"Their dances which they vfe att their hyghe feastes"
Old English. I am not entirely sure the "vfe" word, but I am fairly certain this translates to something like "Their dances which they use at their huge feasts" or in more "correct" English "They dance (as shown) at large feasts"
It made me wonder when I saw this in my United States History class, why did the language change? Was it just progression? the V's changed to U's? Some words just lost letters after a long time?
That was my first thought, and it is probably true, but it is also very strange. Because this sentence was written in the 1600s. Just 200-something years ago. Or, to put it in better perspective, it was written just 100 years before the constitution (which uses 'proper' English) was written. The language hasn't really changed much in the past 100 years. What happened between the time that sentence was written and thought to be proper, and the time the United States constitution was written? Why did the English Language change so much over such a short period of time? why did it obtain new rules so fast?
I did a bit of research, because and found out that apparently what is written above isn't "Old English", as my English Teacher claimed. it is actually what is referred to as "Early Modern English" where words and rules used today were beginning to form, while still taking some of the grammar and pronunciation rules from Old English. The time line (according to Wikipedia) goes like this:
450-1100: Old English (like how Beowulf was written)
1100-1500: Middle English (author Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in this)
1500-1650: Early Modern English (what this was written in, and Shakespeare)
1650-present: Modern English
Old English is apparently a mixture between Germanic languages and the Romance Languages, It was largely pronounced phonetically, and had few grammar rules.
I hope you enjoyed this. I find it crazy how language changes over time. This is just a small sample off of one layer of the whole cake of languages.
