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/lit/ - Literature

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21876663 No.21876663 [Reply] [Original]

What are the oldest texts you can read in your language without a dictionary?
>English
>16th century writings like The Faerie Queene or Shakespeare's plays

>> No.21876676

>>21876663
No, I never read without a dictionary. Why would you deprive yourself of that most exigent device?

>> No.21876677

>>21876663
The Bible because it was written in English

>> No.21876684

I can "read" anything without a dictionary. I can more or less comprehend ancient Norman French poetry as well as I can comprehend Pynchon, even if I don't quite understand what the hell either of them are talking about.

>> No.21876957

>>21876663
Pearl Poet and Chaucer, so middle English

>> No.21876971

Εl Cantar de mio Çid

>> No.21876980

>>21876676
Exigent only to demi-analphabetic troglodytes such as thyself

>> No.21876984

It takef a bit off pravtive but onve you got into it the text bevomef readable

>> No.21876985

>>21876663
Most educated people can read and understand Chaucer but they won't get all of it. But honestly it's the same with Shakespeare, language has changed so much since the early modern period that a large percentage of people reading it only understand ~65% of it

>> No.21877551

>>21876957
I’ll give you Chaucer, but Pearl poet is largely incomprehensible to most modern English speakers

>> No.21877616

>>21876984
BUgs... is that you?

>> No.21877734

>>21876663
I can read Beowulf in the original.
I can't understand it, but I can read it.

>> No.21877754

>>21876677
Here's your (you)

>> No.21877799

The Faerie Queene seems excruciatingly odd to pair with Shakespeare in this context. Shakespeare tremendously influenced modern usage and vocabulary, becoming a major authority cited by Johnson’s dictionary for examples of usage. The Faerie Queene on the other hand, consciously and deliberately employs both usage and vocabulary which is very archaic for the time it is written in (to the extent that some critics said it was marred by this).

>> No.21877810

>>21877551
So is the Canterbury Tales. Both Perle and Canterbury Tales can of course be read and understood and correctly recited without much difficulty by modern English speakers but they do have to at least learn pronunciation and will have to have annotations if they want to understand unfamiliar words and usage (but it’s absolutely worth it imo).

>> No.21877820

>>21876985
I'd say it's more the fact that the average person reads at a 5th grade level. You could hand someone a Virginia Woolf novel and they'd probably understand even less than they would with Shakespeare

>> No.21877849

>>21877734
You mean you can parse though it. Reading implies understanding.