Old English
BIRTH OF A LANGUAGE
So, how old is Old English?
As old as 449AD – this is the year that many scholars
commonly agree on as the birth year of the English
language
About the time that the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
came to England to protect the Celts
after the Romans left
Important People
Alfred the Great King Cnut
Important People, continued
Edward the Confessor William of Normandy
Main Old English Dialects
Mercian – evolved into Middle English
West Saxon – language of King Alfred the Great;
language of most Old English literature
Northumbrian
Kentish
Major Linguistic Influences
Latin
Roman control from 55BC to 410AD
Scandinavian/Germanic
Anglo-Saxon presence beginning in 449AD
Viking invasions beginning in 850AD
French
William of Normandy in 1066AD
Some Celtic influence
Residual from Celts originally inhabiting Briton
The Power of the Church
Key Features of Old English
Continental long vowels
Sign system mixture of select runes and Roman (or
Latin) alphabet
Synthetic language – inflection (word endings)
determined function
Paratactic language – coordinating grammatical
structure (connect simple sentences with
conjunctions, such as “and”)
Sample of Old English
Fæder úre, ðú ðe eart on Father our thou that art in
heofonum, heavens
Sí ðín nama gehálgod. be thy name hallowed
Tó becume ðín rice. come thy kingdom
Gewurde ðín willa
On eorþan swá swá on be-done thy will
heofonum. on earth as in heavens
Urne dægwhamlícan hlaf syle our daily bread give us today
ús tódæg. and forgive us our sins
And forgyf ús úre gyltas,
as we forgive those-who-
Swá swá wé forgyfaþ úrum
have-sinned-against-us
gyltendum.
And ne gelæd ðu ús on and not lead thou us into
costnunge, temptation
Ac álýs ús of yfele. Sóþlice. but deliver us from evil. truly