Old English
(c.500 - c.1100)
(Cecilia)
Invasions of Germanic Tribes
After the Roman withdrawal, Britain was no longer protected by the Roman military and Germanic tribes began to make the short journey across the North Sea, The Angles and gradually began to settle in increasing numbers on the east coast of Britain. The local dialect in Angeln is, even today recognizably similar to English. Modern Frisian, stills bears an eerie resemblance to English, as can be seen by some of the Frisian words which were incorporated into English, like miel (meal), laam(lamb), tsiis (cheese),
boat (boat), stoarm(storm), rein (rain), snie (snow), sliepe (sleep),blau (blue), etc. The influx of Germanic people gradually colonized most of the island. The new Anglo-Saxon nation, once known in antiquity as Albion and then Britannia under the Romans, nevertheless became known as Anglaland or Englaland (the Land of the Angles), later shortened to England, and its emerging language as Englisc (English). |
Settlement routes of Germanic Tribes Angles, Saxons and Jutes
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Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (Heptarchy) c. 650
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The Coming of Christianity and LiteracyAlthough many of the Romano-Celts in the north of England had already been Christianized, St. Augustine and his 40 missionaries from Rome brought Christianity to the pagan Anglo-Saxons of the rest of England in 597 AD. After the conversion of the influential King Ethelbert of Kent, it spread rapidly through the land, carrying literacy and European culture in it wake. The Latin language the missionaries brought was still only used by the educated ruling classes and Church functionaries, and Latin was only a minor influence on the English language at this time, being largely restricted to the naming of Church dignitaries and ceremonies (priest, vicar, altar, mass, church...)
However, other more domestic words (such as fork, spade, chest, spider, school, tower, etc) also came into English from Latin during this time, albeit substantially altered and adapted for the Anglo-Saxon ear and tongue. More ecclesiastical Latin loanwords continued to be introduced, even as late as the 11th Century, including chorus, cleric,creed, cross, demon etc. |
The Anglo-Saxon or Old English LanguageMany of the most basic and common words in use in English today have their roots in Old English, including words like water, earth, house, food, drink, sleep, sing, night, strong, etc. Many of our common swear words are also of Anglo-Saxon origin (including tits, fart, shit,
arse ...). During the 6th Century, for reasons which are still unclear, the Anglo-Saxon consonant cluster "sk" changed to "sh", so that skield became shield. This change affected all "sk" words in the language at that time, whether recent borrowings from Latin (e.g. disk became dish) or ancient aboriginal borrowings (e.g. skip became ship). Any modern English words which make use of the "sk" cluster came into the language after the 6th Century (after the sound change had ceased to operate). Then, around the 7th Century, a vowel shift took place in Old English pronunciation. Vowels began to be pronounced more to the front of the mouth. This change were sometimes reflected in revised spellings, resulting in inconsistent modern words pairings such as foot/feet, goose/geese, man/men, mouse/mice, as well as blood/bleed, foul/filth, old/elder, whole/hale/heal/health, etc. Old Norse also provided direct alternatives or synonyms for Anglo-Saxon words (e.g. Anglo-Saxon craft and Norse skill, wish and want, dike and ditch...) English also adopted some Norse grammatical forms, such as the pronouns they, them and their and under the influence of the Danes, Anglo-Saxon word endings and inflections started to fall away and prepositions like to, with, by became more important to make meanings clear. |
First page of “Beowulf”, one of the oldest surviving text of Old English Literature
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First page of the “Peterborough Chronicle” , one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest.)
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Old English After the VikingsWhen Alfred the Great came to the throne in 871 he believed in educating the people in the vernacular English language, not Latin, and he himself made several translations of important works into English, include Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”. He also began the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”, which recounted the history of England from the time of Caesar's invasion, and which continued until 1154.
The following paragraph from Aelfrich’s 10th Century “Homily on St. Gregory the Great” gives an idea of what Old English of the time looked like (even if not how it sounded): Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. þa cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon." A few words are almost identical to its modern equivalent : nama became the modern name,comon became come, wære became were, wæs became was And some have been slightly altered to create new words: axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice (rightly), engla (angels), |