IE and Substrates and Time

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>mcv at wxs.nl writes:

>In the case of late OE / late ON it's often said that the two languages were
>"very close" and mutually intelligible. >>

-- they were intelligible at the level of pointing at a house and saying
"house" and both parties understanding the word.  Saying the equivalent of "Me
burn house." would also probably get across.  Roughly the situation with
Swedish and Danish today, in other words.

It would be difficult to have an actual conversation, but you could get basic
concepts across.  Not the same language, but not the sort of total
incomprehension that monoglot speakers of say, English and Polish would face.