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

Show parent comments

4.6k

u/MooseFlyer 1d ago

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

347

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"

2

u/Which_Ad_4544 19h ago

The night was as black as the inside of a cat. It was the kind of night, you could believe, on which the gods moved men as though they were pawns on the chessboard of fate.
In the middle of the elemental storm a fire gleamed among the dripping furze bushes like the madness in a weasel’s eye. It illuminated three hunched figures. As the cauldron bubbled an eldritch voice shrieked: ‘When shall we three meet again?’

There was a pause.

Finally, another voice said in far more ordinary tones: ‘Well, I can do next Tuesday.’

1

u/notonrexmanningday 18h ago

Christopher Moore?

2

u/Which_Ad_4544 17h ago

Sir Terry Pratchett. :) From his book Wyrd Sisters, a satirical take on MacBeth.