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/lit/ - Literature

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17329957 No.17329957 [Reply] [Original]

Is Moby Dick written in old english? I wanna read it but not if I cant understand the language

>> No.17329966

the absolute state of this board

>> No.17329992

>>17329957
It's actually written in proto-IndoEuropean OP, you have to use a sort of speculative Rosetta key to decipher it

>> No.17330011

>>17329992

I heard that this was to keep the heebs out.

>> No.17330018

>>17329957
What? I don't know what Old English is (ESL), looks like regular English to me.

Call me Ishmael. 2 Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—
having l ittle or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest
me on shore, I thought I would sail about a l ittle and see the watery part of
the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, 3 and regulating the
circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; when-
ever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself
involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of
every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos 4 get such an upper
hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from
deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s
hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is
my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato 5 throws
himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surpris-
ing in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or
other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

>> No.17330022

delete this

>> No.17330030

>>17329966
>>17329992
Might be an ESL give him a break.

>>17329957
It's not "old" english, not in the slightest, but I imagine it would be challenging if you didn't have a somewhat refined vocabulary

>> No.17330043

>>17330030
You can always read an annotated edition, anon. Or read in a tablet/cellphone/ereader.

>> No.17330045

>>17330018
Old English is the language Beowulf was written in, and native English speakers cannot read. Middle English is Chaucer and native speakers can read it with some struggle. Modern English is Shakespeare onwards, everyone should be able to read it.

>> No.17330054

>>17329957
I’ll bite and answer your question as if it were serious, newfren. It’s written in modern english but with many classical and biblical references that you will likely have to look up. Sentences are longer and more convoluted than you’re used to reading—you will have to get used to unpacking paragraphs that are single sentences with multiple nested dependent clauses. If your attention span has been trained on 140 characters you might experience difficulty getting started but that should clear up quickly unless you’re a retard.

>> No.17330060

It's written in sonar. You have to expand your melon to receive it

>> No.17330061

>>17329957
The best thing about this book is the twist at the end. I cant believe that Ishmael was the whale all along and Ahab was a metaphor for the homosexuality between sperm whales this is why he is shown to be angry all the time

>> No.17330087

More ESLs should read Moby-Dick, if only because the idea of someone learning to speak English like a 19th century Quaker is really funny.

>> No.17330122

>>17329957
It is written in Yiddish you dumb goy

>> No.17330125

>>17329957
>Is Moby Dick written in old english?
It’s in latin

>> No.17330199

>>17329957
Yes, it is indeed written in Anglo-Saxon.

>> No.17330227

>>17330061
I couldn't believe that queequeg and ahab had a threesome with the whale

>> No.17330253

>>17330087
Kek. This is like when I planned on watching anime in Spanish to help me learn Spanish. Then I realized that I would not want to talk like an anime character.

>> No.17330275

>>17330087
I learned a bit of Urdu from TV dramas and all my Pakistani friends said I sounded so dramatic and it was hilarious.

>> No.17330304

>>17329966
>the absolute state of this board
I’m one retarded post away from leaving this fucking site and I think I just made up my mind .

>> No.17331051

>>17329957
dumbass it's writen in ancient Egyptian

>> No.17331059

>>17329957
Actually, by the point it was writen, its more appropriate to call it "Saxon"

>> No.17331061

>>17329957
it's written in proto-germanic

>> No.17331066

>>17330045
There's a viable argument that grammar and definitions have changed enough since Shakespeare that his English should be categorized differently from ours as well.

>> No.17331906

>>17331066
>There's a viable argument that grammar and definitions have changed enough since Shakespeare that his English should be categorized differently from ours as well.
It is; the transitional period from middle English to modern English is known as Early Modern English and the intelligibility to modern English speakers varies widely; at the beginning you have stuff not barely removed from Chaucer and later you have works like Paradise Lost and Leviathan which are more-or-less just archaic modern English.

>For it is an higher and more digne thinge forto praise and thanke God, thanne to requere hym, for in request askes yefte, mede, or guerdoun; and praising and thanking is seruice of aungeles, that euer praisithe and worshipithe God; and it is beter to thanke God thanne to requere hym, for he wote beter what nedithe man or woman thanne hem selff. After, ye aught to praie God for the soules that ben dede, eueri day or ye slepe ; for yef ye do, the dede praiethe for you.

>The decay of Sense in men waking, is not the decay of the motion made in sense; but an obscuring of it, in such manner, as the light of the Sun obscureth the light of the Starres; which starrs do no less exercise their vertue by which they are visible, in the day, than in the night. But because amongst many stroaks, which our eyes, eares, and other organs receive from externall bodies, the predominant onely is sensible; therefore the light of the Sun being predominant, we are not affected with the action of the starrs.

>> No.17331917

>>17329957
Just read it anon. The language is the least of your worries, though. I know, I just finished reading it.

>> No.17331921

>>17330018
>my purse
Is the main character a fag..who carries a purse and is a dude

>> No.17331929

>>17331921
its european

>> No.17331959
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17331959

>>17331921
Me.

>> No.17331995

>>17331921
ishmael the main character has sex with an island coconut nigger whom he calls a savage cannibal yet he is in love with him

>> No.17332129

>>17329957
fuck you nigger

>> No.17332201

>>17329957
This is Old English:

>Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!

This is Middle English:

>Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, the droghte of March hath perced to the roote, and bathed every veyne in swich licóur of which vertú engendred is the flour; whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth inspired hath in every holt and heeth the tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, and smale foweles maken melodye, that slepen al the nyght with open ye, so priketh hem Natúre in hir corages, thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, and palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, to ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; and specially, from every shires ende of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, the hooly blisful martir for to seke, that hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

"Moby-Dick" is in a somewhat archaic form of modern English.

>> No.17332419

>>17330304
Leave this prison lord knows I want to leave it myself

>> No.17332438

>>17330054
I've read Jowett's translation of Plato's Republic. Can I handle this?

>> No.17332975

>>17329957
I came to this board a year ago and I was so impressed with the topics and responses. I don't even know what the fuck is going on now.

>> No.17333269

You’ll be able to busk through it with a little effort and a Gaelic dictionary but the chapters written in Egyptian hieroglyphics will probably go over your head.

>> No.17333280

>>17330030
when did we start giving people breaks for basic shit?
You can't do that on an anonymous board, or suddenly everyone can just start threads about absolutely retarded things like "What language did Shakespeare write in" and we're even more of a shithole than we currently are.
OP should go to reddit or better yet, wikipedia or google, to ask these questions.

>> No.17333368
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17333368

>>17329957

>> No.17333743

>>17330018
>watery part of the world

>> No.17333797

>>17330227
>that queequeg
turboKEK

>> No.17334222

>>17331906
That's just a matter of orthography. Say the "not modern english" words out loud and you will see that they are the same just spelled differently

>> No.17334256

>>17334222
>Say the "not modern english" words out loud and you will see that they are the same just spelled differently
No. You can more-or-less get away with that for the later stuff but earlier in the transition the phonology is more similar to Middle English and many words themselves are archaic to the point that they haven't been used since the 17th century.

https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/

>> No.17334298

>>17329957
This is probably bait, but everything in the book should be perfectly intelligible aside from some technical sailing terminology. The characters from Nantucket have slightly archaic speech patterns that make them sound like dialogue from the King James bible. The accents of foreign crewmembers are transliterated as well, but if you can comprehend Mark Twain you can definitely get through Moby Dick

>> No.17334360

>>17330253
A todo gas Lobezno!

>> No.17335061

>>17329957
Fuck off dumb fucker. Kys

>> No.17335201

>>17329957
>not starting one's English works reading endeavour with Chaucer

>> No.17335333

>>17335201
Favorite tale?

>> No.17335359

>>17335333
Dunno. Haven't started yet.

>> No.17335935

>>17331921
Ishmael is almost certainly a fag.

>> No.17335989

>>17329957
Speaking of Moby-Dick, anyone know what happened to /lit/'s annotated version?

>> No.17336232

>>17335989
I think they're still working on it

>> No.17336559

>>17329957
I tried but the book was ruined for me by having the story themes and concepts force fed to me as a child and throughout my life. Didn't feel like a bad book but I couldn't motivate myself to keep reading when I already knew everything that would happen.

>> No.17336578

>>17329957
It's written in vulcan

>> No.17336591

>>17329957

It's written in very understandable English, the real problem is that it is actually a TECHNICAL book about seafaring. May the seagulls claim my groins if you won't have learned one or two things about sailing after having read Moby Dick.

>> No.17336754

>>17332419
anon i..

>> No.17336847

>>17330018
Why is his prose so beautiful?

>> No.17337217

>>17330018
>No emojis
>No abbreviations
Unreadable. Modernize it.