How far back into your country's history could you go without needing a translator?
How far back into your country's history could you go without needing a translator?
I asked this before elsewhere, but I thought it led to some interesting answers.
As an Egyptian, maybe a little over a thousand years, as that's when most people started speaking Arabic, though depending on where exactly I am I could luck into an Arab community, in which case I'd last until maybe 1200 years go. Before that it was Coptic and I don't speak a lick of that.
I'm curious, how much kinship do modern Egyptians feel with the Pyramid-builders? Would you say "we" built the Pyramids, or "they" built the Pyramids?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Agricola
Agricola's Finnish is reasonably understandable, so about as far as the records go. 1500's or so.
Maybe some linguist might have ideas about earlier history, but that's my guess.