The article discusses how the English language has evolved over time, and how a time-traveling English speaker would be able to communicate in different eras.
In ancient times, English was heavily influenced by Latin, Germanic tribes, and later by the Norman Conquest, which introduced French. The language continued to change with the Great Vowel Shift in the 14th to 16th centuries, which altered the pronunciation of vowels.
The article suggests that a modern English speaker would struggle to understand Old English (spoken from the 5th to 11th centuries) and Middle English (spoken from the 11th to 15th centuries) due to significant differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling.
However, by the 16th century, the English language had become more standardized, and a modern English speaker would be able to communicate reasonably well with people from that era, including understanding the works of William Shakespeare.
The article also touches on the origins of the stereotypical "pirate accent" in Hollywood productions, which was popularized by actor Robert Newton in the 1950s version of Treasure Island, and is based on the West Country accent of England.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Language is constantly evolving and changing.
2. The earliest use of punctuation started to be introduced in ancient times, but many people, including Roman orator Cicero, scorned its use.
3. Spaces between words didn't exist until approximately the 7th and 8th centuries.
4. Irish and Scottish monks are credited with inventing or popularizing spaces between words.
5. Charlemagne helped introduce lowercase letters to the masses in the 8th century.
6. The speech patterns of young people often grate on the ears of adults because they're unfamiliar.
7. New words and phrases are used in spoken or informal language before they're used in formal, written language.
8. Accents change over time and can be different from what we consider standard pronunciation today.
9. If you were to travel back to Shakespearean times, you would find that the bard's accent sounded more like a pirate's than the refined Received Pronunciation accent associated with him today.
10. The Earth rotates on its axis at about 1,070 mph and orbits the Sun at 66,600 miles per hour.
11. The solar system is rocketing through space around the center of the Milky Way at around 560,000 mph.
12. Our galaxy is hurtling through space at around 670,000 mph with respect to our local group of galaxies.
13. Even if you went back in time just a few seconds, you'd be in a very different place due to the Earth's movement.
14. To communicate effectively in the past, you'd need to take into account the language and accent of the time period.
15. English as we know it today developed from a series of invasions to the mother island, including the invasion of Germanic tribes known as the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons around the 5th and 6th centuries.
16. The Norman Conquest in 1066 established French as the language of choice for the elite of the country, which trickled down to the masses and added a host of words to English.
17. Middle English, which spanned around the 12th through the 15th centuries, is characterized by a mix of Anglo-Norman and English.
18. The Great Vowel Shift, which occurred primarily from around the mid-14th century through the 16th century, changed the pronunciation of various vowels in English.
19. The Great Vowel Shift is why many English words have spellings that don't match their pronunciation.
20. By the 16th century, the English language had become more standardized, with London functioning as the epicenter of standardization.
21. The West Country accent directly inspired the way pirates stereotypically speak in Hollywood productions.
22. Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950s version of Treasure Island set the standard for the modern conception of how to speak like a pirate.
23. The expression "arrr" was used in regular conversation in the West Country in the early 20th century and was adopted by Newton for the character of Long John Silver.
24. The "Golden Age of Piracy" from about the mid-17th to mid-18th centuries was characterized by a diverse population of pirates, including Scots, Irish, Africans, and French.