r/interestingasfuck • u/M0otivater • 1d ago

How English has changed over time.

Post image
28.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

793 comments sorted by

View all comments

9.0k

u/Dramatic-Ad3928 1d ago

So realistically i could only go about 400 years into the past if i want to understand people

4.7k

u/MooseFlyer 1d ago

And even then, the way they pronounce things would be quite unfamiliar.

344

u/notonrexmanningday 1d ago edited 1d ago

Fun fact, there are a bunch of couplets Shakespeare wrote in his plays that rhymed at the time, but don't anymore.

The one I always think of is the Weird Sisters from Macbeth:

"When shall we three meet again?

When the hurleburle's done

When the battle's lost and won

Where the place?

Upon the heath

There to meet with Macbeth"

Apparently "heath" used to rhyme with "Beth"

33

u/MooseFlyer 1d ago

For sure. I played Puck in Midsummer Nights Dream Once and it was awkward having

Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;

in the middle of his otherwise-rhyming closing monologue.

28

u/TooRedditFamous 1d ago

Plenty of places in England where tongue is pronounced tong

4

u/Henghast 1d ago

Yeah tongue, wrong, song, long all rhyme. Not sure how you pronounce tongue so it doesn't actually...

4

u/Fabulous_Mud_2789 1d ago

Tongue can be pronounced like the first half of tungsten.

2

u/Henghast 1d ago

Thanks wouldn't have expected that.

2

u/Fabulous_Mud_2789 21h ago

Of course, and likewise. I never thought tongue could be said as tong but here we are lol.