Old English language websites

[Garmard]

Is there a website that converts modern language to that of 17th Century old english. I'm doing a serious study on the subject and would like anybody with knowledge of any site like this to help me.

[MarkRae]

I'm not familiar with any such site.

When you say "17th Century old English", are you referring to Elizabethan / Shakespearian English? If so, that's generally referred to as middle or mediaeval English, not old English...

[Garmard]

I am writing a novel based in the late 17th Century and would just like to find a site that would help me convert modern language to old english.

[MarkRae]

<sigh>

Once again, Old English has NOTHING TO DO with what was spoken in this country in the late 17th century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English

If you really are writing a novel, you might like to start by doing some research...

[jno]

no... it's not a different language, after all; it's really quite similar to modern English, though as it was before the great dictionaries were compiled, there weren't any spelling rules and you could spell things any way you liked (apparently every one of Shakespeare's surviving autographs is differently spelled... and none of them is 'Shakespeare'). Probably the best thing to do is get hold of some contemporary literature, such as Pepys' diaries, and read them to get a feel for the way people spoke then. They tended to use longer sentences and sometimes put their thoughts in a different order that no longer seems quite natural to us; but this isn't something a translation site could ever do for you, it requires a personal feel for the language.

[Garmard]

Thanks jno and Markrae for such constructive answers, it will help me considerably.