Old English Period
Periods
in the History of English
The evolution of English has been
an unbroken one. With this development, however, it is possible to recognize
three main periods.
- v
The
period 450- 1150 is known as the Old English Period. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest
marks the beginning of this period. It is called the period of full
inflections, since during this period inflections were preserved more or less
unimpaired.
- v
The
period from 1150 to 1500 is known as the Middle English Period. The Norman
Conquest marks the beginning of this period. During this period, the
inflections became gradually reduced and so it is known as the period of
leveled inflections.
- v
The
period since 1500 is known as the Modern English Period. The Renaissance marks
the beginning of this period. It is called the period of lost inflections
because a large part of the original inflectional system disappeared.
Old English Period
Old
English Dialects
There were a number of kingdoms
during the Old English Period. Hence there were a number of dialects in Old
English. Out of these the four prominent dialects were Kentish, West Saxon,
Mercian and North Umbrian. During the Old English Period, the West Saxon
dialect gained supremacy. There were many reasons for the popularity of the
West Saxon dialect.
1.
Wessex
being the most civilized kingdom among the rest, there was political stability
there whereas peace in other kingdoms was destroyed by wars.
2.
Most
of the important literary works of the period- Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
was written in West Saxon dialect.
3.
Other
kinds of important writings like Charms, Riddles, and Treatises were written in
West Saxon dialect.
4.
West
Saxon kings including King Alfred who strove for the unification of England
spoke the West Saxon dialect.
Old
English Grammar
The most fundamental feature that
distinguishes Old English from Modern English is its grammar. Old English is a
synthetic language whereas Modern English is an analytical language. Synthetic
language is one which indicates the relation of words in a sentence by means of
inflections. Analytical language is one which makes extensive use of
prepositions and auxiliary verbs and depends upon word order to show the
relation between words in a sentence.
Nouns
The inflections of the Old English
Noun indicate the distinction of number and case. Old English noun had two
numbers- Singular and Plural. It had four cases- Nominative, Accusative,
Genitive and Dative. The endings of these nouns vary with different nouns but
they fall into certain broad categories or declensions. There is a vowel
declension (strong) and a consonant declension (weak), according to whether the
stem ended in Germanic in a vowel or a consonant.
Eg:
Stone
– stān- consonant declension
|
Singular |
Plural |
Nominative |
Stān |
Stānas |
Accusative |
Stān |
Stānas |
Genitive |
Stānes |
Stāna |
Dative |
Stāne |
Stānum |
Gift-
giefa- vowel declension
|
Singular |
Plural |
Nominative |
Giefa |
Giefa |
Accusative |
Giefu |
Giefa |
Genitive |
Giefu |
Giefa |
Dative |
Giefu |
Giefum |
Grammatical Gender
In Old English, all nouns had
grammatical gender. Grammatical gender had no necessary connection with sex. So
the names of inanimate objects could be masculine or feminine and the names of
sexed creatures could be neuter.
Example:
Stān (stone) -masculine
Mōna
(moon)- masculine
Sunne
(sun)- feminine
Mœgden
(girl)-neuter
Wīf
(wife)- neuter
Wīfmann
(woman)- masculine
Adjective
Another important feature of Old
English is the development of a twofold declension of the adjective- the strong
declension and the weak declension. The strong declension was used when the
adjective was not preceded by anything. The weak declension was used when the
adjective was preceded by articles, demonstratives or possessives.
Eg:
gōd mann (good man)- Strong form
se gōda mann (the good man)- Weak form
Definite Article
In
Old English, the definite article showed three genders- sē (masculine), sēo
(feminine) and þœt (neuter) and was inflected through all cases and numbers.
Personal Pronouns
The
personal pronouns in Old English had a fairly complete system of inflections.
There were pronouns of the first, second and third persons.
|
Nominative |
Accusative |
First
person |
ic, wē
(I, We) |
Mē, ūs
(me, us) |
Second
person |
Þū, ye
(you) |
Þē,ēow
(you) |
Third
person |
Hē,hēo,
hit, hīe (he, she, it, they) |
Him,
hie, hit, hīe (him, her, it, them) |
Verb
Old English distinguished only two
simple tenses of inflections, present and past. It recognized three moods-
Indicative, Subjunctive and Imperative. In the principal parts of the Old
English strong verbs, we have four forms- the infinite, the preterite singular,
preterite plural and past participle. In Old English, the strong verbs can be
grouped into six general classes.
|
Infinite |
Preterite
Singular |
Preterite
Plural |
Past Participle |
Class I To drive |
Drifan |
Drāf |
Drifon |
Drifen |
Class II To
choose |
Cēosan |
Cēas |
Curon |
Coren |
Class
III To help |
Helpan |
Healp |
Hulpon |
Holpen |
Class IV To bear
(endure) |
Beran |
Bœr |
Bœron |
Boren |
Class V To speak |
Sprecan |
Sprœc |
Spœcon |
Sprecen |
Class VI To go |
Faran |
Fōr |
Foron |
Faren |
The
weak verbs in Old English form their past tense by adding ede, ode, de to the
present stem and their past participle by adding ed, od or d.
|
Infinitive |
Preterite |
Past
Participle |
To
perform |
Fremman |
Fremede |
Gefremed |
To love |
Lufian |
Lufode |
Gelufod |
To live |
Libban |
Lifde |
Gelifd |
Old
English Spelling and Pronunciation
v Used seven vowel
symbols- a,e,i,o,u,y,
o
Either
long or short sounds
o
All
were pure vowels
o
Y
was pronounced by first rounding the lips as if for the sound /u:/ and then
spreading the lips to produce /i:/
v Diphthongs-
Anglo-Saxons used diagraphs, that is sequences of two symbols (eo, io, ie etc)
v Consonants- b, c, d, f,
g, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, þ, ð, w
o
OE
did not have the symbol ‘v’. ‘f’ for /f/ and /v/ (/v/ in the middle of a word)
o
Þ
(thorn) and ð (eth) represented /Ѳ/
and / ð/ respectively
o
‘s’
- /s/ and /z/
o
‘c’
-/k/ normally, /t∫/ before front vowels.
o
‘sc’
for /∫/ (scip)
o
G
for /g/ and /j/
o
‘cg’
for /dζ/ (ecg-edge)
o
N
pronounced /ŋ/ before /k/ or /g/ (sing- /sıŋg/)
Comments
Post a Comment