Below is the Lord’s Prayer, a well-known passage from the Bible,  in Old English:

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;

Si þin nama gehalgod

to becume þin rice

gewurþe ðin willa

on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.

urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg

and forgyf us ure gyltas

swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum

and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge

ac alys us of yfele soþlice

The time that historians classify as the Old English Period ended around 1,000 years ago. Below is a set of clips from the show Futurama. The premise of the show is that it takes place exactly 1,000 years in the future. Considering how much our language has changed since the Old English period 1,000 years ago, do you think that the language used in the show is accurate in it’s assumption of what people speaking English 1,000 years in the future will sound like? If you can think of other examples of shows which use the premise of being set in the future or past, you may use them to illustrate your point. Why do you think that the shows use the language they use? What methods do they sometime use to make their use of language more believable?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tf_qR94LmY&feature=related[/youtube]