Which one is easier to read in your langu

In Persian language, 1,000 years old texts are usually very easier than  100 years old texts, what about your language?

One of the first poems that Iranian students learn in the primary school is this 850 years old famous poem of Nizami Ganjavi:

Ey name to behtarin sar-aghaz
Bi name to nameh key konam baz

(O, Your name is the best beginning
Without Your name, when would I even open a letter)

Definately newly written.
In Denmark and Scandinavia, 1000 years ago, the written text was runes - if not Latin written by scholars.
Until the middel of the 18'th century, there were no rules for spelling - things would be written like the writer said it, so words could look quite different because of local dialects. Also, the use of Gotic letters makes it difficult to read for most people.

Icelandish is the closest we can get to the old norse language - none - or almost no other language could influence the isolated island.
The interesting part is - I cant understand Icelandish - but I can read it and get a fairly good conception of the content.

Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can understand each other - in speech and in writing.  

There are four major forms of the Greek language.

THe Homeric Greek , the Classical Greek , Medieval Greek and the Modern Greek. The most dificcult in the understanding and the comprehension are the Homeric. Absoloutely you need higher level of education. The last two are more easy to read and to understand  general the meaning.

Modern Turkish is very close with the Turkish, spoken all over Anatolia by its locals for the last 1000 years. The folk literature was always oral, not provided by written sources. And it is very easy for us to understand a poem of Yunus Emre, Haji Bektash Veli or a Karamanoglu firman.

A poem of Shah Ismael Khatai of Safavids is much more easier than a "Divan" poem of Nab� or Fuzul� for us. But actually, Divan language was only understandable for the elites who were educated in medreses, who were fluent in Turkish, Arabic Persian and some even Greek. They actually constituted %2-3 of the people, and reminding the fact that %95 of Anatolia was illiterate before the Language Reform, so that it didn't change much for us.

But the real problem occurs when we are to translate Ottoman official documents to modern Turkish. The Kanunname of Sultan Mehmed II is easier for us to understand than late Ottoman documents which were more foreign influenced and more complex. They are full of Arabic vocabulary altough the main form and vocabulary is definately Turkish.

I tried once to read the Alexiad of Anna Komnene ,which was written in the 12th century A.D.,but it was very difficult for me to understand the meaning because the syntax was weird and strange like in ancient Greek/attic dialect.

Then I decided to read the Strategikon of Kekaumenos which was written in the 11th century A.D. and i realised that the language was very similar to the demotiki that we speak today.The syntax was not like in the Alexiad.

The second book obviously was written in the language of the common people and was aimed to be read by non-educated people like generals and officers of the army.It was like a manual written by an experienced general as a guideline to the new officers of the Byzantine army.

On the contrary the Alexiad was written in an archaic language by Anna Comnene,a historian



Edited by RomiosArktos

Later texts are easier. The main problem was that the latin alphabet did not fit to the Hungarian phonemes.

Example:

Funeral Oration from 1195 (The first existing text in Hungarian)

Original text:

Latiatuc feleym umtuchel
mic vogmuc. �a pur e chomuv uogmuc. Men�i milotben
terumteve eleve m�v iemucut adamut. e odutta vola neki
paradiumut ha��.

...

Modernized version with modern letters:

L�tj�tuk feleim sz�mt�khel,
mik vogymuk: is�, por �s homou
vogymuk. M�nyi milosztben
ter�mtev� elev� mi� is�m�k�t
�d�mot, �s adutt� val� neki
p�r�adicsumot h�zo�.

...

In Modern Hungarian:

L�tj�tok, feleim, szemetekkel,
mik vagyunk: �me, por �s hamu
vagyunk. Mennyi malasztban
teremt� kezdetben [�r] mi �s�nket,
�d�mot, �s adta vala neki
paradicsomot h�zz�.

...

Avestan and Persian languages are two different languages, as far as I know the Gathas are a set of 17 hymns, what do you mean by "Gatha: Yasna, 21."?!