Every time I see an ancient text translated, it always sounds like it was spoken by a classy Englishman from the 1800s. Is there a reason it’s translated that way instead of modern English?
Every time I see an ancient text translated, it always sounds like it was spoken by a classy Englishman from the 1800s. Is there a reason it’s translated that way instead of modern English?
If we’re talking about English, there were different kinds of English which were spoken (Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. And no, Old English doesn’t just mean English that sounds ‘old’. It was an early variety of English that was spoken from the 5th/7th century to 1066). All of them had their own phonology, morphology and syntax. In short, they followed their own linguistic rules and conventions. The way they sounded wasn’t just randomly made up. To find out more, look up the varieties of English I mentioned or take a look at this Wikipedia article about Historical linguistics.