Well, for a native speaker of Dutch who doesn't speak English at all (not many left since my grandmother died in 2014), I'd say old English is actually easier to read than modern - starting around 1400.

Around 1000, English and Dutch must have been mutually understandable.

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vaylian 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A native Frisian speaker would probably have an even easier time, given that Frisian is the closest language to English. However, Frisian is still more similar to other west-germanic languages than English.

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dboreham 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My experience traveling to the Netherlands as an English speaker is that people are speaking English, but they're drunk!

	▲	phpnode an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		When they seamlessly switch from English to Dutch I feel like I’m having a stroke: all the same intonation, the same accent, but nothing makes sense any more
	▲	jakevoytko an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		As someone who took German in high school, Dutch had my brain flailing for vocabulary to understand but nothing connected.

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trueismywork an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am Indian. I read easily to 1400. But then 1300 is suddenly difficult to read

	▲	riffraff 42 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Italian here, and it was the same for me, the language feels very different by 1300. Which is interesting cause 1200 italian[0] seems pretty readable by everyone who can read italian (and likely every other romance language), you have to go further back to have a shift. [0] E.g. Saint Francis' Canticle of the Sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticle_of_the_Sun
	▲	Gander5739 42 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I speak English natively. I read to 1400 without difficulty, read 1400 and 1300 with some sruggle, and found beyond that it was largely unintelligible; I can understand maybe 1 in 3 words.

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rapidfl an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

tried to read Prince and I assume it is a translation to English from Italian or whatever.

Assuming that translation was done a while ago (100+ yrs?)... It is hard to read. I can understand it if I try. But the phrasing is not current. 100 pages will take double the time at the least.

Almost think AI needs to rephrase it into current English.

Probably has these double negatives, long sentences, etc.

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Kim_Bruning 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What accent did you read it in? Vlaams? Gronings?

	▲	englishrookie an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I don't have a voice in my head when I read. Knowledge of West-Fries helps though.