| Old English Language |
Index for Old English |
Website Links For Old English |
Information AboutOld English Language |
Old English (also called '''Anglo-Saxon''') is an early form of the English Language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the Mid-fifth Century and the Mid-twelfth Century . It is a West Germanic Language and therefore is similar to Old Frisian and Old Saxon . It is also related to Old Norse (and by extension, to modern Icelandic ). Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 700 years – from the Anglo-Saxon migrations which created England in the fifth century to some time after the Norman Invasion of 1066 , after which the language underwent a major and dramatic transition. During this early period it assimilated some aspects of the languages with which it came in contact, such as the Celtic Languages and the two dialects of Old Norse from the invading Viking s, who were occupying and controlling the Danelaw in northern and eastern England. Germanic origins The most important shaping force on Old English was its Germanic heritage in vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar that it shared with its sister languages in continental Europe. Some of these features were specific to the West Germanic Language family to which Old English belongs, while some other features were inherited from the Proto-Germanic language from which all Germanic Languages are believed to have been derived. Like other West Germanic languages of the period, Old English was fully ) was feminine, while ''se mōna'' (the Moon ) was masculine. Latin influence A large percentage of the educated and literate population ( Monks , Cleric s, etc.) were competent in Latin , which was then the '' Lingua Franca '' of Europe. 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 left continental Europe for England. The second began when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and Latin-speaking priests became widespread. The third, the largest single transfer of Latin-based words, occurred following the Norman Invasion of 1066 , after which an enormous number of Norman French words entered the language. Most of these Oïl Language words were themselves derived ultimately from classical Latin, although a notable stock of Norse words were introduced, or re-introduced in Norman form. The Norman Conquest approximately marks the end of Old English and the advent of Middle English . The language was further altered by the transition away from the Runic Alphabet (also known as '' Futhorc '') to the Latin Alphabet , 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 Letter s of Modern English therefore did not often exist in Old English. For example, the 'hard-c' sound in ''cniht'', the Old English equivalent of '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''. Old English spelling can therefore be regarded as even more jumbled than Modern English Spelling , although it can at least claim to reflect ''some'' existing pronunciation, while modern English in many cases cannot. Most students of Old English in the present day learn the language using normalised versions and are only introduced to variant spellings after they have mastered the basics of the language. Viking influence . The red area is the distribution of the dialect Old West Norse; the orange area is the spread of the dialect '''Old East Norse'''. The pink area is Old Gutnish and the green area is the extent of the other Germanic Languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility.]] The second major source of loanwords to Old English were the Scandinavian words introduced during the ''they''. Celtic influence It has traditionally been maintained 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 Loanword s is of a remarkably lower order than either Latin or Scandinavian. Since the 1980s, a growing number of authors, including Hildegard Tristram, have argued that the effects of Celtic language contact have historically been underplayed. In recent years Celtic etymologies have been proposed for an increasing number of English dialect words. Tristram, Theo Vennemann and others have argued that distinctive Celtic traits are clearly discernable in English in the area of syntax. This is an area of active research. Dialects To further complicate matters, Old English had many dialects. The four main Dialect forms of Old English were Mercian , Northumbrian (known collectively as Anglian ), Kentish , and West Saxon . Each of these 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 develop new accents when there is a sudden change of political power. 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. The Church was likewise affected, 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 ". Due at least partially to the centralisation of power and to the Viking invasions, there is little or no written evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after Alfred's unification. Phonology See Also: Old English phonology The inventory of Old English surface Phone s, as usually reconstructed, is as follows. The sounds marked in Parentheses are Allophone s:
The Front Mid Rounded Vowel s occur in some Dialect s of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect. Standardised orthography Old English was at first written in Runes ('' Futhorc ''), but shifted to the Latin Alphabet , with some additions, after the Anglo-Saxons' conversion to Christianity. The letter Yogh , for example, was adopted from Irish ; the letter Eth 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 (''). Also used occasionally were Macron s over vowels, abbreviations for following 'm's or 'n's. All of the sound descriptions below are given using IPA symbols. The alphabet
Doubled consonants are Geminated ; the geminate fricatives ''ðð''/''þþ'', ''ff'' and ''ss'' cannot be voiced. Syntax As a West Germanic language, Old English syntax has a great deal in common with Dutch and German. Old English is not dependent upon S (subject), V (verb), O (object) or " order, and OVS order. The only constant rule, as in German and Dutch , is that The Verb Must Come As The Second Concept . That is, in the sentence 'in the town, we ate some food', it could appear as 'in the town, ate we some food', or 'in the town, ate some food we'. This variable word order is especially common in poetry. Prose, while still displaying variable word order, is much more likely to use SVO ordering. Similarly, word order became less flexible as time went on: the older a text is, the less likely it is to have a fixed word order. To further complicate the matter, prepositions may appear after their object, though they are not postpositions, as they may occur in front of the noun too, and usually do, for example: God cwæð him þus tō (''lit.'') God quoth him thus to ''that is'' God quoth thus to him Morphology See Also: Old English morphology Unlike modern English, Old English is a , Accusative , Genitive , Dative and (vestigially) Instrumental , remnants of which survive only in a few pronouns in modern English. Misconceptions ''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. Please note that the dates used are approximate dates. It is inaccurate to state that everyone stopped speaking Old English in 1099, and woke up on New Year's Day of 1100 speaking Middle English. Language change is gradual, and cannot be as easily demarcated as historical or political events are. AD 450–1100 Old English (Anglo-Saxon) – The language of Beowulf . AD 1100–1500 Middle English – The language of Chaucer . AD 1500–1800 Early Modern English (or Renaissance English) – The language of Shakespeare . AD 1800–present Modern English (or Present-Day English) – The language as spoken today. Two sample texts Beowulf This text is from the epic poem Beowulf . The modern English translation is very literal, and does not fit modern word order ( SVO ). The original word order has been followed to give a close approximation of the feel of the original poem. The Lord's Prayer : Please note: this text is presented in the standardized West Saxon literary dialect Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, Si þin nama gehalgod. To becume þin rice, gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. soþlice. See also
References External links
|