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The Old English Period 449 - 1100

The Old English period lasted from 449 to 1100 AD. Some key aspects include: 1) Old English developed from ancestral Proto-Germanic and was influenced by Celtic and Latin languages. It had distinct dialects across England. 2) The language had a complex system of noun declensions and verb conjugations with some words showing i-mutation. Compound words and kennings were common features of poetry. 3) Vocabulary was enriched through periods of borrowing from continental Europe, Celtic cultures, and Scandinavian languages during the Viking invasions. 4) Contact with Vikings also resulted in changes to Old English grammar and phonology, including the loss of case inflections and introduction of the

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Karina Gurzhuyeva
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179 views

The Old English Period 449 - 1100

The Old English period lasted from 449 to 1100 AD. Some key aspects include: 1) Old English developed from ancestral Proto-Germanic and was influenced by Celtic and Latin languages. It had distinct dialects across England. 2) The language had a complex system of noun declensions and verb conjugations with some words showing i-mutation. Compound words and kennings were common features of poetry. 3) Vocabulary was enriched through periods of borrowing from continental Europe, Celtic cultures, and Scandinavian languages during the Viking invasions. 4) Contact with Vikings also resulted in changes to Old English grammar and phonology, including the loss of case inflections and introduction of the

Uploaded by

Karina Gurzhuyeva
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Old English Period

449 — 1100
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Celtic-based place names:

●
Cities: Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow,
London, York
●
Rivers: Avon 'river', Clyde, Dee, Don,
Forth, Severn, Thames, Usk
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Regions: Argyll, Cumbia, Devon, Dyfed,
Glamorgan, Kent, Lothian

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From Indo-European to Germanic

●
A fixed stress accent on the root-syllable
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Ablaut — grammatical interchange of vowels
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Grimm's Law — sound correspondences
●
Verner's law (rhotacism) — explanation for
the exceptions to Grimm's Law

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Grimm’s Law
Non-Germanic Germanic
b p
d t
g k
bh b
dh d
gh g
p f
t th
k h

fish/pisces, lip/labial, tooth/dental,


heart/cardiac, foot/pedal,
ten/decimal, fee/pecuniary
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Verner's Law

Latin centum ~ English hundred


Latin pater ~ OE fæder
t → th → d

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Rhotacism
*/s/ ‖ */s/ > */z/ > */r/

●
Greek oâç, Latin auris (auss) ‖ OE eare,
Old High German ora

● was — were, child — children

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Old english dialects
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Old English Noun Declensions
Masc. Neuter r-stem n- o- root-
a-stem a-stem stem stem stem

N hund dēor cild oxa lufu fōt


A hund dēor cild oxan lufe fōt
G hundes dēores cildes oxan lufe fōtes

D hunde dēore cilde oxan lufe fēt


N, A hundas dēor cildru oxan lufa fēt

G hunda dēora cildra oxena lufa fōta


D hundum dēorum cildrum oxum lufum fōtum

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strong declension weak declension
Singular N. gōd mann; se gōda mann
A. gōd-ne mann; ϸone gōdan mann
G. gōd-es mann-es; ϸᴂs gōdan mann-es
D. gōd-um menn; ϸᴂm gōdan menn
I. gōd-e menn; ϸy gōdan menn

Plural N. A. gōd-e menn; ϸā gōdan menn


G. gōd-ra mann-a; ϸāra gōdra mann-a
D. gōd-um mann-um; ϸǣm gōd-um mann-um

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Umlaut or i-mutation

Singular N. fōt
D. fōti > fēti > fēt
Plural fōtiz > fētiz > fēt

feet, geese, teeth, mice, lice, men, long-lengh,


broad-bredth, strong-strength, old-elder, doom-
deem, fuul-fill, fall-fell (vb.), blood-bleed
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(ic) eom or bēo ‘I am’
(ꝥū) eart or bist ‘you (sg.) are’
(hē, hēo, hit) is or biр ‘he,
she, it is’
(wē, gē, hī) sindon, sind,
sint, or bēoр 'we, you, they
are'

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Continental period of borrowings
Words for War and Trade: camp, wall, mile,
pound, cheap.

Words for specialty foods: cheese, pepper,


butter, plum, prune, pea, wine, mint.

Words for architecture: chalk, copper, pitch,


tile.

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Insular period of borrowings
Words from Celtic and Latin Christianity:
cross, priest, shrine, rule, school, master, pupil.

Words from Scandinavian Germanic


languages: skirt, ugly, egg, ill, husband.

“Learned” Latin words: Antichrist, apostle,


demon, history, accent, history, paper.

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Determinative compounding – a noun
metaphor that expresses a familiar object in
unfamiliar ways
earhring – ear + ring
bocstœf (bookstaff) – letter
middangeard (middle-yeard) – Earth
bonlocan (bone locker) - body

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Kenning – a noun metaphor that expresses a
familiar object in unfamiliar ways

hronrād 'whale road'


bānhus 'bone-house'
beadolēoma 'battle light'
heofonrīces weard 'guardian of heaven's kingdom'
moncynnes weard 'guardian of mankind'

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Repetitive compounding – bring together
words that are very nearly identical or that
complement or reinforce each other

holtwudu – wood wood (forest)


gangelwœfre – going-about weaver (spider)

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Noun-Adjective Formations
• grœsgrene – grass green
• lofgeorn – eager for praise
• goldhroden – gold-adorned
• MnE king-emperor
• MnE fighter-bomber

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Prefix Formation

and – (prefix) back, in response to


andswar – to answer

with - against
withstand – to stand against

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Anglo-Saxon vocabulary in Modern English

man, wife, child, son, daughter, brother, friend, live,


fight, make, use, love, like, look, drink, food, eat,
sleep, sing, sun, moon, earth, ground, wood, field,
house, home, 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, to, for, but, and, at, in, on, from

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The linguistic result of contact
with Vikings

● personal pronouns they, them,


their
● OE sindon > are

rd
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the 3 person singular -s
● Scandinavian borrowings

● the loss of inflections

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Words in Old English that were permanently
metathesized
Old English Early Middle English
brid bird
axian ask
thurgh through
beorht bright

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