Mongrel Nation - Brown cow

jasonkanerichardson · 494.5K views · 2007-11-15 · 2:43

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Overview

A comedy segment where Eddie Izzard travels to Friesland to try speaking Old English, claiming English originated in Holland and buying a cow to prove it.

On Hacker News

HN uses it as a joke reference in threads about the history of the English language.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2014–2026

Topics

Language & linguistics Stand-up & sketch comedy

What people said

helsinkiandrew · 2026-05 · Joke / meme
There was a UK TV show years ago that I've always remembered where the presenter tried to buy a cow using Old English with a Frisian speaking farmer in Holland: [VIDEO]
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vidarh · 2026-02 · Joke / meme
Eddie Izzard speaking old English to a Frisian farmer: [VIDEO] As a Norwegian who speaks English and school-German, Dutch is fairly easy to read but sounds like you're speaking a mix of English, Norse and German with a mouthful of gravel (similar to the Danish, who Norwegians like to say speaks Norwegian with a potato in their mouth)
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dalke · 2015-05 · Joke / meme
Your point regarding species extinction is a good one. However, in languages, "extinct language" has a more specific meaning. See [LINK] . I believe that language extinction occurs when it's possible to point to the last living speaker of the language, or more generally, when there is no modern version of a language. But you are right that the person who asked the question is more likely to think of the more transitional, biological meaning. You may like this clip where Eddie Izzard goes to Friesland to "buy a brown cow" in Old English. [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by jasonkanerichardson, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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