3.
Old English
1. Explain why the following are important in historical discussions of the English language:
Claudius- Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the
fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.
Nonetheless, Claudius was an Italic of Sabine origins.
Vortigern- Vortigern, also spelled Wyrtgeorn, (flourished 425–450), king of the Britons at the time of the
arrival of the Saxons under Hengist and Horsa in the 5th century. Though the subject of many legends, he
may probably be safely regarded as an actual historical figure. Vortigern made use of Hengist and Horsa to
protect his kingdom against the Picts and Scots and rewarded them for their services with a grant of land.
The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy- The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy is a collective name applied to the seven
kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (sometimes referred to as petty kingdoms).
By convention, the Heptarchy period lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until
most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This
approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more
controversially, as the Dark Ages.
Beowulf – is the greatest single work of Old English literature is Beowulf. It is a poem of some 3,000 lines
belonging to the type known as the folk epic, that is to say, a poem which, whatever it may owe to the
individual poet who gave it final form, embodies material long current among the people. It is a narrative of
heroic adventure relating how a young warrior, Beowulf.
Alfred the Great- the Anglo-Saxon king who is justly called Alfred the Great (871-899). Alfred's greatness
rests not only on his capacity as a military leader and statesman but on his realization that greatness in a
nation is no merely physical thing. When he came to the throne he found that the learning which in the
eighth century, in the days of Bede and Alcuin, had placed England in the forefront of Europe, had greatly
decayed. In an effort to restore England to something like its former state he undertook to provide for his
people certain books in English, books that he deemed most essential to their welfare. With this object in
view he undertook in mature life to learn Latin and either translated these books himself or caused others
to translate them for him.
Ecclesiastical History of the English People - The traditional account of the Germanic invasions goes back to
Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Bede in his Ecdesiastical History of the English People, completed in
731, tells us that the Germanic tribes that conquered England were the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. From
what he says and from other indications, it seems possible that the Jutes and the Angles had their home in
the Danish peninsula, the Jutes in the northern half
2. Define the following terms:
Synthetic language- A synthetic language is one that indicates the relation of words in a sentence largely by
means of inflections. In the case of the Indo-European languages these most commonly take the form of
endings on the noun and pronoun, the adjective and the verb.
Analytic language - Languages that make extensive use of prepositions and auxiliary verbs and depend
upon word order to show other relationships are known as analytic languages.
Vowel declension/Consonant declension- There is a vowel declension and a consonant declension, also
called the strong and weak declensions, according to whether the stem ended in Germanic in a vowel or a
consonant, and within each of these types there are certain subdivisions. The stems of nouns belonging to
the vowel declension ended in one of four vowels in Germanic (although these have disappeared in Old
English): a, õ, i, or u
Grammatical gender- As in Indo-European languages generally, the gender of Old English nouns is not
dependent upon considerations of sex. Although nouns designating males are often masculine and those
indicating females feminine, those indicating neuter objects are not necessarily neuter. Stān (stone) is
masculine, mõna (moon) is masculine, but sunne (sun) is feminine, as in German. In French the
corresponding words have just the opposite genders: pierre (stone) and lune (moon) are feminine while
soleil (sun) is masculine. Often the gender of Old English nouns is quite illogical. Words like mægden (girl),
wif (wife), bearn (child, son), and cild (child), which we should expect to be feminine or masculine, are in
fact neuter, while wifmann (woman) is masculine because the second element of the compound is
masculine.
Dual number - a set of forms for two people or two things- the dual number. Indo-European had separate
forms for the dual number in the verb as well, and these appear in Greek and to a certain extent in Gothic.
They are not found, however, in Old English, and the distinction between the dual and the plural was
disappearing even from the pronoun in Old English.
Paleolithic Age - The Paleolithic Period is an ancient cultural stage of human technological development,
characterized by the creation and use of rudimentary chipped stone tools. These included simple pebble
tools (rock shaped by the pounding of another stone to produce tools with a serrated crest that served as a
chopping blade), hand adzes (tools shaped from a block of stone to create a rounded butt and a single-
bevel straight or curved cutting edge), stone scrapers, cleavers, and points. Such tools were also made
of bone and wood. The Paleolithic Period was also characterized by the manufacture of
small sculptures (e.g., carved stone statuettes of women, clay figurines of animals, and other bone
and ivory carvings) and paintings, incised designs, and reliefs on cave walls.
Neolithic Age - the Neolithic Period, also called the New Stone Age, is the final stage of cultural evolution or
technological development among prehistoric humans. The stage is characterized by stone tools shaped by
polishing or grinding, dependence on domesticated plants or animals, settlement in permanent villages,
and the appearance of such crafts as pottery and weaving. In this stage, humans were no longer dependent
on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. The cultivation of cereal grains enabled Neolithic peoples to
build permanent dwellings and congregate in villages, and the release from nomadism and a hunting-and-
gathering economy gave them the time to pursue specialized crafts.
3. Who were the first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge?
The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celts. Celtic was
probably the first Indo-European tongue to be spoken in England.
4. When did the Romans conquer England, and when did they withdraw?
It was in A. D. 43 that the Emperor Claudius decided to undertake the actual conquest of the island. Under
the Roman Governor Agricola (A. D. 78-85) the northern frontier was advanced to the Solway and the Tyne,
and the conquest may be said to have been completed. The Romans never penetrated far into the
mountains of Wales and Scotland. Eventually they protected the northern boundary by a stone wall
stretching across England at approximately the limits of Agricola's permanent conquest. The district south
of this line was under Roman rule for more than 300 years.
5. At approximately what date did the invasion of England by the Germanic tribes begin?
About the year 449 an event occurred that profoundly affected the course of history. In that year, as
traditionally stated, began the invasion of Britain by certain Germanic tribes, the founders of the English
nation. For more than a hundred years bands of conquerors and settlers migrated from their continental
homes in the region of Denmark and the Low Countries and established themselves in the south and east of
the island, gradually extending the area they occupied until it included all but the highlands in the west and
north. The events of these years are wrapped in much obscurity. Although we can form a general idea of
their course, we are still in doubt about some of the tribes that took part in the movement, their exact
location on the continent, and the dates of their respective migrations
6. Where were the homes of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes?
Bede in his Ecdesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, tells us that the Germanic tribes
that conquered England were the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. From what he says and from other indications,
it seems possible that the Jutes and the Angles had their home in the Danish peninsula, the Jutes in the
northern half and the Angles in the south, in Schleswig-Holstein, and perhaps a small area at the base. The
Saxons were settled to the south and west of the Angles, roughly between the Elbe and the Ems, possibly
as far as the Rhine.
7. Where does the name English come from?
The word is derived from the name of the Angles (OE Engle) but is used without distinction for the
language of all the invading tribes. In like manner the land and its people are early called Angelcynn
(Angle-kin or race of the Angles), and this is the common name until after the Danish period. From about
the year 1000 Englaland (land of the Angles) begins to take its place. The name English is thus older than
the name England. It is not easy to say why England should have taken its name from the Angles. Possibly a
desire to avoid confusion with the Saxons who remained on the continent and the early supremacy of the
Anglian kingdoms were the predominant factors in determining usage.
8. What characteristics does English share with other Germanic languages?
English belongs to the Low West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. This means in the first place
that it shares certain characteristics common to all the Germanic languages. For example, it shows the
shifting of certain consonants under the head of Grimm's Law. It possesses a "weak" as well as a "strong"
declension of the adjective and a distinctive type of conjugation of the verb- the so-called weak or regular
verbs such as fill, filled, filled, which form their past tense and past participle by adding -ed or some
analogous sound to the stem of the present. And it shows the adoption of a strong stress accent on the
first or the root syllable of most words, a feature of great importance in all the Germanic languages
because it is chiefly responsible for the progressive decay of inflections in these languages. In the second
place it means that English belongs with German and certain other languages because of features it has
in common with them and that enable us to distinguish a West Germanic group as contrasted with the
Scandinavian languages (North Germanic) and Gothic (East Germanic). These features have to do mostly
with certain phonetic changes, especially the gemination or doubling of consonants under special
conditions, matters that we do not need to enter upon here. And it means, finally, that English, along with
the other languages of northern Germany and the Low Countries, did not participate in the further
modification of certain consonants, known as the Second or High German Sound-Shift. In other words it
belongs with the dialects of the lowlands in the West Germanic area
9. To which branch of Germanic does English belong?
English belongs to the Low West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. This means in the first
place that it shares certain characteristics common to all the Germanic languages.
10. What are the dates of Old English, Middle English, and Modern English?
The period from 450 to 1150 is known as Old English. It is sometimes described as the period of full
inflections, because during most of this period the endings of the noun, the adjective, and the verb are
preserved more or less unimpaired. From 1150 to 1500 the language is known as Middle English. During
this period the inflections, which had begun to break down toward the end of the Old English period,
become greatly reduced, and it is consequently known as the period of leveled inflections. The language
since 1500 is called Modern English. By the time we reach this stage in the development a large part of the
original inflectional system has disappeared entirely, and we therefore speak of it as the period of lost
inflections. The progressive decay of inflections is only one of the developments that mark the evolution of
English in its various stages.
11. What are the four dialects of Old English?
We can distinguish four dialects in Old English times: Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon, and Kentish. Of
these Northumbrian and Mercian are found in the region north of the Thames settled by the Angles. They
possess certain features in common and are sometimes known collectively as Anglian. But Northum-brian,
spoken north of the Humber, and Mercian, between the Humber and the Thames, each possess certain
distinctive features as well. Unfortunately we know less about them than we should like since they are
preserved mainly in charters, runic inscriptions, a few brief fragments of verse, and some interlinear
translations of portions of the Bible. Kentish is known from still scantier remains and is the dialect of the
Jutes in the southeast. The only dialect in which there is an extensive collection of texts is West Saxon,
which was the dialect of the West Saxon kingdom in the southwest. Nearly all of Old English literature is
preserved in manuscripts transcribed in this region.
12. About what percentage of the Old English vocabulary is no longer in use?
13. Explain the difference between strong and weak declensions of adjectives.
An important feature of the Germanic languages is the development of a twofold declension of the
adjective: one, the strong declension, used with nouns when not accompanied by a definite article or
similar word (such as a demonstrative or possessive pronoun), the other, the weak declension, used when
the noun is preceded by such a word. Thus we have in Old English göd mann (good man) but se göda mann
(the good man).
