Summary Old English - Linguistics I

PART I: OLD, MIDDLE AND MODERN ENGLISH

1. OLD ENGLISH
1.1. THE NAME OF THE LANGUAGE

Old English Anglo-Saxon
 Emphasizing continuity  Emphasizing differences
 Emphasizing language rather than culture  Emphasizing culture rather than language
 ‘englisc’


1.2. PERIODISATION

Social political: 449 Anglo-Saxon invasion → 1066 Norman invasion

Linguistic: 400 – 500 development of continental to insular → 1100 – 1150 development in
phonology and syntax



1.3. WHERE DID THE LANGUAGE COME FROM
1.3.1. Sources

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (9th Century) Bede’s Hisoria Ecclesiastica Gentis
Anglorum (731)
 Written in Old English  Written in Latin
 South-west of England  Northumbria
 Annals describing past/current events  Account of the history of Christianity from
 8 separate manuscript versions its beginning to Bede’s dahy


1.3.2. The language of the Celts in Britain

Native language in Britain is British → Celtic language


A) The Roman Empire
43 AD – 406 AD Roman rule

Offical language : latin

spoken by:

- Roman civil officals
- Military officers and settlers
- Britons who had dealings with Romans (Romano-
Threat from the Picts



Trouble in the Roman Empire

The Peterborough chronicle explains:

433  Britons asked Rome for help against the Picts.
 Rome had no forces available due to a conflict with Attila, the Hun
king.
 Britons then sent a request to the Angles.

449
 Vortigern invited the Angles to Britain to fight the Picts.
 Angles arrived in three ships, Vortigern granted them land
 Angles successfully fought against the Picts, requested more help from
Anglen.
 Reported cowardice of Britons and fertility of land; sent a larger force
 Saxons, Angles and Jutes arrived

, Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum explains:

Invasion of alien peoples:

 The natives who invited them lived in terror
 They began demanding a greater supply of provisions
 Threatened to terminate the treaty and ravage the island
 Survivors were butchered
 Doomed to lifelong slavery
 Some fled overseas; others fearful existence among mountains,
forests and crags
499
Anglo Saxons invasions

 Waves of migration of Angles, Saxons and Jutes to England
 Gradual deposition of the native Celts, who were pushed back to the
western parts (Cornwall, Wales)




B) Celtic influence

Little influence of the indigenous language in Old English

Lexical influences did survive:

 Geographical names (e.g. Avon, Carlisle)
 Geographical features (e.g. Old English cumb = small valley; Batcombe, Cumwhitton …)

Language of the Angles and the Saxons = the base of Old English



1.3.3. Latin influence

Christian missionaries (6th century)

 Led by Augustine: sent by Pope Gregory to convert the
Anglo-Saxons Early loans: contact & trade
 Beginning of literary age in rapidly growing number of with Romans (candle, belt,
monastic centres street, mass …)
- Latin manuscripts (bible and religious texts)
Later loans: conversion to
- Old English manuscripts
Christianity (Hymn, grammar,
- Glossaries
priest, chalice …)
- Early inscriptions and poems (e.g. Caedmon’s Hymn)
- Beowulf (manuscript AD 1000, probably composed 8th
century)


Wars from within Wars from without
 Several “Kings of England”  Invading Vikings (8th century onwards)
 Eventually King Alfred of Wessex  From raids to permanent settlements (9th
C.)
 Truce between King Alfred and King
Guthrum in treaty of Wedmore =
Danelaw
 King Cnut, king of England, Denmark, and
Norway (10th century)


1.3.4. Scandinavian influence

Close contact and assimilation

Lexical influence Grammatical influence
 Basic vocabulary: words with sk- (skirt,  Personal pronouns (hie hira, him → they,
whisk …) them, their)
- Old English heofon → Scandinavian sky  Plural form of verb to be (sindon → are)