Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon,[1] Englisc by its speakers) is an early form of the English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. It is that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England England /ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population, while its mainland territory occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain. England is bordered by Scotland to the north, Wales to the west and the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, and south-eastern Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon. It is a West Germanic language The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as English, Dutch and Afrikaans, German, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish. The other two of these three traditional branches of the Germanic languages are the North and East Germanic languages and is closely related to Old Frisian Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Elbe on the European North Sea coast. Whether the speakers of Frisian are the immediate descendants of the Frisians of Roman times or immigrants from North Germany and Denmark is unknown. The language of the earlier inhabitants of. It also experienced heavy influence from Old Norse Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300, a member of the related North Germanic The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common group of languages A language is a system for encoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is the.

Contents

Development

Further information: History of the English language English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. One of these

Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 700 years[2] – from the Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxons is the term usually people used to describe the Germanic-speaking tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from their arrival in the 5th to 6th centuries and throughout the Early Middle Ages. Their Anglo-Saxon language derives from "Ingvaeonic" West Germanic dialects and transforms into Middle English from the 11th migrations that created England in the 5th century to some time after the Norman Conquest The Norman conquest of England began in 1066 with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by the troops of William, Duke of Normandy , and his victory at the Battle of Hastings. This resulted in Norman control of England, which was firmly established during the next few years. The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history for several of 1066, when the language underwent a dramatic transition. During this early period it assimilated some aspects of the languages with which it came in contact, such as the Celtic languages The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul. During the 1st and the two dialects of Old Norse from the invading Vikings A Viking is one of the Norse (Scandinavian) explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far west as Iceland, Greenland, and, who occupied and controlled large tracts of land in northern and eastern England, which came to be known as the Danelaw The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the laws of the part of Great Britain in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon Law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to be.

Germanic origins

The most important force in shaping Old English was its Germanic heritage in its vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar, which it shared with its sister languages in continental Europe Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands and, at times, peninsulas. Notably, in British and Irish English usage, the term means Europe excluding the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland and Iceland. One. Some of these features are shared with the other West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as English, Dutch and Afrikaans, German, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish. The other two of these three traditional branches of the Germanic languages are the North and East Germanic languages with which Old English is grouped, while some other features are traceable to the reconstructed Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the hypothetical common ancestor of all the Germanic languages such as modern English, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Swedish. The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any surviving texts but has been reconstructed using the language from which all Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a are believed to have derived.

Like other Germanic languages of the period, Old English was fully inflected In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect , person, number (conjugation and declension), gender, case (declension only). Beside conjugation and declension there is comparison with its maximum category number of two ('direction', i. e. more or with five grammatical cases In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. While most languages distinguish cases in some fashion, it is only customary to say that a language has cases when these are codified in the morphology of its nouns — that is, (nominative The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. (Basically, it is a noun that is doing something, usually joined with the accusative case.), accusative The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of (some or all) prepositions. It is a noun that is having something done to it, usually joined (such as in Latin) with the nominative case, genitive In grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take arguments in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses (see Adverbial genitive). Modern English does, dative The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary", and instrumental The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an abstract concept, though the instrumental was very rare), which had dual plural forms Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun. Verbs can also have dual agreement forms in these languages for referring to groups of two objects (but only in the personal pronouns) in addition to the usual singular and plural forms. It also assigned gender If a language distinguishes between masculine and feminine gender, for instance, then each noun belongs to one of those two genders; in order to correctly decline any noun and any modifier or other type of word affecting that noun, one must identify whether the noun is feminine or masculine. The term "grammatical gender" is mostly used to all nouns Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns may be defined as those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase, including those that describe inanimate objects: for example, sēo sunne (the Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass. The mean distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 149,598,000 kilometres (92,956,000 mi), and its light travels this distance in 8 minutes and 19 seconds. But it varies) was feminine, while se mōna (the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located about 1,700 km—a quarter the Earth's radius—beneath the surface of the) was masculine (cf. modern German die Sonne and der Mond).

Latin influence

A large percentage of the educated and literate population of their time (monks A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of like-minded people, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy, clerics A cleric , clergyman (pl. clergymen), or churchman (pl. churchmen) is a member of the clergy of a religion, especially one who is a priest, preacher, or other religious professional. It is often used to refer to the religious leadership in Islam, where the term "priest" is not accurate and where terms such as "Alim" are not, etc.) were competent in Latin Latin is an Italic language historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Italian, French, Catalan, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese are descended from Latin, while many others, especially European languages, including, which was the scholarly and diplomatic lingua franca Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or structure of the language: though pidgins and creoles often function as lingua francas, many lingua francas are neither pidgins nor creoles of Europe at the time. It is sometimes possible to give approximate dates for the entry of individual Latin words into Old English based on which patterns of linguistic change they have undergone. There were at least three notable periods of Latin influence. The first occurred before the ancestral Saxons The Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans (the State of Sachsen is not inhabited by ethnic Saxons; the state of Sachsen-Anhalt only in its northwestern parts); those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic left continental Europe for Britain. The second began when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity Adherents of Christianity, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible . Orthodox Christian theology claims that Jesus suffered, died, and was resurrected to open heaven to humans. They further maintain that Jesus ascended into heaven, and most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, and Latin-speaking priests became widespread. The third and largest single transfer of Latin-based words happened after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when an enormous number of Norman Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. The northern Norman can be classified in the septentrional Oïl languages with Picard and Walloon. The name Norman-French is sometimes used to describe not only the modern Norman language, but also the administrative languages of Anglo-Norman and Law French used in England words began to influence the language. Most of these Oïl language Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, which today make up northern France, part of Belgium, and the Channel Islands. These languages have all been replaced by Standard French as the official and predominant language in their territories, words were themselves derived from Old French Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 900 to 1300. It was then known as the langue d'oïl to distinguish it from the langue d'oc (Occitan language, also then called Provençal), whose territory bordered that of and ultimately from classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Its use spanned the Golden Age of Latin literature—broadly the 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD—possibly extending to the Silver Age—broadly the 1st and 2nd centuries, although a notable stock of Norse words were introduced or re-introduced in Norman The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. Their identity emerged initially in the first half of the tenth century, and gradually evolved over succeeding centuries until they form. The Norman Conquest approximately marks the end of Old English and the advent of Middle English Middle English is the name given by historical linguists to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and about 1470, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton in the 1470.

One of the ways the influence of Latin can be seen is that many Latin words for activities came to also be used to refer to the people engaged in those activities, an idiom carried over from Anglo-Saxon but using Latin words. This can be seen in words like militia, assembly, movement, and service.

The language was further altered by the transition away from the runic alphabet The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark ; the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English by the same (also known as futhorc Futhorc, a runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters. It was used probably from the fifth century onward, for recording Old English and Old Frisian or fuþorc) to the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language, which was also a significant factor in the developmental pressures brought to bear on the language. Old English words were spelt as they were pronounced. The "silent" letters in many Modern English words were pronounced in Old English: for example, the c in cniht, the Old English ancestor of the modern knight, was pronounced. Another side-effect of spelling words phonetically was that spelling was extremely variable – the spelling of a word would reflect differences in the phonetics of the writer's regional dialect, and also idiosyncratic spelling choices which varied from author to author, and even from work to work by the same author. Thus, for example, the word and could be spelt either and or ond.

Norse influence

The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century The 10th century is the period from 901 to 1000 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era: Old West Norse dialect Old East Norse dialect Old Gutnish Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch. Today a modern version, Gutnish is still spoken on the south-east parts of Gotland and on the island of Fårö dialect Crimean Gothic Crimean Gothic was a Germanic dialect spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century Old English Other Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility

The second major source of loanwords to Old English was the Scandinavian words introduced during the Viking invasions of the 9th The 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era and 10th centuries. In addition to a great many place names, these consist mainly of items of basic vocabulary, and words concerned with particular administrative aspects of the Danelaw (that is, the area of land under Viking control, which included extensive holdings all along the eastern coast of England and Scotland). The Vikings spoke Old Norse, a language related to Old English in that both derived from the same ancestral Proto-Germanic language. It is very common for the intermixing of speakers of different dialects, such as those that occur during times of political unrest, to result in a mixed language, and one theory holds that exactly such a mixture of Old Norse and Old English helped accelerate the decline of case endings in Old English. Apparent confirmation of this is the fact that simplification of the case endings occurred earliest in the north and latest in the southwest, the area farthest away from Viking influence. Regardless of the truth of this theory, the influence of Old Norse on the English language has been profound: responsible for such basic vocabulary items as sky, leg, the pronoun they, the verb form are, and hundreds of other words.

Celtic influence

Traditionally, many maintain that the influence of Celtic on English has been small, citing the small number of Celtic loanwords taken into the language. The number of Celtic loanwords is of a lower order than either Latin or Scandinavian. However, a minority view is that distinctive Celtic traits can be discerned in syntax from the post-Old English period.[3]

Dialects

Old English should not be regarded as a single monolithic entity just as Modern English is also not monolithic. Within Old English, there was language variation. Thus, it is misleading, for example, to consider Old English as having a single sound system. Rather, there were multiple Old English sound systems. Old English has variation along regional lines as well as variation across different times. For example, the language attested in Wessex during the time of Æthelwold of Winchester, which is named Late West Saxon (or Æthelwoldian Saxon), is considerably different from the language attested in Wessex during the time of Alfred the Great's court, which is named Early West Saxon (or Classical West Saxon or Alfredian Saxon). Furthermore, the difference between Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon is of such a nature that Late West Saxon is not directly descended from Early West Saxon (despite what the similarity in name implies).

The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon.[4] Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island. Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia and all of Kent that were successfully defended were then integrated into Wessex.

After the process of unification of the diverse Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 878 by Alfred the Great, there is a marked decline in the importance of regional dialects. This is not because they stopped existing; regional dialects continued even after that time to this day, as evidenced both by the existence of Middle and Modern English dialects later on, and by common sense – people do not spontaneously adopt another dialect when there is a sudden change of political power.

The first page of the Beowulf manuscript

However, the bulk of the surviving documents from the Anglo-Saxon period are written in the dialect of Wessex, Alfred's kingdom. It seems likely that with consolidation of power, it became necessary to standardise the language of government to reduce the difficulty of administering the more remote areas of the kingdom. As a result, paperwork was written in the West Saxon dialect. Not only this, but Alfred was passionate about the spread of the vernacular and brought many scribes to his region from Mercia in order that previously unwritten texts be recorded.[5]

The Church was affected likewise, especially since Alfred initiated an ambitious programme to translate religious materials into English. In order to retain his patronage and ensure the widest circulation of the translated materials, the monks and priests engaged in the programme worked in his dialect. Alfred himself seems to have translated books out of Latin and into English, notably Pope Gregory I's treatise on administration, "Pastoral Care".

Because of the centralisation of power and the Viking invasions, there is little or no written evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after Alfred's unification.

Modern-day Received Pronunciation is not a direct descendant of the best-attested dialect, Late West Saxon. It is rather a descendant of a Mercian dialect — either East Mercian or South-East Mercian. Thus, Late West Saxon had little influence on the development of Modern English (by which is meant RP or some similar dialect, e.g. General American) and the developments occurring in its antecedent, Middle English.

Grammar

Phonology

Main article: Old English phonology

The inventory of classical Old English (i.e. Late West Saxon) surface phones, as usually reconstructed, is as follows.

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Affricate tʃ (dʒ)
Nasal m n (ŋ)
Fricative f (v) θ (ð) s (z) ʃ (ç) (x) (ɣ) h
Approximant r j w
Lateral approximant l

The sounds marked in parentheses in the chart above are allophones:

Monophthongs Short Long
Front Back Front Back
Close i y u iː yː uː
Mid e (ø) o eː (øː) oː
Open æ ɑ æː ɑː

The front mid rounded vowels /ø(ː)/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect.

Diphthongs Short (monomoraic) Long (bimoraic)
First element is close iy[6] iːy
Both elements are mid eo eːo
Both elements are open æɑ æːɑ

Morphology

Main article: Old English morphology

Unlike modern English, Old English is a language rich with morphological diversity and is spelled essentially as it is pronounced. It maintains several distinct cases: the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and (vestigially) instrumental, remnants of which survive only in a few pronouns in modern English.

Syntax

Word order

The word order of Old English is widely believed to be subject-verb-object (SVO) as in modern English and most Germanic languages. The word order of Old English, however, was not overly important due to the aforementioned morphology of the language. As long as declension was correct, it did not matter whether you said, "My name is..." as "Mīn nama is..." or "Nama mīn is..."

Questions

Due to its similarity with Old Norse, it is believed that the word order of Old English changed when asking a question, from SVO to VSO; i.e. swapping the verb and the subject.

"I am..." becomes "Am I...?"
"Ic eom..." becomes "Eom ic...?"

Orthography

The runic alphabet used to write Old English before the introduction of the Latin alphabet.

Old English was first written in runes (futhorc) but shifted to a (minuscule) half-uncial script of the Latin alphabet introduced by Irish Christian missionaries. This was replaced by insular script, a cursive and pointed version of the half-uncial script. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continental Carolingian minuscule (also known as Caroline) replaced the insular.

The letter yogh was adapted from Irish ecclesiastical forms of Latin < g > ; the letter ðæt < ð > (called eth or edh in modern English) was an alteration of Latin < d >, and the runic letters thorn and wynn are borrowings from futhorc. Also used was a symbol for the conjunction and, a character similar to the number seven (< ⁊ >, called a Tironian note), and a symbol for the relative pronoun þæt, a thorn with a crossbar through the ascender (< ꝥ >). Macrons < ¯ > over vowels were rarely used to indicate long vowels. Also used occasionally were abbreviations for following m’s or n’s. All of the sound descriptions below are given using IPA symbols.

Conventions of modern editions

A number of changes are traditionally made in published modern editions of the original Old English manuscripts. Some of these conventions include the introduction of punctuation and the substitutions of symbols. The symbols < e, f, g, r, s > are used in modern editions, although their shapes in the insular script are considerably different. The insular symbol that is substituted by modern < s > resembles the elongated esh < ʃ >. Insular < ȝ >[7] is usually substituted with modern < g > (which is ultimately a Carolingian symbol). Additionally, modern manuscripts often distinguish between a velar and palatal < c > and < ȝ > with diacritic dots above the putative palatals: < ċ >, < ġ >. The wynn symbol < ƿ > is usually substituted with < w >. Kentish < æ > is usually substituted with modern < ę >. Macrons are usually found in modern editions to indicate putative long vowels, while they are usually lacking in the originals. The decision to add macrons is usually etymologically based as they are printed even when these vowels are in unstressed positions where they would most probably be short.

The alphabetical symbols found in Old English writings and their substitute symbols found in modern editions are listed below:

Symbol Description and notes
a Short /ɑ/. Spelling variations like < land ~ lond > "land" suggest it may have had a rounded allophone [ɒ] before [n] in some cases)
ā Long /ɑː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < a > in modern editions.
æ Short /æ/. Before 800 the digraph < ae > is often found instead of < æ >. During the 8th century < æ > began to be used more frequently was standard after 800. In 9th century Kentish manuscripts, a form of < æ > that was missing the upper hook of the < a > part was used. Kentish < æ > may be either /æ/ or /e/ although this is difficult to determine.
ǣ Long /æː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < æ > in modern editions.
b Represented /b/. Also represented [v] in early texts before 800. For example, the word "sheaves" is spelled < scēabas > in an early text but later (and more commonly) as < scēafas >.
c Except in the digraphs < sc, cg >, either /tʃ/ or /k/. The /tʃ/ pronunciation is sometimes written with a diacritic by modern editors: most commonly < ċ >, sometimes < č > or < ç >. Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always /k/; word-finally after < i > it is always /tʃ/. Otherwise a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the word in question is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution of velars and palatals in Old English for details.)
cg [ddʒ] (the surface pronunciation of geminate /jj/); occasionally also for /gg/
d Represented /d/. In the earliest texts, it also represented /θ/ but was soon replaced by < ð > and < þ >. For example, the word meaning "thought" (lit. mood-i-think, with -i- as in "handiwork") was written < mōdgidanc > in a Northumbrian text dated 737, but later as < mōdgeþanc > in a 10th century West Saxon text.
ð Represented /θ/ and its allophone [ð]. Called ðæt in Old English (now called eth in Modern English), < ð > is found in alternation with the thorn < þ > symbol (both representing the same sound) although it is more common in texts dating before Alfred. Replaced earlier < d > and < th > (along with < þ >). First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 7th century. After the beginning of Alfred's time, < ð > was used more frequently for medial and final positions while < þ > became increasingly used in initial positions (although both still varied). Some modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between < þ ~ ð > by using only < þ >.[8]
e Short /e/.
ę Either Kentish /æ/ or /e/ although this is difficult to determine. A modern editorial substitution for a form of < æ > missing the upper hook of the < a > found in 9th century texts.
ē Long /eː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < e > in modern editions.
ea Short /æɑ/; after < ċ, ġ >, sometimes /æ/ or /ɑ/.
ēa Long /æːɑ/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < ea > in modern editions. After < ċ, ġ >, sometimes /æː/.
eo Short /eo/; after < ċ, ġ >, sometimes /o/
ēo Long /eːo/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < eo > in modern editions.
f /f/ and its allophone [v]
g Mostly absent in Old English works, but used as a substitute for < ȝ > in modern editions.
ȝ /g/ and its allophone [ɣ]; /j/ and its allophone [dʒ] (when after < n >). In modern printed editions of Old English works, the symbol < g > is used instead of the more common < ȝ >. The /j/ and [dʒ] pronunciations are sometimes written < ġ > or < ȝ > by modern editors. Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always [g] (word-initially) or [ɣ] (after a vowel). Word-finally after < i > it is always /j/. Otherwise a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the word in question is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution of velars and palatals in Old English for details.)
h /h/ and its allophones [ç, x]. In the combinations < hl, hr, hn, hw >, the second consonant was certainly voiceless.
i Short /i/.
ī Long /iː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < i > in modern editions.
ie Short /iy/; after < ċ, ġ >, sometimes /e/.
īe Long /iːy/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < ie > in modern editions. After < ċ, ġ >, sometimes /eː/.
k /k/ (rarely used)
l /l/; probably velarised (as in Modern English) when in coda position.
m /m/
n /n/ and its allophone [ŋ]
o Short /o/.
ō Long /oː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < o > in modern editions.
oe Short /ø/ (in dialects with this sound).
ōe Long /øː/ (in dialects with this sound). Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < oe > in modern editions.
p /p/
qu A rare spelling of /kw/, which was usually written as < cƿ > (= < cw > in modern editions).[9]
r /r/; the exact nature of r is not known. It may have been an alveolar approximant [ɹ], as in most Modern English accents, an alveolar flap [ɾ], or an alveolar trill [r].
s A substitution for an insular symbol resembling < ʃ > that is used in modern printed editions of Old English works. It represents /s/ and its allophone [z].
sc /ʃ/ or occasionally /sk/.
t /t/
th Represented /θ/ in the earliest texts but was soon replaced by < ð > and < þ >. For example, the word meaning "thought" (lit. mood-i-think, with -i- as in "handiwork") was written < mōdgithanc > in a 6th century Northumbrian text, but later as < mōdgeþanc > in a 10th century West Saxon text.
þ An alternate symbol called thorn used instead of < ð >. Represents /θ/ and its allophone [ð]. Replaced earlier < d > and < th > (along with < ð >). First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 8th century. Less common than < ð > before the Alfred's time. From the beginning of Alfred's time and onward, < þ > was used increasingly more frequently than < ð > at the beginning of words while its occurrence at the end and in the middle of words was rare. Some modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between < þ ~ ð > by using only < þ >.
u /u/ and /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. The /w/ < u > was eventually replaced by < ƿ > outside of the north of the island.
uu Short /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. Outside of the north, it was generally replaced by < ƿ >.
ū Long /uː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < u > in modern editions.
w /w/. A modern substitution for < ƿ >.
ƿ Runic wynn. Represents /w/, replaced in modern print by < w > to prevent confusion with < p >.
x /ks/ (but according to some authors, [xs ~ çs])
y Short /y/.
ȳ Long /yː/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short < y > in modern editions.
z /ts/. A rare spelling for < ts >. Example: /betst/ "best" is rarely spelled < bezt > for more common < betst >.

Doubled consonants are geminated; the geminate fricatives ðð/þþ, ff and ss cannot be voiced.

Literature

Main article: Anglo-Saxon literature

Old English literature, though more abundant than literature of the continent before AD 1000, is nonetheless scanty. In his supplementary article to the 1935 posthumous edition of Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader, Dr. James Hulbert writes:

In such historical conditions, an incalculable amount of the writings of the Anglo-Saxon period perished. What they contained, how important they were for an understanding of literature before the Conquest, we have no means of knowing: the scant catalogs of monastic libraries do not help us, and there are no references in extant works to other compositions....How incomplete our materials are can be illustrated by the well-known fact that, with few and relatively unimportant exceptions, all extant Anglo-Saxon poetry is preserved in four manuscripts.

Old English was one of the first vernacular languages to be written down. Some of the most important surviving works of Old English literature are Beowulf, an epic poem; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of early English history; and Caedmon's Hymn, a Christian religious poem. There are also a number of extant prose works, such as sermons and saints' lives, biblical translations, and translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers, legal documents, such as laws and wills, and practical works on grammar, medicine, and geography. Still, poetry is considered the heart of Old English literature. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous, with a few exceptions, such as Bede and Caedmon.

Comparison with other historical forms of English

Old English is often erroneously used to refer to any form of English other than Modern English. The term Old English does not refer to varieties of Early Modern English such as are found in Shakespeare or the King James Bible, nor does it refer to Middle English, the language of Chaucer and his contemporaries. The following timeline helps place the history of the English language in context. The dates used are approximate dates. Language change is gradual, and cannot be as easily demarcated as are historical or political events.

Examples

Beowulf

The first example is taken from the opening lines of the epic poem Beowulf. This passage describes how Hrothgar's legendary ancestor Scyld was found as a baby, washed up on the shore, and adopted by a noble family. The translation is quite literal and represents the original poetic word order. As such, it is not typical of Old English prose. The modern cognates of original words have been used whenever practical to give a close approximation of the feel of the original poem. The words in brackets are implied in the Old English by noun case and the bold words in parentheses are explanations of words that have slightly different meanings in a modern context. Notice how what is used by the poet where a word like lo or behold would be expected. This usage is similar to what-ho!, both an expression of surprise and a call to attention.

Line Original Translation
[1] Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in geār-dagum, What! We [of] Gar-Danes (lit. spear-danes) in yore-days,
[2] þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon, [of] people-kings, trim (glory) afrained (have learned of by asking),
[3] hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. how those athelings (princes) arm-strong feats framed (made/performed).
[4] Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, Oft Scyld Scefing, [from] scathers (enemies) [in] threats (armed bands),
[5] monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, [from] many magths (clans, groups of sons, cf. Irish cognate Mac-), mead-settles took,
[6] egsode eorl. Syððan ærest wearð awed earls (leaders of men). Sith (since) erst (first) [he] worth (came to be)
[7] feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, fewshiped (helpless, in "fewship") founden, he [in a state of] loving care abode (lived),
[8] weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, wex (waxed) under welkin (the clouds), [in] mind's-worth (honour) thrived,
[9] oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra oth that (until that) [to] him each [of] those [who were] by-sitting ("sitting" or dwelling roundabout)
[10] ofer hronrade hyran scolde, over whale-road (kenning for sea) hear (obedience) should (owed),
[11] gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning! gifts [to] yield. That was [a] good king!

A semi-fluid translation in Modern English would be:

Listen! We have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes, of the kings of the people, in days of yore, [and] how those princes did deeds of glory. Often Scyld Scefing deprived armed bands of foes, many clans of mead-benches, [and] terrified warriors. Since he first was found helpless (he experienced comfort for that), he grew under the heavens, thrived with honours, until each of the nearby peoples over the sea were obliged to pay him tribute. That was a good king!

The Lord's Prayer

This text of The Lord's Prayer is presented in the standardised West Saxon literary dialect

Line Original Translation
[1] Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, Father ours, thou that art in heaven,
[2] Si þin nama gehalgod. Be thy name hallowed.
[3] To becume þin rice, Come thy rich (kingdom),
[4] gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. Worth (manifest) thy will, on earth also as in heaven.
[5] Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, Our daily loaf sell (give) us today,
[6] and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. And forgive us our guilts as also we forgive our guilty[10]
[7] And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. And lead thou us not in temptation, but loose (release) us of evil.
[8] Soþlice. Soothly.

Charter of Cnut

This is a proclamation from King Canute the Great to his earl Thorkell the Tall and the English people written in AD 1020. Unlike the previous two examples, this text is prose rather than poetry. For ease of reading, the passage has been divided into sentences while the pilcrows represent the original division.

Original Translation
¶ Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopas and his leod-biscopas and Þurcyl eorl and ealle his eorlas and ealne his þeodscype, twelfhynde and twyhynde, gehadode and læwede, on Englalande freondlice. ¶ Cnut, king, greeteth his archbishops and his people's-bishops and Þurcyl, earl, and all his earls and all his peopleship, greater (having a 1200 shilling weregild) and lesser (200 shilling weregild), hooded(ordained to priesthood) and lewd(lay), in England friendly.
And ic cyðe eow, þæt ic wylle beon hold hlaford and unswicende to godes gerihtum and to rihtre woroldlage. And I kithe(make known/couth to) you, that I will be [a] hold(civilised) lord and unswiking(uncheating) to God's rights(laws) and to [the] rights(laws) worldly.
¶ Ic nam me to gemynde þa gewritu and þa word, þe se arcebiscop Lyfing me fram þam papan brohte of Rome, þæt ic scolde æghwær godes lof upp aræran and unriht alecgan and full frið wyrcean be ðære mihte, þe me god syllan wolde. ¶ I nam(took) me to mind the writs and the word that the Archbishop Lyfing me from the Pope brought of Rome, that I should ayewhere(everywhere) God's love(praise) uprear(promote), and unright(outlaw) lies, and full frith(peace) work(bring about) by the might that me God would(wished) [to] sell'(give).
¶ Nu ne wandode ic na minum sceattum, þa hwile þe eow unfrið on handa stod: nu ic mid godes fultume þæt totwæmde mid minum scattum. ¶ Now, ne went(withdrew/changed) I not my shot(financial contribution, cf. Norse cognate in scot-free) the while that you stood(endured) unfrith(turmoil) on-hand: now I, mid(with) God's support, that [unfrith] totwemed(separated/dispelled) mid(with) my shot(financial contribution).
Þa cydde man me, þæt us mara hearm to fundode, þonne us wel licode: and þa for ic me sylf mid þam mannum þe me mid foron into Denmearcon, þe eow mæst hearm of com: and þæt hæbbe mid godes fultume forene forfangen, þæt eow næfre heonon forð þanon nan unfrið to ne cymð, þa hwile þe ge me rihtlice healdað and min lif byð. Tho(then) [a] man kithed(made known/couth to) me that us more harm had found(come upon) than us well liked(equalled): and tho(then) fore(travelled) I, meself, mid(with) those men that mid(with) me fore(travelled), into Denmark that [to] you most harm came of(from): and that[harm] have [I], mid(with) God's support, afore(previously) forefangen(forestalled) that to you never henceforth thence none unfrith(breach of peace) ne come the while that ye me rightly hold(behold as king) and my life beeth.

Bibliography

Sources

General

External history

Orthography/Palaeography

Phonology

Morphology

Syntax

Lexicon

Notes

  1. ^ The term Anglo-Saxon came to refer to all things of the early English period by the 16th century, including language, culture, and people. While this is still the preferred term for the latter two aspects, the language starting from the 19th century began to be called Old English. This is because the language itself began to be studied in detail, and scholars recognised the continued development of the English language from the Anglo-Saxon period to Middle English and through to the present day. However many authors still use the term Anglo-Saxon to refer to the language. Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521530334.
  2. ^ See Timeline of the Anglo-Saxon invasion and takeover of Britain
  3. ^ http://www.rotary-munich.de/2005-2006/theo-vennemann.pdf PDF (441 KiB)
  4. ^ Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 4. ISBN 0-19-811943-7.
  5. ^ Moore, Samuel, and Thomas A. Knott. The Elements of Old English. 1919. Ed. James R. Hulbert. 10th ed. Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Co., 1958.
  6. ^ It is uncertain whether the diphthongs spelt ie/īe were pronounced [i(ː)y] or [i(ː)e]. The fact that this diphthong was merged with /y(ː)/ in many dialects suggests the former.
  7. ^ Insular < ȝ > is not equivalent to Middle English yogh < ȝ >.
  8. ^ See also Pronunciation of English th.
  9. ^ The spelling < qu > is much more common in later Middle English.
  10. ^ (lit. 'guiltend' meaning 'person or persons in the act of sinning', from the participial adj. meaning 'in the act of sinning'; cf. Latin cognate particpial suffix -ant, thus "guiltant ones").

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader/An Outline of Anglo-Saxon Grammar

External links

Old English edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History of the English language

Old English · Anglo-Norman language – Middle English creole hypothesis – Middle English · Early Modern English · Modern English
Phonological history
Vowels

Great Vowel Shift · short A · low back vowels · high back vowels · high front vowels · diphthongs · changes before historic l · changes before historic r
Consonants

rhoticity · flapping · l-vocalization · consonant clusters · wh · fricatives and affricates · th · th-alveolarization · th-fronting · þ (thorn) · th-debuccalization · th-stopping · then-thyn split
Germanic languages · Germanic philology
Language subgroups East Germanic · West Germanic · North Germanic · Northwest Germanic · Ingvaeonic · English
Reconstructed Proto-Germanic
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East Gothic · Crimean Gothic · Vandalic · Burgundian
West Old Low German · Middle Low German · Old High German · Middle High German · Old Frankish · Old Dutch · Middle Dutch · Old Frisian · Middle Frisian · Old English · Middle English · Early Scots · Middle Scots · Lombardic · Yola
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Diachronic features Grimm's law · Verner's law · Holtzmann's law · Sievers' law · Germanic substrate hypothesis · West Germanic gemination · High German consonant shift · Germanic a-mutation · Germanic umlaut · Germanic spirant law · Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law · Great vowel shift
Synchronic features Germanic verb · Germanic strong verb · Germanic weak verb · Preterite-present verb · Grammatischer Wechsel · Indo-European ablaut
Language histories English (phonology) · Scots (phonology) · German · Dutch · Danish · Icelandic · Swedish

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