Modern English

So it's a scribal copy in all likelihood.

And we're going to go back to this and you're going to find that if you try to read this text, which is available in this very attractive edition translated by Seamus Heaney that we're going to be using for our modern English translation.

you will find that it has two versions of the text.

And here they are.

And a facing page translation means you get the original text on one side of the book, usually the left as in this case, and then you have the translation on the right.

And the theory is...

That you can look back and forth and you can see the text on the left and see what it equates to in modern English on the right.

And you will find, I think, that when you look at the text on the left, it is not like looking at, say, Chaucer, right? Who, although he might be somewhat confusing to you, you can probably pick out quite a few words and sound them out loud and you'll say, oh, okay, I see what that is meant to be.

In English etymology, my main focus here, the cast of characters is diverse.

Legions of Romans, longships of Vikings, schools of Muslim scientists, academies of Greeks, and one fateful army of Normans in 1066 have all influenced the words of what linguists call Modern English, circa 1500 CE to the present day.

Of course, all those people didn't exist in a vacuum.

The whistling arrows at the Battle of Hastings and the scratching quills of William Shakespeare formed part of real historical events and sociopolitical circumstances that are still reflected in our vocabulary.

You can also spot another sound change, namely that in Latin B became P before T.

Some words may have more than one root, strange as that sounds.

Modern English is a fan of fusing independent words together, as in blackboard, toothpaste, or gentleman.

We call these compounds.

And with that, time for our final bottom-of-the-hour break.

Music from Modern English, back after this on DAM Radio.

Making love to you was never second best.

I saw the world crashing all around your face.

I've seen some changes, but it's getting better Stop the world and mess with you

1982.

Modern English.

On damn radio.

So Tyndale had a huge influence.

The King James Bible has become one of the foundational documents of modern English along with Shakespeare.

That's amazing.

People will be quoting the King James Bible and Shakespeare all the time without even knowing it.

And we highly commend it.

We were talking a little bit before the episode and just reflecting on how the Lord has enabled founders to really kind of stock the armory of 1689 literature, whether it's the— years ago coming out with 1689 in Modern English, recently coming out with this great new ghost skin leather edition with the catechism and the creeds in it, the Baptist standards with the First London Baptist, Second London Baptist, and all those different Baptist documents.

We've got Jim Scott Orrick's commentary on the Baptist catechism.

As you mentioned, Dr. Renahan's exposition of the – And now you've added to all of that with this devotional meditation upon the confession, which I think is, again, so helpful.

Your ass shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored unto you.

And yeah, you can read that in the Old English or the Modern English, and both are probably apropos.

Your sheep shall be given unto your enemies, and you shall have no one to save you.

Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day, and there will be nothing in

The end of chapters 1 through 4.

Chapters 5 through 8 of the Gospel according to Luke, from the New Testament in Modern English, translated by Farrar Fenton.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Recording by Mark Penfold.

He, however, enjoined them to tell no one what had occurred.

The end of chapters 5 through 8.

Chapters 9 through 12 of the Gospel according to Luke from the New Testament in Modern English, translated by Ferrar Fenton.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

We've got traditionally four periods in the history of English.

Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English.

We'll start with Old English, which raises the question of when did English start? And you'll often hear the date 449, which is when the Germanic tribes came over from the European continent to the British Isles.

Now, of course, Rebecca, in 449, when they landed, they were speaking the same Germanic dialect that the people they left behind were speaking.

Now, what's interesting about Middle English, Rebecca, is that it gets earlier and earlier in the history of English because as English continues, the middle keeps moving.

The middle keeps moving.

Then you have Early Modern English.

This is Shakespearean English.

It was Howard Jones was the headliner.

Wang Chung, the English beat, and Modern English.

Modern English rocks, too.

I saw them last year.

I