and don't understand Old Japanese. We study it in high school, and it's like a foreign language to me. I need an Old Japanese - Modern Japanese dictionary to read it.