What is the farthest back in time an English speaker from today could go and still understand the language? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

What is the farthest back in time an English speaker from today could go and still understand the language?

by Hypernatremia

jelvinjs7

More can be said, but the FAQ has a section on how far back you can go and still understand [X] language. Here’s the one for English:

When I hear Chaucer spoken in Middle English, it almost sounds more like Dutch than English. But though Shakespeare is closer in time to Chaucer than the present, his English is much easier to understand. What happened to English in between, and why? by /u/bloodswan