Old English, Anglo-Saxon Englisc
Period	VII to XII century
Daughter languages	Middle English
Region	England
Typology	inflectional
Classification by family
- Indo-European - Germanic languages - West Germanic languages - Anglo-Frisian languages - Old English
Language codes
ISO 639-2	ang
ISO 639-3	ang
IETF	ang
Sample
Text of Our Father Faed Ure, de eart is heofenum, sie Din ehlgod nama. Tbecume Dn rice. eweore Dn willa is eoran swa-swa we heofenum. Urn edhwmlican hlf sele Us td. And foryf Us gyltas Ure, swa-swa foriefa Urum gyltendum weekends. And the U.S. is not eld costnunge, ac Alies U.S. of yfele. Slice.
change

Linguists call Old English (or Anglo-Saxon terminology in earlier) the language spoken in England by the Anglo-Saxons from the ^seventh and ^twelfth centuries. It is the ancestor language of English modern and is very close to the Dutch and Frisian.

Old English language was not static, and its usage covered a period of at least 700 years - the first migrations of Frisians and Saxons and the Jutes and Angles , south-east of England from the ^third century until the Norman invasion of 1066 , when the language is undergoing very significant changes. It was during this period that the Old English has assimilated elements of the languages with which it has been in contact: the Celtic language for a low hand and the two dialects of Old Norse spoken by the Vikings who occupied and controlled a large portion of northern and East of England (the Danelaw ).

Origins Germanic

The Germanic heritage in vocabulary , the syntax and grammar were important in the development of Old English, like its sister languages of the European mainland. Several of these were specific to the family of West Germanic languages with which Old English belongs, while others were inherited from Proto-Germanic from which all Germanic languages are believed to have derived.

Like the other languages of this family, the Old English had five grammatical cases , which were forms of dueling for a group of two objects, in addition to singular and plural. He also attributed a kind to all names, even those that describe inanimate objects: for example seo Sunna (the Sun) was feminine, as is mona (Moon) was masculine (just as in modern German die Sonne / der mond).

The influence of Latin

A significant proportion of educated and cultured population (monks, clerics, etc..) Knew Latin , which at that time was the lingua franca of Europe. It is sometimes possible to give approximate dates for the entry of a Latin word in Old English based on linguistic changes that followed. There were at least three notable periods during which the Latin has influenced the language. The first came before the Saxons not leave the continent for England. The second began when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and the Latin-speaking priests became more numerous. The third and most important of those periods where we saw a rapid transfer of words based on Latin, followed the Norman invasion of 1066 , after which a very large number of words Norman and other dialects of northern and west of France, entered into everyday English. This langue d'oil was itself derived from Latin, hence it is often very difficult to determine if a word of Latin origin went through the French or not. This conquest marks the end of Old English and early Middle English.

The approximate extension of Old Norse and related languages that are in the early ^tenth century Dialect of Old Norse West Dialect of Old Norse is Old Gutnisk Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still maintained at the time a form of intelligibility

The Viking influence

The second main influence on the vocabulary of Old English words was the introduction of Scandinavia during the Viking invasions of the ^ninth and ^tenth centuries. In addition to a large number of place names, especially those new words relate to the basic vocabulary, and word on the administrative aspects of special Danelaw , the east coast of England and of Scotland controlled by the Vikings. Themselves spoke in Old Norse , a language related to Old English because they both derive from the proto language. The reconciliation between these two languages, encouraged by the political climate has resulted in the simplification of inflections contingencies. Old Norse has given the Old English words such as sky, leg, and the modern pronoun they.

Writing conventions

For reasons of simplicity, the Anglo-Saxon texts are now transcribed in a different form of manuscripts from the period. These changes are twofold: replacement of some letters by Latin letters and modern addition of diacritics.

So we transcribed the long s s or by the yogh by the wynn and double uu u by w. That said, it happens that some modern editions preserve the letters and , although this is not the norm.

The addition of diacritics for vowels (addition of a macron over long vowels) and the letters c and g. Both of these letters possess two different pronunciations can be deduced from the letters that surround it, for easier reading, the presence or absence of a point suscrit clear pronunciation to be adopted (see paragraph on consonants ).

Also note the disappearance of suscrit point of Y: the rationale for this was the avoidance of confusion with the , which was written over time more and more like a y. The letter having disappeared during the transition to printing, this precaution has become obsolete.

Personal pronouns

Phonology

Although it is not known exactly how the Old English was pronounced, the comparison with other Germanic languages and the analysis of the current pronunciation of English (which has many similarities with the Frisian ) allow reasonable recovery the phonology of the language.

Vowels

Old English has seven simple vowels attested, each of which can be short or long. It could however be two extra vowels. They are as follows (writing API ):

• Although existing probably in some Anglo-Saxon dialects, the vowel Consonants

  Consonants used in Old English are divided as follows:

  Consonant	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
  Occlusive	p b			t span title = "International Phonetic Alphabet" class = "IPA" style = "font-family: 'DejaVu Sans',' Doulos SIL ',' Lucida Grande ',' Segoe UI ',' Arial Unicode MS ',' Adobe Std Pi ',' Lucida Sans Unicode ',' Unicode Chrysanthi 'Code2000, Gentium, GentiumAlt' TITUS Cyberbit Basic ',' Bitstream Vera Sans', 'Bitstream Cyberbit', 'Kaku Gothic Pro Hiragino', 'Matrix Unicode', sans- serif "> d			k
  Affricate					t d
  Fricative		f v		s z			x	h
  Nasal	m			n
  Spirant						j	w
  Lateral fricative				l

  The following table indicates the pronunciation of these consonants. The letters are written in their modern form.

  Consonant	API	Commentary	Examples	Current English	Dutch
  b	/ B /	Must sometimes be pronounced / v / in the earlier manuscripts in the ninth century.	Bred (table), Byrd (noble)	bread (brot-> bread)	brood (Brot-> bread)
  c	/ K /		cyning (king), nacod (nu)	shining (bright), king (King), naked (bare)	schijning (brilliant), koning (king) naakt (nu)
  	/ T /		CILDEA (child), Ciric (church)	child (children), church (Church)	kinder (children), kerk (church)
  CG	/ Dd /	Represents a d geminal.	ECG (blade), bry (bridge)	edge (blade) bridge (bridge)	egen (blade), brug (bridge)
  d	/ D /	Could also represent the sound / / in ancient texts.	dror (blood), duru (door)	door (door)	cannot '(gate)
  ,	/ /	Both letters are interchangeable, represent the sound / / when they are between two vowels (or consonants sound ), and / / in the opposite case. They are the equivalent of th modern English. From the reign of Alfred , was progressively used in the initial position and elsewhere.	bror (brother), MADM (treasure)	Brother (bruder -> brother)	Broeder (bruder -> brother)
  	/ /		Thing (thing), DA (cc)	Thing (thing), That (this)	ding (anything), dat (that)
  f	/ F /	This letter is voiced when it is surrounded by two vowels or consonants sound muffled elsewhere.	Folc (people), wulf (wolf)	folk (popular), Wolf (wolf)	volk (people), Wolf (wolf)
  	/ V /		heofon (sky), Wulf (Wolf)	heaven (paradise), Wolf (wolf)	Haven (shelter), Wolven (wolves)
  g	/ G /	g is one of two possible transcripts of the letter . It is pronounced / g / at the beginning of a word, / / elsewhere.	god (good), Gyldene (Gold)	god (god), good (gut -> good), golden (gold)	god (god) goed (gut -> good), gouden (Gold)
  	/ /		lagu (Law), EARG (loose)	law (law)	erg (sad / afligir)
  	/ J /	G is another transcription. It has a different pronunciation when it is preceded by C or N (see the corresponding lines).	GE (and), Dg (day)	day (dag, tag -> day)	dag (day)
  h	/ H /	Before a vowel, h represents an aspirated h / h /. Moreover, this letter represents the sound / c / when preceded by a vowel before (e, i, y) / x / if it is a back vowel (a, o, u). Before l, r, n and w, h is silent.	hus (house), habban (have)	house (haus, camera -> home), have (haben, hebben -> have)	camera (haus, house -> home), hebben (haben, have -> have)
  	/ X /		dohtor (daughter), Neah (close)	daughter (daughter), near (near)	dochter (daughter) naar (to)
  	/ /		cniht (male)	Knight (Knight)	knecht (vassal)
  	dumb		hwa (who), hlf (bread)	/	/
  k	/ K /	Rare.	kyrtel (jacket)	/	/
  l	/ S /	As in modern English, the s is pronounced / s / when followed by a vowel, and / / when in coda (end of syllable). (Especially after ea, eo, io, , o, u)	land (earth), Slean (hitting)	land (land)	land (earth), slaan (to strike)
  	/ /		eall (all), seolfor (silver)	all (all), silver (silver)	alle (all), Zilver (silver)
  m	/ M /		MADM (treasure), Miceli (large)	/	/
  n	/ N /	Pronounced / / before a c or g.	reign (rain) Tacen (sign)	rain (rain)	Regen (Rain), teken (sign)
  	/ /		bringan (bring)	Bring to (bringen-> make)	brengen (bring)
  ng	/ D /		lenra (longer), Gingras (Cadet)	skirt (longer), Young (younger)	Changing (longer), Jong (younger)
  p	/ P /		pad (coat), Papa (Pope)	pope (Pope)	Pope (Pope)
  that	/ Kw /	Rare substitute cw, become more common in Middle English.		/	/
  r	/ R / , / / , / /	The exact nature of this vowel is not known.	rice (kingdom), rran (establish)	(Reign) (reich -> realm)	rijk (kingdom)
  s	/ S /	Since f, s is voiced when it is surrounded by two vowels or consonants sound, if he is deaf.	s (Wed), cyssan (kiss)	sea (sea), to kiss (kiss)	zee (sea), kssen (kiss)
  	/ Z /		osan (choose) hses (houses)	(To) choose (choose), houses (homes)	kiezen (choose) huizen (houses)
  sc, sc	/ /	Once routinely pronounced / sk /. Preview The opening lines of Beowulf : Online Original Translation References On the palatalization of * / k / and * / sk / see Fausto Cercignani , "The development of * / k / and * / sk / in Old Franais", "Journal of Germanic Philology Franais and" 82 / 3, 1983 , pp. 313-323. IETF language code : ang See also in Anglo-Saxon. Related articles Bede , Ecclesiastical History of the English people Anglo-Saxon runes Language language list Languages by family Indo-European Germanic languages West Germanic languages group Anglo-Frisian External Links (In) An introduction to Old English (En) A thesaurus Old English Bibliography Fernand Moss, Handbook of English mediaeval, Volume I. 1945. Marguerite-Marie Dubois , English literature of the Middle Ages (Paris: PUF, 1962). Fausto Cercignani , "The development of * / k / and * / sk / in Old Franais", "Journal of Germanic Philology Franais and" 82 / 3, 1983, pp. 313-323. Andr Crpin , Two thousand years of English (Paris: Nathan, 1994). Chevillet Francis, History of the English language What Do I know? 1265 (Paris: PUF, 1994). Leo Carruthers , The Medieval English: An Introduction, translated and annotated texts Workshop medievalist, 4 (Paris & Turnhout: Brepols, 1996). Hlne Dauby, Exercises on the history of English (Paris: AMAES, Occasional Paper No. 3 , 1997). History of the English language Old English Middle English Early Modern English Modern English Portal Germanic languages Saved in parser cache with key frwiki: Pcache: idhash :114481-1! 1! 0! Fr! 4 and timestamp 20110104211549 ->

Leave a Reply

Frequently Asked Questions