Key – From Beowulf to Hamlet
From Beowulf to Hamlet
READING
Reading for detail
1
Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones.
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
When we read an Old English text like Beowulf
today, we cannot understand a single word.
Celtic languages have died out in Britain.
Scottish Gaelic and English are mutually as
intelligible as bokmål and nynorsk.
Anglo-Saxon is just another name for Old English.
The language was called Anglo-Saxon because two
of the tribes that invaded England were the Angles
and the Saxons.
At some stage in the history of the English language
all people in Britain spoke English in exactly the
same way.
The Vikings who settled in Britain had a lot of
influence on the English language.
The French from Normandy had even more
influence on English than the Vikings.
French became sort of the fancy and posh language
in the 13th century, while English was the language
people used at home.
After 1066, the French and the English always
remained two very distinct population groups.
French gave English near-synonyms for words that
already existed, like pork in addition to pig, and beef
in addition to cow.
Middle English is very similar to Old English and
very difficult to read for us today.
The Canterbury Tales is a novel about kings and
queens in the Middle Ages, like King Arthur and
Queen Guinevere.
After printing was invented, the spelling of English
became much more standardized.
Before Shakespeare's time a word like knight was
pronounced with a clear –k, like the Norwegian
knekt and the German Knecht.
Shakespeare pronounced all English words just like
1
False, we can understand a few words here and
there.
False, they have survived in Welsh, Irish Gaelic
and Scottish Gaelic.
False, they are not mutually intelligible.
True.
True.
False, there have always been regional differences.
True.
True.
True.
False, the differences faded, they intermarried and
gradually became one people.
True.
False, Middle English is much easier to read and
understand than Old English.
False, it is a long poem about pilgrims on their way
to Canterbury.
True.
True.
False. For example, he still pronounced the r in
q
r
we do today.
Shakespeare used Thou when addressing someone
in a very formal manner.
After Shakespeare's time, the English language
changed very little: vocabulary, grammar and
pronunciation stayed more or less the same.
suffer and poor, unlike RP today.
False, thou was the informal word. You was used
for formal situations.
False, all languages change continually, new words
are being coined, existing words acquire new
meanings, pronunciation changes, even grammar
changes.
SPEAKING
Making a summary
2
In pairs, use the following keywords to summarize the main stages in the development of the English
language:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Angles, Saxons and Jutes
Old English
Vikings
Normans from France
Middle English
vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, spelling
printing press
modern English
Suggestion:
Over 2000 years ago the people in Britain spoke Celtic languages. These have survived in the modern
Celtic languages spoken today in Wales, Scotland and Ireland: Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.
Celtic languages are very different from Germanic languages like English, Norwegian and German.
Some 1500 years ago Britain was invaded by tribes called the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. Their
Germanic languages merged with the Celtic languages and this resulted in Anglo-Saxon or Old
English, the language of the famous poem called Beowulf. Old English is very different from modern
English.
Next Britain was invaded by the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries. Many Vikings settled in Britain
and their language, Old Norse, gave the Old English language many new place names and words.
2
In 1066 Britain was invaded again, this time by William the Conqueror and his Normans from France.
He became the new king of Britain and therefore his language, an old version of French, became the
language spoken by the powerful people in the country. English was the language of the peasants.
Over the centuries French changed the English language completely, resulting in what is called
Middle English, the language of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400). During this period all aspects
of the English language changed: not only its vocabulary and pronunciation, but also grammar and
spelling.
The pronunciation of the English language kept on changing, but spelling became fairly fixed after the
invention of the printing press in the late 1400s. When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, the r’s were still
pronounced in words like suffer and poor. These r’s disappeared later on in British English, but were
kept in many British dialects and in American English. So this means that American pronunciation is
really just an older variety of British pronunciation.
Shakespeare’s language is called Early Modern English; there are still clear differences between this
and our present Modern English, the language that has spread all across the globe since the time and
age of the British Empire.
FIND OUT MORE
3
Divide the following questions among you and use the Internet and/or other sources to find answers.
Afterwards share your answers with the rest of the class.
A very useful book when working with these challenging questions is The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
the English Language by David Crystal. The second edition is from 2003, published by Cambridge
University Press.
a. Why is England called England? What is the origin of this name?
Old English Engla land, literally "the land of the Angles".
Also the word English come from the Old English Englisc, from Engle (pl.) "the Angles,"
b. What is the poem Beowulf about? Is it a long or a short poem?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/beowulf/introbeowulf.htm
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http://www.1066andallthat.com/beowulf.asp
c. Is there a connection between Beowulf and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf,_the_Monsters_and_the_Critics
http://beowulfandthecritics.com/
d. Find the text of the Lord's Prayer in Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Try to
describe some of the changes that have taken place in the words of this text over the centuries.
There are many websites that cite different versions of the Lord’s Prayer. Here are some:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_language#The_Lord.27s_Prayer
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/history/paternoster.html
http://www.1066andallthat.com/english_old/lords_prayer.asp
For an explanation of the use of thou vs. you, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou
See also page 71 in David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995),
second edition, Cambridge University Press.
e. Find more pairs like maternity/motherhood, cordial/hearty: French near-synonyms for original
English words.
There is a list with some examples here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinate_equivalents
If you would like to check the etymology of words, go here:
http://www.etymonline.com/
Interesting reading here: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/?view=uk
Other examples:
Germanic
holy
to ask
French/Latin
sacred
to request, enquire
Germanic
to hide
wedding
4
French/Latin
to conceal
marriage
to buy
house
kingly
to wish
to begin
child
help
freedom
f.
to purchase
mansion
royal
to desire
to commence
infant
aid
liberty
sheep
calf
deer
rest
anger
to come
deadly
to end
mutton
veal
venison
remainder
rage
to arrive
mortal, fatal, lethal
to finish, complete
There is one language also much used in Britain that we have not mentioned so far: Latin. What
was the role of Latin through the ages?
David Crystal writes:
“During the 14th and 15th centuries several thousand words came into the language directly from
Latin (though it is often difficult to exclude an arrival route via French). Most of these words were
professional or technical terms, belonging to such fields as religion, medicine, law, and literature.
They also included many words which were borrowed by a writer in a deliberate attempt to
produce a “high” style. (...)
The simultaneous borrowing of French and Latin words led to highly distinctive feature of Modern
English vocabulary—sets of three items all expressing the same fundamental notion but differing
slightly in meaning or style, such as kingly/royal/regal and rise/mount/ascend. The Old English
word is usually the more popular one, with the French word more literary, and the Latin word
more learned.”
[Page 48, David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995), second edition,
Cambridge University Press.]
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_influence_in_English
And here: http://www.1066andallthat.com/english_middle/french_vs_english_07.asp
g. When and where did the pronunciation of the letter –r in words like farm and far disappear?
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_the_English_language#After_American.E2
.80.93British_split.2C_up_to_the_20th_century
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents
5
In this article the following is stated: Loss of coda /r/ apparently became widespread in southern
England during the 18th century;
In his chapter on early Modern English David Crystal writes:
“Throughout this period, /r/ was sounded before consonants and at the end of a word, as is
suggested by the way it has been preserved in modern spelling (jar, corn, fire etc.). It stopped
being pronounced in RP during the 18th century, with various effects on the preceding vowel:
sometimes the vowel became a diphthong (as in peer and bear); sometimes it lengthened (as in
barn, corn and clerk). The RP change proved to be something of an exception: most British and
American regional accents retained the /r/, and the discrepancy between sound and spelling later
became a focus of purist criticism.”
[Page 69, David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995), second edition,
Cambridge University Press.]
Possible additional questions:
Find the opening lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in both the original and in Modern English. Read
and compare.
Starting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales and using the external links at the
bottom, students will have no trouble finding the General Prologue in different versions.
Find out who William Caxton was and what role he played in the development of the English
language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caxton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/caxton_william.shtml
http://englishteacher365.blogspot.com/2007/03/william-caxton-master-or-mangler-of.html
Additional question:
Expressing opinions
4
Discuss in pairs or small groups.
6
a
If necessary read more about what happened in 1066 and discuss whether it is fair to say that
the Vikings are to blame for the fact that there is such a mismatch between English spelling and
pronunciation.
The main reason for the mismatch between English spelling and pronunciation is the influence of
French. And if it hadn’t been for Harald Hardrade who arrived at Stamford Bridge before William the
Conqueror sailed for Hastings, Harold II might have been able to defeat the Normans and prevent
French from becoming the language of the nobility in Britain. If Harold II would have become the
next king, the language would definitely have developed in a different direction. Looking at it this
way, we could say that if the Vikings would not have attacked Britain, the English language would
have been very different.
The point of this discussion is not to put the blame on the Vikings, but to get the students to
understand and reflect on why and how a language changes.
Copyright: Julia Kagge / Aschehoug forlag
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