Old english.pdf

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OLD ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION

The most important changes in the English language happened in the 16th, but the spelling was not

regularized until 18th century. Until that moment, we have some different spellings. For example, the group

ck in the MidE (Middle English) came from the spelling qu of the French tongue. The final e existing in manywords of the MidE was pronounced in that epoch. As this, we write calf (pronouncing /ka:f/) because in MidE

that l was pronounced. Some of these changes have reached us thanks to Caxton, a printer who preferred the

`old way' of spelling: some words are written close to the old form, but pronounced in the modern way.

Another example of change is the word nigh, represented:

MidE /ni/ > ModE /ni:/ > /na/

We note that originally the vowel i was pronounced /i:/, instead of /a/. Another peculiar cases are the

changes between u and v: if you have an u in the middle of the word, no matter how to pronounce it, but if it's

placed at the beginning it was written like an v.

The case of yeeres is representative. In the spelling regularization it was decided that the correct form was

yeares, which have developed into years.

About hath we have a difference in morphology: when we use s to indicate 3rd person singular, in the 17th

century was used th.

We are now looking at the text about the Prodigal Son that are in four versions, from OE (Old English) to PrE

(Presentday English). In the OE version we find many new letters, as the thorn (here represented as th), the

yogh (), the ash (), taken from Latin, and the eth (); many new words such as mynystralcye (which

develop into minstrel and came from the French), perishid (from the same source as the Spanish perecer), ny

(which means near), and so on. We also find many strange signs such as the macron () that marked that a

vowel was long, some consonants that have a dot above them that implied a change in pronunciation (

pronounced //, //, s // and //).

In OE we find that the pronunciation is much closer to the spelling than in PrE, once you know some `tricks'

to pronounce correctly. If they needed to change the pronunciation, simply they added a new element,

changing the spelling somehow. An exception of this is letter h, that can be pronounced in two ways

depending on the sound that goes before: if the sound is palatal, then we have //, the palatalised form, and if

it is velar, the velarized form /x/. Also, the group hw (like in hwat) is pronounced //.

OE is a difficult language for us because there are almost no Latin words. All the vocabulary comes from

Germanic origin. We find many reasons to explain why a language changes. One is the phenomenon

languages in contact, that consists on the mixing of two languages, resulting that two languages, each one

influenced by the other. Another reason is because of the printers: they were the people that `left' their

language for us, influencing the latter generations. Also, new elements that appear and that need a name are

other reason for linguistic change, always influenced by the needs of the people. The development of a

language is slow but it never stops. It is related with the inner way of speaking of each member of the

linguistic community. By means of all this, we have two ways of studying a language, a synchronic and a

diachronic study. The first is related with one single period of time whereas the second attends many periods

of time. The diachronic study is more problematic, because we do not have any rule to explain why changes

happen, so we tend to study two or more different patterns and compare them.

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STRUCTURE OF LINGUISTICS

Three main branches:

Practical linguistics: grammars of particular languages.

Theoretical linguistics: syntax, semantics and phonetics/phonology.

Historical linguistics: several branches, depending on the way you focus it. Investigation and

description of the way languages change throughout the time. Diachronic study. We can only analyse

written texts, which are of different types. There are also dialectal texts, that are not using RP. Unlessthere can be many changes in the same period, we will have to generalize and talk about the same

characteristics in the same period. Sociolinguistics and dialectal studies are the studies of these

different varieties of language. To know how ancients pronounce their language, we have a helpful

element: rhyme in poems, and also alliteration. Since 15th century we also have grammars and

dictionaries.

We have seen that before 20th century we have to trust in written texts. The only way to make a description of

the changes of a particular language is to make an abstraction in each different time. Some scholars have told

that is important to see the changes of the language to understand its development. Causes that lead to a

change:

1. Geographic and climatic causes: for example, a theory says that Latin f disappears in Spanish because in

northern Spain people lost their front teeth and couldn't pronounce /f/.

2. Biological or racial causes: it is an oldfashioned theory, based on the idea that the vocal organs were

different between races.

3. Languages in contact: two languages are in contact specially in bilingual communities, like in Catalonia or

the Basque Country. When these people have this situation, it is common that they mix words of the two

languages.

4. People from different generations would speak in a different way. Scholars try to explain this `sudden'

change, and say that the vocal organs may be different in children than in adults, and this provokes the

change. This theory had been proved as true, with the problem that if this feature is enough to cause that

change. But we know that children have to imitate as closely as possible what they listen, and because of that

this theory is weak.

5. The principle of ease or the minimization of effort: we tend to be lazy, to make things as easy as possible.

For example, declinations in Latin disappeared because of their complexity, and this caused several changes,

specially in pronunciation. In MidE we have a verb pronounced /ba:kn/, and in ModE we tend to avoid that

final position elements: /bek/. Another example is MidE /kastl/ > ModE /ka:sl/. The main problem to

understand this is in the way we need to make ourselves understandable, so these changes end where

communication is possible without losing information. Here appears the redundancy, i.e., the repetition of

certain things to avoid ambiguity.

Changes in syntax are less obvious than changes in spelling, and it is more difficult for a language to change

the syntax.

The first scholars in historical linguistics discovered that there were cognated languages, languages with

similar words, some similar ways of pronounce certain groups, etc. For example, OE is too similar to German:

OE Stn c Hlf

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Stone Oak Loaf

G Stein Eih Leib

We can see how ei in German becomes in OE, and /u/ in ModE. The study of historical linguistics was

divided into two branches. The first studied the language tree (for example, OE and German will come of the

Pregermanic language). The second branch is something that can be easily seen, the branch of the phonetic

change, as we have seen above. This branch tries to find the laws that rule the phonetic change. Some of them

are universal. These laws are:

Assimilation: one element changes by adapting itself to another element close to it. We could have

some forms, sometimes partial, sometimes complete, sometimes regressive, sometimes progressive:

PrimitOE wifmonn > wimmon > womman

Dissimilation: two similar sounds become alike when placed one near the other. We find this

phenomenon specially in words taken from Latin:

Lat peregrinus > PrE pilgrim

Metathesis: the change of place of two sounds. Quite common in some words of OE that have had this

process many times.

OE ascian / axian MidE bird / brid

Folk etymology: the trial to assign a meaning to an object by its name:

Sp esparadrapo / esparatrapo

Epenthesis: a change that would take the introduction of a new sound in a word, usually to help

pronunciation:

OE dofles (genitive singular) > dofol (Nominative)

Analogy: is a process by which one element is changed in order to become similar to what would be

the general rule:

OE d (nominative singular) day

Dagum (dative plural)

Daga (nominative plural) . days

This rule also affects lexicon. In English we have the word townscape, formed in analogy with the word

landscape.

Other changes are caused by external influences. The most clearly seen is that of the loanwords, words from

other languages adapted into English. They are very easily found, and can be three main situations in which

they appear:

Substratum: in a place we have language A, but before they spoke that language, they spoke language

B. Some B elements appear in the newest language A. We find an example of this with some Latin

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words adapted into Celtic in Britain.

Superstratum: a group of people speaks language C, and they come in touch with people speaking

language D. People speaking language C keep speaking that language, but they take some words of D.

We find an example of this with some words taken from the Germanic language spoken by Gods

(Godos) by Spanish.

Adstratum: usually in bilingual groups of speakers. There is a mutuous influence in each language.

Scholars in the 19th century realised that there were languages with some elements in common, so they

created comparative reconstruction, that tries to discover the families of languages seeing what in commonhave two different languages, for example, OE and German, and `rediscover' the mother language of the two.

Let us look it in an example:

OE stn

G stein

It is supposed that most of the western languages had a common origin. The language would be called

Indoeuropean. From it there would be two branches, a Western and an Eastern. In the Western branch we

would have mainly two branches:

West European (the most interesting for us)

Tocharian

Hellenic languages

Anatolic languages

In the Eastern branch we would also find four branches:

Baltic and Slavonic

Albanian

Armenian

Aryan (subdivided into Indian (Sanscrit) and Iranian)

West European languages are formed mainly by two different families: Celtic Italic and Germanic. Celtic

Italic would be formed by Celtic (Irish, Gaelic, ) and Italic (Latin, and then the romance languages). The

Germanic family would be formed by East and West Germanic.

This sort of studies trying to find all changes from Indoeuropean to our languages was started from German

scholars, called neogrammarians (or junggrammatiker in their language), who tried to prove that there were

some changes that happened regularly, and to describe them. Those laws could be applied to all languages,

and they could also foresee the changes that might also happen in the future. Grimm discovered that there are

some connected languages, and he discovered the changes between Latin group languages and Germanic

group languages. It was the Grimm's Law. For example, when we find a voiceless plosive in Latin languages,

there is a fricative in Germanic languages:

p/fLat Pes > PrE Foot

t///Lat Tres > PrE Three

/k///h/Lat Centum > PrE Hundred

In Latin language voiced plosives were voiceless plosives in Germanic languages:

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B / p Lat dubus > PrE deep

D / t Lat dens > PrE Teeth

G / k Lat Granum > PrE corn

Aspirated plosives in Latin will be voiced plosives in Germanic group:

Bh / b Sanscrit Bhhari > PrE Bear

Dh / d

Gh / g Lat Hostis > PrE guest

Neogrammarians began to think that there were some regularities in the change from Indoeuropean to the

different languages. This law doesn't work in all contexts and some scholars could see the differences between

Germanic and nongermanic languages. This Grimm's Law has exceptions. Verner tried to describe a new

law to see how these changes were. Neogrammarian studies were applied to phonetics.

The problem appeared when they studied dialectology: it is difficult to give laws for these changes. Theyasked people to pronounce different words and then they wrote lines in maps, seeing how gradually the

pronunciation changed. Those lines weren't clear because in some areas different speakers could pronounce

with more than one accent, so they could establish borderlines. In most cases it is proved that the lack of

borderlines is the origin of the linguistic change, so changes do not happen regularly, there are periods of

variability and places with mixtures of different pronunciations.

When this was discovered, a new linguistic trend appeared, the structuralism, that affected the ideas of

linguistic change. They considered that there were two ways of studying a language:

diachronic study is the study of languages throughout time.

Synchronic study is the study of a language in a point of time. They were interested in this study

because they considered that language was a system which means the language was a closed amount

of features in which everything is consistent with all the other elements. In a language every element

is necessary and all of the elements make the system consistent; if some elements disappear, the

system does not function. For them language was a system and linguistic change meant that

something had changed in it.

Pronunciation: phonetic changes happened because there was a change in the whole system. There could be

three changes:

1.1 Increase: a new element appears in the phonetic system:

OE /f/ had an allophon, /v/, that appeared in voiced contexts:

OE Hlford /'la:vord/

In ModE, /v/ is a distinctive sound

1.2 Reduction: when one element disappears, the system has to be balanced:

Lat /bv/ were pronounced differently, but not in Spanish:

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written in runic characters. Runic was the only alphabet used by Germanic people. Three centuries later

Germanic people started to use the Latin alphabet, but some runes were still maintained. From the 15th most

of the Germanic languages that had been in touch with Latin used its alphabet.

Grimm's Law presents the differences between Germanic languages and other languages: M, N, L, R, W, J

could be used as consonants or as vowels depending on the text. W and J are semivowels. The other

consonants are nasal and liquid and in some contexts they develop some vocalic element: bottle /botl/. The

vowel system is very similar to the one we have nowadays.

Ablaut is the systematic variation of vowels in the same root, usually cost by morphological variation. In most

of the irregular verbs the root suffers some variation depending on the tense:

Write wrote written root: writ

In general, vowels and diphthongs are similar in all the Germanic languages. The stress in Germanic

languages is also peculiar. The stress of the word usually goes on the 1st syllable of the root:

`brother a'rise (a is a prefix)

THE FEATURES OF GRAMMAR

The Germanic languages are inflected languages. The inflection is the change of form that words undergo to

mark the distinctions for gender, number, tense, case, mood, voice and person. In Spanish there are inflections

in verbs, nouns (gender and number), in adjectives (gender and number). This inflection affects several

elements. If it affects nouns, adjectives or pronouns then we call it conjugation. The case is a specific form

that marks the function of a word in a sentence. In the Germanic and Indoeuropean languages we have

nominative for the subject and attributive functions. Vocative is used to call someone; this form was declining

in use when Germanic languages appeared. Accusative is the case marking the direct object basically and

when there is a movement to a place. Genitive is to mark the possessive. Dative is used to mark usually an

adverbial function, but also for indirect object. Dative can also appear with prepositions. Instrumental case

disappeared before Germanic languages appeared. Ablative don't appear in all languages. In Latin we have a

division of the uses of dative: it is used with an adverbial function and ablative for indirect object. It is

important to study inflections in adjectives, nouns and verbs.

Number is difficult to study. Dual number appeared in the Indoeuropean language. In OE we find some

examples of dual number, because it is old fashioned.

The adjectives are declining according to the cases, the gender and the number, but besides the adjective can

be declined with two different declensions: they are strong and weak declension. The difference is in the use.

Weak is used when we use an article or a demonstrative, that is, when we define a specific form of the

adjective.

The verbs have some differential features from the verb we use nowadays:

moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative,injunctiveandoptative.

Voices: active and passive.

Three persons

Three numbers: singular, plural anddual, which was disappearing.

There is also the distinction between strong and weak verbs: strong are irregular verbs, and weak are regular

verbs. In Germanic languages the majority of verbs are strong. Weak verbs form the past, and the past

participle, with a dental suffix. The main feature of the strong verbs is to create the past form with the ablaut

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(change of the root vowel). Regular and irregular verbs were not always weak and strong verbs. Originally,

learn is a weak verb because in the past and the past participle it has a dental suffix. Another example is the

verb think, but this is more complicated.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH?

Celtic languages were related also with the Latin languages. They develop in a different way and when the

Romans came there were several Celtic languages: Gaelic, Irish, Manx, Cambric, Pict Some of them have

survived until nowadays, some died in the 19th century and some were lost. It is difficult to know thegeographic situation of these languages, because there are many connections between some of them. Written

records about these languages.

When the Romans came to England the invasion was not the same as in other countries of Europe. The

relationship between languages was not the same, as the cultural and linguistic invasion. Speakers of Latin in

England were not learners of Latin, because Latin was only needed for administration. They founded schools,

but teachers were not Roman teachers, most of them were French, so they didn't teach classical Latin. Some of

the Celtic languages were reserved, and we have a situation of diglossia: Latin was the high language, but for

everyday uses they had Celtic languages. Their Latin was that spoken by Roman soldiers and French people.

There are some words in OE like win that are supposed to have come of Latin (vinus). Latin languages couldhave influences from the Celtic languages. OE munuk came from the Lat monacus. Some words appeared

before christianism came to England.

Until the 5th century, in spite of this situation it seems that not so many words remained from Latin:

Lat castra > Celtic chester

Lat vicus > Celtic wich

The main periods in the influence of Latin in England:

1st: Latin came with soldiers and it was imposed just for administrative purposes.

2nd: A general romanization. Latin was used by most people. Celtic languages were still spoken.

3rd: by the 5th century, romans leave Britain and Latin decays little by little, although it is still used.

There are specific features of the Latin spoke in England, such as special spellings found in

descriptions. The Latin used until 5th century wasn't a learned Latin.

Christianism came to England

When St. Augustine of Canterbury came to England, Christianism was expanded and churches became the

centres of culture. Latin was used for religious purposes. Some of these religious words began to be used by

people.

Influence of Rome

The idea of an organised state and the Roman's laws. Some sorts of fortifications, etc. People went to cities,

the roman idea of centralisation.

German invasions

By the beginnings of the 5th century, Roman writing began a period of declining. All the armies had to go to

the continent to fight with the German too. They couldn't defend themselves. Problems with Picts. German

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invasion did not take place until mid 5th century, the official date is 449. Other invasions had appeared before

that year. We don't have historical records about this period.

Venerable Bede Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum

There were three main groups of invaders:

Angles

SaxonsJutes

The Angles would be settled in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Humbershire. The Saxons in Essex,

Sussex and the north of Humbershire. The Jutes in Kent and the isle of Wight.

Scholars consider that it is not easy to separate these three groups, they were mixing. There were also some

other groups of Germans coming as Frisians. When they went to England they were called Saxons and

however in the continent they were recognised as English. During the 6th century more people came to

England and they were invading some parts of the Celtic Britain. Britain had a difficult political situation and

they fought each other.

The myth of Arthur probably comes from a soldier who stopped the Germans in the battle of Mt Badon. All

the legends, as that, tried to recover the origin of Anglosaxons. Some people were going again to the

continent. From the mid 6th century Germans came and settled themselves and occupied most of Ireland.

Then a period called as heptarchy started (i.e., seven kingdoms). These seven kingdoms were the most

important and, of them, the most important was Northumbria, then Anglia, next Mercia, Essex, Kent, Sussex

and Wessex. There are areas that are not in a specified place, the borders changed. One of the kingdoms

predominated.

In the 7th century Northumberland was the predominating kingdom, but in the 8th it was Mercia. In 9th and

10th centuries the most important kingdom was Wessex.

Some infrastructures from Romans had no importance to Germans. Some kingdoms became very rich thanks

to some things found in the kingdom. Some Christians appeared and disappeared with romans. Most rites

were no Christian rites. With Germans the religion was the original German religion. In 579 St. Augustine

went to Kent and rechristianized it.

Some of the Catholic names came from Germanic gods:

Easter: it comes from the name of a German godess, Eastra.

Wednesday comes from Wodan.

Thursday comes from Thor

Friday comes from Frig

Tuesday comes from Tiw.

Christianization had two main branches:

1. The north of England was christianised by Irish monks.

2. The influence of St. Augustine was preserved in the south of Northumbria.

This led to some problems between the two churches. A synod took place in 664 and the two churches were

unified.

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The cultural effect of christianism

The continental culture was changed. They used runes and now they started to use the roman alphabet.

Loanwords appeared, and are words of scientific knowledge, religious knowledge, and other areas.

Intellectual developments took place in England. Alcuin of York was working in a monastery. He had a sort

of cultural program. He wrote about religion or rethoric or other things. In the late 9th century, after the

Viking invasion, king Alfred tried to recover the cultural situation in England. He tried to put some texts into

anglosaxon, and promoted translations from Latin. He tried to make a cultural program for his people. Heand his grandson Edgar reached a revival of learning at the end of the 10th century. This king tried to renovate

some religious rules and he founded schools, churches, and tried to educate the clergy. He promoted the copy

of Latin and English manuscripts. Dunstan, thelwald and Oswald were three important bishops in this

period.

The Viking invasion

From the late 8th century, Vikings began to approach the island, for example, on 787 in Dorset. Those first

attacks were raids with the purpose of getting easy money. Other important raid was 793 in Lindisfarne, a

monastery in the north of England where rich manuscripts were copied, so the library was destroyed. In these

incursions they tried to burn things related to religion, an they also discovered that England was a richbadprotected place. By this they settled firstly in part of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia. The

Heptarchy, and mainly king Alfred, tried to defeat the invaders. In 871, the battle of Ashdown took place, and

stopped them for a moment. Vikings were finally defeated at Edington in 878; with the treaty signed, Alfred

get the conversion to christianism of the Danish leader and their living only in the Danelaw. The problem

begin when they wanted to invade southern zones.

The Viking invasions also concerns religious matters. Danish destroyed monasteries, books and so on, hurting

the cultural development. King Alfred attempted a cultural revival:

texts copied in monasteries should also be translated into anglosaxon. They are very important texts

of the early period.

Make compilation of texts to prevent their loss, as happened with other important texts.

Found schools for `everyone'.

Institute the Anglosaxon Chronicle, a record of the important historical events. It is a very important

source because it compiles most changes of the OE language, because it finishes with the beginnings

of the MidE period.

In spite of Alfred's efforts in this revival, the effect of it was not all he expected. For example, there were no

boom in literacy, or in texts copied. So, a century later, it decreased.

Thanks to Alfred, Danes were kept out of the Heptarchy. But in the 11th century they will come back with

renewed forces, and Cnut became the king of England and Denmark in 1016. His son was not too strong and

lost his kingdom in favour of a person of Alfred's lineage, Edward the Confessor. When he died, in 1066, with

no heir, there is a problem, because there were three possibilities:

Harold Godwineson: Edward's brotherinlaw.

Harold Haardraade: king of Norway.

William of Normandy: Edward told him that he would be the king.

There is a fight between the two Harolds, in which Haardraade was killed, and William of Normandy came to

England to fight Godwineson. In the battle of Hastings, in 1066, William killed Godwineson and became king

of England. 1066 is the official end of the OE period, because, as William is French, he brought with himself

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many French cultural elements.

Anglosaxon society

Divided into three main classes:

nobles (thane)

peasants (ceorl)

Slaves

Only nobles and peasants were free people, and had a personal value in money, the wergild, that depended on

their possessions. To be a noble, one might worth about 1200 sh, and 200 sh to be a peasant. Slaves had no

wergild.

Nobles had military duties and were responsible of building some infrastructures and to support the king.

They also could decide who inherit their goods, no matter who. They lived in wooden houses, sometimes

stony, with this structure:

Meeting

Room Entrance

Chair Rooms

Depending on the importance of the person, the chair would be higher or lower. The most important pleasure

for nobles was haunting.

Peasants were mainly workers in the land, of which there were four classes:

freeholders: they own a piece of land

tenants: they had a loaned piece of land

crafts: devoted to some handworking apart from the land. They weren't completely independent

workmen: usually they worked the land. They work for other people and receive a salary.

In the peasant organization there is the possibility of promoting to an upper class. This promotion would

depend not only on the wergild, but also on the services they were keeping to the king. We also find two types

of land: common land, owned by a village, and meadows and woods. There is also a special land devoted to

the growing of cereals, the plowland. The amusement of these people is mainly tournaments and riddles.

Slaves had no wergild. They had no legal entity, they were cattle to buy and sell. They could be slaves by

inherited condition or because they were criminals, a sort of punishment.

Relationships between people

There is a clear relation between lords and their servants, for example, if your lord dies in a battle, then you

could not return alive, it was a dishonour to survive your lord. Treason is one of the most punished faults: a

servant and his lord have to protect each other in relation with their possibilities.

Family is one of the basis of anglosaxon society. Revenge is an important concept, a key in this society. It

was essential to revenge any harm done to one's family, until the harm is done to a murderer, a burglar or a

rapist, because those people shouldn't be avenged. That revenge tradition is considered a dangerous one by the

church, that proposes the solution of the problems through different ways, not killing.

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Political organization

The anglosaxon kingdoms were monarchies. Kings were chosen normally by inheritance, but also a group of

wisemen can decide who was going to be the next king. They were warlike people, so they normally kept a

professional army. In justice, a sort of law, the customary, is kept nowadays: the law is created from a

sentence applied to a crime. To apply all them, they had a person who knew by heart all these laws, who was

the responsible of the judgement of a person. They had slightest sentences and the strongest is death penalty,

in all the forms you could imagine. If you are found guilty of one crime once, you will be condemned to death

the next time you are caught for the same crime.

Religion

It was of Germanic origin with all the legends about gods and goddesses, who represented forces of nature.

Eastra was the goddess of spring, of dawn, and from her feast we have our Easter, probably because both

dates were near. Wooden was the god of gods, similar to Jupiter or Zeus. He also regarded to war, and was

considered as the inventor of letters for writing. Thor is the god of the air, the storm, the thunder and the rain.

Frig is a goddess, also known as Freia, goddess of happiness, crops Tiw is the god of death.

OLD ENGLISH

The OE period begins in the 5th century and ends in year 1066. The first OE texts are dated on 7th century.

There are subdivisions:

Primitive OE: 5th to 7th century.

OE period: late 7th to 1066.

There are also four dialects in OE. Differences in the way of speaking seem to be related to the kingdoms, so

it seems that a different dialect was spoken in each kingdom, but we have to note that we have not enough

information, only written texts, and not so many.

When anglosaxon became the principal language, it's supposed that most important texts were written in that

language, as if it were a standard. The four main dialects correspond basically to the main kingdoms:

Northumbrian dialect.

Mercian dialect: it also includes East Anglia.

Kentish dialect: with Essex, Kent and Sussex.

West Saxon dialect.

The importance of each dialect had to do with that of the kingdom. Some scholars consider first two dialects

as a single one, and call it anglian:

Anglian wold wella

W. Saxon weald wiella

Last example shows us that there is a tendency to make diphthongs in the southern dialects. From linguistic

and literary point of view we see that Northumbrian is important because it is the one used for cultural matters

in the 7th century: Bede wrote in northumbrian. There were also many monasteries where we have important

texts written in this dialect, i.e., Caedmon's hymn, Frank's casket or Ruthwell cross, last who wrote in runes.

Another source of Northumbrian dialect is Lindisfarne abbey.

Mercian dialect was important during the 8th century, mainly thanks to king Alfred, who ordered the

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translation into OE of some texts.

Kentish dialect was not so important as the two above, but during part of the 8th and the 9th centuries it was

so important. Some of its features were important to the development of MidE.

West Saxon dialect has the most important amount of OE texts. Some of the translations ordered by king

Alfred were in this dialect, what means that it became the cultural one: we find, for example, the chronicles in

this dialect.

Spelling

It was not the same as nowadays. They used some symbols, the runes. Their origin is not clear, but it is the

spelling system used by Germanic people in northern Europe. Some scholars say that these letters are similar

to the Greek alphabet, that could be an influence. Another theory say that by the 2nd and 3rd centuries b.C.

there was a similar writing system used by people in actual Italy, from Celtic origin probably, the Etruscan.

Runes were angular and straightlined letters. There were three main varieties in their usage:

Common Germanic, called futharc, because those were the 6 first letters. It appeared in northern

Europe some centuries before our era, but the first signs date from the 7th century b.C.. It consists on24 letters.

English runic alphabet or futhorc, which are the 6 first letters, too. It have more letters than the

common Germanic because they had more distinctive sounds. It was used from 5th6th century until

the MidE period.

Nordic or Scandinavian group last from 5th6th century until 13th century. It adapted runes to

symbolize new sounds by putting two runes together.

These letters had also a magic value, so they were used as a secret code or in magical texts. The Ruthwell

cross is one of the most important examples of runic writing.

With the Christian conversion, the Latin alphabet was quickly spread by European monks which went to the

island and began to write and teach with it.

Spelling features of OE

We are hardly using runic texts. Texts using the roman alphabet are influenced by Irish. It is quite uncommon

to find capital letters in these texts: after stop there is no need to write down a capital letter.

There are some long letters such as s, r, and other peculiar like , There are also some runic letters like

wynn or thorn or yogh. Thorn was pronounced // or //. Close to it we find the eth (/, that was not a rune

but was pronounced like a thorn, and came from the Irish tradition. Usage between thorn or eth was

interchangeable, you could use one or the other when you wanted to.

The second rune used in OE was wynn ( ). It corresponds with the PrE letter w, but that letter did not exist in

OE, that is why we use that rune or letters u or v.

The yogh is the Irish g, and corresponds usually with the velar g, and the palatalised g, i.e., /g/ or //. Another

letter taken from the Latin was the ash (). It is used to represent the same sound we have nowadays. The

tyronian symbol (& or ) is used to mark the word and.

There are also some nonexisting letters in OE, for example, letter b was only used in Latin texts, and it is

considered an allophone of f. Letter k and letter w did not exist in OE, but they could be used, for example, in

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names.

The macron is used to mark long vowels.

To identify the palatalised sounds we usually mark a dot above the consonants, like in consonants , , ,

and S. They are pronounced //, //, // and // respectively.

One important thing to take into account is that in OE all the letters are pronounced, including double

consonants.

The vocalic system in OE

/i:/ /y:/ /u:/

/i/ /y/ /u/

/e:/

//

/o:/

/:/ /a:/ //

// /a/ //

A /a/

/a:/

//

/:/

E //, not /e/

/e:/

I /i/

/i:/

O, A + nasal consonant (n,m) //

O //

/o:/

U /u/

/u:/

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Y /y/

Y /y:/

diphthongs

They had two elements, one strong and the other weak. In some cases, the 2nd element had been transcribed

by some scholars as a schwa. By 2nd element we mean the weak element:

EO // EA // IE /i/

The problem begins when we see that by that method the two first diphthongs are the same, and in MidE they

develop to different sounds, so they were probably pronounced in a different way one from the other:

EO // EA /a/ IE /i/

We have to note that if we have e followed by o or a, even if o or a is followed by a nasal sound, that is the

pronunciation.

O /e:/ A /e:a/ E /i:/

Specific features of OE vocalic system

From the Germanic languages to the beginning of OE, there were some vocalic changes, for example, the

umlaut, that is a change in the pronunciation of the back vowels because of the influence of, usually, another

vowel, normally a palatal one. So, the original Germanic system had not /y/ or //, these are product of the

umlaut. That leads to the irregular plural man/men, for example, that happened, we suppose, because a palatal

sound affected the a, and the result was that the e took place and that palatal sound disappeared.

OE hearjan > OE heran (hear)

Ger dohtri > PrOE doehter (daughter)

This feature also appears when we have a noun and a verb with the same root (for example, food/feed).

Ger fdian > PrOE fdan > OE fdan

Other changes produced in the development of vowels during the OE period are, for example, lengthening,

which is produced for example in monosyllabic words ending in a vowel.

OE hwa > hw (who)

There is also a lengthening of vowels when they are followed by groups /ld, mb, nd, g/.

OE ild /ild/ > /i:ld/ (child)

There are also other possibilities of lengthening, specially if consonants are lost. We have loss of consonant,

for example, when they are declined.

OE mearh > mares

Consonants in OE

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B /b/

C /k/

CN /kn/ cnwan /kna:wn/

//

//

D /d/

F /f/ or /v/

G /g/ or //

//

H /h/ or // or / //

HW // if it's at the beginning of a syllable.

HL, HN, HR the h is marking that the following consonant is devoiced, a voiceless sound that has lost his

voice.

L /l/

M /m/

N /n/ or //

P /p/

R /r/

S /s/ or /z/

S //

T /t/

Or // or //

W /w/

X /ks/

Simplification

In some cases consonants are simplified. In 9th century some consonants are the result of some morphological

changes.

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OE Nom.Sing. gylden + ne > Acc.Sing. gyldene

OE sendan > send + de > sende

Simplification can also affect vowels. It is quite common for the verbs in present indicative 2nd and 3rd

person singular.

OE drfan > drf + ist > drfst

Sometimes the h is simplified. Mainly also in morphological changes when it appears between vowels and

between l, r and a vowel.

OE feoh > feoh + es (Gen.Sing.) > fos (money)

In OE we find that in some words there are pairs of consonantic sounds that can be alternated in one word.

These pairs are SR, D and HG.

OE cosan (infinitive) > curon (past plural)

OE cwedan (infinitive) > cwdon

Assimilation

When we have morphological changes there is a tendency to assimilate, the stem, the root of the word or the

morphin that has been added.

OE cyssan + de > cyssde > cysste > cyste

Metathesis

It is the change in the order of two sounds.

OE askian > aksian

R is one of the sounds usually used in metathesis. In some cases, we do not have the RP. Metathesis is

common not only in OE but also in MidE.

Stressing

The stress of the word appeared in the first syllable of the root of the word. This is also applied to words taken

from Latin and adapted to the anglosaxon.

Prefixes are not stressed, but there are some exceptions in nouns and adjectives that are monosyllabic.

Another possibility is when we have compound nouns and both words are stressed. These stresses appear

where they would appear if they were two different words: the first word has a primary stress and the second

word has a secondary stress.

There are some words that are always unstressed, such as prepositions, articles and demonstratives and

possessives. In poetry, some of them have stronger accent than the others.

In the glossary, prefixes usually appear separated by a dot, whereas compound words appear separated by a

dash. Palatalization does not appear in the glossary we have.

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MORPHOLOGY

Nominative case is used for the subject, attribute and apposition.

Sum mann (nominat) mfde (v) tween sunna (accusative)

Accusative case is used for the direct object, directions (movement towards a place), time and subject for the

infinitive.

H (Nom.Sing., subj) mine (Acc.Sing., direct obj.) eseah (v)

Genitive is used for noun complement or modifier, partitive, adverb of time and after some prepositions.

On (prep) mnes fder (Gen.Sing, noun modif) hse (Dat)

Feowerti sipa (Gen.Pl., partitive)

Dative is used for the indirect object. It also appears after prepositions.

(adv) dlde (v) h (sub) him (Dat, IO) his hta (Acc, DO)

Instrumental case can only be found in demonstrative. It is the case that tries to present the functions ofmeans

andmanner. It can also have the function of time.

In a phrase, cases, number and gender must agree in the words.

Noun inflections

There are two main classes of nouns in OE: weak and strong. Weak usually ends in n, whereas strong use any

other morpheme for the different cases. Usually, most of the OE genders were natural genders (mann would

be masculine), but nonanimate things are more difficult. We must also find that some living beings have a

neutral gender.

There are some general rules to discern the gender according to the ending:

Nouns ending in a in the nominative are masculine, as those ending in dm, in hd ir in sipe.

Feminine nouns are those ending in ness, u, rdon, u or ung in the nominative.

Abstract nouns are usually feminine.

If in a compound we have two words of different gender, the gender of the compound is the gender of

the last word.

Weak declension

Nominative masculine ends in a

Nominative feminine ends in e

Nominative neuter ends in e

Neuter words do not change in nominative and accusative singular. There are some contractive nouns: lo,

when the form is declined, instead of lo + an, we have lon. The other cases are lona, lom.

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Strong declension

The morphemes are not ended in n. the endings of the cases are the same for masculine. The only change is

in the root engelenglas.

Some nouns whose root ends in h:

Walh + es > wales (Gen), wale (Dat)...

Some nouns in dative singular have an ending in a, instead of e.

Feld (field), weald (forest), sumor (summer), winter

Some masculine nouns end in vowel, usually e. some plural nouns referring to groups of people appeared in

plural and they are strong nouns masculine, but there are some changes in some cases. Exceptions in miere

and seaxe, whose genitive ends in na.

Neuter nouns (strong declension)

They are not so different from masculine nouns. In sip we have a short vowel and in hs we have a longvowel.

When we have a 2syllable word such as dofoldofles, and the word ends in en or et, it doubles the

final consonant.

Generally, the strong and the steam vowels are stronger than the other vowels. When we have disyllabic

words, the unstressed vowel is usually retrained.

Werod (troop) > werodes

Feminine nouns

The only difference is the first syllable of the root. The group of the short stem vowel has an u and the other

case has nothing in the nominative.

There are some feminine nouns that double their last consonant when declined. When the word has the suffix

nes we have to double the s. Some nouns have to add an w between the root and the ending, except in the

dative plural.

Minor declensions

u declension

There are two paradigms:

1st group 2nd group

wudu (wood) flr

duru (door)

sunu (son)

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mutations plurals

In dative singular and nominative and accusative plural an umlaut, i.e., a vowel shift, takes place. We can

have an umlaut also in the genitive singular.

r nouns

Nouns referring to familiar relationships. We find a natural gender. Two paradigms.

The first group has a mutation in dative singular and in plural. We can have no inflection or add an u but we

lose the medium vowel, and in genitive and dative we also lose the medium vowel.

Mdor > mder

Dohtor > dehter

Sweostor > swester

In the second group there is no mutation. Strong declension (masculine).

nd nouns

They could be ****** in a verb. 2 paradigms:

1st group: we have a mutation in some cases

2nd group: genitive plural is the same than in adjectives ending in ra.

Proper nouns

For anglosaxon nouns they follow the usual declensions. Nonanglosaxon names are more difficult.

they could be adapted to the anglosaxon declensions

crist cristes criste

they could retain the Latin inflections

crist cristus cristum cristi cristo

they could be a melture of both declensions

crist cristus cristum cristes

We may find some proper names referring to countries or people. England comes from the anglosaxon

engaland (the land of the English). This is one form to name countries. Another form is not declining the

first element: scotsland. Another way is using the name of its inhabitants, but this name would be declined:

eastanglum. Finally, the last form of naming countries is with the Latin name, that usually appeared

uninflected: Hierusalem.

The article and the demonstrative

This system is not exactly the same as in PrE. In OE there is no article in any of its two actual forms (the or a).

however, the system of the demonstratives is very similar, the functions we have for the article the are also

performed in OE by that, the does not exist in OE.

Acould appear in OE as different words: sm, meaning a certain or n, this meaning one.

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The first demonstrative is se. We have also an instrumental case, but nouns do not have this case. It is also

used as a relative conjunction, and also as an article, as seen above. It appears by itself or with a personal

pronoun.

SE MONDRYHTEN (Nom.Sing, noun phrase) SE (nom, relat.conj, subj) EOW (P.pron, IO) MA

MAS(Nom/Acc.Pl, noun phrase, DO) EAF (verb) (The lord who gave the treasures)

This usage can also appear with an uninflected particle, THE (following the demonstrative).

The inflection of adjectives

Almost any adjective can be inflected as weak or strong, depending on the context.

Strong declension is applied when the adjective is possessive, with the adjective is er, and when the weak is

not used. Weak declension is used when the adjective is placed after the definite article, in some cases after

the possessive adjective, as a general rule, when we have a noun phrase in vocative form and with

comparative adjectives and ordinal numbers.

strong declension

When we have adjectives ending in the suffix li, sum, they are inflected as described for the short vowel

root adjectives, in the photocopies.

When we have disyllabic adjectives with a long vowel first syllable, they generally lose the medial syllable

vowel.

Hli > hlgum

Some adjectives have an ash in the root syllable. That ash turns into a before the morpheme that begins with a

vowel.

Gld > gld + es > glades

In adjectives whose root ends in u, then we have two changes in the inflection. When the morpheme begins by

a vowel, u becomes w.

earu > earu + es > earwes

But if it is followed by a consonantic morpheme, then the u changes into o.

earu > earu + ra > earora

These changes affects only short vowel root adjectives, but in weak and strong declensions either. Special

cases are:

Heah + um > ham

Fa > fara (G.Pl) > fam (D.pl)

Fela (many) is kept in all cases, genders and numbers

weak declension

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The weak declension for adjectives is similar to that for the nouns. There are some different endings for

NomSing and GPl which can have two forms. There is no instrumental case for the weak declension. The

changes are the same as those we have seen for the strong declension.

comparison

In OE there is only one form for the 18 comparative adjectives, adding to the adjective the ending ra. They

are declined as weak.

The ending for the superlative is ost.

There are some specific cases in which the ending for the comparative and the superlative forms have suffered

some mutation. They are explained in photocopy number three.

The positive form is unusual but the comparative or the superlative can be used with the meaning of the

positive.

equal comparison

The connector is: sw . sw.

Al sw (also or as)

comparison of superiority

There is no periphrasis, we have the ending ost. The second element could appear with two different forms:

In dative: STRENGRA EALLUM (Stranger than all)

With the particle onne (than):

STRENGRA THONNE TH OTHRU (Stranger than the others)

The more the more: sw + comp. adj. + sw + comp. adj.

The repetition of the word sw is very common in OE (even sw sw, together). It could have a sort of

emphatic meaning. If we are not sure that the author wants to emphasize, we have just to consider one of the

elements, but it does not have necessarily the meaning of emphasizing.

Personal pronoun

The most important difference is that in 1st and 2nd person besides the singular and plural we have the dual

number (two people) . It is not too usual. The rest of the system is very similar to the PrE.

Genitive can be used as an adjective or as genitive.

His bc (his book) Hises bces (whatever of his book)

In the second example we see that his is inflected as an adjective.

Numbers

They are very similar to the numbers we have in PrE.

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n (one) is declined as an adjective with both inflections. In the weak declension it has the meaning of alone.

Masculine Feminine Neutre

N/Ac twen tw tw t

G t w r a / t w (e) a

D t w m / t w m

Been (both) is declined as twen tw tw/t (two).

Numbers are explained in photocopy number 4.

From number 19, they would be inflected as neuter nouns. They can also be uninflected or inflected as

adjectives.

For hnd and send: they can be inflected as neuter nouns of uninflected. They must be followed by a

partitive genitive plural.

Hnd / thsend sipa (a hundred / thousand ships)

When we have units and tense (decenas), the unit appears before the tense.

21: n and twenti

749: seofon hnd and nigon and fowerti

Ordinals are inflected as weak adjectives. They also appear in photocopy number 4, some of them are:

1st: forma 2nd: ther 3rd: thridda

Sometimes we have compounds:

Cardinal number + feald = throfeald (three times)

Verbs

There are strong and weak verbs. In the first group, the preterite is formed by changing the 1st vowel of the

root of the verb:

Bindan = band

In weak verbs the preterite is formed by adding a dental suffix to the root of the verb:

Freman > freman + de > fremede

There are only two tenses in OE: present and preterite. Future time is expressed with a verb in present form

and the idea of future that appears in adverbs or in the context.

There is not a passive voice form. The passive voice is formed by a periphrasis:

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LUFIAN (to love)

could appear in most of the verbs of this group in all the subjunctive, 1st person singular, present indicative.

Differences with the 1st group:

Imperative: 2nd person singular a; plural iath.

Present (indicative): 2nd , 3rd person singular, and plural, ast, ath, iath.

Infinitive: ian, ienne.Partitive: iende.

The 3rd group is a mixture of the two former groups, with suffixes of one and the other. There are

only 4 verbs in this group.

There is a change in the ending of the root:

To f in some forms:

Libban

Habban

To in some forms:

HyanSean

The paradigm for those verbs is the same as for the 1st group verbs: all the forms have double consonant

except

2nd person singular imperative

2nd and 3rd person singular present indicative

preterite

Preterite present verbs

Most of them are auxiliary verbs that went to some special development before the beginning of the OE

period. These verbs were strong verbs, but their usage in present was very uncommon. Little by little their

present usage disappeared.

The past form took up a present meaning. But if they had a present meaning, they needed a form for the past,

so they created a form for it. These forms for the past were created as weak.

Most of these verbs are auxiliary and due to this usage and something to their own meaning, they don't have

all the verbal forms.

Witan (to know)

Uses the same paradigm

gan (to possess)

There is a negative form for the verb witan:

Ne + wt = nt

Ne + habban = nabban

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These verbs don't have preterite subjunctive:

Dugan sulan

Cunnan emunan

Unnan mtan

Thurfan magan

Durran

Anomalous verbs

They are a mixture of some irregular verbs. Some of them have a usage of two or three different indoeuropean

verbs (like to be, that has three different meanings).

In some cases the verb beon/wesan (when it begins with w or a single vowel) we have the contraction

of the negative.

Neom (1st person singular, present indicative)

Ws (3rd person singular, preterite indicative)

In the case of the verb to do, the main change is that in the past we have dy.

Gn (to go) has a form for the present and another for the preterite forms.

Willan

Will present

The change in the vowel is not because it is a strong verb.

Wold preterite

SYNTAX

In most words we have semantic and grammatical information and concrete order in PrE, but in OE this

changes and we have to discover the elements that form, for example, a phrase and we can discover them

thanks to agreement. Some elements must agree in the grammatical markers:

Subject and verb must agree in number and person.

Noun adjective and demonstrative must agree in number, gender and case, when they belong to the

same main phrase. We can also have a noun modifier that appear before the noun, usually in genitive,

so there is no agreement with the noun.

Noun and its apposition must agree just in case.

Pronouns must agree in gender, number and case with any element modifying them and with the

words they are substituting.

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This is an example of a complete and regressive assimilation.

Devil.

We find that final s in days because French words used it for the plural, and some English words ended in as,

so words like day had this plural ending in s in analogy to these words.

We have two words from different languages that mean the same, but with three letters in common, so,

probably, the mother language of the two languages had those three letters for the same word.

No es un ejemplo que yo haya entendido muy bien, vamos, que lo que he entendido es que no tiene nada que

ver con el tema, pero bueno, a m tampoco se me ocurre ahora mismo otro (ni mejor ni peor).

This vowel appears to make pronunciation possible, it's anepentheticvowel.

When the f is in extreme positions or it's in medial position but in a voiceless context. In voiced context and

medial position, the pronunciation will be /v/.

The pronunciation will be // when the g is placed between two velar vowels (a, o or u)

At the beginning of a syllable /h/. At the end of a syllable, after palatal vowel //, and after velar vowel or

consonant //.

// only if followed by a velar consonant, i.e., g or k.

The pronunciation /z/ only occurs in voiced contexts.

// only in voiced contexts.

Last e disappears because there are no triphthongs in OE. We also observe the change in the length of the first

e.

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Documents

Old english.pdf