whats the farthest back in england's history you can time travel and still use modern english to get by?

Question

how far back could you go in british history and still have the inhabitants understand your modern american english and vice versa.

Answer 1

The English of Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake was perfectly clear to us, because we can still read and understand what they said - Elizabeth at Tilbury, "I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but the heart and stomach of a king", or Drake at Plymouth, "We still have time to finish our game, and beat the Spaniards too". We can understand almost everything in Edward VI's 1549 Book of Common Prayer for the Anglican Church, although a few words have shifted their meanings. Basically, the English of this period was frozen for centuries by Shakespeare's plays and the King James version of the Bible.

It is a lot different 100 years earlier. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are still read, and Mediaeval Christmas Carols and Mystery Plays are still performed, but many more words have changed their meanings or dropped out of use, peculiar word endings are used, and the order of words in sentences is not what we are used to.

"Ne had the apple,
The apple taken ben,
Ne hadde never our Lady
A ben hevene Quene."

We could get the general drift of what we listened to, but our modern spoken English would be very unlikely to be understood.

Answer 2

I took an applied grad course in english transcription, and we never used anything before about 1500. It was WAY too muddled beyond that. There were some words that could be picked out, but not too many. There were characters that have disappeared in the last 300 years - like the "thorn" which looked like y, but was pronounced "th". Ever see a shop sign that said "ye olde...."? Its not supposed to be the "yee" sound, but is olde english for "the". I'm sure, though, understanding English would go a little farther back than reading it.

Although, we would understand them better than they would understand us - we've added SO many words, and slang, etc

Answer 3

About the time of Elizabeth I. It has been said that in the years between the coming to the throne of her father, Henry VIII and her death English changed out of all recognition and people from each end of that time span would not be able to understand each other. Interestingly enough, were such time travel possible, it's more likely that the Elizabethans would understand Americans than Brits. American English still uses words from that era that have dropped out of use here - e.g. 'platter' for 'plate', 'closet' for cupboard'.

Answer 4

You could probably make yourself understood in many parts of England in 1500 but would not be in 1400.

Answer 5

i'd say about 300 years

Answer 6

When are you leaving? Can I go with you?