UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

WHY STUDING THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH?

PRELIMINARIES

 How did the English language develop?

 Are the criteria for periodizations of languages “natural” criteria?
 What are the general attitudes toward language change?
 Think of examples of discourse markers which meet disapproval
 What about your language? How did it develop/change? What sort of
prejudices does language change meet in your country?

LANGUAGE CHANGE
 Languages change across history, across regions and across situations.
 Intuitively, we recognize the facility with which languages undergo variation.
 The study of how language changes belong to the realm of sociolinguistics.
 Language change takes place through the interaction of individuals in specific
contexts.

DIVISIONS FOR HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 Old English (OE) between, ca, 450/700-1066
o Primitive OE (449-700)
o Early OE (700-900)
o Late OE (900-1066)
 Middle English (ME) between ca. 1066 and 1500
o Early Middle English (1066-1300)
o Late Middle English (1300-1500)
 Modern English (ME) between 1500 and 1900
o Early Modern English (1500-1700)
o Late Modern English (1700-1900)
 Present Day English (PDE) 1900 until today

WHY STUDYING THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 We may understand languages in more general terms.

 It is intellectually engaging.
 We may appreciate the richness of the English language.
 We get to understand how some words have changed their meanings
(awesome, gay, villain, etc.).
 We appreciate current grammar patterns (irregular verbs/regular verbs,
irregular plurals/regular plurals).
 SVO and OVS structures.
  Irregularities of English phonology (GVS, writing standard, etc.).
 We may appreciate links between society and language (language is a central
instrument for organization). Languages are organized into communities of
speech. Social and speech evolutions tend to take place alongside each other.
Innovations are accepted by communities. Historical factors enter into the fray.

THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

A. LEXIS AND SEMANTICS

 LEXIS
o Choice of vocabulary from language word-stock.
o Inventory of English words is large (synonyms, close synonyms,
regionality…).
o Changes in words mean changes in meaning (e.g., best vs. Vest,
book vs. Cook, etc.).
 SEMANTICS
o Branch of linguistics which studies meanings of words.
o Words change meaning over time; this may be due to the
different operations of semantic change.
o In close connection, pragmatics is the study of the function of
language in social context. It covers a wide range of topics (e.g.,
communicative intention, underlying beliefs…).
o Semantics (literal meaning of words); pragmatics (non-literal
meanings of words).
B. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
 PHONETICS: provides objective ways of describing and analysing the
range of sounds human use in their languages. Articulatory phonetics
identifies precisely which speech organs and muscles are involved in
producing the different sounds in the world’s languages.
 PHONOLOGY: it deals with those characteristic sounds of one language
that makes them different from those of another language. It is the
study of patterns of sound within and across language. Phonology is
language-specific selection and organisation of sounds to signal
meanings. Phonologists are interested in the sound patterns of
particular languages, and in what speakers and hearers need to know,
and children need to learn to be speakers of these languages.
C. MORPHOLOGY
 It is the structure, form, or variation in form of a Word or words in a
language.
 Morphology is concerned with parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs,
adverbs, demonstratives, etc.) and how they interact with one another.
  If words are analysed, we discover that they are made up of smaller
parts (morphemes) and they may be monomorphemic (one morpheme)
or polymorphemic (more than one morpheme).
 Morphemes have two features:
o They must be identifiable.
o They must contribute to the meaning of the whole Word.
 Definition: Morphemes are defined as meaningful morphological units
of a language that cannot be further subdivided (e.g., not, be, you, etc.).
 Morphemes and words could grammatical or ungrammatical.
 Morphemes are dependent on context (past, present, etc. depend on
whole utterance).
 Types of morphology:
o Inflectional morphology: it deals with inflected forms of words
on the basis of grammatical context.
o Derivational morphology: it allows the speaker/writer to create
new words by adding affixes.
IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE…
 There are processes by means of which inflections are lost (ME he
sayeth  EModE he says).
 Inventory of derivational suffixes may be enlarged due to language
contact (e.g., French nominal suffixes enter the English language after
the Norman Conquest).
D. SYNTAX
 Syntax is the set of rules and principles in a language according to which
words, phrases and clauses are arranged to create well-formed
sentences and the analysis or study of such principles.
 We are aware of these rules at different moments in our life:
o When we learn out mother tongue
o When we learn a second language
 In all cases we look for rules under which we can create utterances in
the target language.
 Rules involve different linguistic levels:
o Sound system.
o Internal structure of words.
o How words are combined into clauses.
 Functional syntax
o Syntax creates slots where certain information is inserted
(Subject + Verb + Object)
o It creates routines so that speakers know what to expect
depending on the verb employed
 o Syntax may help speaker/writer to focus the attention of the
hearer/reader by using passive voice. This is achieved, for
instance…
o Syntax reveals how language has evolved in terms of Word
order, tense, etc.
o The English language has shifted from SOV to SVO
o Verbs can show different preferences when combining with
prepositions
o How clauses can be strung together to form long stretches of
discourse in such a way that hearers keep track of what we want
to communicate.

FOUR LEVELS OF LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION

SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC CONSIDERATIONS

A. DIACHRONIC APPROACHES
 Diachronic derives from Greek dia- ‘through’ + chronos ‘time’
 A diachronic approach considers the development of and evolution of
language through history, i.e., through the different periods

B. SYNCHRONIC APPROACHES
 Language is only considered at one specific point in time, disregarding
its whole history.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FORCES IN LANGUAGE CHANGE

A. INTERNALLY MOTIVATED CHANGES

B. EXTERNALLY MOTIVATED CHANGES

 Any variation in a language which can be connected with the
community or society using that language.
 It has to do with how society uses language.
 These changes are more difficult to predict.

DO WE WRITE THE WAY WE SPEAK, OR SPEAK THE WAY WE WRITE?

 Verbal speech generally uses unstructured phrases and sentences / Written

texts tend to be more planned and focused.
 Oral speech tends to be more informal.
 But different types of speech and writing will require different degrees of
formality.
 Some speeches are hybrid or half-way between speech and writing.

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

 We only have written texts unless the texts are contemporary (the invention of
the phonograph in 1877 changed this).
 Language change takes place in oral speech first, so this change may not be
reflected in documents.
 Thus, the first time we find that a specific language change has taken place, we
will be looking into the first written evidence of such change.

PLUS…

 We do not have written records of all stages of the language (e.g., Indo-
European).

 In these cases, we work with reconstructions.

  We have Access to a small number of texts; additionally, we have Access to a
small number of text types.
 The data may be biased: Only educated religious men could handle texts.
Therefore, only the interests of this group could be captured in these
manuscripts.

ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARIES AND HISTORICAL CORPORA

A. ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARIES
 Meanings and etymology (origin)
 Meanings no longer in use
 OED
 Accepted authority
 600,000 words
 Combines PDE meanings and uses of historical periods
 Started in 1857, Philological Society of London–extensive dictionary –
fascicles 1884-1928
 Updating via supplements (1936-1986
 1992, CD-ROM edition
B. ELEMENTS IN OED
 Entry
 Pronunciation
 Inflections
 Forms
 Frequency
 Origin
 Etymology
 Meanings in chronological order
C. LINGUISTIC CORPORA
 Linguistic corpus (corpora) is a collection of data, written texts or a
transcription of recorded speech, which may be used as a starting point
of linguistic description or a means of verifying hypotheses about a
language (Crystal 2008, p. 117).
 Corpora may be representative of authors, topics or types of texts,
varieties of English, more general, etc.
D. CORPORA
 Shakespeare Corpus
 Coronavirus Corpus
 The TV Corpus
 Corpus of Early English Correspondence
 British National Corpus
  Corpus of Contemporary American English
 Global Web-Based English
 A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers
 Helsinki Corpus of English Texts

UNIT 2: BEFORE OLD ENGLISH: INDO-EUROPEAN DAMILIES AND

GERMANIC FAMILIES: ORIGINS OF ENGLISH
ORIGINS OF LANGUAGES

 Seemingly, we acquired the capacity to use languages 145,000 years ago when
both our organs of speech and our brain changed, allowing production of
language (Rodríguez-Abruñeiras & Romero-Barranco, p. 35).
 We don’t have Access to early records.
 The option we have is to apply comparative reconstruction or comparative
methods.

INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES

 The historical periods for the history of English may lead to the impression that
the language has a specific origin.
 We could have started the diachronic account before OE-
 The English, the Germanic and a number of European (and Asian) languages
have common origins.
 Indo-European family (prev. Aryan) of languages (geographical extent)
 Ten groups:
o Albanian
o Anatolian
o Armenian
o Baltic
o Celtic
o Germanic
o Hellenic
o Indo-Iranian
o Italic
o Slavic

CIRCUMSTANCES OF INDO-EUROPEAN

 Speakers already divided.

 Scattered.
 Speakers have lost knowledge of common origin.
  No written record of Indo-European language; yet, it possible to form fair idea
of it and make plausible reconstructions.
 Degrees of similarity to one another.
 Such similarity bears a more or less direct relationship to geographic
distribution.

PROTO-INDOEUROPEAN (PIE)

 These started to diverse and developed as new varieties towards 3500-2500 BC

(Baugh and Cable 1993).
 Risky to talk about definitive dates (Dixon 1997).
 Also, Proto-Italic, Proto-Germanic, etc.
 Sir William Jones (1786)–bases for nineteenth century comparatists proposals
which presuppose common European proto-language through Indo-European.
 Jones observes affinities between them.
 Franz Bopp and Rasmus Rask corroborate Jones’ findings.

WILLIAM JONES (1789)

“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more

perfect than the Greek, more copious [having more cases] than the Latin, and more
exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in
the roots of the verbs and in the forms of the grammar, than could possibly have been
produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all
three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which,
perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason ... for supposing that both the
Gothic and the Celtic ... had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and the old Persian
might be added to the same family.”

Pattern:
 /p/  /f/ in English
 /t/  /θ/ in English (spelt þ in OE)
 /k/ and Sanskrit /s/ (with accent, originally)  /h/ in English

COGNATES
  Words from different languages that share a common source (i.e., which are
etymologically related). They tend to be similar, but are not necessarily
identical, in meaning. They may show differences in form due to the effect of
sound changes undergone in their own languages (Rodríguez-Abruñeiras &
Romero-Barranco, p. 37)

Sanskrit bh, Greek ph, English b and Latin f

 When initial and (in this case) b when medial.

 Bh (aspirated in Sanskrit).

Verb ‘to be’ in some European languages

 These similarities cannot be judged accidental

 Common basic vocabulary (cognates–one, two, three; nouns–father, mother,
eye, foot; verbs–sit, be, bind, etc.).
 Present day Spanish, Russian, Greek, English share common origin.

INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES

A. HITTITE
B. TOCHARIAN
C. INDIAN
 Oldest literary texts.
 Vedas or sacred books of India: Rigveda (hymns), Atharvaveda
(incantations and ritual formulas).
 Sanskrit language (1500 BC?).
 Prose writings:
o Directions for the ritual, theological commentary (Brahamanas).
o Meditations for the for the use of recluses (Aranyakas).
o Philosophical speculations (Upanishads).
o Rules concerning aspects of religious and private life (Sutras).
 Extended outside religion–Classical Sanskrit used in Maharabharata and
Ramayana (didactic and lyrical poetry).
 Local dialects (Prakïts, …), many of which reached literary forms.
 Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Maharati.

D. IRANIAN
 Associated to Indian branch.
 Both groups have linguistic elements in common.
 A group settled in Iranian area, the other continues towards India.
 Yet, Iranian languages have travelled to Russia, China, etc.
 Subjected to semitic influence.
 Many early texts in Semitic scripts.
 Languages: Avestan (sacred book of Zoroastrians) and Old Persian
(cuneiform inscriptions, conquests by Darius and Xerxes).
 Behistan trilingual inscription (Persian, Assyrian and Elamite) in Media,
besides representation of Darius with prisoners.
 Modern languages: Persian/Farsi, others.
 There are still connections between the Sanskrit and the Iranian
language.
 The Iranian used their own alphabet to write some of their writings
 Some of those texts were written in stones.

E. ARMENIAN
 Small area of the Caucasus Mountains (end of Black Sea).
 Armenians enter area 8th-6th centuries BC through Balkans and
Hellespont.
 They conquered the area; the language of invaded ones may have
influenced Armenian phonology and accent.
 Armenian lacks grammatical gender.
 Not connected to other members of Indo-European group (maybe
connected to unknown Phrygian and Macedonian).
 Known from 5th-centry AD through Biblical translations.
 Contact with Semitic languages, Greek, Turkish, etc.
 They lose the grammatical gender. There is a tendency of simplification
in the Armenian language.

F. HELLENEIC
  Aegean occupied by different groups.
 Greek mainland, Cyprus, Lemnos, Asia Minor, Crete.
 Inscriptions in Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages.
 2,000 BC Eastern Mediterranean dominated by Semitic people
(Phoenicians).
 Greeks penetrate from North in 2,000 BC.
 Earliest literature: Homer (8th-century BC).
 Dialectal groups: Ionic, Aeloic, Arcadian, Doric, Attic (supremacy of
Athens).
 Great writers of Greece (Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Sappho,
Herodotus, Thucydides, etc.) and philosophers.
 The Baltic dialect was spoken in Athens.
 Koiné: a cultural unit. The concept of Koiné appeared as a consequence
of the supremacy of a culture, a political movement.

G. ALBANIAN
 Northwest of Greece on eastern coast of Adriatic.
 Small language branch.
 Modern remnant of Illyrian language spoken in ancient times in Balkans.
 Our knowledge extends back to 5th-century AD.
 Vocabulary mixed with Latin, Greek, Tukish, Slavonic elements–difficult
to isolate original Albanian.
 Slow to be recognized as an Indo-European language.
 Initially classes as part of the Hellenic.

H. ITALIC
 The Italic language was imposed across the country.
 Italic rights in the Roman empire: the citizens of a country that has been
conquered by the roman empire had the right of being considered a
Roman citizen.
 Latin was only one of the languages one found in Italy.
 Agreeable climate invited settlement, later population represents
remarkably diverse culture.
 Sixth-century before our era–a number of languages.
 Etruscan (non-Indo-European; from Tiber north); Ligurian (north-
western Italy), Venetic (north-east); Messapian (extreme southeast),
Greek (Southern Italy and Sicily); Latin (Latium); Oscan (Samnites, most
of Southern peninsula)–all Indo-European.
 Latin takes over all (due to political influence of Rome).
 Latin spread through Europe, but Spain, Gaul, district west of Black Sea,
northern Africa, islands of Mediterranean, Britain.

I. BALTO-SLAVIC
 Eastern part of Europe.
 Two groups: Baltic, Slavic.
 Baltic languages: Prussian (extinct), Latvian (Latvia), Lithuanian
(Lithuania).
  Said that Sanskrit could be understood (close to original?).
 Practically identical until 7-8th centuries.
 Earliest form of Slavic: Biblical texts translated by missionaries Cyril and
Methodius (9th century).
 Balto-Slavic later division:
o East Slavic: Russian, Belorussian (Belarus, adjacent parts of
Polonia), Ukrainian (Ukraine)–distance from Russian despite
common origin (dialects).
o West Slavic: Polish (Poland), Czech, Slovak, Sorbian (Dresden,
Germany).
o South Slavic: Bulgarian (influenced by Turkish), Serbian, Croatian,
Slovene, modern Macedonian.

J. GERMANIC
 It’s difficult to find the origin of the Germanic languages.
 Germanic or Proto-Germanic (common form).
 Reconstructed by philologists.
 Three groups:
o East Germanic:
 Gothic–3rd century–Goths spread from Vistula to Black
Sea; Christianized by Ulfilas; translations of Gospels; they
conquer part of Western Europe; their language gives
place to Latin–Gothic survives in Crimea.
 Burgundian.
 Vandalic.
o North Germanic:
 Where? Scandinavia, Denmark, Iceland, Faroe Islands.
 Runic inscriptions from 3rd century.
 Dialectal differences are noticeable around 11th century
on.
 Eastern group: Swedish, Danish.
 Western group: Norwegian, Icelandic.
o West Germanic:
 High and Low German.
 Sound shift described by Grimm’s Law.
 Low German: Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, Old Frisian,
Old English.
 High German: Middle, Renish, East Franconian, Bavarian,
Alemannic, etc.
 High German popularized by Luther’s translation of Bible
(1522-1532).
 16th-century–High German established as literary
language of Germany.

K. CELTIC
ROMANCE LANGUAGES
 Most extensive: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian.
 French: Norman, Picard, Burgundian, Ile-de-France (Capetians  dialect of
Paris or the Ile-de-France won recognition, 13th-century standard). North
(langue d’oil)/South (langue d’oc/Provençal) division.
 Peninsula of Iberia: Spanish and Portuguese (close), Catalan (also in France and
Italy), Galician, etc.
 Italian (Latin language as spoken in the streets of Rome).
 Romanian (easternmost of Roman languages; influence of Roman legions in
ancient Dacia).
 Dozen languages spoken in smaller populations (Rhaeto-Romanic group in
South-eastern Switzerland–Romansch, dialects with Germanic elements…),
Walloon (dialect of French in Belgium).
 Not derived from Classical Latin, but from Vulgar Latin.
 Simpler in inflection and syntax, divergent in vocabulary.
 Equus  caballus, cheval, caval, caballo, caballo.
 Pugna  battualia, bataille, etc.
 Urbs  villa.
 Mouth  bucca, bouche, boca.
 Verberare  battuere, battre.
 Osculari  basiare, baiser.
 Ignis  focus, feu, foc.
 Ludus  jocus, jeu, juego, joc.

GUSTAV GRÖBER OBSERVES:

 Vulgar Latin was in constant change.
  Because Roman provinces were established at different times and the language
carried into them would be more or less the spoken language in the streets of
Rome, there would be initial differences between Latin of different colonies.
 Separation and influence of languages spoken by populations.
 Belgae and Celts in Gaul, Iberians in Spain, etc.
 We may observe a single parent speech, though.

WHO WERE THE INDO-EUROPEANS

 Wide ethnic diversity.
 Period: 3500-2500 BC.
 Before 19th-century, customary to assume an Asiatic home for family (Sanskrit
in Asia, closest to parent speech; invasions of Huns, Turks, etc.).
 Westward movement hypothesis–but slender basis.
 Certain assumptions: common words for Winter and cold (cold), common Word
for sea, etc.
 Harold H. Bender.
 Words: Cold, oak, beech, pine, birch, willow, bear, sheep, goat, pig, dog, Eagle,
hawk, owl, jay, wild goose, wild duck, partidge, pheasant, snake, tortoise, crab,
ant, bee.

CENTUM AND SATEM LANGUAGES

 Centum group: Hellenic, Italic, Germanic and Celtic.
 Satem group: Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Albanian.
 Cleavage from which dispersion eastward and westward might have taken
place.

PROTO-GERMANIC (PGmc)
 Hypothetical original common language of later Germanic languages–
unattested.
 Single group would have lasted from 500 BC to AD 200.
 Treat tree diagrams with caution.

TAMMBAUM THEORY
Sees “genetic relationships amongst languages and the similarities and differences
amongst them, if they are related, as regular and systematic, that is, reducible to rule”
(Fennell, 2001, p. 18).

WELLENTHEORIE (‘WAVE THEORY’)

 Distrusts tree models.
 A language may continue historical existence at a later date while being
ancestor of a new dialect or language (e.g., Afrikaans came from Dutch).
 Divergence between closely related languages (e.g., Frisian and English) is the
result of independent developments stemming from individual languages and
consequence of their more specific social and contact histories.

WHAT ABOUT THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN YOUR COUNTRY?

A. GERMANIC TEXTS
 Earliest Germanic texts–runic inscriptions.
 A common Germanic period lasts until second century BC.
 Splits through successive migrations.
 Grimm’s Law–innovation.
 Jacob Grimm, German scholar, shows…

B. CONONANTAL SHIFT- GRIMM’S LAW

 Grimm shows the systematic correspondences between certain

consonants in the earliest stages of Germanic languages and those of
other members of the IE family (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, etc.).
 Examples shown:
o Voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/ become voiceless fricatives /f/,
/θ/, /h/
o Voiced stops /b/, /d/, /g/ became /p/, /t/, /k/
o /bh/, /dh/, /gh/ became /b/, /d/, /g/

INNOVATIONS THAT SET PGmc APART FROM PIE ANCESTOR

 A. PHONOLOGICAL
 First consonantal shift: shift of PIE consonants as described above
(complemented by Verner’s Law).
 Modification of IE vowels: vowel mergers and hence reduction.
 Stress shift: in earlier PIE, stress could fall on any syllable; now regularly
on first syllable of lexical root, ignoring prefixes.

B. MORPHO-SYNTACTIC FEATURES

C. LEXICAL FEATURES
 Kinship terms: fater, mother.
 Basic verbs: be, lie, eat.
 Natural phenomena: sun, moon.
 Body parts: foot, head.
 Basic adjectives: long, red.
 Cognate elements for common grammatical concepts such as
interrogative and negative forms.
 Inherited from Indo-European.

LATIN WORDS IN GERMANIC

WORDS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN

Bath, black, bless, blood, boat, body, bone, bride, broad, child, dear, drink, drive, earl,
eel, evil, finger, game, gate, ground, hand, oar, rat, rise, sea, soul, theft, womb.
 Suggestion: specific areas of endeavour; coincidence with introduction of
technologies.

UNIT 3
OLD ENGLISH CONTEXT
LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN ENGLAND BEFORE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
 Introduction of English in Britain (5th-century)
 It has existed (in records) for 1,500 years
 Britain had been inhabited by humans already (250,000-50,000 years)
 A number of cultures have been identified according to archaeological
evidence–each of these used language
 What is known about the languages spoken in Britain before the development
of English?

HOW DO WE OBTAINED EVIDENCES?

 Archaeological research.
 Types of material culture.

FEATURES OF EARY INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN

 Before discovery of metals, human societies were dependent upon Stone for
the fabrication of such implements and weapons as they possessed.
 Stone Age–lasted until 2000 BC–the English used some of these old weapons in
Hastings (1066).
 Stone  bronze  iron (600-500 BC.
 We distinguish two broad periods in Stone Age: Palaeolithic and Neolithic.

PALEOLITHIC HUMANS
 Earliest inhabitants entered when Britain was part of the continent–North Sea
was an enlarged river basin.
 People short of stature, averaging five feet, long-armed, short-legged, low
foreheads, poorly developed chins.
 They lived in the open, under rock shelters, later in caves.
 Dependent upon wild vegetation and animals, fish, game.
 Weapons  sledge, ax, ax and handle.
 Artistic skill.
 Representations of boars, mastodons, pieces of bones or walls of caves.
 No evidence about their language.
NEOLITHIC
 People who, from about 5,000 BC, possess a superior kind of Stone (higher
culture).
 Southern population seems to predominate–slightly higher stature, presumably
of Mediterranean origins, technologically more advanced, domestication of
animals, agriculture, crude pottery, little weaving, crannogs –see picture–, etc.
 Burials of the death (mounds or barrows, oval in shape).
 Not artistically gifted (like Palaeolithic types).
 Their language hasn’t survived.
 Hopes of reconstructing language  finding remnants of culture of people who
still spoke that language.
 Not plausible in England.
 In Spain  Basques–language which shows no affiliation with any other
language now known.
 The Basque language may provide clues to the language of at least one group
of in the Neolithic cultures of Europe.

CELTS
 First linguistic evidence.
 Seemingly, their arrival coincides with development of bronze.
 Two divisions: Galiec/Goidelic and Brythonic branches.
 Possibly first Indo-European tongue used in England; later, Latin.
 Latin is introduced when Britain becomes a province of the Roman Empire.

THE ROMAN INVASION (JULIUS CAESAR)

 Summer 55 BC Julius Caesar attempts invasion after conquest of Gaul.
 Purpose? Discourage Celts of Britain to assist Celts of Gaul.
 Almost disastrous expedition; second attempt follows.
 Problems with transport and resistance of Celts.
 Landing–but soon return to Gaul.
 He succeeded but didn’t strike terror in Britons.

THE ROMAN CONQUEST (CLAUDIUS)

 AD 43.
 Claudius undertakes conquest.
 He doesn’t underestimate problem–40,000 strong.
 Three years to subjugate central and south eastern regions.
 Campaigns bring England under Roman rule.
 Boudicca (AD 61).
 Agricola (AD 78-85)–northern frontier to Solway and Tyne.
 Never went into Wales or Scotland.
 Protected northern boundary with Stone Wall.
 Southern district under Roman rule for 300 years.
  Uprising of Boudicca (AD 61), 70,000 Romans and Romanized Britons
massacred at Colchester.

ROMANIZATION OF BRITAIN
 Highways spread from London to north, southwest, west, southwest, another
cuts across island from Lincoln to Severn, plus lesser roads.
 Small cities and towns with Roman houses, baths, temples, theatres.

ROMANIZATION
 Houses equipped with heating, water supplies, mosaic, walls painted with
stucco.
 Roman dress, Roman ornaments, utensils, pottery, glassware.
 3rd-century Christianity enters.
 AD 314 bishops from London and York attend church Council in Gaul.

LATIN LANGUAGE
 Inscriptions.
 Military and official class (upper classes).
 These evidences aren’t indicators of wide use of Latin amongst native
population.
 Latin did not replace Celtic language.
 Occasional graffiti suggest that localities Latin was used by artisans.
 Outside cities well-to-do citizens lived; they spoke Latin.
 Tacitus tells us that Britons began to speak the invaders’ language.
 AD 96 Martial says that his works were read in Britain.
 It was spoken but not sufficiently (Baugh and Cable, p. 43).
 410–decline of Latin (although Germanic peoples used traces).
 Last Roman legions were withdrawn.

THE GERMANIC CONQUEST

 AD 449–Germanic tribes enter.
 Founders of English nation.
 Bands of conquerors and settlers from Denmark, Low Countries; established
themselves in south and east; extended to highlands.
 Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Bede the Venerable (731).
 Germanic tribes: Angles and Jutes (Danish Peninsula), Saxons (between Elbe
and Ems), Frisians (smaller group).

DEVELOPMENT OF INVASIONS
 Saxon attacks (early 4th-century).
 Appoint Count of the Saxon Shore–duty to police south-Eastern coast.
 Picts and Scots (north).
 Celts had settled peacefully; when Romans left in 410, at a disadvantage.
  They called upon Rome for aid; refusals of assistance.
 Vortigern, Celtic leader, made agreement with Jutes to drive out Picts and
Scots–Reward Isle of Thanet (north-eastern tip of Kent).

SUCCESSION OF INVASIONS
 Jutes pushed Picts and Scots out.
 But decided to stay–fortified Kent.
 Settlement on lands of the Celts (unlike Romans)–resistance (but Celts were
crushed).
 Other tribes followed suit.
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle–Sussex, Wessex, Anglia, Essex, Middlesex.

ANGLO-SAXON CIVILIZATION
 Probably Saxons and Celts peacefully coexisted (resistance in the West; others
migrated to Britany).
 Celts, nonetheless, destroyed.
 Roman towns burned and abandoned.
 Town life didn’t attract population.
 New society: families and clans, eorls (hereditary aristocracy) and ceorls
(freemen).
 Business of community organized through local assemblies.
 Wergilds (fines)–varied according to nature of crime.
 Guilt determined by ordeal or compugnation.
 Some tribes combined > Result heptarchy.

HEPTARCHY
 Grouping nor permanent.
 Alliances shifted.
 Political supremacy shifted (Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex in 9th-century).
 All chieftains acknowledged Egbert’s rule.
 Not a united kingdom, but West Saxon kings were regarded as Kings of the
English.
 Alfred (871-889)–Wessex attains high degree of prosperity and Enlightenment.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 Celts referred to conquerors as Saxons.
 Later on, Anglis.
 Aethelbert King of Kent is rex Anglorum (601, Pope Gregory).
 Bede writes Gentis Anglorum,
 Angli and Anglia become usual terms shortly.
 Vernacular writers  English  derived from Angles used for all tribes.
 Land is called Angelcynn, later Englaland (1000).
 English is older than England.
  Why name of Angles, not Saxons? Take a distance from European Saxons; early
supremacy of Anglian kingdoms.

OLD ENGLISH MORPHOSYNTAX

A. MORPHOSYNTAX
 Morphology
 Nouns
o Three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, neuter.
o Two numbers: singular, plural, dual (for personal pronouns).
o Adjectives and determiners concord in gender with noun heads.
o Inflectional / declension system
 It does not preserve PGmc inflectional paradigms,
 Only four cases: nominative (subject case); accusative
(direct object); genitive (various functions); dative
(functions of instrumental and locative cases).
 Progressive simplification of syntactic patterns of ME
period.
 a-stem is core paradigm of OE declension.

Nouns endings and corresponding gender

Declension

 ʒ = voiced palate-alveolar fricative.

 Adjectives and verbs

 o Two paradigms for adjectives and determiners:
 Weak or definite (adjective follows a demonstrative or
possessive determiner; high degree of syncretism)
 Example: se goda cyning onfeng him (the good
King received him)
 Strong or indefinite (other cases; high degree of
morphological differentiation)
 Example: Þæt wæs god cyning (That was a good
King) or Seo geonge cwen is wis (The good queen
is Wise)
o Adjectival comparisons
 Suffixes are attached (comparative, superlative).
 Periphrastic comparison is a lOE innovation which will
become increasingly important (more/most).
 Pronouns
o Types: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative,
indefinite.
o Indeclinable particle Þe (or corresponding demonstrative) fulfils
syntactic function of most demonstratives.
o There is variation in pronouns.
 Demonstratives (se, sēo, þæt)
o Equivalent to PDE demonstratives.
o Grammatical gender due to lack of distinctiveness in nouns.
o Gender distinction in singular.
o Plural identical to all genders.

 Verbs (Present tense of strong/weak verbs)

o Verbal system simpler than that of ancestors, but richer than
PDE’s.
o Two numbers, three persons, two tenses, three modes, two
infinitives, two participles.
o Endings are distinctive.
o Weak (dental suffix; most productive paradigm) and strong verbs
(internal change)–distinction already present in Germanic
languages.
  OE Syntax
o OE already in process of moving away from SOV pattern.
o Object follows the verb regularly, but other patterns were
possible.
o OE shows variation in order of verbs and complements to the
point that complements may appear before or after verbs in
almost any context.
o BUT most extant texts are translations from Latin.

B. VOCABULARY / SEMANTICS
C. PHONOLOGY / SPELLING

FROM MORPHOSYNTAX PECULIARITIES TO LEXICON

A. THE RESOURCEFULNESS OF THE OE VOCABULARY
 Seemingly, the vocabulary has few meanings.
 Therefore, it is resourceful.
 OE shows capacity to bend old words to new uses (prefixes, suffixes,
etc.)
B. SELF-EXPLAINING COMPUNDS
 PDE: greenhouse, railway, sewing machine, one-way street, coffe—table
book, etc.
 In all languages, but prevalent in Old English and Modern German.
C. PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES
 Suffixes
o -ig
o -full
o -lēas
o -līce
o -nes
o -ung
o -sum (wynsum)
o -scipe (freondscipe)
o -ere
o -hād
o -ing
o -ung
o -scipe
 o -wīs
o -dōm
o -end
o
 Prefixes
o ā-
o be-
o for-
o fore-
o fe-
o mis-
o of-
o ofer-
o on-
o tō-
o un-
o under-
o wiþ-

D. SYNTAX AND STYLE

 Anaphora?
 Hypotactic style.
 Paratactic style.
 Hypotaxis in OE  Yes, but it is hard to impose a modern paradigm on
OE’s syntax.
 Subordinators are ambiguous.

OE LITERATURE
 Germanic and Christian influence.
 Great single work, Beowulf.
 Narrative of heroic adventure.
 Fight of the monster Grendel, which ravages Hrothgar.
 Beowulf defeats Grendel’s mother too.
 Then a fire-breathing dragon.
 Then OE literature is represented by short pieces.
 Widsith–a scop pretends to give an account of his wanderings and of the many
kings and princes before whom he has exercised his craft.
 Deor–lament of a scop who has been in the service of his lord and now finds
himself thrust by out by younger man.
 The Wanderer–man who once enjoyed a high place and has fallen upon evil
times; his lord is dead; he wanders without Friends.
 The Seafarer–speaker describes dangers of the sea; also, desire to dare again its
dangers.
 The Ruin–poet reflects on ruined city, once prosperous, tragic shadow of what
it once was.
  Battle of Maldon–patriotic fervour; encounters of English; heroic in defeat.

CHRISTIAN ORIENTATED LITERATURE

 Juliana
 Elene
 Christ–Advent, Ascension, and Last Judgement.
 Fates of the apostles–deaths of apostles.
 Andreas–two poems on the life of St. Guthlac.
 The Phoenix–bird is taken as a symbol of Christian life.
 Christ and Satan–expulsion of Satan from Paradise; harrowing of Hell and
Satan’s tempting of Christ.
 Judith

PROSE LITERATURE (Alfred the Great, 871-899)

 Military leader and statesman.
 Greatness of a nation is not merely military.
 Bede and Alcuin had placed England in Forefront of Europe.
 He undertakes to restore England to such Forefront.
 Undertakes learning of Latin and translate books himself or commission others
to translate them for him.
 Pastoral Care, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Orosius’ world history
(5th-century), The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, etc.
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle–compile important events in English history past and
present.

 Could you think of other European monarchs who, similarly, promoted writing
in the Middle Ages?

OLD ENGLISH: VOCABULARY-FOREIGN INFLUENCES IN OE

A. CELTIC INFLUENCE
 Highly possible that Celts and Anglo-Saxons coexisted: inter-marriage
and linguistic Exchange.
 Celtic Place-Names and Loanwords
o Kent (Canti or Cantion)
o Northumbria (Deira, Bernicia)
o Devonshire (Dummonii, Cornwall)
o Cumberland (Cumbria)
o London
o Winchester
o Salisbury
o Exeter
o Gloucester
o Worcester
 o Lichfield
o Canterbury (Durovernum)
o In many of these cases only part of the Word is Celtic.
 Rivers and Hills
o Thames
o Avon
o Exe
o Esk
o Usk
o Dover
o Wye
o Barr
o Creech
o Pendle
o Cumb
o Duncombe
o Holocombe
o Winchcombe
o Torr
o Torcross
o Pill
o Brockholes
o Brockhall
o Mixed up with Latin words such as castra, fontana, fossa, portus
and vicus
 Some OE words may be said to be of Celtic source
o Those that the Anglo-Saxons learned through everyday contact
with natives–translated orally; popular
e.g., brinn, bratt, brocc, -crag, luh, cumb, torr, dun, ass
o Those introduced by Irish missionaries (563) in North; connected
with religious activities; learned
e.g., ancor, dry, cine, cross, dugge, gabolrind, mind, staer
(history), cursian (curse)
o Some of these words remained; others disappeared. Celtic
influence very thin or less well-known.
B. LATIN INFLUENCES IN OE
 Continental Borrowing (Latin Influence of the Zero Period)
o 700 hundred Latin words
o Germanic population in Roman Empire–in all ranks and classes
of society (slaves, fields, commanders, etc.)
o Rhine, Danube, Germanic territory
o Treves–third and fourth centuries the most flourishing city in
Gaul–Christian churches, military roads, luxury and splendour
o Traders came and went.
o Vocabulary
  War- camp (battle), segn (banner), pil (javelin), weall
(Wall), pytt (pit), straet (road, street), mil (mile), milestre
(Courtesan), etc.
 Trade– ceap (bargain), mangian (trade), mangere
(monger), mangung (trade), mangunghus (shop), pund
(pound), mydd (bushel), seam (burden, load), mynet
(coin), win (wine9, must (new wine), eced (vinegar),
flasce (flask), cylte (leather bottle), cyrfette (gourd),
sester (jar), etc.
 Domestic life–cytel (kettle), mēse (table), scamol (bench,
stool), tepēd (carpet), pyle (pillow), pilece (robe of skin),
sigel (necklace)
others (inconclusive evidence)–cycene (kitchen), cuppe
(cup), disc (dish), cucler (spoon), mortere (mortar), līnen
(flax), līne (rope), grimm (gem)
 food–ciese (Cāseus--> cheese), spelt (wheat), pipon
(pepper), senep (mustard), cister (chestnut tree), cires
(bēam), butere (butter), ynne (lēac), plūme (plum), pise
(pisum), minte (mentha), etc.
 Construction/building–cealc (chalk), copor (copper), pic
(pitch), tigele (tile), etc.
 miscellaneous–mul (mule), draca (dragon), pāwa
(peacock), sicor (sēcūrus, safe), calu (calvus), segne
(seine), pīpe (pipe), biscop, cāsere (emperor),
Sæternesdæg (Saturday), cirice (church)
 First Period: Latin through Celtic Transmission
o Ceaster (camp)–Chester, Colchester, Dorchester, Manchester,
Winchester, Lancaster, Doncaster, Gloucester, Worcester, etc.
* port, mons, torr (tower), wīc (village), street (strāta via, stræt),
wall, wine, etc.
o Observations:
 Indirect influence
 Very slight
 Inconclusive as to when words entered OE
 Second Period: Christianization of Britain
o Conversion of Britain to Roman Christianity (597)
o It had been preached by St. Columba (monastery of Iona) from
563
o But 597 marks beginning of systematic attempt to Christianize
country.
o Germanic philosophy (physical courage, Independence,
haughtiness, loyalty to family or leader, revenge) vs Christian
philosophy (meekness, humility, patience, etc.)
o Augustine and 40 monks–Kent–Æthelbert and Bertha–Æthelbert
baptised. Example followed by others.
o In 7 years, the kingdom of Kent had become wholly Christian
o Progressively, other kingdoms followed suit.
 Effects of Christianity on English Civilization
o Building of churches and establishment of monasteries
o Latin (language of learning) was once more Heard and read in
England
o Schools were established in religious centers
o Prestigious teachers (some of them, foreign)
o Venerable Bede–(Jarrow)–assimilated all learning of his time;
wrote on grammar and prosody; science and chronology;
composed commentaries on books of the Old and New
Testament
o Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731)–much of our
knowledge of early history of England
o Alcuin of York–in 782 Charlemagne called him to be head of his
Palace School
o 8th-century–England held intellectual leadership in Europe;
vernacular literature developed; workers in Stone and glass
came too; manuscripts; embroidery; illuminations of
manuscripts; church music, etc.
o Monasteries cultivated lands with improved methods
o Vocabulary
 Religious life–abbot, alms, altar, angel, anthem, Arian,
ark, candle, canon, chalice, cowl, cleric, deacon,
discipline, epistle, hymn, litany, manna, martyr, psalter,
relic, rule, shrift, shrine, shrive, stole, subdeacon, synod,
temple, tunic
domestic life of the people–cap, sock, silk, purple, chest,
mat, sack
 food–beet, caul, lentil, millet, pear, radish, doe, oyster,
lobster, mussel, cook
names of trees, plants, herbs–box, pine, aloes, balsam,
fennel, hyssop, Lily, mallow, marshmallow, myrrh, rue,
savory, plant
 education–school, master, Latin, grammatic(al), verse,
meter, gloss, notary
miscellaneous–anchor, coulter, fan, fever, place, spelter,
sponge, elephant, Phoenix, mancus, calend, circle, legion,
giant, consul, talent
 verbs–aspendan (spend, expendere), bemutian
(Exchange; mūtāre), dihtan (dictāre), pīnian (torture;
poena), pinsian (weigh; pēnsāre), pyngan (prick;
pungere), sealtian (dance; saltāre), temprian (temper;
temperāre); trifolian (grind; trībulāre), tyrnan (turn;
tornāre),
 adjectives–crisp (crispus, curly)
 Benedictine Reform
o Decline of the Church–Danish invasions (Lindisfarne 793; Jarrow
794)
 o 9th-century–Churches and monasteries in ruins in Northumbria
and Mercia
o 10th-century–Decline had affected the moral fiber of Church;
clergy relaxed efforts; poverty gave way to ease; ease passed
into luxury
o Complains about immoderation, drinking, vanity, lack of
discipline, neglect in service, immorality, neglect of education
o Alfred complains; he made a start towards reformation
o 10th-century–Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury; Athelwold
Bishop of Winchester; Oswald Bishop of Worcester and
Archbishop of York (with support of King Edgar) effected revival
of monasticism
o Observance of Benedictine Rule–replacement of priests; in
Europe, similar reformation had taken place through Cluny (910)
and St. Benedict
o Athelwold prepared a version of Benedictine rule known as
Concordia Regularis.
o Renewal of cultural activity
o The four great códices in which the bulk of English poetry is
preserved come from this period
 OE Codices
o Vercelli Book (vast majority of OE poetry (including “The Dream
of the Rood”); housed in Biblioteca Capitolare in Vercelli,
Northern Italy).
o Junius Manuscript (The Caedmon manuscript; parts of Genesis,
Exodus, Daniel in OE verse, Anglo-Saxon drawings). In Bodleian
Library MS (University of Oxford).
o Beowulf Manuscript (The Southwick Codez / The Nowell Codex /
Beowulf / Judith) (Beowulf, Judith, The Marvels of the East,
Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, Judith, etc.)
o Exeter Book (narrative poems, riddles, elegies)
 Influence in the English Language
o Religious matters–alb, Antichrist, antiphoner, apostle, canticle,
cantor, cell, chrism, cloister, collect, creed, dalmatic, demon,
dirge, Font, idol, nocturn, prime, prophet, Sabbath, synagogue,
troper
o Literary words–accent, brief, decline, history, paper, pumice,
quatern, terminus, title
o Plant names–celandine, centaury, coriander, cucumber, ginger,
hellebore, lovage, periwinkle, petersili, verbena
o Names of trees–cedar, cypress, fig, laurel, magdala
o Medical terms–cancer, circuladl (singles), paralysis, scrofula,
plaster
o Animal kingdom–aspide, camel, lamprey, scorpion, tiger
o Others–epactas, corporale, confessores, Columba (dove),
columne, cathedra, catacumbas, apostata, apocalipsin, acolitus,
 absolutionem, invitatiorum, unguentum, cristalla, cometa,
bissexte, bibliothece, basilica, adamans, prologus
 Application of native words to new concepts
o Old words were applied to new things and slight adaptations
were made
o Deus wasn’t borrowed because God was satisfactory
o Heaven and hell are English word
o Other words were adapted:
 Patriarch  hēahfæder
 prophet  wītega
 martyr þrōwere
 saint hālga (holy one)
o others were incorporated from Latin:
 pope, bishop, priest, monk, abbot No equivalent in OE;
therefore, Latin terms adopted
o some Germanic concepts were readjusted:
 Easter (Germanic Word; Germanic festival in honor of
Eostre) instead of Latin expression (Hebdomas Sancta)
o some Latin concepts were expressed with various Germanic
words:
 Predicare lǣran (teach), bodian (bring a message),
pray (precāre), biddan (ask)
 Baptize  fullian (consecrate), fulluht-bæþ ((font),
fulwere (baptist), fullhut-fæder (baptizer), fulluht-hād
(baptismal vow), fulluht-mama (Christian name), fulluht-
stōw (baptistry), fulluht-tīd (baptism time)
 Scriptures gewritu; ēvangelium--> godspell; trinity-->
þrines; scieppend (creator); fruma (creator), metod
(measurer)
 Synonyms fæder (father), dryhten (prince), wealdend
(ruler), þēoden (prince), weard (ward), hlāford (lord), etc.
 Equivalences Doomsday
 Extent of influence of Latin in OE
o Real test is how they enter into compounds and other parts of
speech
o planta plant, plantain
o gemartyrian  martyr
o sealmian –Z to play on the harp
o culpian to blame oneself
o fersian to versify
o glesan to gloss
o crispian to curl
o uses of suffixes: -dōm (martyrdom), -hād martyrhad), ung
(martyrung)

C. DANISH INFLUENCE: the Viking age

 Scandinavian invasions of England
o 8th-century: Vikings begin attacks upon lands adjacent to
Northern Sea and Baltic; plunder and conquest
o They established kingdoms in Russia, British Isles, the Faroes,
Iceland, Greenland, coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland,
Normandy, England
o Cnut/Canute obtained throne of England and Norway and ruled
Scandinavian world from English throne
o First wave of invasions (787-850)
 attacks on monasteries, towns; sacking
 Lindisfarne and Jarrow
 small isolated bands
o Second wave of invasions (850-878)
 plundering and settlements
 850 arrival of 350 Danish drakkars
 they occupied Thanet, Canterbury, London, ravaged
country
 defeated by West Saxon army, but renew attack–took
York
 Death of King Edmund of East Anglia–Deep impression on
England (869)
 they occupied Eastern part, move towards Wessex–
Alfred takes refuge in Somerset–fresh levies of men from
Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire they defeat the Danes
(878)
 Treaty of Wedmore–signed by Alfred and Guthrum.
Defines the line: Danish territory, English territory;
Guthrum is baptised: fusion of groups
o Third wave of incursions (878-1042)
 invasions continued
 Edward the Elder (Alfred’s son) initiates attacks against
Vikings (defensive)–English recovered some territory
991–Viking Fleet, Olaf Tryggvason–attacked; Byrhtnoth
(earl of East Saxons) meets them in Maldon (see poem)
 994–Olaf becomes King of Norway; joined by Svein, King
of Denmark, to attack London
 payments had to be made to invaders
 truces were temporary; Vikings marched again
 Svein and his son Cnut/Canute sent Aethelred, the English
King, into exile; seized the throne
 England was ruled by the Danish Kings
o Settlement of Danes in England
 1,400 places bear Scandinavian names
 Most of them within Danelaw
 also, peaceable settlements, inter-marriaged, everyday
life community
 amalgamation of two peoples–adaptability of
Scandinavians; accepted Christianity
  Second Language Acquisition–facilitated hypotheses on
the understanding of coexistence
o Scandinavian placements
 600 places–Rugby, Grimsby, Derby, Rugby, Whitby,
Thoresby
 Anthorp, Bishopsthorpe, Gawthorpe, Linthorpe--> thorp
(village)
 twhaite Appelthwaite, Braithwaite, Coperthwaite,
Lagthwaite, Satterthwaite, etc.
 toft Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft, Lowestoft, Nortoft, etc.
 name endings in –son  Stevenson, Johnson, etc.
(equivalent to OE patronymic -ing, e.g., Browning)
o Loanwords and their character
 coexistence–axle-tree, band, bank, birth, boon, brink,
bull, calf, crook, dirt, down, dregs, egg, fellow, freckle,
gait, gap, girth, guess, hap, keel, kid, leg, link, loan, mire,
race, reef, reindeer, rift, root, scab, scales, score, scrap,
sister, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slaughter, snare, stack, steak,
swain, thrift, tidings, trust, want,
window
 adjectives–awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, muggy,
odd, rotten, rugged, scant, seemly, sly, tattered, tight,
weak
 verbs–bait, bask, batten, call, cast, clip, cow, crave,
crawl, die, droop, egg(on), flit, gape, gasp, get, give,
glitter, kindle, lift, lug, nag, raise, rake, ransack, rid, rive,
scare, scout, scowl, screech, snub, sprint, take, thrive,
thrust
o Earliest borrowings
 sea—roving: scegþ (vessel), liþ (fleet), scepþmann
(pirate), dreng (warrior), hā (oarlock; rowlock), hā-sǣta
(rower in warship), bātswegen (boatman, boastwain),
hofding (cheif, ringleader), orrest (battle), rān (robbery,
rapine), fylcian (levy, marshal a force)
 law and administration: law, outlaw, hold (freeholder),
wapentake (administrative district), hūsting (assembly),
riding (thriding, one of the former divisions of Yorkshire)–
reshaped after Norman Conquest
 English translations of Scandinavian terms: bōtlēas
(what cannot be compensated), hāmsōcn (attacking
enemy in his house), lahcēap (payment for reentry into
host legal rights), landcēap (tax paid when land is bought)
o Contact
 When two languages are used side by side:
1. if two words more or less coincide, the new one
stays (burn, cole, drag, fast, gang, murky, scrape,
thick, etc.)
 2. where there are differences of form, the English
Word often survived (bench, goat, heathen, yarn,
few, grey, loath, leap, etc.)
3. the Sandinavian Word replaces the native Word–
awe, etc.
4. the English and the Scandinavian words are
retained with a difference in meaning or
use–no/nay, whole/hale, rear/raise, from/fro,
craft/skill, hide/skin, sick/ill
5. a native Word not in common use is reinforced–
dale, rim, blend, run, etc.
6. English Word modified taking some of the
character corresponding to Scandinavian Word–
give/get, scatter/shatter, Thursday/thunresdaeg
o Word formation
 No only ajdectives, nouns, verbs, but also grammatical
words.
 Pronouns they, their, them (OE hīe, hiera, him)
 Both and same (Svandinavian)
 Preposition till, to, fro, to and fro
 Conjunction though (OE þēah)
 Adverbs ado (at-do), aloft, athwart, aye, seemly, helþen
(hence), hweþen (whence)
 Present plural are (to be; OE syndon)
o Effects on Grammar and Syntax
 -s ending of singular present indicatives
 -and (participal ending)
 -end and –ind (now replaced by –ing)