Assuming this person would be part of the upper class and would have the time to study properly. How would studying even work when there’s no language to translate to and from?
Assuming this person would be part of the upper class and would have the time to study properly. How would studying even work when there’s no language to translate to and from?
Language is natural to humans. It would be hard, but you’ll eventually get there if there’s no alternative. Think that babies learn how to speak without having any previous language of reference. It’s just a thing our brain does spontaneously. Watch or read Shogun, you’ll notice how multilingualism is actually more common than we think. And historically people have always spoken several languages. Depending on which point in time you’d get to ancient Egypt (we are talking about a really long period of time, over 3 thousand years), the high class would probably also speak Greek, Latin, or Arabic. Depending on diplomatic relations and pressures. Not to mention the lay people would also probably speak other languages alongside Egyptian, like Domari and Hebrew.
Another interesting thought, if you traveled to late ancient Egypt, learned to speak there, let’s say five years or so. Then traveled further back in time to early ancient Egypt, you probably won’t understand a single word again. If you traveled to the 800s England, you wouldn’t understand the English they would speak.
Yup. You could probably go back to the late 1300s and get a grasp within weeks instead of months, at least in the southern half of England, and it would get easier with each passing decade, but you’d probably have to drop in a couple of generations after Shakespeare to be sure of being mostly functional on Day One.