Something for you, Niamh

[highlyeccentric]

you asked what Anglo-Saxon sounded like? Anglo-Saxon Aloud by Michael C. Drout. Is good stuff. I recommend my current favourite, The Dream of the Rood, or Satan's complaints about Hell from Genesis B. Beowulf Aloud isn't available for free, sadly :(

Comments

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

That's so cool! :D Is it just me, or does it sound a bit like Elvish? (Not that I have much experience of Elvish, but it reminded me of what little I've heard).

Thanks for the links :D

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

ps Arni says that he can hear a couple of Dutch words in there too ;)

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

rather, it sounds like Tolkien. I've got a disc of JRR reading poetry from LOTR, and even the Bath Song is read in a style which sounds rather like that.

I think the thing is that there are two "accents" for reading OE, an Oxford one and a Cambridge one. So if you happen to be an Oxbridge don (which was he at, anyway???) then it sounds somewhat like your normal public speaking voice. And I imagine that if you indulged in regular anglosaxophony, your public speaking style would improve in line with theirs ;)

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

naturally.

i'd meant to recommend, the other day, that you pronounce whatever it was you were asking about in your best Dutch accent. anything vaugely germanic is acceptable for beginners. Apparently i read OE in a german accent. which is funny, since i've never heard anyone speak german :P

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

"Anglosaxophony" heeee! Sounds like a slightly disreputable pastime indulged in late at night by small groups of furtive-looking people :P

Tolkien was at Oxford :D I've heard him reading LOTR but not the poetry - must see if we have that somewhere.

The reason I thought it sounded a bit like Elvish was from the kind of sounds. Um. I'm no linguist, so I don't know the correct terms, but I'm thinking of the part of it that sounds a bit like leaves being shuffled by the wind in a forest.

About the Dutch thing, I meant to say the other day about the word you were asking about that seemed to have contradictory meanings - I think you wrote it as (ge) gan? Well that sounds a lot like "gaan", the Dutch for "to go". Gegaan is the past participle ("went" in English, I spose). I don't think it's often used as "to come" though, unless you partner it with something else like "langs", as in "langs gaan" (I think that's right), which means to go along (but that's kind of a clumsy and inaccurate way of using it to mean "come").

I really enjoy the cross-pollination between Dutch and English :D