Anglo Saxon English
Contents
Baker......................................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 1: Anglo-Saxons and Their Language....................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Pronunciation...................................................................................................................5
vowels............................................................................................................................................5
consonants.....................................................................................................................................5
syllables.........................................................................................................................................6
accentuation..................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3: Basic Grammar – A Review...............................................................................................7
parts of speech..............................................................................................................................7
phrases..........................................................................................................................................8
clauses...........................................................................................................................................8
elements of sentence or clause.....................................................................................................8
Chapter 4: Case..................................................................................................................................9
Chapter 5: Pronouns........................................................................................................................10
Chapter 6: Nouns.............................................................................................................................10
noun phrase.................................................................................................................................10
strong & weak..............................................................................................................................11
athematic.....................................................................................................................................11
changes in stem syllable..............................................................................................................12
minor declensions........................................................................................................................12
Chapter 7: Verbs..............................................................................................................................13
to be,............................................................................................................................................13
weak verbs...................................................................................................................................14
strong verbs.................................................................................................................................14
weak present, strong past............................................................................................................15
preterite-present.........................................................................................................................16
dōn, gān, willan............................................................................................................................16
negation.......................................................................................................................................16
verbals.........................................................................................................................................17
subjunctive...................................................................................................................................17
Chapter 8: Adjectives.......................................................................................................................17
strong...........................................................................................................................................17
weak............................................................................................................................................18
, comparative.................................................................................................................................18
Chapter 9: Numerals........................................................................................................................18
Chapter 10: Adverbs, Conjugations and Prepositions......................................................................19
adverbs........................................................................................................................................19
conjunctions................................................................................................................................19
correlation...................................................................................................................................19
Chapter 11: Concord........................................................................................................................20
Chapter 12: Word-Order..................................................................................................................20
Chapter 13: Metre...........................................................................................................................21
alliteration...................................................................................................................................21
rhythm.........................................................................................................................................21
5 rhythmic types..........................................................................................................................21
Chapter 14: Poetic Style...................................................................................................................22
variation.......................................................................................................................................22
formulaic......................................................................................................................................22
Chapter 15: The Grammar of Poetry................................................................................................22
Chapter 16: Old English in its Material Context...............................................................................22
old english script..........................................................................................................................23
spaces..........................................................................................................................................23
errors...........................................................................................................................................24
runes............................................................................................................................................24
Chapter 10 – Addendum..................................................................................................................25
Chapter 14 – Addendum..................................................................................................................26
some compounds of rinc:............................................................................................................26
some words with beadu:.............................................................................................................27
some kennings:............................................................................................................................27
Wordlist I Created............................................................................................................................27
,Baker
Chapter 1: Anglo-Saxons and Their Language
Anglo-Saxon are the English-speaking inhabitants of Britain from +- the middle of the 5 th century
until 1066. They arrived on the island during the rule of Martian, who became co-emperor of the
Roman Empire with Valentinan III in 449, and who ruled for 7 years. Before that, the Celts and Picts
lived in Britain, and between 43-410 the Romans lived there as well.
The Britons faced hostile Picts and Scots, so they hire Germanic mercenaries to fight them: the
Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. They succeeded, sent word home about the fertile lands and
cowardly inhabitants and slowly took over. This is, however, according to Bede’s Historia
Ecclesiastica, but modern research shows this is probably not true. It does give us an insight in how
the Anglo-Saxon viewed themselves: warrior people, proud conquerors of the land they inhabited.
In the late 6th and early 7th century, the island converted to Christianity, in the late 7 th and early 8th
century the culture produced 2 major authors, Aldhelm and Bede, and a lot of small ones. Although
the 7th and 8th century writers usually wrote in Latin, there was also a lot of vernacular literature
written. Those manuscript usually date back to the late 9 th, 10th and 11th centuries, many important
poems were probably composed in the 8 th century.
According to Bede, the Anglo-Saxons came from Germania, a vast and ill-defined territory east of the
Rhine and north of the Danube.
The languages spoken were a branch of the Indo-European language family. The Germanic language
itself was also divided into parts:
1. North Germanic
a. Scandinavia
2. East Germanic
a. Gothic
, 3. West Germanic
a. High German, English, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian
The most important difference between the Germanic branch and other Indo-European branches is
Grimm’s Law, which states that all unvoiced stops became unvoiced spirants 1, all voiced stops
became unvoiced stops2 and all voiced aspirated stops became voiced stops 3.
Another important change is that stress shifted to the first syllable, and there was a radical
simplification of the case system.
West Germanic differs from North and East Germanic through some consonant changes, loss of [r] at
the ends of unstressed syllables resulting in the loss of inflectional endings, change in the
pronunciation of [a] as well as some other vowels. The number of vowels possible in inflectional
endings was dramatically reduced.
The English spoken by the Anglo-Saxon when they came to Britain was more or less uniform, but it
later split up in 4 major dialects:
1. Northumbrian
a. North of the river Humber
2. Mercian
a. Midlands
3. Kentish
a. Kent
4. West Saxon
a. South-west
BBC English comes from the Mercian dialect, but West-Saxon was the dominant language during the
period in which most of the surviving literature was recorded. Nearly all Old English poetry is in
West-Saxon, although some theorise that some of it was translated from Mercian or Northumbrian
into West-Saxon, because of certain spellings and vocabulary.
1
[p], [t], [k] → [f], [θ], [x]], [x]
2
[b], [d], [ɡ] → [p], [t], [k]
3
[bh], [dh], [gh] → [b], [d], [ɡ] / [β], [ð], [ɣ]], [ð], [ɣ]
Contents
Baker......................................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 1: Anglo-Saxons and Their Language....................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Pronunciation...................................................................................................................5
vowels............................................................................................................................................5
consonants.....................................................................................................................................5
syllables.........................................................................................................................................6
accentuation..................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3: Basic Grammar – A Review...............................................................................................7
parts of speech..............................................................................................................................7
phrases..........................................................................................................................................8
clauses...........................................................................................................................................8
elements of sentence or clause.....................................................................................................8
Chapter 4: Case..................................................................................................................................9
Chapter 5: Pronouns........................................................................................................................10
Chapter 6: Nouns.............................................................................................................................10
noun phrase.................................................................................................................................10
strong & weak..............................................................................................................................11
athematic.....................................................................................................................................11
changes in stem syllable..............................................................................................................12
minor declensions........................................................................................................................12
Chapter 7: Verbs..............................................................................................................................13
to be,............................................................................................................................................13
weak verbs...................................................................................................................................14
strong verbs.................................................................................................................................14
weak present, strong past............................................................................................................15
preterite-present.........................................................................................................................16
dōn, gān, willan............................................................................................................................16
negation.......................................................................................................................................16
verbals.........................................................................................................................................17
subjunctive...................................................................................................................................17
Chapter 8: Adjectives.......................................................................................................................17
strong...........................................................................................................................................17
weak............................................................................................................................................18
, comparative.................................................................................................................................18
Chapter 9: Numerals........................................................................................................................18
Chapter 10: Adverbs, Conjugations and Prepositions......................................................................19
adverbs........................................................................................................................................19
conjunctions................................................................................................................................19
correlation...................................................................................................................................19
Chapter 11: Concord........................................................................................................................20
Chapter 12: Word-Order..................................................................................................................20
Chapter 13: Metre...........................................................................................................................21
alliteration...................................................................................................................................21
rhythm.........................................................................................................................................21
5 rhythmic types..........................................................................................................................21
Chapter 14: Poetic Style...................................................................................................................22
variation.......................................................................................................................................22
formulaic......................................................................................................................................22
Chapter 15: The Grammar of Poetry................................................................................................22
Chapter 16: Old English in its Material Context...............................................................................22
old english script..........................................................................................................................23
spaces..........................................................................................................................................23
errors...........................................................................................................................................24
runes............................................................................................................................................24
Chapter 10 – Addendum..................................................................................................................25
Chapter 14 – Addendum..................................................................................................................26
some compounds of rinc:............................................................................................................26
some words with beadu:.............................................................................................................27
some kennings:............................................................................................................................27
Wordlist I Created............................................................................................................................27
,Baker
Chapter 1: Anglo-Saxons and Their Language
Anglo-Saxon are the English-speaking inhabitants of Britain from +- the middle of the 5 th century
until 1066. They arrived on the island during the rule of Martian, who became co-emperor of the
Roman Empire with Valentinan III in 449, and who ruled for 7 years. Before that, the Celts and Picts
lived in Britain, and between 43-410 the Romans lived there as well.
The Britons faced hostile Picts and Scots, so they hire Germanic mercenaries to fight them: the
Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. They succeeded, sent word home about the fertile lands and
cowardly inhabitants and slowly took over. This is, however, according to Bede’s Historia
Ecclesiastica, but modern research shows this is probably not true. It does give us an insight in how
the Anglo-Saxon viewed themselves: warrior people, proud conquerors of the land they inhabited.
In the late 6th and early 7th century, the island converted to Christianity, in the late 7 th and early 8th
century the culture produced 2 major authors, Aldhelm and Bede, and a lot of small ones. Although
the 7th and 8th century writers usually wrote in Latin, there was also a lot of vernacular literature
written. Those manuscript usually date back to the late 9 th, 10th and 11th centuries, many important
poems were probably composed in the 8 th century.
According to Bede, the Anglo-Saxons came from Germania, a vast and ill-defined territory east of the
Rhine and north of the Danube.
The languages spoken were a branch of the Indo-European language family. The Germanic language
itself was also divided into parts:
1. North Germanic
a. Scandinavia
2. East Germanic
a. Gothic
, 3. West Germanic
a. High German, English, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian
The most important difference between the Germanic branch and other Indo-European branches is
Grimm’s Law, which states that all unvoiced stops became unvoiced spirants 1, all voiced stops
became unvoiced stops2 and all voiced aspirated stops became voiced stops 3.
Another important change is that stress shifted to the first syllable, and there was a radical
simplification of the case system.
West Germanic differs from North and East Germanic through some consonant changes, loss of [r] at
the ends of unstressed syllables resulting in the loss of inflectional endings, change in the
pronunciation of [a] as well as some other vowels. The number of vowels possible in inflectional
endings was dramatically reduced.
The English spoken by the Anglo-Saxon when they came to Britain was more or less uniform, but it
later split up in 4 major dialects:
1. Northumbrian
a. North of the river Humber
2. Mercian
a. Midlands
3. Kentish
a. Kent
4. West Saxon
a. South-west
BBC English comes from the Mercian dialect, but West-Saxon was the dominant language during the
period in which most of the surviving literature was recorded. Nearly all Old English poetry is in
West-Saxon, although some theorise that some of it was translated from Mercian or Northumbrian
into West-Saxon, because of certain spellings and vocabulary.
1
[p], [t], [k] → [f], [θ], [x]], [x]
2
[b], [d], [ɡ] → [p], [t], [k]
3
[bh], [dh], [gh] → [b], [d], [ɡ] / [β], [ð], [ɣ]], [ð], [ɣ]
