If I tried to read something in "English" from the 10th century it would be impossible. Does the same hold true for the French or has the French language changed less over time?
Might be worth a cross post to /r/linguistics ?
Hi! I hope this answer will help you out. The thing about medieval French is that it was more a language that was created from the way it sounded, rather than the French of today that is highly regulated and very planned out. So, medieval French when spoken aloud, even by a non-speaker, sounds exactly the way it should (like Spanish and German, which are phonetically spelled out when written down). If you're familiar with modern French, you'll know that it's almost impossible to speak the language just by reading the words, because of all the hidden pronunciations.
I have included a portion of the Lai de Lanval by Marie de France, originally written in Anglo-Norman ca. 1170-1215. Anglo-Norman is one of the "easier" medieval French dialects to understand from a modern perspective, but I think that this passage, and its translation into modern French, is enough to illustrate how the two are close and comprehensible to one another, yet still very different.
-ANGLO-NORMAN-
Ele jut sur un lit mut bel
Li drap valeient un chastel
En sa chemise senglement.
Mut ot le cors bien fait e gent;
Un cher mantel de blanc hermine,
Covert de purpre alexandrine,
Ot pur le chaut sur li geté;
Tut ot descovert le costé,
Le vis, le col e la peitrine;
Plus ert blanche que flur d'espine.
-MODERN FRENCH-
Elle étoit couchée sur un lit magnifique dont le plus beau château n'auroit pas seulement payé le prix des draperies. Sa robe qui étoit serrée, laissoit apercevoir l'élégance d'une taille faite au tour. Un superbe manteau doublé d'hermine et teint en pourpre d'Alexandrie , couvroit ses épaules. La chaleur l'avoit forcée de l'écarter un peu, et à travers cette ouverture qui lui mettoit le côté à découvert, l'œil apercevoit une peau plus blanche que la fleur d'épine.
If anyone can answer this, what's the case with the other major romance languages e.g. Spanish, Italian, etc?
As an aside, not all medieval English is as incomprehensible as you think. We read Chaucer and various other works in ~14th century Middle English in college, without any special training in the language. As long as you have a glossary or footnotes for the most arcane words, you can generally figure the rest out; it's not that much harder than reading Shakespeare or any other early modern English writer.
Just one thing to keep in mind: there were drastic changes to English throughout the Medieval period, partially under the influence of the Vikings and Normans. So, while English from the 11th century and before is effectively impossible to read without studying it as if it were a foreign language, Middle English, which existed in the later Middle Ages, can be read without too much more annotation than Shakespeare, and is certainly not "incomprehensible." If you read Chaucer's writings (14th century), you'd find that they would, in general, be readable.
follow up questions : If french can somewhat read and understand written french, would they understand spoken old french ? does regional accent and dialect of the time might have an impact on it? Is breton language still the same as Medieval breton language ?
Hi, you might find something of interest in these threads, although they are more focused on spoken than written French