If I were to go back in time to the American revolution time, would my English be understood.?

Answer 1

Yes, the Court of Henry VIII made the decision to adopt English as the official language, which had been half French and a little Latin before then, and for the first time, the Royalty spoke the same as the common folk in England.

The result was 5 or 6 attempts to print a Bible in English, and the final attempt, the KJV (King James Version) fixed a common set of phrases on the country, which before that had been very different local dialects.

America as a colony, was less diverse in its accents than England, in that the many immigrants from Europe who settled there learned to speak the official English, and not some local dialect, so you would have been understood with out many problems.

The grammar was a little bit more formal, however, it was relaxed somewhat in the colonies, hence the difference in spelling and Grammar today between American, and English - English.

However, at the time of the revolution, German was just as common as English in the New World, indeed English was only adopted by the Independent America by six votes over German.

If you had come to England during this time however, and strayed out of London and the home counties (south East England, then you would have had some problems in being understood. English, as we know it today was only really established with the railways in 1830, when a common pronunciation was spread with easy commuting.

Answer 2

Most of it, yes. They'd think you had an odd accent but in those days people spoke with all sorts of different accents. Sometimes you'd use words that they didn't understand but you'd be able to substitute older phrases easily enough.

I think the words in your question, for example, with the posible exception of "revolution" would all have been understood

Answer 3

Yes, but obviously many terms that are used today involve concepts that did not exist then. Likewise many terms that would have been in common usage then have now fallen from use today.

Remember society then was still primarily based on agriculture, so unless you know about that topic you would be taken as being quite backward!

But the basic language would be the same.

Answer 4

Of course, and after a while, better.

Answer 5

Why certainly