Changes in the English language in over 1,000 years

Modern English speakers may have to make some effort to understand Early Modern English (c. 1500-c. 1700) as represented by the plays and poetry of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) or the King James translation of the Bible (1611), but it is clearly the same language, whereas understanding more than a few words of Middle English (c. 1150-c. 1500), as in such works as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387–1400), is likely to be impossible, and Old English (Anglo-Saxon, c. 450-c. 1150) is clearly a foreign language.

These videos give an idea of the enormous changes in the English language that have occurred since the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) period:

A. Two famous speeches from Shakespeare’s plays.

A1. Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1556-98?):

A2. Henry V’s Agincourt speech (c. 1599):

B. The opening of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387-1400):

C. Old English:

D. The Lord’s Prayer in the 4 main historical versions of English: