Summary - Philology 2: Introduction to Old English Language and Literature (5621VFIOE)

Philology 2 — Grammar Overview & History of England


Grammar......................................................................................................2
PRONUNCIATION.......................................................................................2
CASES.......................................................................................................3
PRONOUNS................................................................................................3
NOUNS......................................................................................................4
ADJECTIVES...............................................................................................5
ADVERBS...................................................................................................5
VERB STEMS..............................................................................................5
MOODS......................................................................................................5
CONCORD.................................................................................................5
CONJUNCTIONS.........................................................................................6
SOUND CHANGES......................................................................................6
WORD ORDER...........................................................................................7
WEAK VERB CLASSES................................................................................7
ANOMALOUS VERBS..................................................................................8
PRETERITE-PRESENT VERBS......................................................................8
CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH POETRY...........................................8
GRAMMAR OF OLD ENGLISH POETRY........................................................9
Culture & History..........................................................................................9
Inhabitants of Britain (week 1)..................................................................9
Conquest, conversion and conflict (week 2)...........................................10
Vikings (week 3)......................................................................................11
Alfred the Great (week 4)........................................................................12
1066 and all that (week 5)......................................................................14
Church and Society (week 6)..................................................................16
Magic and Medicine (week 7)..................................................................18
Old English poetry (week 10)..................................................................20
Beowulf (week 11)..................................................................................20
Manuscripts (week 12)............................................................................22
Translation in Early Medieval England (week 13)....................................24
Runes, Riddles and Art (week 14)...........................................................24

,Grammar
PRONUNCIATION
Old English had 7 simple vowels (a, æ, e, i, o, u, y) and two diphthongs (ea, eo). Each of these
sounds came in short and long versions. Long vowels are marked with so-called macrons (ē,
ā) in modern editions. They were not marked like this in Old English manuscripts, though.
When speaking of vowel length, we speak of duration: how long it takes to pronounce a
vowel. Long-short vowel pairs are always qualitatively different. The difference in duration of
Old English vowel makes for a difference in meaning.
Vowels
- a as in ‘father’
- æ as in ‘cat’
- e as in ‘fate’
- i as in ‘feet’
- o as in ‘boat’
- u as in ‘tool’
- y as in ‘über”
- (ie as in ‘sit’)
Diphthongs
- eo starts with [e] and glides to a rounded sound like [o]
- ea starts with [æ] and glides to [ɑ] as in ‘father’
Consonants
Most consonants of Old English are the same as Modern English, with a handful of
exceptions:
- ϸ and ð were used interchangeably to represent [θ]
- There are no silent consonants.
- The consonants spelled f, s, and ϸ/ð are pronounced as voiced [v], [z], and [ð] when
they fall between vowels or other voiced sounds.
- These same consonants ^ were pronounced as unvoiced when they came at the
beginning or end of a word, or adjacent to at least one unvoiced sound.
- When written double, consonants must be pronounced double, or held longer.
- Undotted c is pronounced [k], dotted ċ is pronounced [ʧ]
- Undotted g is pronounced [g], dotted ġ is pronounced [j]
- The combination cg is pronounced [ʤ]
- Old English h is pronounced [h] at the beginning of syllables. Anywhere else it is
pronounced like German ch in ‘Nacht’.
- The combination sc is usually pronounced [ʃ]. If it occurs before a back vowel (a, o, u)
or after a back vowel at the end of a word, it is pronounced [sk].

, CASES
Nominative;
 Subject.
 Subject compliment. (“the sun is very broad”)
 Direct address (“see, king, what kind of teaching this is”)

Accusative;
 Direct objects of (transitive) verbs. (“his own sister buried his corpse”)
 Objects of prepositions

Genitive;
 Possessive
 Partitive (“each of the men”). Expect to find the partitive genitive used with any word
that expresses number, quantity of partition. (“many men” or “twelve miles long”)
 Descriptive (“of a white color”)
 Objects of prepositions
 Direct objects of verbs
 Adverbial expressions of time

Dative;
 Object of preposition (æfter, æt, be, fram, mid, of)
 Interest
 Indirect object (“give him his sword”)
 Something taken away (“he took his bishopric away from him”)
 Direct object
 Possession (“theirs was a sad mind”)
 Comparison (“and you will then be like the angels”)
 Instrument, means, manner. In modern English it would be like ‘with’ or ‘by’.
(“therefore I will not kill him with a sword” or “you must die by a wretched death”)

Instrumental;
 Instrument, means, manner. (“he therefore concluded his life with a beautiful end”)
 Accompaniment.
 Expression of time. Often formulaic. (“each day”, “in the same year”)


PRONOUNS
Personal pronouns
First-person pronouns are quite similar to
those of Modern English. The second-
person pronouns are not.
Old English does not use the second-person
singular as a ‘familiar’ form, like in Middle
English or French.