Can You Read English and French? Try Romanian.

It's a bit of work, to be sure, but there's a straight-line connection. Romanian is 20% Latin, and 43% borrowed Romance loan-words. (Don't laugh: English is 75% borrowed Romance loan-words, thanks to William I.)
Istoria creării cerurilor şi a pământului
La început, Dumnezeu[a] a creat cerurile şi pământul. Pământul era pustiu şi gol; peste faţa adâncului era întuneric, iar Duhul lui Dumnezeu plutea peste întinderea apelor.

Atunci Dumnezeu a zis: „Să fie lumină!“; şi a fost lumină. Dumnezeu a văzut că lumina era bună şi a despărţit lumina de întuneric. Dumnezeu a numit lumina „zi“, iar întunericul l-a numit „noapte“. A fost o seară şi a fost o dimineaţă: ziua întâi.
Looks very intimidating, with all those inflections and nonstandard characters. But I'll bet you can work it out.

4 comments:

MikeD said...

I don't speak French, sadly, so no, I can't make it out. On the other hand, I find German to be quite easily read for much the same reasons (though in reverse).

Anonymous said...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...

Grim said...

That's right, BB1. It's hard to get past the second paragraph's beginning without realizing the game: "Atunci Dumnezeu a zis: „Să fie lumină!“; şi a fost lumină."

Anonymous said...

Once I got to the second paragraph, I had the key to go back and read the first one, filling in what I couldn't parse or derive (once I read it aloud). Not easy, but doable.

LittleRed1