English Across Cultures

Old EnglishLexiconCeltic (Thames, Avon, London) Latin loans: plants, animals, food, drinkPhonologyNo silents graphemesEvery grapheme maps into a phonemeRhotic (mara – more, scire – shire)(Th-) both voiced and unvoiced Long/short (sunne, sun vs. sunu, son). Long vowel marked by a macron<c> maps onto [k] and ch- GrammarLinguistic reconstructionCeosan (infinitive) Ceas (third personpreterite singular)Curon (preterite plural)Coren (past participle)Pronouns he (masculine)heo (feminine)hit (neuters)DeterminersSe (the/ that for masculine ex. mann)Seo (the/that for feminine ex. talu) Oaet (the/that for neuter ex. land)Plural formsSe mann – Oa mennseoTalu – Oa talaOaet land – Oa land Examples of noun declenscionNominative, accusative, genitive, dativeEngel – engel – engles – engleScip –scip – scipes – scipeSorg – sorge – sorge - sorgePhrase orderPP, NP, VP or VP, PP, NP | From Old English to Middle EnglishLexiconAnglo-Saxon: Pig, cow, woodAnglo-Norman: Pork, beef, forest Government, court, justice, art, war Suffixes -able, -ousPhonologyWritten forms: Velar [k], Ch-400: the spirant [x] disappearsCompletely (though)Producing /f/ (enough)Falling before /t/ (night)GrammarPronoun inMEPossessive: I, thou…Subject: me, thee…Object: min, thy…Possessive plural we/us/oure, ye/you/your…Noun declinationSingular: N. -, G. –es, D. –(e), -Plural: -es in all casesArticles and demonstratives That, this, theseVerbsStrong: helpen, holp, holpenWeak: helpen, helped, helpedConjugation (south-east midlands)Singular: finde, findest, findethPlural: findenModalsCan, coulde May, mithe Mot, mosteShall, shulde Ahte, ogthe | Middle EnglishLexiconGeneralization (tail referred only to horses) Narrowing (meat meant food)Shift (quick meant alive) CompoundsBack formation (dawning/dawn)Blend (scroll = escrow + roll)PhonologyConsonantsTh- divided into voiced and unvoicedIntroduction of thatTh- replaced by yWinn replaced by wThe ‘c’ problemIn French c = [s]C for [s], [k], cn for [kn], sounds ch andshOther Norman Spelling innovationsI/j both vowel and consonant[j] = dgU/w both vowel and consonantYogh = g in case of dg combination GrammarUse of doSubstitute for a previous verbCausativeNegative or interrogativeMiddle English grammarAdjectives placed before the nounsIn possessive no apostropheNegative ne before the verbDouble negative very commonPerfect and progressive tenseUse of shall andwillWord orderSVO, SOV, VSO |

Old English
Runes (futhorc) 
* Are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, Germanic before Latin, 150 AD
Bede (historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum)
* Angles 449 (Southern Denmark), Mercia, Northumbria
* Jutes 457 (Jutland – Denmark), Kent, Isle of White Hampshire
* Saxon 477 (Nothern Germany), South East Britain
OldEnglish dialects
* Mercian, central-south (west Germanic dialect)
* Northumbrian, central (west Germanic dialect)
* Kentish, south east (Jutes and Saxon)
* West – Saxon, south (Jutes and Saxon) OE West Saxon was the standard (King Alfred)
Evidence for Old English
* The Anglo-Saxon chronicle (IX AD), the Exeter book, the Vercelli book (XI), the Junius manuscript

BeowulfHistorical background
* 400-600 AD: Angles, Saxon and Jutes invade
* 410 AD: Rome renounces control of Britain
* 521 AD: Hygelac invades the Nehterlands
* 597 AD: St. Augustine
* 625 AD: Sutton Hoo
* 700 AD: Christian poet composed the poem
The manuscript
* Handwritten by a monk 1000 AD
* Obtained by Robert Cotton
* Bound in Cotton Vitellius
* Currently atBritish museum
Lexicon
* Comitatus (Germanic warrior band), Scop (poet in oral culture), Thane (warrior retainer), Wyrd (fate)
Poetic form
* Alliterative verse (same initial consonants, lines halved by a caesura, four stresses per line)
* Kennings: compressed methaphors (hrnoade = whale road = sea, banhus = bone house = body)
* Litotes: ironic understatement (Hidebuth killed by...