I am a Caucasian English-speaking literate adult from the American Midwest, and I have just been sent back in time. What is the farthest time and place that I would be able to go back in time to be able to speak to and understand the general population?

by Movieguru92

I assume England is one of the only places, since I only know English, but how far back in time would I be able to still be able to talk to people?

CommodoreCoCo

Good question, so no surprise it's asked a lot! See if you can find the answer here

Halfmast940

Here is an interesting article somewhat related to your question. Linguists have recently discovered a list of words that have been around for 15,000 years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/linguists-identify-15000-year-old-ultraconserved-words/2013/05/06/a02e3a14-b427-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html