HISTORY OF ENGLISH LECTURE

3:
OLD ENGLISH

• General Linguistic Features of Old English

• Old English in Detail:
•Phonetics
•Vocabulary
•Grammar
• Old English: Linguistic Text Analysis
REMINDER
 Old English is the language of the Germanic inhabitants of
England, dated from the time of their settlement in the 5th
century to the end of the 11th century.
 It is also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, a name given in contrast
with the Old Saxon of the inhabitants of northern Germany; these
are two of the dialects of West Germanic, along with Old Frisian,
Old Franconian, and Old High German.
 Sister families to West Germanic are North Germanic, with Old
Norse (a.k.a. Old Icelandic) as its chief dialect, and East
Germanic, with Gothic as its chief (and only attested) dialect.
 The Germanic parent language of these three families, referred to
as Proto-Germanic, is not attested but may be reconstructed from
evidence within the families, such as provided by Old English
texts.
REMINDER 2
 Old English itself has three dialects: West Saxon,
Kentish, and Anglian.
 West Saxon was the language of Alfred the Great (871-
901) and therefore achieved the greatest prominence;
accordingly, the chief Old English texts have survived in
this dialect.
GENERAL LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF OLD
ENGLISH

 Germanic language  relative of German, Dutch,

Frisian etc.
 Synthetic language  words have inflections, including
case endings, number endings, person endings and
gender endings
 Freer word order than Modern English  words could
change their order depending on emphasis
 Poetically developed language  many synonyms for
words, uses many stylistic devices
WEST GERMANIC LANGUAGES
BASIC LANGUAGE TYPES
SYNTHETIC AND ANALYTIC
LANGUAGES
SYNTHETIC AND ANALYTIC
LANGUAGES
LANGUAGE LEVELS
LANGUAGE LEVELS
OLD ENGLISH: ALPHABET
 The alphabet used to write Old English texts was
adopted from Latin, which was introduced by Christian
missionaries.
 Unfortunately, spelling was never fully standardized: the
alphabet was used by scribal monks to spell words
"phonetically" with the result that each dialect, with its
different sounds, was rendered differently.
 King Alfred did attempt to regularize spelling in the 9th
century, but by the 11th century continued changes in
pronunciation once again exerted their disruptive effects
on spelling.
ANGLO-SAXON RUNES
CAEDMON’S HYMN
OLD ENGLISH: ALPHABET
 Anglo-Saxon scribes added two consonants to the Latin
alphabet to render the th sounds: first the runic thorn (þ),
and later eth (ð).
 Another added letter was the ligature ash (æ), used to
represent the broad vowel sound now rendered by 'a' in,
e.g., the word fast.
 A letter wynn was also added, to represent the
English w sound, but it looks so much like thorn that
modern transcriptions replace it with the more familiar
'w' to eliminate confusion.
OLD ENGLISH: PHONETICS
 During the 6th Century, for reasons which are still
unclear, the Anglo-Saxon consonant cluster "sk" changed
to "sh", so that skield became shield.
 This change affected all "sk" words in the language at
that time, whether recent borrowings from Latin
(e.g. disk became dish) or ancient aboriginal borrowings
(e.g. skip became ship).
 Any modern English words which make use of the "sk"
cluster came into the language after the 6th Century (i.e.
after the sound change had ceased to operate), mainly
from Scandinavia.
OLD ENGLISH: PHONETICS
 Then, around the 7th Century, a vowel shift took place in Old
English pronunciation (but not the Great Vowel Shift, which
happened later) in which vowels began to be pronounced more to
the front of the mouth.
 The main sound affected was "i", hence its common description as
"i-mutation" or "i-umlaut" (umlaut is a German term meaning sound
alteration).
 As part of this process, the plurals of several nouns also started to be
represented by changed vowel pronunciations rather than changes in
inflection.
 These changes were sometimes, but not always, reflected in revised
spellings, resulting in inconsistent modern words pairings such as 
 foot/feet, goose/geese, man/men, mouse/mice, as well
as blood/bleed, broad/breadth, long/length, old/elder, whole/hale/heal/hea
lth, etc.
CONSONANTS
DIGRAPHS (CONSISTED OF TWO LETTERS)
VOWELS
VOCABULARY
 At first glance, Old English texts may look decidedly
strange to a modern English speaker: many Old English
words are no longer used in modern English, and the
inflectional structure was far more rich than is true of its
modern descendant.
 However, with small spelling differences and sometimes
minor meaning changes, many of the most
common words in Old and modern English are the same.
VOCABULARY
 Many of the most basic and common words in use in
English today have their roots in Old English, including
words like 
 water, earth, house, food, drink, sleep, sing, night, strong, the, a,
 be, of, he, she, you, no, not, etc.
 There are also words that are sometimes called "false
friends", words that appear to be similar in Old English and
modern English, but whose meanings have changed, words
such as wif (wife, which originally meant any woman,
married or not), fugol (fowl, which meant any bird, not just
a farmyard one), sona (soon, which meant immediately, not
just in a while), won (wan, which meant dark, not pale)
and fæst (fast, which meant fixed or firm, not rapidly).
VOCABULARY
 It is estimated that about 85% of the 30,000 or so Anglo-Saxon words
gradually died out under the cultural onslaught of the Vikings and the
Normans who would come after them, leaving a total of only around
4,500.
 This represents less than 1% of modern English vocabulary, but it includes
some of the most fundamental and important words (e.g. 
 man, wife, child, son, daughter, brother, friend, live, fight, make, use, love, like, l
ook, drink, food, eat, sleep, sing, sun, moon, earth, ground, wood, field, house, ho
me, people, family, horse, fish, farm, water, time, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, strong, 
work, come, go, be, find, see, look, laughter, night, day, sun, first, many, one, two,
 other, some, what, when, which, where, word, etc), as well as the most important
“function” words (e.g. to, for, but, and, at, in, on, from, etc).
 Because of this, up to a half of everyday modern English will typically be
made up of Old English words, and, by some estimates, ALL of the
hundred most commonly-used words in modern English are of Anglo-
Saxon origin (although pronunciations and spellings may have changed
significantly over time).
VOCABULARY
 After Vikings came to the British isles, Old Norse was gradually
merged into the English language, and many Scandinavian terms
were introduced.
 In all, up to 1,000 Norse words were permanently added to the
English lexicon, among them, some of the most common and
fundamental in the language, including 
 skull, skin, leg, neck, freckle, sister, husband, fellow, wing, bull, 
score, seat, root, bloom, bag, gap, knife, dirt, kid, link, gate, sky, 
egg, cake, skirt, band, bank, birth, scrap, skill,
thrift, window, gasp, gap, law, anger, trust, silver, clasp, call, 
crawl, dazzle, scream, screech, race, lift, get, give, are, take, mistake, rid, s
eem, want, thrust, hit, guess, kick, kill, 
rake, raise, smile, hug, call, cast, clip, die, flat, meek, rotten,tight, odd, 
rugged, ugly, ill, sly, wrong, loose, happy, awkward, weak, worse, low, both
, same, together, again, until, etc.
VOCABULARY
 Old Norse often provided direct alternatives or synonyms for
Anglo-Saxon words, both of which have been carried on
 (e.g. Anglo-Saxon craft and Norse
skill, wish and want, dike and ditch, sick and ill, whole and hale, raise a
nd rear, wrath and anger, hide and skin, etc).
 Unusually for language development, English also adopted some
Norse grammatical forms, such as the
pronouns they, them and their, although these words did not enter
the dialects of London and southern England until as late as the
15th Century.
 Under the influence of the Danes, Anglo-Saxon word endings and
inflections started to fall away during the time of the Danelaw,
and prepositions like to, with, by, etc became more important to
make meanings clear.
EXAMPLES OF OLD ENGLISH
VOCABULARY
 Nouns: cynn 'kin', hand, god, man(n), word.
 Pronouns: hē, ic 'I', mē, self, wē.

 Verbs: beran 'bear', cuman 'come', dyde 'did', sittan 'sit', 
wæs 'was'.
 Adjectives: fæst 'fast', gōd 'good', hālig 'holy', rīce 'rich', 
wīd 'wide'.
 Adverbs: ær 'ere', alle 'all', nū 'now', tō 'too', ðǣr 'there'.

 Prepositions: æfter 'after', for, in, on, under.

 Articles: ðæt 'that', ðis 'this'.

 Conjunctions: and, gif 'if'.
MORPHOLOGY
 Old English words were inflected. Over time, most of
this was lost and English became the analytic language
we recognize today.
 These inflectional systems had already been reduced by
the time Old English was first being written, long after it
had parted ways with its Proto-Germanic ancestor.
CATEGORIES
(NOUNS/PRONOUNS/ADJECTIVES)
 These categories of Old English words were declined
according to case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative,
or sometimes instrumental), number (singular, plural, or
[for pronouns] dual meaning 'two'), and gender (masculine,
feminine, or neuter: inherent in nouns, but inherited by
adjectives and pronouns from the nouns they associate
with).
 Adjectives and regular nouns were either "strong" or
"weak" in declension.
NOUNS
 Nouns were inflected for four cases (nominative,
genitive, dative, and accusative) in singular and plural.
Five nouns of first kinship—faeder, mōdor, brōthor,
sweostor, and dohtor (“father,” “mother,” “brother,”
“sister,” and “daughter,” respectively)—had their own
set of inflections.
NOUNS: GENDER
 Grammatical gender persisted throughout the Old
English period. Just as Germans now say der Fuss, die
Hand, and das Auge (masculine, feminine, and neuter
terms for “the foot,” “the hand,” and “the eye”), so, for
these same structures, Aelfric said sē fōt, sēo hond,
and thaet ēaġe, also masculine, feminine, and neuter.
NOUNS: GENDER
 The three words for “woman,” wīfmon, cwene, and wīf,
were masculine, feminine, and neuter,
respectively. Hors “horse,” sċēap “sheep,”
and maeġden “maiden” were all neuter. Eorthe “earth”
was feminine, but lond “land” was neuter. Sunne “sun”
was feminine, but mōna “moon” was masculine.
PRONOUNS
Pronouns were typically suppletive in their declension, meaning
inflectional rules did not account for many forms, so each form
had to be memorized (as is true of modern
English I/me, you, he/she/it/his/her, etc). The pronouns of the 1st
and 2nd persons still had distinctive dual forms:
ARTICLES
 There were two demonstratives: sē, sēo, thaet, meaning
“that,” and thes, thēos, this, meaning “this,” but no
articles, the definite article being expressed by use of the
demonstrative for “that” or not expressed at all. Thus,
“the good man” was sē gōda mon or just gōd mon.
 The function of the indefinite article was performed by
the numeral ān “one” in ān mon “a man,” by the
adjective-pronoun sum in sum mon “a (certain) man,” or
not expressed, as in thū eart gōd mon “you are a good
man.”
VERBS
 Verbs had two tenses only (present-future and past),
three moods (indicative, subjunctive, and imperative),
two numbers (singular and plural), and three persons
(1st, 2nd, and 3rd). There were two classes of verb
stems.
 One type of verb stem, called vocalic because an internal
vowel shows variations, is exemplified by the verb for
“sing”: singan, singth, sang, sungon, gesungen.
 The word for “deem” is an example of the other, called
consonantal: dēman, dēmth, dēmde, dēmdon, gedēmed.
 Such verbs are called strong and weak, respectively.
VERBS
 Old English verbs were conjugated according to person
(1st, 2nd, or 3rd), number (singular or plural), tense
(present or past/preterite), mood (indicative, imperative,
subjunctive), etc.
 Most verbs were either "strong" or "weak" in
conjugation; there were seven classes of strong verbs and
three classes of weak verbs.
 A few other verbs, including modals (e.g. for 'can',
'must'), belonged to a special category called "preterit-
present," where different rules applied, and yet others
(e.g. for 'be', 'do', 'go') were "anomalous," meaning each
form had to be memorized.
VERBS
 Verbs were weak and strong, in accordance with their means of
producing the preterite (i.e. past) tense. This was produced by
addition of a suffix -de (or -te) in weak verbs, e.g. hīere,
hīerde 'hear, heard', or by internal vowel change
called ablaut in strong verbs, e.g. binde, band 'bind, bound'.
 Passives were formed with the auxiliaries bēon 'be', wesan 'be',
and also with weorðan 'become' plus the infinitive.
 There were two tenses: present and preterite; three
moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative (plus
sometimes optative), each with two
numbers: singular and plural.
 There were also three "nominal" forms: the gerund, present
participle, and past participle.
VERBS
ANOMALOUS/SUPPLETIVE VERBS
 There were also anomalous, or suppletive verbs with
forms that are not always morphologically predictable.
They were neither weak nor strong.
 Modern English was, were provides a contemporary
example of suppletion, which is commonly observed
among Indo-European languages for the most basic
verbs, pronouns, and a few other parts of speech.
 Old English inherited from Proto-Germanic, its ancestral
tongue, three different anomalous verbs for 'to be'.
OE wesan (the infinitive) survived as a verb only in the
two modern English forms was, were.
ANOMALOUS VERB TO BE
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
 Old English was a "synthetic" language, meaning
inflectional endings signalled grammatical structure and
word order was rather free.
 Modern English, by contrast, is an "analytic" language,
meaning word order is much more constrained (e.g., with
clauses typically in Subject-Verb-Object order).
 In prose texts, the word order was similar to Modern
English (only verbs were sometimes moved, like in
Modern German). However, in poetry, a sentence could
have any order for emphasis.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
 Because of the greater use of inflections in Old English,
word order was freer than today. The sequence of
subject, verb, and complement was normal, but when
there were outer and inner complements the second was
put in the dative case after to: Sē biscop hālgode Ēadrēd
tō cyninge “The bishop consecrated Edred king.”
 After an introductory adverb or adverbial phrase the verb
generally took second place as in modern German: Nū
bydde iċ ān thing “Now I ask [literally, “ask I”] one
thing”; Thȳ ilcan gēare gesette Aelfrēd cyning
Lundenburg “In that same year Alfred the king occupied
London.”
TEXT ANALYSIS: BEOWULF
TEXT ANALYSIS: BEOWULF

 HWÆT, WĒ GĀR-DEna in gēardagum

 þēodcyninga þrym gefrūnon,
 hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon!
 hwæt -- interrogative pronoun; accusative singular neuter of <hwā, hwā, hwæt> who, what -- Lo
 wē -- 1st person pronoun; nominative plural of <ic> I -- we
 Gār-Dena -- proper noun, masculine plural; genitive of <gār-Dene> spear-Danes -- of Spear-
Danes
 in -- preposition; <in> in, into -- in
 gēardagum -- noun, masculine; dative plural of <gēar-dæg> lit. year-day -- days of yore
 þēodcyninga -- noun, masculine; genitive plural of <ðēod-cyning> lit. people-king -- of folk-
kings'
 þrym -- noun, masculine; nominative singular of <þrymm> glory, renown -- prowess
 gefrūnon -- strong verb, class III; 1st person plural preterite of <gefrīnan, gefrān, gefrūnon,
gefrūnen> learn, hear of -- have heard
 hū -- adverbial conjunction; <hū> how -- how
 ðā -- definite article; nominative plural of <se, sēo, ðæt> the -- the
 æþelingas -- strong noun, masculine; nominative plural of <æðeling> nobleman, prince -- princes
 ellen -- noun, neuter; accusative singular of <ellen> valor, courage -- deed(s) of valor
 fremedon -- weak verb, class I; 3rd person plural preterite of <fremman, fremede, fremed> do,
perform -- wrought
TEXT ANALYSIS: BEOWULF

 Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaþena þrēatum,

 monegum mǣgþum meodosetla oftēah,
 egsode eorlas, syððan ǣrest wearð
 fēasceaft funden
 oft -- adverb; <oft> often, frequently -- often
 Scyld Scēfing -- proper noun, masculine; nominative singular of <Scyld Scēfing> Scyld
Scefing -- Scyld Scefing
 sceaþena -- weak noun, masculine; genitive plural of <sceaða> enemy, warrior -- of enemies

 þrēatum -- noun, masculine; dative plural of <ðrēat> band, troop -- (from) bands

 monegum -- adjective; dative plural feminine of <monig> many -- (from) many

 mǣgþum -- noun, feminine; dative plural of <mǣgþ> tribe, nation -- tribes

 meodosetla -- noun, neuter; genitive plural of <medu-setl> lit. mead-seat -- mead-benches

 oftēah -- strong verb, class II; 3rd person singular preterite of <oftēon, oftēah, oftugon,
oftogen> deny, deprive -- wrested
 egsode -- weak verb, class II; 3rd person singular preterite of <egsian, egsode,
egsod> terrify -- terrified
 eorlas -- noun, masculine; accusative plural of <eorl> earl, nobleman, warrior -- earls

 syððan -- adverb; <syððan> afterwards -- since

 ǣrest -- adverb; superlative of <ǣr> ere, before, formerly -- first

 wearð -- strong verb, class III; 3rd person singular preterite of <weorðan, wearð, wurdon,
worden> become, happen -- (he) was
 fēasceaft -- adjective; nominative singular masculine of <fēasceaft> poor,
destitute -- abandoned # as a baby
 funden -- strong verb, class III; past participle of <findan, fond, fundon,
funden> find -- found
TEXT ANALYSIS: BEOWULF

 hē þæs frōfre gebād,

 wēox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þāh,
 oð þæt him ǣghwylc ymbsittendra
 ofer hronrāde hȳran scolde,
 gomban gyldan;
 þæs -- demonstrative pronoun; genitive singular neuter of <sē, sēo, ðæt> that -- for that
 frōfre -- noun, feminine; accusative singular of <frōfor> relief, solace, consolation -- consolation
 gebād -- strong verb, class I; 3rd person singular preterite of <gebīdan, gebād, gebidon, gebiden> remain; await;
experience; attain -- received
 wēox -- strong verb, class VII; 3rd person singular preterite of <weaxan, wēox, wēoxon, wēaxen> wax,
grow -- (he) grew
 under -- preposition; <under> under -- under
 wolcnum -- noun, masculine; dative plural of <wolcen> sky, heaven -- the heavens
 weorðmyndum -- noun, feminine; dative plural of <weorðmynd> glory, honor, reverence -- honors
 þāh -- strong verb, class I; 3rd person singular preterite of <ðēon, ðāh, ðigon, ðigen> thrive, prosper -- won
 oð þæt -- adverbial conjunction; <oð þæt> until -- until
 him -- 3rd person pronoun; dative singular masculine of <hē, hēo, hit> he, she, it -- him
 ǣghwylc -- adjective; nominative singular masculine of <ǣghwilc> all, every -- all
 ymbsittendra -- strong verb, class V; present participle <ymbsittan, ymbsæt, ymbsǣton, ymbseten> besiege, lit.
sit round -- (of the) peoples
 ofer -- preposition; <ofer> over, across -- across
 hronrāde -- noun, feminine; accusative singular of <hron-rād> sea, lit. whale-road -- the sea
 hȳran -- weak verb, class I; infinitive of <hīeran, hīerde, hīered> hear, obey; belong -- obey
 scolde -- modal (preterit-present) verb, class IV; 3rd person singular preterite indicative of <sculan, sceal,
sculon, scolde> shall, ought to -- had to
 gomban -- weak noun, feminine; accusative singular of <gombe> tribute -- tribute # "weak feminine" is
speculative
 gyldan -- strong verb, class III; infinitive of <gieldan, geald, guldon, golden> yield, pay -- pay
TEXT ANALYSIS: BEOWULF

þæt wæs gōd cyning!

 þæt -- demonstrative pronoun; nominative singular neuter of <sē, sēo,
ðæt> that -- that
 wæs -- anomalous verb; 3rd person singular preterite indicative of <wesan> be,
happen -- was
 gōd -- adjective; nominative singular masculine of <gōd> good, excellent -- (a)
good
 cyning -- strong noun, masculine; nominative singular of <cyning> king -- king
 HWÆT, WĒ GĀR-DEna in
gēardagum þēodcyninga þrym  Lo, we have heard of Spear-Danes in
gefrūnon, hū ðā æþelingas ellen days of yore, of folk-kings' prowess,
fremedon! Oft Scyld Scēfing how the princes wrought deeds of
sceaþena þrēatum, monegum valor. Often Scyld Scefing wrested
mǣgþum meodosetla oftēah, mead-benches from bands of enemies
egsode eorlas, syððan ǣrest wearð from many tribes - terrified earls -
fēasceaft funden; hē þæs frōfre since first he was found abandoned.
gebād, wēox under wolcnum (He received consolation for that.)
weorðmyndum þāh, oð þæt him He grew under the heavens, thrived
ǣghwylc ymbsittendra ofer hronrāde with honors until all peoples across
hȳran scolde, gomban gyldan; þæt the sea had to obey: pay him tribute.
wæs gōd cyning!  That was a good king!