Old English (449-1100)
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Dr. Rachael-Anne Knight Language Change rachaelanne@cantab.net Inset Session University of Reading www.rachaelanne.co.uk July 2004 Old English (449-1100) History The Celts are the first people in Britain of whom we have any detailed knowledge. It seems there were two branches of Celtic; Gaelic (now represented by Irish Scottish Gaelic and Manx) and Brythonic (now represented by Welsh, Cornish and Breton). After the invasion of the Romans there was more Latin used in Britain but mainly by the upper classes. In 449 began the history of English. Angles, Saxons and Jute invade and settle in England. These invaders spoke related Germanic dialects. Because of the pattern of settlement in England OE was not a uniform language but in fact consisted of four dialects; Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon (the only one for which we have any extensive records) and Kentish. The word stock In modern English we are very used to the idea that words may have been borrowed from other languages such as French or Latin. In the OE period this was much less the case and the majority of the words in use were Germanic. Many of these words have now been lost from the language or changed in meaning. Spelling j, q and v were not used for writing Old English and y was always a vowel was called ‘ash’ and is the sound in the word ‘cat’ // (eth) and þ (thorn) were both pronounced as // (as in ‘thin’) or // (as in ‘then’) and used interchangeably Nouns Inflections One of the main differences between OE and Mn.E is the number of inflections used in the noun, definite articles, pronoun and verb. OE was a synthetic language. This means that the relationship between words in a sentence was shown by endings attached to the words rather than by word order. In MnE we inflect nouns for possession and number by adding an /s/ sound. This is shown in writing as e.g. ‘cat’ vs. ‘cats’ vs. ‘cat’s’ or ‘cats’’. In OE things were rather more complicated as 4 cases were distinguished. As well as the genitive (possessive) the nominative (subject), accusative (direct object) and dative (indirect object) were used. These functions within the sentence are know as cases. Every noun changed its form depending on its case and number. Gender To complicate things still further OE also employed a system of grammatical gender (like many present day languages) so every noun was also assigned to masculine, feminine or neutral gender. This was often quite illogical so ‘wif’ (wife) was neuter, ‘wifman’ (woman) was masculine and ‘sunne’ (sun) was feminine. 3 Dr. Rachael-Anne Knight Language Change rachaelanne@cantab.net Inset Session University of Reading www.rachaelanne.co.uk July 2004 Declensions Not all nouns took the same forms for each case. There were a large number of patterns called declensions. Some of the most common are shown below Singular Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Plural Nom. / Acc Genitive Dative Masculine a-stem Neuter astem z-stem (dog) Hund Hund Hundes Hunde (animal) Deor Deor Deores Deore (child) Cild Cild Cildes Cilde Hundas Hunda Hundum Deor Deora Deorum Cildru Cildra Cildrum n-stem (ox) Oxa Oxan Oxan Oxan Root consonant stem (foot) Fot Fot Fotes Feet o-stem (love) Lufa Lufe Lufe Lufe Oxan Oxena Oxum Fet Fota Fotum Lufa Lufa Lufum The definite article (the) There were two demonstratives in OE. The most frequent can be translated ‘the, that or those’. The article had to agree with the noun it modified in terms of number, gender and case. Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Masculine se þone þs þm Neuter þt þt þs þm Feminine seo þa þre þre Plural þa þa þara þm Personal Pronouns The personal pronoun system was almost as complex as today with not only inflection for case and person but also a separate number system for taking about exactly 2 people. Singular Dual Plural st 1 person Nominative Ic ‘me’ Wit ‘we both’ We ‘we all’ Accus. /Dat. Me ‘me’ Unc ‘us both’ Us ‘us all’ Genitive Min my, mine Uncer ‘our both’ Ure ‘our all’ 2nd person Nominative þu ‘you’ Git ‘you both’ Ge ‘you all’ Accus. /Dat. þe ‘you’ Inc ‘you both’ Eow ‘you all’ Genitive þin ‘yours’ Uncer ‘your both’ Eower ‘your all’ Masculine Feminine Neuter Pluaral 3rd Person Nominative Accusative Dative He ‘he’ Hine ‘him’ Him ‘him’ Heo ‘she’ Hi ‘her’ Hire ‘her’ Hit ‘it’ Hit ‘it’ Him ‘it’ Genitive His ‘his’ Hire ‘hers’ His ‘its’ 4 Hi ‘they’ Hi ‘them’ Him, heom, ‘them’ Hira, heora ‘theirs’ Dr. Rachael-Anne Knight Language Change rachaelanne@cantab.net Inset Session University of Reading www.rachaelanne.co.uk July 2004 Verbs Old English verbs were either weak or strong, corresponding roughly to regular and irregular verbs in Mn English. Strong verbs These verbs form their past tense and past participle by changing their stressed vowel. The participle may have an <en> ending. Ridan – rad – ridden (ride) Drincan – dranc – drunken (drink) Sprecan – sprac – sprecen (speak) Weak verbs These verbs from there past tense and past participle by adding a /t/ or /d/ Cyssan – cyste – cyssed (kiss) Fyllan – fylde – fylled (fill) Cnyttan – cnytte – cnytted (knit) Syntax The OE negative adverb came before the verb it modified (Ic ne dyde = I did not). Although word order was usually subject-verb-object, like Mn. English, the word order was less fixed. Because of the rich inflectional system it was, of course, still possible to identify the subject etc. Subordinating one clause to another was generally done by parataxis – the joining of clauses with no sign of their relationship except perhaps a conjunction. 5 Dr. Rachael-Anne Knight Language Change rachaelanne@cantab.net Inset Session University of Reading www.rachaelanne.co.uk July 2004 An illustration 1. On angynne gesceop God heofoan and eoran. In beginning created God heaven and earth 2. Seo eore solice ws idel and mtig and þeostra waeron over re nywelnysse bradnysse The earth truly was void and empty and darknesses were over the abyss’s surface And Godes gast ws geferod ofer wteru And God’s spirit was brought over water 3. God cw a: Gewure leoht and leoht wear geworht God said then: Be light and light was made 4. God geseah a t hit god ws and he todlde t leoht fram am eostrum God saw then that it good was and he divided the light from the darkness 5. And het t leoht dg and þa eostru niht: a ws geworden fen and morgen and dg And called the light day and the darkness night: then was evening and morning one day Activity What ‘unusual’ letters are present in the orthography? What forms of the word ‘the’ are found in the extract? Which words seem to have been lost from the language today? Have any words changed in meaning? How are the following words inflected? God Earth Darkness 6
