| Old English | |
| Nativename: | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Englisċ English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Ænglisċ |
| Pronunciation: | in English, Old (ca.450-1100); pronounced as /ˈeŋɡliʃ/ |
| Ethnicity: | Anglo-Saxons |
| Region: | England (except Cornwall and the extreme north-west), southern and eastern Scotland, and some localities in the eastern fringes of modern Wales |
| Era: | Mostly developed into Middle English and Early Scots by the 12th century |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Germanic |
| Fam3: | West Germanic |
| Fam4: | North Sea Germanic |
| Fam5: | Anglo-Frisian |
| Fam6: | Anglic |
| Ancestor: | Proto-Indo-European |
| Ancestor2: | Proto-Germanic |
| Script: | Runic, later Latin (Old English alphabet) |
| Iso2: | ang |
| Iso3: | ang |
| Iso6: | ango |
| Glotto: | olde1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Old English (ca. 450–1100) |
| Dia1: | Kentish |
| Dia2: | Mercian |
| Dia3: | Northumbrian |
| Dia4: | West Saxon |
| Notice: | IPA |
Old English (English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Englisċ or English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Ænglisc, in English, Old (ca.450-1100); pronounced as /ˈeŋɡliʃ/), or Anglo-Saxon,[1] was the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English was replaced for several centuries by Anglo-Norman (a type of French) as the language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during the subsequent period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into what is now known as Middle English in England and Early Scots in Scotland.
Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. As the Germanic settlers became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain: Common Brittonic, a Celtic language; and Latin, brought to Britain by the Roman conquest. Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Kentish, Mercian, Northumbrian, and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the literary standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle and Modern English would develop mainly from Mercian, and Scots from Northumbrian. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century.
Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is very different from Modern English and Modern Scots, and largely incomprehensible for Modern English or Modern Scots speakers without study.[2] Within Old English grammar nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms, and word order is much freer. The oldest Old English inscriptions were written using a runic system, but from about the 8th century this was replaced by a version of the Latin alphabet.
Englisċ, from which the word English is derived, means 'pertaining to the Angles'.[3] The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in many parts of Britain in the 5th century.[4] By the 9th century, all speakers of Old English, including those who claimed Saxon or Jutish ancestry, could be referred to as Englisċ.
This name probably either derives from Proto-Germanic, which referred to narrowness, constriction or anxiety, perhaps referring to shallow waters near the coast,[5] or else it may derive from a related word which could refer to curve or hook shapes including fishing hooks.[6] [7] Concerning the second option, it has been hypothesised that the Angles acquired their name either because they lived on a curved promontory of land shaped like a fishhook, or else because they were fishermen (anglers).[8]
Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is an arbitrary process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections, a synthetic language. Perhaps around 85% of Old English words are no longer in use, but those that survived are the basic elements of Modern English vocabulary.
Old English is a West Germanic language, and developed out of Ingvaeonic (also known as North Sea Germanic) dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England. This included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island continued to use Celtic languages (Gaelic – and perhaps some Pictish – in most of Scotland, Medieval Cornish all over Cornwall and in adjacent parts of Devon, Cumbric perhaps to the 12th century in parts of Cumbria, and Welsh in Wales and possibly also on the English side of the Anglo-Welsh border); except in the areas of Scandinavian settlements, where Old Norse was spoken and Danish law applied.
Old English literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving work of Old English literature is Cædmon's Hymn, which was composed between 658 and 680 but not written down until the early 8th century. There is a limited corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries, but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably the inscriptions on the Franks Casket) date to the early 8th century. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 8th century.
With the unification of several of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (outside the Danelaw) by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect (Early West Saxon). Alfred advocated education in English alongside Latin, and had many works translated into the English language; some of them, such as Pope Gregory I's treatise Pastoral Care, appear to have been translated by Alfred himself. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, but Alfred chiefly inspired the growth of prose.
A later literary standard, dating from the late 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham ("the Grammarian"). This form of the language is known as the "Winchester standard", or more commonly as Late West Saxon. It is considered to represent the "classical" form of Old English.[9] It retained its position of prestige until the time of the Norman Conquest, after which English ceased for a time to be of importance as a literary language.
The history of Old English can be subdivided into:
The Old English period is followed by Middle English (1150 to 1500), Early Modern English (1500 to 1650) and finally Modern English (after 1650), and in Scotland Early Scots (before 1450), Middle Scots (to 1700) and Modern Scots (after 1700).
Just as Modern English is not monolithic, Old English varied according to place. Despite the diversity of language of the Germanic-speaking migrants who established Old English in England and southeastern Scotland, it is possible to reconstruct proto-Old English as a fairly unitary language. For the most part, the differences between the attested regional dialects of Old English developed within England and southeastern Scotland, rather than on the Mainland of Europe. Although from the tenth century Old English writing from all regions tended to conform to a written standard based on Late West Saxon, in speech Old English continued to exhibit much local and regional variation, which remained in Middle English and to some extent Modern English dialects.[12]
The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon.[13] Mercian and Northumbrian are together referred to as Anglian. In terms of geography the Northumbrian region lay north of the Humber River; the Mercian lay north of the Thames and south of the Humber River; West Saxon lay south and southwest of the Thames; and the smallest, Kentish region lay southeast of the Thames, a small corner of England. The Kentish region, settled by the Jutes from Jutland, has the scantest literary remains. The term West Saxon actually is represented by two different dialects: Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon. Hogg has suggested that these two dialects would be more appropriately named Alfredian Saxon and Æthelwoldian Saxon, respectively, so that the naive reader would not assume that they are chronologically related.
Each of these four dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the islands. Of these, Northumbria south of the Tyne, and most of Mercia, were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended, and all of Kent, were then integrated into Wessex under Alfred the Great.From that time on, the West Saxon dialect (then in the form now known as Early West Saxon) became standardised as the language of government, and as the basis for the many works of literature and religious materials produced or translated from Latin in that period.
The later literary standard known as Late West Saxon (see History, above), although centred in the same region of the country, appears not to have been directly descended from Alfred's Early West Saxon. For example, the former diphthong pronounced as //iy// tended to become monophthongised to pronounced as //i// in EWS, but to pronounced as //y// in LWS.[14]
Due to the centralisation of power and the destruction wrought by Viking invasions, there is relatively little written record of the non-West Saxon dialects after Alfred's unification. Some Mercian texts continued to be written, however, and the influence of Mercian is apparent in some of the translations produced under Alfred's programme, many of which were produced by Mercian scholars.[15] Other dialects certainly continued to be spoken, as is evidenced by the continued variation between their successors in Middle and Modern English. In fact, what would become the standard forms of Middle English and of Modern English are descended from Mercian rather than West Saxon, while Scots developed from the Northumbrian dialect. It was once claimed that, owing to its position at the heart of the Kingdom of Wessex, the relics of Anglo-Saxon accent, idiom and vocabulary were best preserved in the dialect of Somerset.[16]
For details of the sound differences between the dialects, see .
The language of the Anglo-Saxon settlers appears not to have been significantly affected by the native British Celtic languages which it largely displaced. The number of Celtic loanwords introduced into the language is very small, although dialect and toponymic terms are more often retained in western language contact zones (Cumbria, Devon, Welsh Marches and Borders and so on) than in the east. However, various suggestions have been made concerning possible influence that Celtic may have had on developments in English syntax in the post–Old English period, such as the regular progressive construction and analytic word order,[17] as well as the eventual development of the periphrastic auxiliary verb do. These ideas have generally not received widespread support from linguists, particularly as many of the theorized Brittonicisms do not become widespread until the late Middle English and Early Modern English periods, in addition to the fact that similar forms exist in other modern Germanic languages.[18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
Old English contained a certain number of loanwords from Latin, which was the scholarly and diplomatic lingua franca of Western Europe. It is sometimes possible to give approximate dates for the borrowing of individual Latin words based on which patterns of sound change they have undergone. Some Latin words had already been borrowed into the Germanic languages before the ancestral Angles and Saxons left continental Europe for Britain. More entered the language when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and Latin-speaking priests became influential. It was also through Irish Christian missionaries that the Latin alphabet was introduced and adapted for the writing of Old English, replacing the earlier runic system. Nonetheless, the largest transfer of Latin-based (mainly Old French) words into English occurred after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and thus in the Middle English rather than the Old English period.
Another source of loanwords was Old Norse, which came into contact with Old English via the Scandinavian rulers and settlers in the Danelaw from the late 9thcentury, and during the rule of Cnut and other Danish kings in the early 11thcentury. Many place names in eastern and northern England are of Scandinavian origin. Norse borrowings are relatively rare in Old English literature, being mostly terms relating to government and administration. The literary standard, however, was based on the West Saxon dialect, away from the main area of Scandinavian influence; the impact of Norse may have been greater in the eastern and northern dialects. Certainly in Middle English texts, which are more often based on eastern dialects, a strong Norse influence becomes apparent. Modern English contains many, often everyday, words that were borrowed from Old Norse, and the grammatical simplification that occurred after the Old English period is also often attributed to Norse influence.[24] [25] [26]
The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language along the continuum to a more analytic word order, and Old Norse most likely made a greater impact on the English language than any other language.[27] The eagerness of Vikings in the Danelaw to communicate with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours produced a friction that led to the erosion of the complicated inflectional word endings.[28] [29] Simeon Potter notes:
The strength of the Viking influence on Old English appears from the fact that the indispensable elements of the language – pronouns, modals, comparatives, pronominal adverbs (like hence and together), conjunctions and prepositions – show the most marked Danish influence; the best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in the extensive word borrowings because, as Jespersen indicates, no texts exist in either Scandinavia or Northern England from this time to give certain evidence of an influence on syntax. The effect of Old Norse on Old English was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Old Norse and Old English resembled each other closely like cousins, and with some words in common, speakers roughly understood each other; in time the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged.[30] It is most important to recognize that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages that only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw, these endings must have led to much confusion, tending gradually to become obscured and finally lost. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in "simplifying English grammar".
See main article: Old English phonology. The inventory of Early West Saxon surface phones is as follows.
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/) | |||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/) | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | |
| Approximant | (pronounced as /link/) pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (ʍ) pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Trill | (pronounced as /link/) pronounced as /link/ |
The sounds enclosed in parentheses in the chart above are not considered to be phonemes:
The above system is largely similar to that of Modern English, except that pronounced as /[ç, x, ɣ, l̥, n̥, r̥]/ (and pronounced as /[ʍ]/ for most speakers) have generally been lost, while the voiced affricate and fricatives (now also including pronounced as //ʒ//) have become independent phonemes, as has pronounced as //ŋ//.
| Front | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||
| Close | pronounced as /i iː/ | pronounced as /y yː/ | pronounced as /u uː/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /e eː/ | pronounced as /o oː/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /æ æː/ | pronounced as /ɑ ɑː/ | (pronounced as /ɒ/) | ||
The Anglian dialects also had the mid front rounded vowel pronounced as //ø(ː)//, spelled ⟨œ⟩, which had emerged from i-umlaut of pronounced as //o(ː)//. In West Saxon and Kentish, it had already merged with pronounced as //e(ː)// before the first written prose.
| Close | pronounced as /iy̯/ | pronounced as /iːy̯/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /eo̯/ | pronounced as /eːo̯/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /æɑ̯/ | pronounced as /æːɑ̯/ |
Other dialects had different systems of diphthongs. For example, the Northumbrian dialect retained pronounced as //i(ː)o̯//, which had merged with pronounced as //e(ː)o̯// in West Saxon.
For more on dialectal differences, see Phonological history of Old English (dialects).
See main article: Phonological history of Old English. Some of the principal sound changes occurring in the pre-history and history of Old English were the following:
For more details of these processes, see the main article, linked above. For sound changes before and after the Old English period, see Phonological history of English.
See main article: Old English grammar.
Nouns decline for five cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental; three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter; and two numbers: singular, and plural; and are strong or weak. The instrumental is vestigial and only used with the masculine and neuter singular and often replaced by the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retain separate instrumental forms. There is also sparse early Northumbrian evidence of a sixth case: the locative. The evidence comes from Northumbrian Runic texts (e.g., on rodi "on the Cross").[35]
Adjectives agree with nouns in case, gender, and number, and can be either strong or weak. Pronouns and sometimes participles agree in case, gender, and number. First-person and second-person personal pronouns occasionally distinguish dual-number forms. The definite article English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sē and its inflections serve as a definite article ("the"), a demonstrative adjective ("that"), and demonstrative pronoun. Other demonstratives are English, Old (ca.450-1100);: þēs ("this"), and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ġeon ("that over there"). These words inflect for case, gender, and number. Adjectives have both strong and weak sets of endings, weak ones being used when a definite or possessive determiner is also present.
Verbs conjugate for three persons: first, second, and third; two numbers: singular, plural; two tenses: present, and past; three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative;[36] and are strong (exhibiting ablaut) or weak (exhibiting a dental suffix). Verbs have two infinitive forms: bare and bound; and two participles: present and past. The subjunctive has past and present forms. Finite verbs agree with subjects in person and number. The future tense, passive voice, and other aspects are formed with compounds. Adpositions are mostly before but are often after their object. If the object of an adposition is marked in the dative case, an adposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence.
Remnants of the Old English case system in Modern English are in the forms of a few pronouns (such as I/me/mine, she/her, who/whom/whose) and in the possessive ending -'s, which derives from the masculine and neuter genitive ending -es. The modern English plural ending -(e)s derives from the Old English -as, but the latter applied only to "strong" masculine nouns in the nominative and accusative cases; different plural endings were used in other instances. Old English nouns had grammatical gender, while modern English has only natural gender. Pronoun usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender when those conflicted, as in the case of English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ƿīf, a neuter noun referring to a female person.
In Old English's verbal compound constructions are the beginnings of the compound tenses of Modern English.[37] Old English verbs include strong verbs, which form the past tense by altering the root vowel, and weak verbs, which use a suffix such as English, Old (ca.450-1100);: -de.[36] As in Modern English, and peculiar to the Germanic languages, the verbs formed two great classes: weak (regular), and strong (irregular). Like today, Old English had fewer strong verbs, and many of these have over time decayed into weak forms. Then, as now, dental suffixes indicated the past tense of the weak verbs, as in work and worked.
Old English syntax is similar to that of modern English. Some differences are consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection, allowing freer word order.
See main article: Anglo-Saxon runes and Old English Latin alphabet.
Old English was first written in runes, using the futhorc—a rune set derived from the Germanic 24-character elder futhark, extended by five more runes used to represent Anglo-Saxon vowel sounds and sometimes by several more additional characters. From around the 8th century, the runic system came to be supplanted by a (minuscule) half-uncial script of the Latin alphabet introduced by Irish Christian missionaries.[39] This was replaced by Insular script, a cursive and pointed version of the half-uncial script. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continental Carolingian minuscule (also known as Caroline) replaced the insular.
The Latin alphabet of the time still lacked the letters and, and there was no as distinct from ; moreover native Old English spellings did not use, or . The remaining 20 Latin letters were supplemented by four more: (English, Old (ca.450-1100);: æsc, modern ash) and (English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ðæt, now called eth or edh), which were modified Latin letters, and thorn and wynn, which are borrowings from the futhorc. A few letter pairs were used as digraphs, representing a single sound. Also used was the Tironian note (a character similar to the digit 7) for the conjunction and. A common scribal abbreviation was a thorn with a stroke, which was used for the pronoun English, Old (ca.450-1100);: þæt (that). Macrons over vowels were originally used not to mark long vowels (as in modern editions), but to indicate stress, or as abbreviations for a following or .[40] [41]
Modern editions of Old English manuscripts generally introduce some additional conventions. The modern forms of Latin letters are used, including instead of insular G, instead of insular S and long S, and others which may differ considerably from the insular script, notably, and . Macrons are used to indicate long vowels, where usually no distinction was made between long and short vowels in the originals. (In some older editions an acute accent mark was used for consistency with Old Norse conventions.) Additionally, modern editions often distinguish between velar and palatal and by placing dots above the palatals:, . The letter wynn is usually replaced with, but, and are normally retained (except when is replaced by).
In contrast with Modern English orthography, Old English spelling was reasonably regular, with a mostly predictable correspondence between letters and phonemes. There were not usually any silent letters—in the word English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cniht, for example, both the and were pronounced (pronounced as //knixt ~ kniçt//) unlike the and in the modern knight (pronounced as //naɪt//). The following table lists the Old English letters and digraphs together with the phonemes they represent, using the same notation as in the Phonology section above.
| OE | Variants in modern editions | IPA transcription | Description and notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | pronounced as //ɑ// | Spelling variations like ~ ("land") suggest the short vowel had a rounded allophone pronounced as /[ɒ]/ before pronounced as //m// and pronounced as //n// when it occurred in stressed syllables. | |
| ā | pronounced as //ɑː// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //ɑː// from short pronounced as //ɑ//. | ||
| æ | æ | pronounced as //æ// | Formerly the digraph was used; became more common during the 8th century, and was standard after 800. Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //æː// from short pronounced as //æ//. | |
| ǣ | pronounced as //æː// | |||
| ę | pronounced as //æ//, pronounced as //æː// | In 9th-century Kentish manuscripts, a form of that was missing the upper hook of the part was used; it is not clear whether this represented pronounced as //æ// or pronounced as //e//. The symbol is used as a modern editorial substitution for the modified Kentish form of . Compare e caudata, . | ||
| b | pronounced as //b// | |||
| pronounced as /[v]/ (an allophone of pronounced as //f//) | Used in this way in early texts (before 800). For example, the word "sheaves" is spelled English, Old (ca.450-1100);: scēabas in an early text, but later (and more commonly) as English, Old (ca.450-1100);: scēafas. | |||
| c | c | pronounced as //k// | The pronounced as //tʃ// pronunciation is sometimes written with a diacritic by modern editors: most commonly, sometimes or . Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always pronounced as //k//; word-finally after it is always pronounced as //tʃ//. Otherwise, a knowledge of the history of the word is needed to predict the pronunciation with certainty, although it is most commonly pronounced as //tʃ// before front vowels (other than pronounced as /[y]/) and pronounced as //k// elsewhere. (For details, see .) See also the digraphs, . | |
| ċ | pronounced as //tʃ// | |||
| cg | cg | pronounced as /[ɡɡ]/ (between vowels; rare), pronounced as /[ɡ]/ (after pronounced as //n//) | Proto-Germanic *g was palatalized when it underwent West Germanic gemination, resulting in the voiced palatal geminate pronounced as /[ddʒ]/ (which can be phonemically analyzed as pronounced as //jj//). Consequently, the voiced velar geminate pronounced as /[ɡɡ]/ (which can be phonemically analyzed as pronounced as //ɣɣ//) was rare in Old English, and its etymological origin in the words in which it occurs (such as English, Old (ca.450-1100);: frocga 'frog') is unclear.[42] Alternative spellings of either geminate included,,, and .[43] [44] The two geminates were not distinguished in Old English orthography; in modern editions, the palatal geminate is sometimes written to distinguish it from velar .[45] After pronounced as //n//, pronounced as //j// was realized as pronounced as /[dʒ]/ and pronounced as //ɣ// was realized as pronounced as /[ɡ]/. The spellings, and even were occasionally used instead of the usual .[46] The addition of to in spellings such as and for may have been a means of showing that the word was pronounced with a stop rather than a fricative; spellings with just such as are also found.[47] To disambiguate, the cluster ending in the palatal affricate is sometimes written (or) by modern editors.[48] | |
| ċġ | pronounced as /[ddʒ]/ (between vowels), pronounced as /[dʒ]/ (after pronounced as //n//) | |||
| d | pronounced as //d// | In the earliest texts it also represented pronounced as //θ// (see). | ||
| ð | ð, þ | pronounced as //θ//, including its allophone pronounced as /[ð]/ | Called English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ðæt in Old English; now called eth or edh. Derived from the insular form of with the addition of a cross-bar. Both and could represent either allophone of pronounced as //θ//, voiceless pronounced as /[θ]/ or voiced pronounced as /[ð]/, but some texts show a tendency to use at the start of words and in the middle or at the end of a word.[49] Some modern editors replace with as a form of normalization and means of imposing consistency. Also see . | |
| e | e | pronounced as //e// | ||
| ē | pronounced as //eː// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //eː// from short pronounced as //e//. | ||
| ea | ea | pronounced as //æɑ̯// | Sometimes stands for pronounced as //ɑ// after or (see palatal diphthongization). | |
| ēa | pronounced as //æːɑ̯// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //æːɑ̯// from short pronounced as //æɑ̯//. Sometimes stands for pronounced as //ɑː// after or . | ||
| eo | eo | pronounced as //eo̯// | Sometimes stands for pronounced as //o// after or (see palatal diphthongization). | |
| ēo | pronounced as //eːo̯// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //eːo̯// from short pronounced as //eo̯//. | ||
| f | pronounced as //f//, including its allophone pronounced as /[v]/ | See also . | ||
| g | g | pronounced as //ɣ//, including its allophone pronounced as /[ɡ]/ | In Old English manuscripts, this letter usually took its insular form (see also: yogh). The pronounced as /[j]/ and pronounced as /[dʒ]/ pronunciations are sometimes written in modern editions. Word-initially before another consonant letter, the pronunciation is always the velar fricative pronounced as /[ɣ]/. Word-finally after, it is always palatal pronounced as /[j]/. Otherwise, a knowledge of the history of the word in question is needed to predict the pronunciation with certainty, although it is most commonly pronounced as //j// before and after front vowels (other than pronounced as /[y]/) and pronounced as //ɣ// elsewhere. (For details, see .) | |
| ġ | pronounced as //j//, including its allophone pronounced as /[dʒ]/, which occurs after | |||
| h | pronounced as //x//, including its allophones pronounced as /[h, ç]/ | The combinations,,, may have been realized as devoiced versions of the second consonants instead of as sequences starting with pronounced as /[h]/. | ||
| i | i | pronounced as //i//, rarely pronounced as /[j]/ | Although the spelling is used for the palatal consonant pronounced as //j// from the earliest Old English texts, the letter is also found as a minority spelling of pronounced as //j//. West Saxon scribes came to prefer to use rather than to spell the pronounced as //rj// sequence found in verbs like herian and swerian, whereas Mercian and Northumbrian texts generally used in the spelling of these words.[50] | |
| ī | pronounced as //iː// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //iː// from short pronounced as //i//. | ||
| ie | ie | pronounced as //iy̯// | ||
| īe | pronounced as //iːy̯// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //iːy̯// from short pronounced as //iy̯//. | ||
| io | io | pronounced as //io̯// | By the time of the first written prose, pronounced as //i(ː)o̯// had merged with pronounced as //e(ː)o̯// in every dialect but Northumbrian, where it was preserved until Middle English. In Early West Saxon pronounced as //e(ː)o̯// was often written instead of, but by Late West Saxon only the spelling remained common. | |
| īo | pronounced as //iːo̯// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //iːo̯// from short pronounced as //io̯//. | ||
| k | pronounced as //k// | Rarely used; this sound is normally represented by . | ||
| l | pronounced as //l// | Probably velarised pronounced as /[ɫ]/ (as in Modern English) when in coda position. | ||
| m | pronounced as //m// | |||
| n | pronounced as //n//, including its allophone pronounced as /[ŋ]/ | The allophone pronounced as /[ŋ]/ occurred before a velar plosive (pronounced as /[k]/ or pronounced as /[ɡ]/). | ||
| o | o | pronounced as //o// | See also . | |
| ō | pronounced as //oː// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //oː// from short pronounced as //o//. | ||
| oe | oe | pronounced as //ø// | Only occurs in some dialects. Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //øː// from short pronounced as //ø//. | |
| ōe | pronounced as //øː// | |||
| p | pronounced as //p// | |||
| qu | pronounced as //kw// | A rare spelling of pronounced as //kw//, which was usually written as (in modern editions). | ||
| r | pronounced as //r// | The exact nature of Old English pronounced as //r// is not known; it may have been an alveolar approximant pronounced as /[ɹ]/ as in most modern English, an alveolar flap pronounced as /[ɾ]/, or an alveolar trill pronounced as /[r]/. | ||
| s | pronounced as //s//, including its allophone pronounced as /[z]/ | |||
| sc | sc | pronounced as //sk// (rare) | At the start of a word, the usual pronunciation is palatalized English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sċ pronounced as //ʃ//. Between vowels in the middle of a word, the pronunciation can be either a palatalized geminate pronounced as //ʃː//, as in English, Old (ca.450-1100);: fisċere pronounced as //ˈfiʃ.ʃe.re// ('fisherman') and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wȳsċan, pronounced as //ˈwyːʃ.ʃɑn/ 'to wish'), or an unpalatalized consonant sequence pronounced as //sk//, as in English, Old (ca.450-1100);: āscian pronounced as //ˈɑːs.ki.ɑn// ('to ask'). The pronunciation pronounced as //sk// occurs when had been followed by a back vowel (pronounced as //ɑ//, pronounced as //o//, pronounced as //u//) at the time of palatalization,[51] as illustrated by the contrast between English, Old (ca.450-1100);: fisċ pronounced as //fiʃ// ('fish') and its plural English, Old (ca.450-1100);: fiscas pronounced as //ˈfis.kɑs//. But due to changes over time, a knowledge of the history of the word in question is needed to predict the pronunciation with certainty (for details, see palatalization). In word-final position, the pronunciation of English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sċ was either pronounced as //ʃ// or possibly pronounced as //ʃː// when the preceding vowel was short. | |
| sċ | pronounced as //ʃː// (between vowels), pronounced as //ʃ// (elsewhere) | |||
| t | pronounced as //t// | |||
| th | pronounced as //θ// | Represented pronounced as //θ// in the earliest texts (see) | ||
| þ | pronounced as //θ//, including its allophone pronounced as /[ð]/ | Called thorn and derived from the rune of the same name. In the earliest texts or was used for this phoneme, but these were later replaced in this function by eth and thorn . Eth was first attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 7th century, and thorn in the 8th. Eth was more common than thorn before Alfred's time. From then onward, thorn was used increasingly often at the start of words, while eth was normal in the middle and at the end of words, although usage varied in both cases. Some modern editions use only thorn. See also Pronunciation of English ⟨th⟩. | ||
| u | u | pronounced as //u//, also sometimes pronounced as //w// (see) | ||
| ū | pronounced as //uː// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //uː// from short pronounced as //u//. | ||
| uu | w | pronounced as //w// | Old English manuscripts typically represented the sound pronounced as //w// with the letter, called wynn and derived from the rune of the same name. In earlier texts by continental scribes, and also later in the north, pronounced as //w// was represented by or . In modern editions, wynn is replaced by, to prevent confusion with . | |
| ƿ | ||||
| x | pronounced as //ks// | |||
| y | y | pronounced as //y// | ||
| ȳ | pronounced as //yː// | Modern editions use to distinguish long pronounced as //yː// from short pronounced as //y//. | ||
| z | pronounced as //ts// | A rare spelling for pronounced as //ts//; e.g. English, Old (ca.450-1100);: betst ("best") is occasionally spelt English, Old (ca.450-1100);: bezt. | ||
Doubled consonants are geminated; the geminate fricatives, and /// are always voiceless pronounced as /[ff]/, pronounced as /[ss]/, pronounced as /[θθ]/.
See main article: Old English literature.
The corpus of Old English literature is small but still significant, with some 400 surviving manuscripts.[52] The pagan and Christian streams mingle in Old English, one of the richest and most significant bodies of literature preserved among the early Germanic peoples. In his supplementary article to the 1935 posthumous edition of Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader, Dr. James Hulbert writes:
Some of the most important surviving works of Old English literature are Beowulf, an epic poem; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of early English history; the Franks Casket, an inscribed early whalebone artefact; and Cædmon's Hymn, a Christian religious poem. There are also a number of extant prose works, such as sermons and saints' lives, biblical translations, and translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers, legal documents, such as laws and wills, and practical works on grammar, medicine, and geography. Still, poetry is considered the heart of Old English literature. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous, with a few exceptions, such as Bede and Cædmon. Cædmon, the earliest English poet known by name, served as a lay brother in the monastery at Whitby.
The first example is taken from the opening lines of the folk epic Beowulf, a poem of some 3,000 lines. This passage describes how Hrothgar's legendary ancestor Scyld was found as a baby, washed ashore, and adopted by a noble family. The translation is literal and represents the original poetic word order. As such, it is not typical of Old English prose. The modern cognates of original words have been used whenever practical to give a close approximation of the feel of the original poem.
The words in brackets are implied in the Old English by noun case and the bold words in brackets are explanations of words that have slightly different meanings in a modern context. Notice how what is used by the poet where a word like lo or behold would be expected. This usage is similar to what-ho!, both an expression of surprise and a call to attention.
English poetry is based on stress and alliteration. In alliteration, the first consonant in a word alliterates with the same consonant at the beginning of another word, as with English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''G'''ār-Dena and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''ġ'''eār-dagum. Vowels alliterate with any other vowel, as with English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''æ'''þelingas and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''e'''llen. In the text below, the letters that alliterate are bolded.
| style=width:35% | Original | style=width:65% | Representation with constructed cognates | |
| 1 | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Hƿæt! ƿē '''G'''ār-Dena in '''ġ'''eār-dagum, | What! We of Gare-Danes (lit. Spear-Danes) in yore-days, | ||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''þ'''ēod-cyninga, '''þ'''rym ġefrūnon, | of thede (nation/people)-kings, did thrum (glory) frain (learn about by asking), | |||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hū ðā '''æ'''þelingas '''e'''llen fremedon. | how those athelings (noblemen) did ellen (fortitude/courage/zeal) freme (promote). | |||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Oft '''Sc'''yld '''Sc'''ēfing '''sc'''eaþena þrēatum, | Oft did Scyld Scefing of scather threats (troops), | |||
| 5 | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''m'''onegum '''m'''ǣġþum, '''m'''eodosetla oftēah, | of many maegths (clans; cf. Irish cognate Mac-), of mead-settees atee (deprive), | ||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''e'''gsode '''eo'''rlas. Syððan '''ǣ'''rest ƿearð | [and] ugg (induce loathing in, terrify; related to "ugly") earls. Sith (since, as of when) erst (first) [he] worthed (became) | |||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''f'''ēasceaft '''f'''unden, hē þæs '''f'''rōfre ġebād, | [in] fewship (destitute) found, he of this frover (comfort) abode, | |||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''ƿ'''ēox under '''ƿ'''olcnum, '''ƿ'''eorðmyndum þāh, | [and] waxed under welkin (firmament/clouds), [and amid] worthmint (honour/worship) theed (throve/prospered) | |||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''o'''ðþæt him '''ǣ'''ġhƿylc þāra '''y'''mbsittendra | oth that (until that) him each of those umsitters (those "sitting" or dwelling roundabout) | |||
| 10 | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ofer '''h'''ronrāde '''h'''ȳran scolde, | over whale-road (kenning for "sea") hear should, | ||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''g'''omban '''g'''yldan. Þæt ƿæs '''g'''ōd cyning! | [and] yeme (heed/obedience; related to "gormless") yield. That was [a] good king! |
Here is a natural enough Modern English translation, although the phrasing of the Old English passage has often been stylistically preserved, even though it is not usual in Modern English:
| Line | Original | Translation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Fæder ūre þū þe eart on heofonum, | pronounced as /[ˈfæ.der ˈuː.re θuː θe æɑ̯rt on ˈheo̯.vo.num]/ | Father Ours, thou which art in heavens, | Our Father, who art in heaven, | |
| [2] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Sīe þīn nama ġehālgod. | pronounced as /[siːy̯ θiːn ˈnɒ.mɑ jeˈhɑːɫ.ɣod]/ | Be thine name hallowed. | Hallowed be thy name. | |
| [3] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Tōbecume þīn rīċe, | pronounced as /[ˌtoː.beˈku.me θiːn ˈriː.t͡ʃe]/ | To be come [is] thine kingdom, | Thy kingdom come, | |
| [4] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Ġeweorðe þīn willa, on eorðan swā swā on heofonum. | pronounced as /[jeˈweo̯rˠ.ðe θiːn ˈwil.lɑ on ˈeo̯rˠ.ðan swɑː swɑː on ˈheo̯.vo.num]/ | Let there be thine will, on earth as in heavens. | Thy will be done on earth as in heaven. | |
| [5] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Ūrne dæġhwamlīcan hlāf sele ūs tōdæġ, | pronounced as /[ˈuːrˠ.ne ˈdæj.ʍɑmˌliː.kɑn hl̥ɑːf ˈse.le uːs toːˈdæj]/ | Our daily loaf sell us today, | Give us this day our daily bread, | |
| [6] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: And forġief ūs ūre gyltas, swā swā wē forġiefaþ ūrum gyltendum. | pronounced as /[ɒnd forˠˈjiy̯f uːs ˈuː.re ˈɣyl.tɑs swɑː swɑː weː forˠˈjiy̯.vɑθ uː.rum ˈɣyl.ten.dum]/ | And forgive us our guilts, as we forgiveth our guilters. | And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. | |
| [7] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: And ne ġelǣd þū ūs on costnunge, ac ālīes ūs of yfele. | pronounced as /[ɒnd ne jeˈlæːd θuː uːs on ˈkost.nuŋ.ɡe ɑk ɑːˈliːy̯s uːs of ˈy.ve.le]/ | And not lead thou us in temptations, but allay us of evil. | And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | |
| [8] | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Sōðlīċe. | pronounced as /[ˈsoːðˌliː.t͡ʃe]/ | Amen. | Amen. |
This is a proclamation from King Cnut the Great to his earl Thorkell the Tall and the English people written in AD 1019. Unlike the previous two examples, this text is prose rather than poetry. For ease of reading, the passage has been divided into sentences while the pilcrows represent the original division.
| width=50% | Original | width=50% | Representation with constructed cognates |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¶ English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopas and his leod-biscopas and Þurcyl eorl and ealle his eorlas and ealne his þeodscype, tƿelfhynde and tƿyhynde, gehadode and læƿede, on Englalande freondlice. | ¶ Cnut, king, greets his archbishops and his lede'(people's)'-bishops and Thorkell, earl, and all his earls and all his peopleship, greater (having a 1200 shilling weregild) and lesser (200 shilling weregild), hooded(ordained to priesthood) and lewd(lay), in England friendly. | ||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: And ic cyðe eoƿ, þæt ic ƿylle beon hold hlaford and unsƿicende to godes gerihtum and to rihtre ƿoroldlage. | And I kithe(make known/couth to) you, that I will be [a] hold(civilised) lord and unswiking(uncheating) to God's rights(laws) and to [the] rights(laws) worldly. | ||
| ¶ English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Ic nam me to gemynde þa geƿritu and þa ƿord, þe se arcebiscop Lyfing me fram þam papan brohte of Rome, þæt ic scolde æghƿær godes lof upp aræran and unriht alecgan and full frið ƿyrcean be ðære mihte, þe me god syllan ƿolde. | ¶ I nam(took) me to mind the writs and the word that the Archbishop Lyfing me from the Pope brought of Rome, that I should ayewhere(everywhere) God's love(praise) uprear(promote), and unright(outlaw) lies, and full frith(peace) work(bring about) by the might that me God would(wished) [to] sell'(give). | ||
| ¶ English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Nu ne ƿandode ic na minum sceattum, þa hƿile þe eoƿ unfrið on handa stod: nu ic mid-godes fultume þæt totƿæmde mid-minum scattum. | ¶ Now, ne went(withdrew/changed) I not my shot(financial contribution, cf. Norse cognate in scot-free) the while that you stood(endured) unfrith(turmoil) on-hand: now I, mid(with) God's support, that [unfrith] totwemed(separated/dispelled) mid(with) my shot(financial contribution). | ||
| English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Þa cydde man me, þæt us mara hearm to fundode, þonne us ƿel licode: and þa for ic me sylf mid-þam mannum þe me mid-foron into Denmearcon, þe eoƿ mæst hearm of com: and þæt hæbbe mid-godes fultume forene forfangen, þæt eoƿ næfre heonon forð þanon nan unfrið to ne cymð, þa hƿile þe ge me rihtlice healdað and min lif byð. | Tho(then) [a] man kithed(made known/couth to) me that us more harm had found(come upon) than us well liked(equalled): and tho(then) fore(travelled) I, meself, mid(with) those men that mid(with) me fore(travelled), into Denmark that [to] you most harm came of(from): and that[harm] have [I], mid(with) God's support, afore(previously) forefangen(forestalled) that to you never henceforth thence none unfrith(breach of peace) ne come the while that ye me rightly hold(behold as king) and my life beeth. |
The following is a natural Modern English translation, with the overall structure of the Old English passage preserved. Even though "earl" is used to translate its Old English cognate "eorl", "eorl" in Old English does not correspond exactly to "earl" of the later medieval period:
The earliest history of Old English lexicography lies in the Anglo-Saxon period itself, when English-speaking scholars created English glosses on Latin texts. At first these were often marginal or interlinear glosses, but soon came to be gathered into word-lists such as the Épinal-Erfurt, Leiden and Corpus Glossaries. Over time, these word-lists were consolidated and alphabeticised to create extensive Latin-Old English glossaries with some of the character of dictionaries, such as the Cleopatra Glossaries, the Harley Glossary and the Brussels Glossary.[53] In some cases, the material in these glossaries continued to be circulated and updated in Middle English glossaries, such as the Durham Plant-Name Glossary and the Laud Herbal Glossary.[54]
Old English lexicography was revived in the early modern period, drawing heavily on Anglo-Saxons' own glossaries. The major publication at this time was William Somner's Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum.[55] The next substantial Old English dictionary was Joseph Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary of 1838.
In modern scholarship, the following dictionaries remain current:
Though focused on later periods, the Oxford English Dictionary, Middle English Dictionary, Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, and Historical Thesaurus of English all also include material relevant to Old English.
Like other historical languages, Old English has been used by scholars and enthusiasts of later periods to create texts either imitating Old English literature or deliberately transferring it to a different cultural context. Examples include Alistair Campbell and J. R. R. Tolkien.[56] Ransom Riggs uses several Old English words, such as syndrigast (singular, peculiar), ymbryne (period, cycle), etc., dubbed as "Old Peculiar" ones. Advocates of linguistic purism in English often look to older forms of English, including Old English, as a means of either reviving old words or coining new ones.
A number of websites devoted to Modern Paganism and historical reenactment offer reference material and forums promoting the active use of Old English. There is also an Old English version of Wikipedia. However, one investigation found that many Neo-Old English texts published online bear little resemblance to the historical language and have many basic grammatical mistakes.[57] [58]