1

Chapter-1
PRELIMINARIES: BEFORE ENGLISH

LANGUAGES ON THE MOVE

(Migration People And the consequent relocation of the languages they

speak will therefore be one of the major themes of this chapter, which
will focus on the pre-history of English and the various developments
that underpin the creation of English as a language in its own right within
the British Isles.)
 2

English has been carried from one place to another more than once.
Old English: The beginning of the existence of English as a recognizably
distinct language.
Early seventeenth century:
- speakers of English started to migrate from the British Isles to North
America.
- continued for about three centuries.
- the forms of English they took varied based on:
• part of Britain they migrated from,
• their social class,
 3

• their age,
• date of migration.
—-- After settling in North America, they had contact with:
• forms of English similar to their own,
• forms of English different from their own,
• languages of Native American inhabitants,
• languages of immigrants from other European countries and
elsewhere around the globe.
- As a result of geographical separation and differently shifting social
alignment, North Americans' English began to change.
 4

-Changes in North American English:

• pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary,
• borrowing words from others languages
(Example: skunk (one of the Native American languages) cockroach
(Spanish) prairie (French).
- North American English and British English have the same base
although they are unalike. The communication between North America
and Britain was never cut off.
- English was not the language of migrants alone. It was also adopted
by people whose parents spoke a different language.
 5

Beginning of the history of English:

- People from northern continental Europe migrated to the British Isles
in the fifth and sixth centuries and brought a new language with them.
They spoke a range of dialects and in their new home they each
encountered and interacted with speakers of other varieties of their
own language, as well as with people speaking quite different
languages, namely the Celtic languages of the native British population,
and the form of Latin which many of those people seem to have used
under the recently ended Roman governance of Britain.
 6

As these migrants (whom we call the Anglo-Saxons) started their new

and separate life in the British Isles, their language began to develop in
its own distinctive ways and to become different from the language of
their previous neighbors on the Continent. It was also exposed to
influences from the indigenous Celtic languages and from Latin. But,
again as in the history of modern English in America, the Anglo-Saxons
were never completely isolated, and trade and other activities
continued to keep them in contact with people across the channel and
the North Sea.
 7

Looking back: indo-european origins

The Kinds of language which the Anglo-Saxons brought with them to
the British Isles had previously been shared with other peoples, which is
called Proto-Germanic language (assumed by linguistics). It’s an
offshoot of the Indo-European language. The language of the
Anglo-Saxons became divided by the time they began to write it down
(a few centuries after migration). The separating off of the ‘English’ of
the Anglo-Saxons has already been touched on, and by very similar
processes there developed what we can, for example, recognize as the
earliest stages of German and Dutch, and of the Scandinavian
 8

languages Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. These languages are

known collectively as the ‘Germanic’ group of languages.
-Before 200 BC, different forms of Germanic were closely related like
different dialects of English (this single Germanic language is called
Proto-Germanic /Primitive Germanic).
-This Proto-Germanic language is itself recognized by linguists as an
oFFshoot from a still earlier language system which comprises the
‘IndoEuropean’ group of languages. Other branchings of this group gave
rise to the majority of the known languages of Europe and Scandinavia,
as well as some in Asia and Asia Minor.
 9

Early forms of Greek- 1500 - 1200 years BC. (written text).

Most ancient form of Sanskrit- 1000- 500 years BC.
Avestan- (oldest evidence For-the Iranian branch of Indo-European
language: similar time period).
Latin- not much later, in Southern Europe
Hittite and related languages- Earliest of all records, in Asia minors,
1700 BC or before.
Other major branches of Indo-European: Celtic, Baltic, Slavonic,
Armenian, Tocharian, Germanic (evidence found mostly in Christian
era)
 10

The realization that the recorded Indo-European languages have a

common source (parent language) occurred through the observation
that individual words in one language bore systematic resemblance to
those in others-
Example-
Sanskrit Greek Latin Old church salvonic
“New”- návah néos novus novŭ
In these examples:
•Consonants remained the same to a great extent.
• vowels are often different.
 11

[Thousands of cases suggest that the Indo-European

languages have a common origin.]
Changes in the example (and other cases):
Sanskrit- a in place of e/o. In Sanskrit the vowels e and o both
underwent a change in pronunciation, becoming a and a vast amount
of other evidence confirms that this was a general feature affecting all
Indo-European e's and o's in Sanskrit.
Latin and Old Church Slavonic- have o where there had once been e,
and this again can be shown to be a general feature of development in
those languages when the vowel was followed by w.
 12

Sometimes consonants can differ too-

Sanskrit Greek Latin Old church salvonic
“Brother”- bhrātā phrátēr frater bratrŭ
In this case, Greek has changed the initial 'bh' to 'ph’ and Latin has
changed it to 'f' This is also a general feature.
Similar example- bhárāmi (sanskrit), phérō (greek), ferō (latin), bero̜ (old
church salvonic).
 13

Even the grammar of various Indo-European languages have a common

starting point -
-Indo-European had a grammar that was heavily dependent on
inflections,
- grammatical relationship between words indicated primarily by
appropriate forms of the words-
Example- homō timorem superavit
The man Fear Overcame
-The man overcame fear.
 14

Here, different forms have been used depending on whether a word is

subject or object
- Inflections also indicated plurality on tense
Example:
Timor_ homines superabit
Fear The men Will overcome
-Fear will overcome the men.
 15

The Russian language still relies heavily on inflections. English now has
fewer inflections (use of inflection to distinguish between subject and
object survives with regard to personal pronouns: he vs him).
*Vocabulary is more likely to change:
- sound, forms, syntactic patterns: all of these can change but in an
evolutionary way (Preserves the underlying integrity of the system).
- speakers are free to change vocabulary.
- new words can be introduced through
● combining existing words
● words /parts of words from foreign language
 16

-use of words is affected by age, occupation, education, interest, travel

experience, reading etc.
- also affected by dialect.
- words varying in stylistic level (man vs bloke) or overlapping in sense
(picture us photo) are often used interchangeably.
- technological development or changes in social organization also
affect vocabulary.
[Therefore, there is no guarantee that words like 'newos' from the single
Indo-European language (common origin) were used universally and
exclusively].
 17

THE LESS DISTANT PAST: GERMANIC PRECURSORS

The speaker of the earliest form of a distinct Germanic branch of

Indo-European appears to have inhabited an area covering parts of
what are now Denmark and southern Sweden.
*Movement of population groups in the area occurred for about: 400 -
500 years (last three centuries or so BC and one on two centuries Ac).
 18

Features of Proto-Germanic language:

1> Distinction and Division of two tenses.
There are several significant changes in the verb and the adjectives
which already serve to establish patterns that will later also be features
of Old English. For example- Germanic Verbs had only two different
forms to make the distinction of tense (present and past). Other tenses
had to be indicated by the use of another verb alongside the verb in
question.
- The simple present' and 'past tense forms might convey the sense of
more than one tense.
 19

Example-
The verb walk' has just two different forms: walk' and 'walked'-
You walk very quickly.
He walked into the bank.
Future tense distinctions can be made by the use of one or more
auxiliary verbs.
We were walking side by side
She will walk down to the town.

2> The Germanic verbs fall into two groups- strong and weak.
 20

- One group contains most of the verbs. Here the past tense form is
made by adding a suffix like d’ ‘ed’; or 't. Also known as weak verbs.
Example: walk -> walked - heal -> healed.
Another group of verbs are turned into their past tense form by
changing the main vowel found in the present form. Also known as
strong verbs. Example: sing -> sang - rise>rose.

3> Weak verbs were formed by other parts of speech, they had no
origin. And strong verbs were strong from the very beginning.
 21

4> The strong verb has not increased in number but has lost members
as time has gone on. The weak verb has increased enormously in size.
For example- “help” was a strong verb in English. And “helped” is a
weak verb now.

5> Alterations of vowels. Common tendency of Indo-European vowels.

The weak verb system does not have such clear origins.

6> A great majority of adjectives can occur in two different forms

(depending on the grammar of the sentence). Adjectives also had
 22

strong and weak forms. If an adjective is attached to a noun that is

made “definite”-weak adjective. If it's an indefinite noun then it's a
strong adjective.

7> Pronounciation is prone to change even within the same language

by following a particular rule of Grimm’s law.
 23

The Division of Proto-Germanic

Speakers of Germanic carried the language to different directions from
the Southern part of Scandinavia. Anglo-Saxons came to Britain
towards the middle of the first millennium AD.
Fundamental division of Germanic speech community:
❖ North Germanic part -( Divided into~ Danish, Swedish, Norwegian).
❖ East Germanic part -(Gothic and some other extinct language).
❖ West Germanic part (includes Old English) -(Early forms of
German, Dutch, Frisian and English).
[According to some scholars, Germanic first split into two groups:
 24

either 1) North West Germanic, 2)East Germanic.

Or 1) North East Germanic, 2)West Germanic.

East Germanic Group:

-Moved eastwards and southwards (during the first three or four
centuries AD).
-Some of the Goths moved westwards across southern Europe as far
as the Iberian peninsula.
-The Goths played a major part in the history of the territories they
inhabited for 7 centuries or so AD.
 25

-Their language is known mainly form a translation parts of the Bible

believed to have been made in the fourth century AD among a part of
the Gothic People Living At that time west of the BlackSea, in
approximately the same area as modern Romania.
-This translation is the first extensive written record of a Germanic
language.

Gothic language
Gothic is distinguished from the other Germanic languages by a
number of characteristics, some of which preserve features of earlier
 26

Proto- Germanic which have not survived into the other historically
attested languages, while others are innovations.
Features
1> Gothic has inflectional forms of verbs to indicate passive voice. Ex:
afdomjaid>judge, afdomjanda> (you) will be judged.
In other Germanic languages passive inflections no longer survive in
recognizable form, and the passive voice is indicated (as in modern
English) by the use of an auxiliary verb.
2> Gothic uses reduplication in the past tense forms of a group of
strong verbs.
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[reduplication refers to the addition of a syllable consisting of the initial

consonant of the word and a vowel to turn it into past tense form:
Sometimes the main vowel was changed as in the past tense form of
strong verbs].
Ex- haitan (call) -> haihait (called)
In other Germanic languages, only Isolated remains of reduplication are
found. They no longer for a regulan grammatical pattern.
 28

North Germanic Group

These people moved into areas that we now know as Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway (and subsequently to Iceland and other places.
Left extensive texts dating from c1100 AD onwards.
The text they left were carved in “runes” on metal, wooden, bone and
other objects.
The runic alphabet is known as ‘futhark’
The alphabet has been named after the first six characters of the
sequence-
 29

{Found on a thin gold medallion, in Sweden}.

Runic texts frequently consisted of just one or two words (meaning
cannot be made out with confidence)
- earliest nunic texts are from around the second century AD.
-This language is considered to be of an intermediate “Common
Scandinavian” stage between Proto-Germanic and the later separate
scandinavian languages by same.
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-some others consider it to be a 'North West Germanic' stage that gave

rise to the scandinavian and West Germanic languages (including
English).
-Runes was used in Scandinavia into and beyond the Middle Ages
(longer texts were found).
-Objects with runic inscriptions from third to ninth centuries AD were
found (dates are not certain) [found in continental Europe].
-
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There is uncertainty regarding:

• from which direction runic writing reached the places where the texts
were found,
• what languages the texts ane in,
• what the text mean,
- evidence of writing in Runes has been found in Anglo-Saxon
England.
it is possible that the Anglo-saxons brought with them the ability to
write in Runes.
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* It is difficult to reconstruct the process through which Danish,

Swedish, and Norwegian became separate languages (due to the lack
of clearly interpretable textual evidence until a relatively late date)
- Norwegians took their language to Iceland in the (second half of ninth
century).
Much of the early literature from the North Germanic group consists of
text preserved in Icelandic.
[Example: poems of the Poetic Edda and many prose narratives of the
sagas].
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- Old Icelandic is often cited as representative of early North Germanic

languages (early North Germanic languages are collectively known as
Old Norse).
Features
1> In the verbs, a set of mediopassive forms arose in which suffix -mk
(first person), -sk (second person) or some other variant was added.
The suffixes were originally forms of personal pronouns
mik (me, myself) sik (yourself, himself).
The mediopassive forms expressed a reflexive on passive sense
(although it was not always transparent).
 34

Ex- búasak - prepare themselves (third person), bygðisk - was settled

(1st person)
2> North Germanic languages developed a definite article that was
suffixed to its noun (unless there was an adjective attached to the
noun).
Ex- maðrinn (the man).
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West Germanic Group

- Before the Germanic people began their divergent migration, the West
Germanic group was located in present day Denmark, north sea coastal
territories of modern Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
- Difficult to reconstruct the evolving interrelationships between the
tribes of this group, or between them and other Germanic people.
- Scholars are divided on whether there was a West Germanic proto
language as an intermediate stage between Proto-Germanic and the
individual West Germanic languages.
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- Some believe that West Germanic (during its time of separation from
Germany or North Germanic) divided into two parts: one part became
early German, another part gave rise to English, frisian, and Dutch.
West Germanic languages with early evidence:
Old High German, Old Saxon, Old English.
- Texts in Old High German and Old English survive from the eighth
century onwards.
- Terts in Old Saxon are from the following century.
- Old Fraisian texts Found in thirteenth century copies of eleventh century
texts.
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Dialectal varieties of Old High German:

➢ Alemannic (south-west of Old High German area), > Upper
German.
➢ Bavarian (south-east of Old High German area), > Upper German.
➢ Franconian (north of the Old High German area). > Middle German.
Features of Old High German:
1> Second consonant shift (a systematic set of developments which
affected the consonants that had arisen as a result of First consonant
Shift/Germanic Consonant Shift)
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Ex- make -> macian (Old English) mahhōn (Old High German)
-This feature affects a wider range of consonants in some dialects
(less extensive in Franconian dialects and more extensive in Upper
German dialects).
2> Has a distinct form for each of the three persons in the plural of the
present and past tenses of verbs-
Ex- We carry/carried -> Old High German wir benemēs /bārumēs
Other languages have reduced these to just one form.
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Old Saxon:
- Name given to the language represented in two ninth -century
scriptural narratives in verse: Heliand (6000 lines app-) and Genesis
(350 line app).
- composed in an area where Franconian Old High German was in use.
- shorter texts also exist.
- The Saxons were politically and militarily very significant in northern
parts of modern Germany until the beginning of ninth century AD.
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- Saxon leader Widukind surrendered to the Frankish leader

Charlemagne in 785 AD and the Saxons finally incorporated into
Charlemagne Empire.
- The language used in Heliand and Genesis may have been the
representation of local (spoken) dialects (with an Introduction written in
Old High German by a copyist).
- Others believe that it was not the direct evidence of a spoken
language at all. Rather it was a specifically written form of language.
- Old Saxon was close in a number of ways to the kinds of language
that have developed into Old English.
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Feature of Old Saxon:

An original n or m is lost between a vowel and f, p, s. Ex-
Old saxon Old English Old high german Gothic
Five - fif fif fimf fimf
(This feature is shared by Old English and Old Frisian but stands in
contrast to Old High German and Gothic).

Old Frisian:
- no one has direct knowledge of this language at the period relevant to
the Anglo- Saxon migrations to Britain.
 42

- surviving Old Frisian texts are mostly legal in nature.

- the origin of the texts may have been in the eleventh century (the
manuscript copies are from the late thirteenth century).
- the texts came into being in the coastal region of modern Netherlands
and in neighboring areas in modern Belgium and Germany.
- Old Frisian has deep-rooted resemblances to Old English.
- The similarities between Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon can
be considered to be the result of parallel developments in a complex
and changing social and linguistic situation.
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Old English:
- developed in Britain out of the dialects by the Anglo-Saxons during the
period of invasions and settlements (mainly 5th and 6th centuries AD).
- Angles and Saxons played an important part in the movements
(archaeological evidence played a major role in the reconstruction of
the events).
- The Angles came from the southern part of the Jutland peninsula.
- Franks were also involved.
Some Similarities between Old English, Old Saxon, and Old Frisian are
on phonological grounds.
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Example -
Old Frisian and Old English: ē or æ
Old Saxon (usually)
Old High German & Old Norse: ā
Gothic: ē
-Were
Old Frisian: wēron, Old English: wæron
Old Saxon: wārun, Old High German: wārun
Old Norse: váru, Gothic : wēsun
 45

Grammatical similarity between Old Frisian, Old English, and

Old Saxon:
These three languages have just one form for the first person and
second person singular (I and you) accusative case, dative ease, and
preposition
[Gothic, Old Norse, and Old High German have different forms].
*accusative case - direct object [Please help me]
dative case- indirect object [send me a letter]
Example- Old Frisian Old English Old Saxon Old High German
First person- mi mē mī (acc)mih-mir(dat)
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Borrowing of words:
When the individual Indo-European languages began to take separate
forms, the possibility of borrowing words from other languages arose
(just like English words have been carried around the globe in recent
times).
-Borrowing started some centuries before The Christian era as the
Germanic groups were expanding from their homeland and
encountered Celts on their way.
- Indicates something of the nature of celtic political organization at the
time the borrowing occurred.
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Example: Modern English word iron (borrowed from celtic)

Gothic - eisarn
Original Celtic word: iarn (old Irish), haearn (Welsh).
[If the assumption of borrowing from Celtic to Germanic is correct, it
may indicate the transmission of iron-working capabilities from one
person to another at an early date].
-Borrowed from Latin to Germanic: modern English wond - wine
Latin: vīnum, Gothic: wein,
Old Norse: vín, Old High German/Frisian/Saxon/English: wīn.
 48

This borrowing indicates something about the-early contacts of

Germanic people with the more southerly populations and cultures of
Europe.
- Anglo-Saxons encountered Romans on their way to Britain
- Had contact with Romans for around 500 years
- The Romanized Celtic population spoke Latin.
- Thus a lot of words have been borrowed from Latin.
- • -
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Chapter-2
BEGINNINGS AND TRANSITIONS: OLD ENGLISH
Poem: Book Moth Riddle
Manuscript: Exeter Book (one of the four major extant
Old English manuscripts of poetry)
- provides insight into language from Anglo- Saxon perspective
- explores short-lived natune (transience) of language
- acts as a reminder that our knowledge of Old English is based on a
small number of surviving manuscripts.
 50

- Reminds us that these manuscripts reflect a living spoken language

that was familiar to its speakers as modern English is to us today.
- indicates the transition from orality to literacy in the use of vernacular
in Anglo-Saxon England (had enormous implications for the
development of old English).

Old English characteristics:

- language (Form of English) used in England for approximately seven
centuries (450-11501D).
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- synthetic language like Latin (relies on inflections -{A word formation

process where letters are added to the end of a word to express
grammatical meaning}.
- distinguishes between cases (accusative, dative, nominative, genitive
and instrumental), genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), and
numbers ( singular, plural and - in some pronouns- dual) in noun,
pronoun and adjective.
- adjectives are variable (inflected strong on weak depending on
syntactic circumstances).
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- distinguishes between tenses (present & past) moods (indicative,

subjunctive, imperative) persons (first, second and third).
- the language was not stable (for political, social and cultural
changes).
*Some transitions (including the transition from orality to literacy in the
use of vernacular) affected Old English.
The transitions can be viewed from:
(I) Internal perspectives.
(2) External perspectives.
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Internal perspectives: changes in spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

External perspectives: links between the changes and the social and
political events.
*Development of Old English:
The development of Old English can be examined within a framework
provided by 5 historical watersheds-
(1) Invasion of Britain by the Germanic people (Anglo Saxons) in the
mid fifth century.
(2) The coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (597 AD).
(3) Reign of King Alfned in the West Saxon kingdom (871 - 899 AD).
 54

(4) The Benedictine Reform (second half of tenth century).

(5) Norman Conquest (1066 AD).
* Invasion by Anglo-Saxons: (1st historical watershed)
-Caused dialectal diversity
-The arrival of Germanic tribes in 449 AD (responding to King
Vortigern’s invitation) has been recorded in:
Book: Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Time: Eighth century
Author: Anglo-Saxon monk Bede
** It is the Latin history of the English nation.
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- The story of the migration has been incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle (a collection of annals which took shape in King Alfred's
Reign).
- The early part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (annals up to 890 AD)
survives in two forms:
1) common stock version
2) the northern recension (this version includes many materials of
northern interest.)
It also incorporates extra materials from Bede's Ecclesiastical History.
 56

Has a translation of Bede's account of migration. • This recension is best

represented by Peterborough Chronicle (also called E manuscript of the
chronicle).
__________
● The dialectal diversity of Old English can Be associated with
geographical areas.
Main dialects of Old English
(1) Kentish
(2) West Saxon
(3) Anglian (divided into 'Northumbrian 'and 'Mercian).
 57

* A connection clearly be established between locality and linguistic

forms
- It is difficult to identify the nature of the connection in any particular
text on manuscript.
- Peterborough Chronicle(copied in about 1122 at Peterborough)
linguistic form is attributable to a number of factors:
- The west Saxon archetype (from which this version was derived,
- Anglian influence at some stage in transmission,
- The scribe's own East Midland dialect,
- The late date copy that shows transition to Middle English.
 58

Example: Two different spellings for the 'Old Saxon'

Line 1: Aldseaxum (non West Saxon spelling)
Line 3: Ealdseaxum (normal West Saxon spelling)
The non-West Saxon spelling might be the result of:
• trace of an Anglian form introduced in textual transmission.
• the product of the scribe’s own East Midland dialect.
• evidence of the early Middle English, monophthongization of
diphthongs.
_____
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*The link between dialect and geographical area can be established

more clearly in various versions (I4 in total) of Old English poem
Cædmon's Hymn (by an illiterate cow-herd with poetic-talent) [oldest
poem in Old English].
- Bede quoted a Latin translation of the poem in his Ecclesiastical
History.
In some manuscripts, the vernacular original is found. The version
thought to be closest to the original is written in a Northumbrian dialect
(Moore Manuscript).
 60

Northumbrian dialectal Features:

(1) Retraction: the front vowel æ becomes a (with back articulation)
before r when followed by a consonant.
(2) Anglian smoothing: the diphthong ea becomes monophthong æ and
the diphthong eo becomes monophthong e [happens before certain
back Consonants or consonant groups].
(3) No transitional glide vowel between palatal /ʃ/ and back vowel /o/.
(4) Loss of inflectional -n.
 61

West Saxon dialect features:

(1) Transitional glide vowel between palatal /ʃ/ and back vowel /o/.
Example- Example: Nonthumbion dialect: scop, West Saxon dialect:
sceop.
(2) Difference in spelling (linked to geographical differences).
Example: Nonthumbrian: uard -Guardian
West saxon: weard -Guardian
● The West Saxon version of caedmon's Hymn has been found in an
Old English translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History made in the
 62

second half of ninth century [perhaps in association with King

Alfred’s educational programme in Wessex].

Features of Old English poetry- (1st watershed)

1. Metrical and alliterative.
2. Poetic format is not indicated graphically by lineation or
punctuation.
3. Composed in poetic lines.
4. Each line is made up of four stresses (divided into two stress half
lines linked by alliteration).
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5. Each half-line conforms to one of five rhythmical patterns

according to its arrangement of stressed syllables and dips.
6. Syntax is often complex.
7. Diction is characterized by variation or repetition of sentence
elements.

*Conversion to Christianity (establishing a Standard Script)

2nd historical watershed
In 597 AD Augustine and his fellow missionaries arrived in Britain and
began the gradual process of converting its inhabitants.
 64

-The event is recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History and also in the

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
- Year according to Parker Chronicle : 601 AD (oldest manuscript, also
known as “A version).
- Year according to the Peterborough Chronicle: twice- 596 AD & 601
AD.
 65

How the missionary project came to be conceived:

- Recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History
- Pope Gregory was inspired to send missionaries to Britain after his
encounter with some heathen Slave-boys in a Roman marketplace.
- he linked the word 'Ongle" with 'engla’
- he linked the word "Dere’ with 'de ira’. [the place the slave boys came
from was called 'Deiri'. The Pope linked it to 'de ira eruiti" {removed
from anger (the anger of god).
- He linked the name "Æll” with 'Alleluia' {the king's name 'Ælle' was
linked to 'Alleluia' (praise of God).
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Just like Caedmon's hymn, the nature of the vernacular was seen as
innate Christianity of Anglo-Saxon English people.
# The most profound effect of the arrival of Christianity in Britain on the
English language was the development of an Old English script based
on the Roman alphabet.
- Before the arrival of Christianity, the runic alphabet developed from
"futhark", was used (normally referred to as "futhorc” 'presently).
- Futhark /futhorc was used in Mercia, Ket, and Northumbria from the
fourth or early fifth century to the eleventh century.
 67

- Futhark / Futhorc was found mainly on stone. It also appeared in

manuscripts and coins.
Most Interesting runic inscription:
● Found carved on the Ruthwell Cross.
● It's a late seventh or early eighth century stone cross at Ruthwell in
Dumfriesshire.
● These have parallels with parts of the old English poem "The
Dream of the Rood" from Vercelli Book (from second half of tenth
century)
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The poem and the inscriptions have differences, both in script and
dialect. The poem shows predominantly West Saxon spelling. the
spelling in the inscriptions correspond to Northumbnian text
spellings- example: poem- pær > inscription- per [there]

# Examples of runes in Old English manuscripts - Exeter Book riddles,

Rune Poem, Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf's signature in four of his
poems. Most Old English texts was written in Roman alphabet which is
further testimony to the impact of Christianity on Old English.
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* Sounds in Old English that had no Roman letter: were represented by

letters from various sources-
_ p (thorn) was borrowed from runic alphabet to represent /θ/,
-/ð/ (eth) borrowed from Irish writing to represent /θ/,
- æ (ash) was borrowed from Latin to represent /æ/,
# By the twelfth century, sounds represented by ‘ʒʼ came to be
distinguished by continental caroline form g for /g/ and /dʒ/ Example:
god (good).
- ʒ was retained for other sounds including /j/Example: ʒear (year).
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*Other noteworthy features of Old English alphabet-

- absence of j and v
- rarity of q,x, and z
- it is believed that Old English orthographic representation is closely
related to phonemic representation.
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King Alfred and the Production of Vernacular Manuscripts

Third historical watershed
- king Alfred ascended to the throne of Wessex in 871 AD
(reign :871-899 AD).
- successful military strategist, successful in championing" the
vernacular.
- he wanted to educate his subjects and make England a center of
intellectual achievement.
-he took the initiative to translate certain important Latin works into
English.
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- Scholars from Mercia and the continent worked with him.

- King Alfred outlined his project in the preface to his translation of late
sixth century work by Pope Gregory (title: Pastoral Care).
- the Preface survives in two copies contemporary with King Alfred.

Features of King Alfred's vernacular language:

(1)' io' spelling prefered over 'eo’,
[early West Saxon used io] [late West Saxon used eo].
Example: iow (to you) instead of eow.
(2) Inflectional system of Old English used.
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(3) Case, number, and gender are strictly observed in nouns, pronouns,
and adjectives. Example-
*nominative case (to express subject of the sentence): sio gioguð (the
young people).
Here, "sio' is feminine singular agreeing with the noun,
plural pronouns we and hie (they) are also found.
* accusative case (to express direct object) : sumæ bec ...
niedbeðearfosta.
Here, sumæ and niedbeðearfosta are feminine plural adjectives.
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Accusative case is also used to express direct object in 'ða stilnesse’

where demonstrative pronouns and nouns are feminine singular.
In "English gewrit (English waiting) the adjective and noun are neuter
singular.
* Genitive case (used to express a possessive relationship): Godes
(God's) where the noun is masculine singular.
* Dative case (used to express the indirect object): iow (to you), second
person plural personal pronoun.
(4) Frequent use of subjunctive mood (to express doubt, uncertainty
etc) Example- hæbben ( they may have).
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(5) Old English inflectional system of verb forms is also evident-

ðyncð(it seems).
Here, the-ð inflection denotes the third person present singular of the
verb.
(6) Freedom " in word order. Inflections allowed much flexibility.
Example: ðæt we eac sumæ bec (that we also certain books).
It is a very convoluted syntax.
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• 'Boethius's early sixth century work "Consolation of Philosophy' was

translated.
- Two versions of the translation survive.
One version: prose only
Another version: alternating prose and poetry
(as in the original version).
It seems that the original were first translated into Old English prose
and then converted into poetry.
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Features of Old English poetry: (Third water)-

(1) Contains vocabulary that is distinctively poetic.
Example: giomor (sad).
(2) Relies on compound words a lot.
Example: sarewidas (sorrowful utterances).
(3) Repetition with variation is prevalent.
Example: cuðe (known) and uncuðre (unknown).
(4) Uses two-stress half -line structure and alliteration.
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©The vitality of the vernacular in Alfred’s reign had a lasting impact on

the use and development of the language.
- its association with court and intellectual activities granted it authority
and prestige and thus its acceptance was enabled as a literary
language.
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The Benedictine Reform

4th watershed
The transition from early West saxon to late West saxon was not
smooth. In the second half of tenth century, English monasteries
underwent reform.
- Texts were produced in the vernacular for educational purposes.
- The most significant focus of the linguistic scrutiny was the school of
Bishop Æthelwold at Winchester.
• A concentrated effort was made to establish a standard language.
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The conventions of this standard literary language were to be observed

as consistently as possible
• The literary language developed from the West Saxon dialect.
Its influence went beyond dialectal boundaries and created an early
supra-regional model of usage.
• A large number of surviving texts from the late tenth and early
eleventh centuries were written or revised with the conventions of
standard late West Saxon.
- The most prolific writer of the period, Ælfric, provided efforts to
achieve the linguistic standardization originated at Winchester.
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(he was probably taught by Æthelwold at his Winchester school.)

Ælfric lexical and grammatical choices, as well as his revisions of his

own earlier writings provide important evidence of attempts made to
standardized written Old English of that period.
Ælfric's lexical preference:
- his writing consists of words associated with Winchester school and
consistency is maintained in this case.
Example: ælframed instead of fremde (means foreign)
gelaðung instead of cirice (means Christian community)
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- Ælfric was also aware of the importance of a consistent grammatical

system. He wrote his own grammar designed to facilitate the learning
of Latin by English people. He wrote that grammar is the key which
unlocks the meaning of books.
-In the preface of his translation of 'Genesis" he addressed the pitfalls
of translating from Latin to English. • There are signs of correction and
alterations in Ælfric's works that show grammatical revision-
Punctuation:
● simple punctus (.) : used within sentence.
● punctus elevatus (.ʼ) : used within sentence.
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● punctus versus (;) : used at the end of sentence.

● punctus interrogativus : used elsewhere but not in the passage.
● - Capitals are mostly used at the beginning of a sentence (not
always).
- punctuation practice in Old English varied from one manuscript to
another (but all of them were the result of attempts to facilitate the
reading aloud of texts from manuscripts).
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Effects of Benedectine Reform on prose and poetry:

did not stimulate the composition of poetry in the same way as it did
that of prose. poetry too has been subject to the regularization process
which characterizes linguistic usage at that time.
The language of four main extant poetic codices is largely West saxon
with some non West saxon elements.
[the four main extant poetic codices: the Exeter Book, the Vercelli Book,
the Cædmon Manuscript, the Beowulf Manuscript]
the non West Saxon elements (grammatical and lexical) may have been
considered particularly appropriate to poetry.
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Similarities and differences between "Beowulf" and "The Battle of

Maldon':
● Considerable amount of variation is employed in both. Example-
Words for 'sword'' in Beowulf: mece, hildebille. Words for ‘sword’ in
"Battle of Maldon: mece, bill.
● Both make use of compound words. Beowulf: grægmæl (grey -
colored). Maldon: bruneccg (shiny-edged).
● Both are written mainly in late West Saxon. Example: - wur- instead
of -weor- (swurd) in "The Battle of Maldon" [It is a late west Saxon
characteristic]
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© Beowulf is less consistent than The Battle of Maldon because of its

popularity. Beowulf was copied several times by scribes of different
dialectal habits. Many words used in Beowulf do not conform to late
West Saxon. Example: gen (once more) is an Anglian word.

Norman Conquest- 5th watershed

-1066 AD
Anglo-Saxon England was shocked by cultural, social, and political
upheavals. The language of the invaders had an impact on Old English
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(spoken form was undergoing massive changes, but written language

remained for some time close to pre-Conquest late West Saxon).
- Most written works in this period were copies of earlier texts.
- There is little evidence of new composition.
- The Norman Conquest was recorded in the Peterborough Chronicle.
- part of an annal copied in anound 1121 AD (more than half a century
after the conquest) but the language was pretty much close to late
West Saxon. occasional orthographical inconsistencies indicate
ongoing linguistic changes. Example: the inflection -an instead of -or in
the past plural form “bohtan" (redeemed).
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but -on is there in ‘guldon'(paid), and 'sealdon’ (gave).

On the whole there is not much difference between the language and
the language written a century or more earlier on orthographical,
grammatical, and syntactical gnound.
The Peterborough Chronicle offers an example of a new composition in
English at that time.
- Language of the annals after 1121 reflects more closely the form of
English spoken by their scribes.
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characteristics of English in transitional phase (old to Middle English):

● Word order points to the grammatical function of words.
● There is no indication of case after prepositions. Example: mid te
king.
● The nominative masculine singular pronoun is pe (or te when it
occurs often d or t).
● The nominative feminine singular is scæ which is close to the
modern English equivalent she.
● The falling together of the accusative and dative forms in personal
pronouns (characteristic of Middle English). Example: brohten hire
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(brought her). [In old English, the direct object of brohten would have
been expressed by the accusative singular feminine form ‘hie' but
here the dative form is found].
● The form 'me' replaced the impersonal pronoun 'man' (one).
● The word 'king' is regularly spelt with ‘k’ which shows the Middle
English usage of 'k' rather than 'c’ before 'e’ , ‘i’ and ‘y’.
● Nouns show no inflection in singular.
● Inflection -es becomes common in plural. Examples - mid rapes-
(with ropes).
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● The -en inflection denotes past tense plural. Example: helden

(supported).
By the time a scribe known as tremulous hand (for his shaky
handwriting) was at work in the thirteenth century, the increasing
unfamiliarity with Old English made it virtually incomprehensible
without glosses on explanatory translations.