Old English

SEMINAR 1

1. The origin and position of English

English belongs to the Low West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. This
means in the first place that it shares certain characteristics common to all the Germanic
languages. For example, it shows:
 the shifting of certain consonants under the head of Grimm’s Law.

2. The Germanic Languages. Grimm’s Law

Latin Old Present-Day Correspondences
English English
Piscis Fisc Fish p/f
Tres Þreo Three t/th
Centum Hund Hundred k/h
Genus Cynn Kin g/k
Decem Tien Ten d/t

- in 1822 a German philologist, Jacob Grimm, following up the suggestion of a

Danish contemporary, Rask, formulated an explanation which systematically
accounted for the correspondences between certain consonants in the Germanic
languages and those found for example in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. His
explanation, although subsequently modified and in some of the details of its
operation still a subject of dispute, is easily illustrated.
- According to Grimm, a p in Indo-European, preserved as such in Latin and Greek,
was changed to an f in the Germanic languages. Thus, we should look for the
English equivalent of Latin piscis or pēs to begin with an f, and this is what we
actually find in fish and foot respectively.
- What is true of p is also true of t and k: in other words, the original voiceless stops
(p, t, k) were changed to spirants (f, þ, h). So Latin trēs = English three, Latin
centum = English hundred.
- A similar correspondence can be shown for certain other groups of consonants:
the aspirates (bh, dh, gh which some hold to have been really spirants) became
voiced spirants (v, ð, ʒ) or voiced stops (b, d, g).
- Consequently Sanskrit bhárāmi = English bear, Sanskrit dhā = English do, Latin
hostis (*ghostis) = English guest. Latin hortus = English yard, etc.
- The original voiced stops (b, d, g) changed to voiceless ones (p, t, k) in the
Germanic languages, so that Latin cannabis = English hemp, Latin decem =
English ten, Latin genu = English knee.
 - In High German some of these consonants underwent a further change, known as
the Second or High German Sound-Shift. It accounts for such differences as we
see in English open and German offen, English eat and German essen.
The formulation of all these correspondences is known as Grimm’s Law. The
cause of the change is not known. It must have taken place sometime after the
segregation of the Germanic from the neighbouring dialects of the parent language. There
are words in Finnish borrowed from Germanic which do not show the change, and which
therefore must have resulted from a contact between Germanic and Finnish before the
change occurred. There is also evidence that the shifting was still occurring as late as
about the fifth century B.C. It is often assumed that the change was due to contact with a
non-Germanic population. The contact could have resulted from the migration of the
Germanic tribes or from the penetration of a foreign population into Germanic territory.
Whatever its cause, the Germanic sound-shift is the most distinctive feature marking off
the Germanic languages from the languages to which they are related.
Certain apparent exceptions to Grimm’s Law were subsequently explained by
Karl Verner and others. It was noted that between such a pair of words as Latin centum
and English hundred the correspondence between c and h was according to the rule, but
that between t and d was not. The d in the English word should have been a voiceless
spirant, that is, a þ. In 1875 Verner showed that when the Indo-European accent was not
on the vowel immediately preceding, such voiceless spirants became voiced in Germanic.
In West Germanic the resulting ð became a d, and the word hundred is therefore quite
regular in its correspondence to centum. The explanation was of importance in accounting
or the forms of the preterite tense in many strong verbs. Thus, in Old English, the
preterite singular of cweþan (to say) is ic cwæþ but the plural is we cwǽdon. In the latter
word the accent was originally on the ending, as it was in the past participle (cweden),
where we also have a d. The formulation of this explanation is known as Verner’s Law,
and it was of great importance in vindicating the claim of regularity for the sound
changes which Grimm’s Law had attempted to define.
  Old English possess a “weak” as well as a “strong” declension of the adjective
and a distinctive type of conjugation of the verb – the so-called weak or regular
verbs such as fill, filled, filled, which form their past tense and past participle by
adding –ed or some analogous sound to the stem of the present. It shows the
adoption of a strong stress accent on the first or root syllable of most words (this
is obscured in Modern English by the large number of words borrowed from
Latin). This is a feature of great importance in Germanic languages, since it is
chiefly responsible for the progressive decay of inflections in these languages. In
the second place it means that English belongs with German and certain other
languages because of features which it has in common with them and which
enable us to distinguish a West Germanic group as contrasted with the
Scandinavian languages (North Germanic) and Gothic (East Germanic). These
features have to do mostly with certain phonetic changes, especially the
germination or doubling of consonants under special conditions, matters which
we do not need to enter upon here. And it means, finally, that English, along with
the other languages of Northern Germany and the Low Countries, did not
participate in the further modification of certain consonants, known as the Second
or High German Sound-Shift. In other words it belongs with the dialects of the
lowlands in the West Germanic area.

3. The periods in the history of English.

The evolution of English in the fifteen hundred years of its existence in England
has been an unbroken one. Within this development, however, it is possible to recognize
three main periods. Like all in history, the periods of the English language are matters of
convenience and the dividing lines between them purely arbitrary. There is no break in
the process of continuous transition. But within each of the periods it is possible to
recognize certain broad characteristics and certain special developments that take place.
1. The period from 450 to 1150 is known as Old English. It is sometimes described
as the period of full inflections, since during most of this period the endings of the
noun, the adjective, and the verb are preserved more or less unimpaired.
2. From 1150 to 1500 the language is known as Middle English. (Some of the
developments which distinguish Middle English begin as early as the tenth
century, but a consideration of the matter as a whole justifies the date 1150 as the
general line of demarcation.) During this period the inflections, which had begun
to break down towards the end of the Old English period, become greatly
reduced, and it is consequently known as the period of leveled inflections.
3. The language since 1500 is called Modern English. By the time we reach this
stage in the development a large part of the original inflectional system has
disappeared entirely and we therefore speak of it as the period of lost inflections.
The progressive decay of inflections is only one of the developments which mark
the evolution of English and its various stages.
4. The dialects of Old English.

Old English was not an entirely uniform language. Not only are there differences
between the language of the earliest written records (about A.D. 700) and that of the later
literary texts, but the language differed somewhat from one locality to another. We can
distinguish four dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon, and Kentish. Of these the
Northumbrian and Mercian are found in the region north of the Thames settled by the
Angles. They possess certain features in common and are sometimes known collectively
as Anglian. But Northumbrian – spoken north of the Humber River – and Mercian spoken
between the Humber and the Thames, each possess certain distinctive features as well.
Unfortunately we know less about them than we should like since they are preserved
mainly in charters, runic inscriptions, a few brief fragments of verse and some interlinear
translations of portions of the Bible.
Kentish is known from still scantier remains, as is the dialect of the Jutes and their
probable associates in the southeast. The only dialect in which there is an extensive
collection of texts is West Saxon, which was the dialect of the West Saxon kingdom in the
southwest. Nearly all of Old English literature is preserved in manuscripts transcribed in
this region. The dialects probably reflect differences already present in the continental
homes of the invaders. There is evidence, however, that some features developed in
England after the settlement. With the ascendancy of the West Saxon kingdom, the West
Saxon dialect attained something of the position of a literary standard, and both for this
reason and because of the abundance of the materials it is made the basis of the study of
Old English. Such a start as it had made toward becoming the standard speech of England
was cut short by the Norman Conquest, which reduced all dialects to a common level of
unimportance. And when in the Middle English period a standard English once more
began to arise, it was on the basis of a different dialect.

5. Analytic versus Synthetic

OLD ENGLISH versus MODERN ENGLISH
Some differences
Synthetic/ Analytic

1. This is the paradigm of the Old English demonstrative pronoun which also played the part of the
demonstrative pronoun. In what way does it differ from the paradigm of the demonstrative pronoun
and the definite article in Modern English?

Demonstrative “that”, definite article in Old English

Case Masc sing Neuter sing Feminine sing Pl., All Genders
Nom. se, se Þæt Seo þa
Acc. Þone Þæt Þa þa
Gen. Þæs Þæs Þære þæra
Dat. Þæm Þæm Þære þæm
Inst. Þy Þy, þon

Generalization:
2. Compare the following nouns in Modern English to the following nouns in Old English. What is the
main difference between the two regarding the classification of nouns?

Modern English Old English

the woman se wifmann
the moon se mona
the arm se earm
the lady seo hlæfdige
the sun seo sunne
the woman Þæt wif
the land Þæt land
the egg Þæt æg

Generalization:
3. Here are three types of declension of nouns in Old English. In what way do they differ from their
Modern English counterparts?
Masculine Masculine pl Neuter sg Long stem Neuter pl Long stem
sg Short stem neut neut
N stān stānas scip land scipu land

Acc stān stānas scip land scipu land

G stānes stāna scipes landes scipa landa

D stāne stānum scipe lande scipum landum

N Fot fet nama nama

Acc Fot fet naman nama

G Fotes fota naman namena

D Fet fotum naman Namum