| > The same applies to German, what is spoken today isn't much like the German spoken 150 years ago. This is an amazing piece of information, even more incredible it is the fact the modern speakers can read Nietzsche with no problem at all, what a fantastic coincidence. I mean, what native German speaker could even begin to understand this Schiller poem, it is 200! years old!! It could be very well be written in proto-Germanic: An den Frühling Willkommen, schöner Jüngling! Du Wonne der Natur! Mit deinem Blumenkörbchen Willkommen auf der Flur! Denkst auch noch an mein Mädchen? Ei, Lieber, denke doch! Dort liebte mich das Mädchen Und’s Mädchen liebt mich noch! Willkommen, schöner Jüngling! Du Wonne der Natur! Mit deinem Blumenkörbchen Willkommen auf der Flur! |
In practice natives had trouble understanding each other if they traveled just a few villages over