1 / 9

Old English

Old English. Birth of a Language. So, how old is Old English?. As old as 449 AD – 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.

zayit
Download Presentation

Old English

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Old English Birth of a Language

  2. 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

  3. Important People Alfred the Great King Cnut

  4. Important People, continued Edward the Confessor William of Normandy

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. The Power of the Church

  8. 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”)

  9. Sample of Old English Fæder úre, ðú ðe eart on heofonum, Sí ðín nama gehálgod. Tó becume ðín rice. Gewurde ðín willa On eorþan swá swá on heofonum. Urne dægwhamlícan hlaf syle ús tódæg. And forgyf ús úre gyltas, Swá swá wé forgyfaþ úrum gyltendum. And ne gelæd ðu ús on costnunge, Ac álýs ús of yfele. Sóþlice. Father our thou that art in heavens be thy name hallowed come thy kingdom be-done thy will on earth as in heavens our daily bread give us today and forgive us our sins as we forgive those-who-have-sinned-against-us and not lead thou us into temptation but deliver us from evil. truly

More Related