Old English (OE) PDF

OLD ENGLISH (OE) the earliest form of English also known as Anglo-Saxon from 5th c. (the Germanic settlements in England) to the end of 11th c. (the Norman invasion of England in 1066) had three dialects: West Saxon (SE and SW England), Kentish (SE England) and Anglian (Northumbrian in...

OLD ENGLISH (OE) the earliest form of English also known as Anglo-Saxon from 5th c. (the Germanic settlements in England) to the end of 11th c. (the Norman invasion of England in 1066) had three dialects: West Saxon (SE and SW England), Kentish (SE England) and Anglian (Northumbrian in northern England and SE Scotland), as well as Mercian in central England) West Saxon the most prominent for political and cultural reasons, i.e., the language of Alfred the Great (849-899) the most important OE texts have survived in this dialect (seven surviving manuscripts) the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (c. 890): its compilation started during his reign Two developmental paths Early Old English the death of Alfred the Great on 26th Oct 899 Late Old English Some OE (Englisc) words Today’s words mann wif man cild woman mete child etan food drincan eat feohtan drink fight Spelling and pronunciation the Anglo-Saxons had used the runic alphabet (also called futhorc) for different inscriptions then Christianity brought Latin How to transcribe OE? Simply by improvising graphemes to represent some sounds i.e. OE alphabet was adopted from Latin scribal monks spelt words phonetically leading to significant dialectal differences although Alfred the Great tried to standardise spelling in the 9th c. the King’s promotion of English as a written language is one of his greatest innovations, but changes in pronunciation continued entering the language until the 11th c. and had an unfavourable impact on spelling again (e.g. no silent letters at that time like in talk or listen; each letter was pronounced) Grammar OE was a case language and used inflections had 4 cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative) and 3 genders (masculine: stone, moon; feminine: book, sun; neuter: word, hole) both singular and plural nouns (e.g. cyning, cyningas / king, kings) adjectives agreed with the nouns in terms of case, gender and number (My red shoes are so beautiful. Give me my red shoes.) e.g. Se ealda cynning clippe a godan cwene. = The old king kisses the good queen, not vice versa. the OE case system not dependent on WO as it is today (Tom kissed Mary. / Mary kissed Tom.) e.g. A godan cwene clippe se ealda cynning clippe a godan cwene. = The old king kisses the good queen (not vice versa, the same meaning) some of the remnants of the OE case system: Ic (I), is (this), eow (you), but we, me and us survived intact!!! weak (regular) and strong (irregular) verb forms -ede, -od, -d (clippede, I kissed) as today’s -ed, -d in strong verbs, the root vowel change (e.g., write, wrat) as in today’s drink, drank, drunk OE verbs had to agree in form with person, number, tense, mood, etc.  To conclude OE was a synthetic language with much inflected words but word order was free except for prose (today it is much restricted) however, from the 9th to the11th c. attempts at simplifying inflection in OE, largely under the Danish influence The Scandinavian influence the Vikings invaded the east coast and settled there from around 860 the Old Norse, their language (Thor → Thursday) the Viking Age, 800 – 1150 seen in place and proper names (e.g. by = place in Whitby; thorps = villages in Scunthorpe; Gibson) also, today’s words like: egg, steak, bread, down, fog, lump, wind ow, knife, skull also many related to law and war (e.g. by-law), agriculture, trading, commercial and everyday life estimation: around 900 loan Scandinavian words in English in addition, -s in she runs, not runneth) or today’s pronunciation (e.g. /sk/ in sky, skin, skirt) Conclusion new language contacts during the OE period - with Latin, Old Norse and French linguistic innovations supported by political and cultural events the Christianization in 597 (the arrival of St Augustine sent by Pope Gregory the Great), the Viking raids, and the emerging Norman impact on the English court (visit english- heritage.org.uk) King Alfred and his programme of education and the increasing book production Beowulf the highest achievement of OE literature (preserved in a single manuscript) a heroic poem, supposedly written in the 8th c. (first appeared in 1815)  originally untitled but later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf no evidence of a historical Beowulf although some characters, places and events in the poem can be historically verified translated in numerous languages In Croatian by Mate Maras in 2001 modern English rendering by Tolkien (completed in 1926, published in 2014) one of the best sellers (also Borges in Spanish) Maria D. Headley published a feminist translation of Beowulf in 2020 in the modern language with many slang and profanities (e.g. Grendel’s mother) also Robert Zemeckis’s film from 2007 (A. Hopkins and A. Jolie) MIDDLE ENGLISH the form of English spoken after the Norman Conquest (1066) until late 15th century had three large groups of dialects: Southern (south of the Thames), Midland (from the Thames to the south of South Yorkshire and the north of Lancashire) and Northern (in the Scottish Lowlands, Northumberland, Cumbria, Durham, northern Lancashire and most of Yorkshire) 1066 The Battle of Hastings on 14th Oct 1066 William, the Duke of Normandy (1028 – 1087), defeated Harold II, and took control over England a change in political, social and economic circumstances also significantly shaped the English language development William the Conqueror Three developmental paths Early Middle English (1100 -1250) Central Middle English (1250 - 1400) Late Middle English (1400 - 1500) Spelling and pronunciation Norman scribes wrote OE: y as u (e.g., mycel (much), muchel); hw as wh (e.g., hwaet, what);  ht as ght (e.g., miht, might); the first stressed syllables were lenghtened to wēke, dōre, nāme (in OE wicu, duru, nama), week, door, name however, OE vowels were shortened in the firs syllables of three-syllable words, even when these syllables were open, e.g. ho ^liday, chri ^standom (in OE hāligdaeg (holy day), crīstendōm), holiday, Christianity Grammar ME was an analytic language the significant disappearance of inflections word order, contrastive intonation, and more frequently used prepositions replaced inflections OE pl endings -as, -an, -e, -ena, -um, etc. → reduced to -s OE -en (e.g. men, women, children, oxen), the mutated plural (e.g. teeth, feet), and the zero-inflection (e.g. salmon, sheep, deer) became frozen, not applied to new words To conclude ME became less synthetic, but more analytic !!! Vocabulary much greater heterogeneous vocabulary due to large-scale borrowings of new words from French, Latin, and Scandinavian medieval Britain as a true multilingual context channel, loyal, royal, regard, guardian, guarantee, etc. Conclusion a two-century linguistic division of the country the society was much stratified the inferior language (English as the peasant language of lower classes) versus the prestigious language (Norman French) many words we use today are related to government, parliament, administration, law, church organisation, military structure, architecture, and medicine borrowed from French the socially powerful French speakers belonged to a minority also the middle class started gaining their economic power in growing towns the dominant role of French completely disappeared by the end of the 14th c. the parliament, the law courts and the king used English the Black Death (from 1348), peasants became labour force in much need, the economic power English was re-established as the main national language!  The Canterbury Tales the highest achievement of ME literature one of the greatest poetic works in English Geoffrey Chaucer (1342/1343 – 1400) a collection of 24 stories, told by a group of contesting pilgrims while on horsebacks towards the Canterbury Cathedral a variety of genres the author’s broad insights into many medieval books along with his deep understanding of everyday multi-dimensional life; Chaucer’s masterpiece still commonly used to highlight literary production during the ME period. Translations Luko Paljetak (1986, 2004) EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1500 – 1700) also EModE the post-medieval form of English also known as Shakespeare’s English from 1476 when the printing press was introduced to England by William Caxton until 1776 with the American Declaration of Independence commonly from 1500 to 1700 spanning the Renaissance and the Restoration (Oliver Cromwell) in Britain Too much history !! the EME period coincides closely with the Tudor (1485-1603) and Stuart (1603-1714) dynasties the battle of Bosworth in 1485 marked the end of the civil war known as the Wars of the Roses the Glorious Revolution in 1688 the political unity within the British Isles though the Act of Union between England and Scotland (1707) the Reformation initiated under Henry VIII in the 1530s which had a severe effect on religious and political links with Catholic Europe the new science development during the 17th. c. (Francis Bacon and his writings, and the foundation of the Royal Society (chartered in 1662)  London London with 400,000 inhabitants, one of the largest cities in the world (after Paris and Constantinople) London attracted young people and short-term visitors from the country the center of power, but also poor essential life conditions and diseases (a high death rate) From Catholicism to Protestantism during the entire period impossible to separate religion from politics especially in the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) when this country turned to Protestantism by the 1660s, English speakers started their emigration to North America the first permanent settlement in Virginia in 1607, bringing different dialects with them (BE vs. AM) Towards North America the era of overseas commercial venture and colonization was initiated by Henry VII settlements in North America began with Jamestown (1607) the (Puritan) Pilgrim Fathers founded the Plymouth Colony in 1620 the large-scale Scottish emigration to Ireland and North America in the last part of the 17th c. due to economic hardships after the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) English merchant voyages to the Indian Ocean began the East India Company established its first trading factory in India in 1612 the great vocabulary expansion of English Spelling and pronunciation the best English spoken in London as the prestigious centre of England in this time the beginning of awareness of accent as a distinctive feature of their origin the hyper-corrected accent as a sign of the rising merchant class the most significant change between 1400 and 1700  The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) it affected only the long stressed vowels since they changed their place of articulation the long stressed vowels shifted upwards = pronounced higher up in the mouth the consonants remained almost the same e.g. Chaucer’s /na:me/ became Shakespeare’s /ne:m/ for name /li:f/ and /ti:m/ became /leif/ and /teim/ for life and time /hu:s/ and /u:t/ became /hous/ and /out/ for house and out /me:t/ and /se:/ became /mi:t/ and /si:/ for meet and see, etc. to see and hear the GVS, visit Furman University (Melinda Menzer): facweb.furman.edu/-mmenzer/gvs/what.htm To conclude a long process with a series of changes that occurred at different times and different speeds at different parts of the country but the exact order of changes is still disputable changes in pronunciation → changes in spelling Orthography e.g. stone (from stan), dark (from derk), heart (from herte) although many words still had the same spelling y often used for i, e.g. artycle, fayth c instead of t, e.g. creacyon auctor in Latin, autour in ME, author in EME thus, a serious emphasis on the standardization of written English during the 18th c. Shakespeare could sign his name in several different ways (6 compared to 80 different recorded spellings of his name) also attempts at ensuring correctness in language, e.g. John Dryden (1631-1700) inkhorn words that have not survived (e.g. ataraxy, cubiculary, estuation, etc.) many dictionaries in the 18th c. such as Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (1755) many prescriptive grammar books started to appear, such as A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762 by Robert Lowth  Grammar significant grammar changes were recorded during this period thou lost in the system of personal pronouns (the plural form you, instead) its introduced in the system of possessive pronouns instead of his (previously used for both masculine and neuter referents) which as the relative pronoun limited to nonhuman referents -self and -selves became usual as reflexive pronouns the kinges wyf of England in ME, in EME the wife of the king of England or the king of England’s wife adjectives graded to have three alternatives, e.g. sweeter, more sweet, more sweeter -th became -s, e.g. cometh, comes -are instead of be, e.g. the powers that be, the powers that are be + ing for the continuous aspect was added during this period, also, be + going to for futurity extremely important in this period: the SVO was established for declarative sentences! do as the only auxiliary in this period (used first in questions and then in negative sentences) adverbs had no -ly, e.g. spake clear To conclude EME became even more analytic !!! inflectional morphology was almost completely abandoned Vocabulary in the 16th and early 17th c,, during the English Renaissance time (also the Elizabethan era or the age of Shakespeare), a revival of the classical scholarship so many Latin and Greek words entered English (e.g., species, criterion, focus, lens, nausea, etc.; anthology, enthusiasm, concept, anatomy, comedy, tragedy, atmosphere, fact, biography, chaos, climax) many prefixes and suffixes from Latin and Greek (e.g. -sub-, inter-, poly-, tele-, -less, - ness)  many inkhorn words, the excessive use of obscure foreign words in English (e.g. disagree, commit, industrial, superiority, expectation, capacity, etc.) The Inkhorn Controversy (in Europe and in America) inkhorn = bookishness also, older English words in use, not just foreign words (loanwords), e.g. yblent = confused as well as to create new words rooted in Germany (e.g. speechcraft for grammar, endsay for conclusion, birdlore for ornithology of course, short-lived language innovations however, the process of borrowing continued Borrowings Italian pistol carnival armada fiasco barricade arsenal cork studio bravado Portuguese piano opera breeze violin fetish umbrella marmalade French bizarre tank sachet Borrowings German chocolate vogue kindergarten salon noodle duck dollar ticket muffin moustache waltz cousine seminar Borrowings Dutch/Flemish Spanish holster  skipper almanac booze zenith crap sherbet sketch saffron Landscape syrup easel Turkish dock brick yoghurt lottery coffee Borrowings horde Norwegian chess iceberg kiosk ski tulip slalom turban troll Borrowings Japanese Persian tycoon shawl geisha lemon karate caravan samurai bazaar Borrowings Chinese Arabic tea harem typhoon jar etc. algebra Conclusion 10,000 new words from 50 languages were used than !!! reflecting modernization and vernacularization at that time new special terms needed, esp. in science (medicine) the expansion of knowledge to find in monolingual dictionaries and glossaries  The Bard (1564-1616) WS used 34,000 new words and coined around 2,000 new words in his works e.g. bare-faced, critical, monumental, obscene, vast, hot-blooded, dislocate, excellent, lonely, summit, gloomy, watchdog, fair-play, bedazzled, etc. his phrases we use today, e.g. brave new world, love is blind, cold comfort, flesh and blood, break the ice, what’s done is done, heart is gold, the green-eyed monster, etc. The King James Bible the Authorised Version of the Bible King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England and Scotland upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 the compilation was printed in 1611 as the work finished by 54 scholars and clerics in order to standardise many new English language Bibles that had appeared during the previous seven decades the King James I and his true masterpiece for the evolution of English he brought the Bible directly to his (common) people we still use many of his words and phrases, e.g. the kiss of death, eye for an eye, a drop in the bucket, the root of the matter, set your house in order, turned the world upside down, a thorn in the flesh, white as snow, etc. CONCLUSION standardisation rich expansion of the lexicon changes in the cultural and political climate from the spread of printing and the increasing availability of education to the consequent growth of literacy in the population increased mobility of people towards London, but also to the rest of the world the global trade led to contacts with new languages in parallel with the English spread across the world