Middle English Is Not the English We Speak Today

English evolved from an ancient ancestral language spoken in northern europe called germanic, or proto germanic. So it shouldn't be surprising that the further back in time we go, the more english looks and sounds like german. The earliest version of English is known as anglo saxon which was spoken by a small group of germanic speaking tribes east of the rhine. These were the same anglo saxons who were defeated by the norman french in ten 66.