Old English
By: Matt Pearson
History
• Before 7th-11th century
• Germanic language
• Brought to England by Germanic tribes
• Germanic tribes conquered England
• Germanic languages take over
Spelling
• Some words are the same. Ex: he, of, him,
for, and, on
• Many words are similar. Ex: nama to
name, wære to were, wæs to was
• It is hard to read unless well learned in the
field.
• It often used runic letters.
Grammar
• Used inflections
• Used gender, number, case
• Modern rarely uses these anymore. Ex:
-ing, -ed
• Used endings to identify, similar to Latin
Word Order
• Noun-verb-adverb inverted
• Ex: “Then said he”
• Often present in Middle English, and
sometimes in Modern
• Modern often uses supplementary verbs
when inverted
Works
• Most works of the day were written in Latin
• Many more works in Old English than
other languages of the time
• Ex: Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Battle of
Maldon, The Seafarer
Works Cited
"The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language." Western
Michigan University. 2003. Web. 31 Aug. 2009.
.
Killoran, Niall. "Old English / Anglo-Saxon (Englisc)."
Omniglot. Simon Ager, 2009. Web. 31 Aug. 2009.
.
"What are the origins of the English Language?" Merriam-
Webster Online. Merriam-Webster, 2009. Web. 31 Aug.
2009. .