Old English

Old English period.
Sociolinguistic context.
Historical evolution of the English Language. The inhabitants and invaders of
the British Isles.
1. The Celtic people
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- English was not the original language of the British Isles.
- It was introduced by the Germanic tribes invading the island in the Vth
century.
- Aboriginal people spoke celtic languages, which can be traced back through
toponyms, such as Kent, Devon, Cornwall, Yord, Thames, Avon, Dover …
- Celtic tribes settled up in the British Isles around the year 2000 b.C. There are
still two celtic languages in the British Isles:
• Gaelic (Ireland, Scotland and Man Island)
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• Brythonic or Cymric, still present in the Welsh and Cornic languages
2. The Romans
- Britain was invaded by Romans in the year 43 a.d. by the Emperor Claudio.
- Celtic people assimilated Roman uses quickly (social rules, language and
religion)
- They also picked up about 600 Latin words:
Ending in –caster or –chester (like Dorchester, Manchester, Lancaster)
Ending in –wic or wich (Norwich, Berwick, Harwich)
- The Celtic people managed to get rid of Roman legions by 410 a.d.
3. The Germanic tribes

- Along the IVth century, hutes had been settling in the Isles in the area of Kent.
- In the Vth century, Saxons arrived in the areas of Sussex, Wessex and
Middlesex.
- Angles set up in East Anglia by the end of the Vth century and over the north
of the Humber river.
- The Germanic invasion was a gradual process. Celtic people were expelled,
forced to go abroad and pushed into the remote areas or the highlands and
mountains regions of the Isle (Wales and Scotland, mainly)
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- The angle, saxon and hute languages were essentialy the same, just with
slight phonological and lexical variations.
- However, distance and lack of contact resulted into several dialects. The main
ones are:
Northumbric, Mercic, Kentic and Wester Saxon
- The most ancient written documents are dated in the VIIIth century.
- They were very abundant in the Xth and XIcentury. So, the written and
historical trace is more recent than the actual beginning of this primitive
English. Thus the great codices of the XIth c. (Beowulf, Exeter Book, Junius
Psalter and Vercelli Book) are either religious works or reveal an ancient oral
tradition and heroes.
4. Christianization
- It started in 597, with saint Augustine in the Kingdom of Kent

- The King Ethelbert accepted the Christian religion and built a small chapel
known as “kent-wara-byriġ” (Canterbury), which turned into the main religious
center for English people.
- This period became a religious and cultural “renaissance” due to the
Benedictine Reformation and arose a great interest on theological,
philosophical and historical works, written in Latin.
- It had a great influence on language:
*Anglosaxon language picked up numerous Latin words related to
Church and religion: apostle, cell, cloister, creed, demon, idol, history,
term, title.
*Christian ideas were introduced into Anglosaxon texts.
*Christian stories are told with Anglosaxon words on didactic purposes:
(L) patriarcha > OE hēah Fæder; L propheta > OE witega; L sanctus >
OE hālga ; L evangelium > OE Gōd Spell.
*Usage of the Latin alphabet instead of the Germanic rhunes.
5. Scandinavian invasions
- From 787.
- Around the East-Anglia area, known as Dane Law (OE dena lagu).
- The Battle of Maldon (993), won by Olaf Tryggvason, is one of the best known
episodes in the history of the British Isles.
- The influence of their language into OE was very relevant, since they were
both Germanic languages:
• Over 600 names of towns and cities contain the suffixes; -by (city) like
Derby, Whitby, Rugby; - thorp (town) like Linthorpe, Gawthorpe; - thwaite
(small piece of land) like Applethwaite.
• Names of people ending in –son (patronymic) like Johnson, Stevenson,
Richardson.
• The influence of Scandinavian languages is very strong in Northern dialects:
– Pairs of synonyms with Scandinavian and Anglosaxon origin: OE whole –
Sc hale ; OE to – Sc till ; OE from – Sc fro ; OE craft – Sc skill.
» Some other pairs have developed a slight difference in meaning: shirt / skirt
; ditch / dike ; shin / skin ; ridge / rick .

» Sometimes the Anglosaxon word was replaced by the Scandinavian one:
wing for FeÞer ; bark for rinde ; cut for ċeorfan ; sky for wolcen ; cast for
weorÞan.
– Scandinavian plural of personal pronoun Þai / Þei ; Þair / Þeir ; Þaim / Þām
instead instead of hī / hīe / heom / heore. In Southern dialects these forms
were not introduced until the XVth c.
– The influence of Scandinavian vocabulary into OE lexicon had to do with
concepts related to basic needs and daily life and habits, such as egg, weak,
bark, sky, skill, give, get, anger. Low class people found it very easy to
incorporate these words rather than the Latin ones.
Spelling in Old English. Features of the spelling system in Old English.

The English alphabet is latin and it was introduced into England by Irish misioneers.
Most Old English texts are written in this alphabet instead of the germanic rhunes. It
was known as the island writing. It shows off several features:
a) Two germanin rhunes: Þ (thorn) for representing [θ] [ð] ; p (wynn) for [w]
b) Some specific forms for letters of the Latin alphabet: ð (eth) alongside Þ
and ζ (yogh) Irish version of latin g. The grapheme yogh ζ represented several
phonemes:
i. [g] in ζast, ζaf
ii. [j] in ζelde, ζear
iii. [w] in draζen
iv. [X] in taζte, caζte, boζte, liζt, myζt, knyζt; this grapheme will be
replaced by Norman writers with “gh”.
c) The double grapheme Œ æ (ash), also present in latin.
d) The grapheme “f” in OE represented both the voiceless /f/ and voiced /v/
like fæder, wif, drifen, wulfas, sċofl .
e) The graphme “h” represented /X/ like bohte, knyht and /f/ like inōh.
Phonological evolution of Old English:

The evolution of vowels.
General evolution. CHART 1 + CHART 2
Specific evolution:
1) Metaphony (“umlaut”) : internal wowel change, usually caused by a vowel in the

following syllable, sometimes also by a semi-vowel or even a consonant. There are
two specific cases in Old English: “i” umlaut and “u” umlaut.
a) “i” umlaut: the process by means of which velar and posterior vowels are
palatalized and opened due to the influence of /i/ in the following syllable, like:
i. /æ/ into /e/ such as: PE badi > OE bedd ; PE hafjan > OE hebban
ii. /a/ into /e/ such as: PE gastiz > OE gest; PE stapjan > OE steppan; PE
andeis > OE end; PE sandjan > OE send
iii. /u/ into /y/ such as: PE kuni > OE cynn; OE Þugkjan > OE Þyncan
iv. /u:/ into /i:/ such as: PE brūÞis > OE brўd; PE mūsiz > OE mўs
v. /o:/ into /e:/ such as: PE sōkjan > OE sēċan; PE mōtjan > PE mētan
This process is responsible for the metaphony in:
▪ Some plural forms: OE mann / menn ; OE fōt / fēt ; OE mūs / mўz
▪ Some verb/noun pairs: OE fōda / fēdjan ; OE dōm / dēmjan
b) “u” umlaut: by means of this process palatal and anterior vowels /e/, /i/ and /æ/
turned into a diphthong /ea/ or /io/ when followed by a syllable containing a velar or
posterior vowel. For some authors, it consists of the diphthongization of a vowel in
front of [r,l, X] or in front of [u] or [a].
i. /æ/ into /ea/ PE sċædu > OE sċeadu ; PE ælu > OE ealu ; PE cæru > OE
cearu
ii. /e/ into /eo/ PE efor OE eofor ; PE herut / OE heorot
iii. /i/ into /io/ - /eo/ PE silofr > OE siolufres ; PE milk > mioluc/meoluc
2) Lengthening of vowels: In front of several consonantic groups consisting of a

liquid/nasal + voiced consonant, like ld, mg, nd, ng, rd, rl, rn and rs (followed by a
vowel) like PE wilde > OE wílde ; PE feld > OE field ; PE ald > OE old ; PE climban >
OE clímban ; PE camb > OE cámb ; PE grund > OE grúnd
Evolution of the consonantic system

1. The consonantic system of germanic languages of the British Isles. The
protoIndoeuropean consonantic sounds experienced the following changes in
Germanic languages:
a) Voiceless plosive consonants turned into voiceless fricatives:
i. /p/ > /f/: IE *pater > PE *fadar > OE fæder (father)

ii. /t/ > /θ/: IE *bhrater > PE brother > OE broÞor (brother)
iii. /k/ > /x/: IE *quert > PE *hurth > OE hyrdel (hurdle)
b) Voiced plosive consonants turned into voiceless plosives:
i. /b/ > /p/: IE *dheub > PE *deupoz > OE dēop (deep)
ii. /d/ > /t/: IE *ed > PE *etan > OE etan (eat)
iii. /g/ > /k/: IE *agros > PE *akroz > OE æcer (acre)
c) Duplication of consonants between brief vowel and yod: *PE hlahjan > hlehhan
(laugh); *PE lagjan > OE leggan (lay); PE *satjan > OE settan (set); PE *skapjan >
OE sċeppan (create); PE *habjan > OE hebban (raise); PE *bidjan > OE ddan (bid);
PE * saljan > OE sellan (sell)
d) Evolution of /sk/ into /∫/ PE *skeldus > OE sċild (shield)
e) Specific changes:
i. Palatalization of /k/ and /g/
I. In initial position followed by a palatal vowel or palatal diphthongs: ċēse,
ċild, ċeosan (choose); ġefan (give), ġeard (yard). It was never palatalized when
followed by a velar vowel: cōl, cū (cow), gōs, gaderian, camb.
II. In medium position between palatal vowels and between a palatal vowel
and a liquid/nasal consonant, and after a umlaut i vowel: æċer, læċe, mēċe, sēċan,
reġn (rain), seġl (sail). It was never palatalized in contact with a velar vowel: wicu
(week), sēoce (sick), nigon (nine), Þinga (thing).
III. In final position after a palatal vowel, or after vowel + liquid/nasal: OE bæċ,
OE ælċ (each), OE benċ, OE dæġ, OE bodiġ. But it was never palatalized when
preceded by velar vowel: OE bōc, OE seoc, OE long, OE togædere.
IV. The consonantic group “sk” got always palatalized: OE sċeap (sheep), OE
sċuldor (shoulder), OE asċe (ash), OE wysċan (wish), OE disċ, OE Englisċ, OE
flæsċ.
ii. Voicing:
I. Fricatives in Germanic languages /f/, /s/, /θ/ and /Х/ become voiced between
voiced sounds, without changing the spelling: OE fīf (five); OE sċofl (shovel)
II. /θ/ was never voiced in suffixes, such as “-iÞō” (for abstract nouns) and
“oÞa” (cardinal numbers): OE strenġÞ , OE nigoÞa.
iii. Simplification of consonants:
I. In medium position, double consonants are simplified, mainly those ones resulting
from derivative processes “-ne”, “-re”, “-ra”, “lic”, “-ness”, “-dōm”. It also affected

verbs.
II. Drop of consonants in clusters: “n” in three-consonant groups (OE elnbonga >
elboga (elbow); OE sætern-dæġ > sæter-dæġ (Saturday)
iv. Assimilation:
I. Mainly in contact with liquid or nasal: /l, m, n, r/ OE wīfmonn > wimman (woman);
OE stefn > stemn (stem)
v. Metathesis:
I. Of “r” + vowel + n,s like PE *brennan > OE byrnan (burn)
II. /sp/ > /ps/ like OE wæsp / wæps or /sn/ > /ns/ like OE clæsnian / clænsian
Evolution of the grammatical system (morphology and syntax) in Old English.

Old English is considered to be a synthetic language. The relationships between
words are expressed by the inflection of lexemes. The evolution of English has been
characterized by: morphosyntactic simplification and higher ellaboration (higher
restriction on the order of elements and usage of prepositions and particles).
MORPHOLOGY. The noun phrase:

1. Inflections in nouns show:
a. Genre:
i. Male: nouns ending in –a, -oÞ, -dōm, -els, -ere, -hād, sċipe; OE se mona
(the moon), OE se fisċoÞ (the fish), OE se cynedōm (the kingdom), OE se
ġebeorsċipe (the meeting for drinking beer).
ii. Female: nouns ending in –u, -ung, -nes(s), -en(n), -ett, -estre, -ræden; OE
sēo ġiefu (the gift), OE sēo ānnes (the unit), OE sēo æfnung (the afternoon),
OE sēo byrÞenn (the burden)
iii. Neuter: nouns of young people and animals, like OE Þæt ċild (that child),
OE Þæt ċўċen (that chick); and nouns ending in –lac, -en, like OE Þæt witelac
(that punishment), OE Þæt mæġden (that maid).
b. Number: singular, plural and dual. In the late Old English period the dual number
was assimilated to plural.
c. Cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. The dative case also has the
function of instrumental and localive cases.

Declensions of nouns
1. Strong declensions:
a) “a” stem: male and neuter. Example: OE bāt (boat)
Words included in this declension are: bāt, dōm (doom), hlāf (bread), hlāford (lord),
stān (stone), swan, weġ (way), wer (man), beorn (warrior), frēodom (freedom), Þēof
(thief), weall (wall), æÞeling (prince), camphad (war), cyning (king), dēorling
(darling), færeld (travel), fisċoÞ (fish), huntoÞ (hunt), god, hof (house), mæġden
(maid), sċip (ship), horn, būr (country house), cliwen (ring), dēor (deer), ġear (year),
īsern (iron), sweord (sword), wedlac (marriage), weorc (work),wīf (woman)
b) “o” stem: female OE ġifu (gift)
Nouns included in this declension are: nædl (needle), feÞer (feather), cyln (kiln), slōh
(slog), faru (travel), lufu (love), racu (tale), rōd (cross), bōt (remedy), lād (path), lār
(knowledge), briċġ (bridge), eċġ (edge), spræċ (speak), sċeadu (shadow)
c. “i” stem: three genders: male and neuter ending in “-e” or two consonants; female

ending in consonant. OE mete (meat)
Words included in this declension are: Male: mete (meat), gryre (horror), heġe
(hedge), mere (lack), stede (position), stride (stride), wyrm (worm), ċierr (turn), drenċ
(drink), ġiest (guest) Female: bēn (prayer), brўd (bride), cwēn (queen), hўf (hive),
nīed (need), tīd (time), wēn (hope) Neuter: flæsċ (flesh), sife, flīes (wool), ġeswild
(mistake)
2. Weak declension: most nouns are male and female, and only two neuter ones:
ēage (eye) and ēare (ear). OE nama (nama)
Nouns included in this declension are: anda (badness), bana (killer), bera (bear),
flota (sailor), guma (man), mōna (moon), steorra (star), wita (wiseman), ċiriċe
(church), folde (land), sunne (sun), tunge (tongue), wulle (wool)
3. Small declensions:
a. “plosive” stem: male and female OE fōt (foot) OE hnutu (nut)

Nouns with this declension are: a. Male: tōÞ (tooth), man (man), fēond (enemy) b.
Female: bōc (book), knitu (idiot), studu (position), burg (town), gōs (goose), grūt
(food), lūs (louse), mūs (mouse), turf (turf)
b. “liquid” stem: nouns for relatives: OE fæder (father), mōdor (mother), brōÞor
(brother), sweostor (sister), dohtor (hija)
c. “s” stem: OE æġ (egg), ċealf (calf), lamb, ċild (child)
Pronouns.
1. Personal pronoun;
First person
Second person

Third person
Demonstrative pronoun
Relative pronoun
- It doesn’t have a specific form in Old English.
- It can be expressed by means of:
... Þe (without declension)
... the demonstrative pronoun se, sēo, Þæt, with reference to number, gender
and case.
... the combination of the previous structures
Interrogative pronoun
There existed three interrogative pronouns in OE: hwā, hwelċ (which/what – more
than two), hwæÞer (which/what – between two). They were declined like se …
Hwā
ADJECTIVES
- Adjectives will have the same declensions as nouns (strong and weak ones) with
identical endings.
- The comparative is expressed by means of the suffix –ra.
- The superlative is expressed by means of the suffixes
–ust, -ost, -ast, -est.
wīs > wīsra > wīsest
glæd > glædra > glædost
- Some adjectives change the stem vowel, but with the same suffixes:
gōd > betera > betest
yfel > wiers > wyrst.
- Numeral adjectives: cardinal and ordinal (see picture)
- Possessive adjectives: they are expressed by means of the genitive of the personal
pronoun: mīn, thīn, ūre, ēower, his, hire

VERBS
*The verbal system in Old English is quite simple:
- Voices: active and passive
- Moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative and infinitive.
- Tenses: present and past
- Numbers: singular and plural.
- Persons: first, second and third.
*There are two types of verbs:
- Strong: e/o stem in Proto-English and with change of stem vowel in past.
- Weak: /j/ before e/o stem and dental affix in past.
- Past-present: past forms with present meaning and new weak forms in past.
Strong verbs
Weak verbs
Past-present verbs
Anomalous verbs

Old English

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Old English

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Old English period.

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3. The Germanic tribes

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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Spelling in Old English. Features of the spelling system in Old English.

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

Phonological evolution of Old English:

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Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

2) Lengthening of vowels: In front of several consonantic groups consisting of a

Evolution of the consonantic system

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Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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Evolution of the grammatical system (morphology and syntax) in Old English.

MORPHOLOGY. The noun phrase:

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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c. “s” stem: OE æġ (egg), ċealf (calf), lamb, ċild (child)

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

Reservados todos los derechos.

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

Rosa María Agredano Espinal; Estudios Ingleses.

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