The history of Old English and its development.
In 409 AD the last Roman legion left British shores, and in fifty
years the Islands became a victim of invaders. Germanic tribes from
Southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany, pushed from their densely
populated homelands, looked for a new land to settle. At that time the
British Isles were inhabited by the Celts and remaining Roman colonists,
who failed to organize any resistance against Germanic intruders, and so
had to let them settle here. This is how the Old English language was born.
Celtic tribes crossed the Channel and starting to settle in Britain
already in the 7th century BC. The very word "Britain" seems to be the name
given by the pre-Celtic inhabitants of the island, accepted by first Indo-
Europeans. The Celts quickly spread over the island, and only in the north
still existed non-Indo-European peoples which are sometimes called "Picts"
(the name given by Romans). Picts lived in Scotland and on Shetland Islands
and represented the most ancient population of the Isles, the origin of
which is unknown. Picts do not seem to leave any features of their language
to Indo-European population of Britain - the famous Irish and Welsh initial
mutations of consonants can be the only sign of the substratum left by
unknown nations of Britain. At the time the Celts reached Britain they
spoke the common language, close to Gaulish in France. But later, when
Celtic tribes occupied Ireland, Northern England, Wales, their tongues were
divided according to tribal divisions. These languages will later become
Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Cornish, but from that time no signs remained, because
the Celts did not invent writing yet. Not much is left from Celtic
languages in English. Though many place names and names for rivers are
surely Celtic (like Usk - from Celtic *usce "water", or Avon - from *awin
"river"), the morphology and phonetics are untouched by the Celtic
influence. Some linguists state that the word down comes from Celtic *dъn
"down"; other examples of Celtic influence in place names are tne
following:
cothair (a fortress) - Carnarvon
uisge (water) - Exe, Usk, Esk
dun, dum (a hill) - Dumbarton, Dumfries, Dunedin
llan (church) - Llandaff, Llandovery, Llandudno
coil (forest) - Kilbrook, Killiemore
kil (church) - Kilbride, Kilmacolm
ceann (cape) - Kebadre, Kingussie
inis (island) - Innisfail
inver (mountain) - Inverness, Inverurie
bail (house) - Ballantrae, Ballyshannon,
and, certainly, the word whiskey which means the same as Irish uisge
"water". But this borrowing took place much later.
In the 1st century AD first Roman colonists begin to penetrate in
Britain; Roman legions built roads, camps, founded towns and castles. But
still they did not manage to assimilate the Celts, maybe because they lived
apart from each other and did not mix. Tens of Latin words in Britain
together with many towns, places and hills named by Romans make up the
Roman heritage in the Old English. Such cities as Dorchester, Winchester,
Lancaster, words like camp, castra, many terms of the Christian religion
and several words denoting armaments were borrowed at that time by Britons,
and automatically were transferred into the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon
language already when there was no Romans in the country.
In 449 the legendary leaders of two Germanic tribes, Hengist and
Horsa, achieved British shores on their ships. The Anglo-Saxon conquest,
however, lasted for several centuries, and all this period Celtic
aborigines moved farther and farther to the west of the island until they
manage to fortify in mountainous Wales, in Corwall, and preserved their
kingdoms in Scotland. Germanic tribes killed Celtic population, destroyed
Celtic and former Roman towns and roads. In the 5th century such cities as
Durovern in Kent, Virocon, Trimontii, Camulodunum, were abandoned by the
population.
Angles settled around the present-day Noridge, and in Northern
England; Saxons, the most numerous of the tribes, occupied all Central
England, the south of the island and settled in London (Londinii at that
time). Jutes and Frises, who probably came to Britain a bit later, settled
on the island of White and in what is now Kent - the word Kent derives from
the name of the Celtic tribe Cantii. Soon all these tribes founded their
separate kingdoms, which was united after centuries of struggle only in 878
by Alfred, king of Wessex. Before that each of the tribes spoke its
language, they were similar to each other but had differences which later
became the dialectal peculiarities of Old English.
Now a little bit about the foreign influence in Old English. From the
6th century Christianity start activities in Britain, the Bible is
translated into Old English, and quite a lot of terms are borrowed from
Latin at that time: many bishops, missionaries and Pope's officials come
from Rome. The next group of foreign loanwords were taken from Scandinavian
dialects, after the Vikings occupied much of the country in the 9th - 11th
centuries. Scandinavian languages were close relatives with Old English, so
the mutual influence was strong enough to develop also the Old English
morphology, strengthening its analytic processes. Many words in the
language were either changed to sound more Scandinavian, or borrowed.
The Old English language, which has quite a lot of literature
monuments, came to the end after the Norman conquest in 1066. The new
period was called Middle English.
The Old English Substantive.
The substantive in Indo-European has always three main categories
which change its forms: the number, the case, the gender. It ias known that
the general trend of the Indo-European family is to decrease the number of
numbers, cases and genders from the Proto-Indo-European stage to modern
languages. Some groups are more conservative and therefore keep many forms,
preserving archaic language traits; some are more progressive and lose
forms or transform them very quickly. The Old English language, as well as
practically all Germanic tongues, is not conservative at all: it generated
quite a lot of analytic forms instead of older inflections, and lost many
other of them.
Of eight Proto-Indo-European cases, Old English keeps just four which
were inherited from the Common Germanic language. In fact, several of
original Indo-European noun cases were weak enough to be lost practically
in all branches of the family, coinciding with other, stronger cases. The
ablative case often was assimilated by the genitive (in Greek, Slavic,
Baltic, and Germanic), locative usually merged with dative (Italic, Celtic,
Greek), and so did the instrumental case. That is how four cases appeared
in Germanic and later in Old English - nominative, genitive, accusative and
dative. These four were the most ancient and therefore stable in the system
of the Indo-European morphology.
The problem of the Old English instrumental case is rather strange -
this case arises quite all of a sudden among Germanic tongues and in some
forms is used quite regularly (like in demonstrative pronouns). In Gothic
the traces of instrumental and locative though can be found, but are
considered as not more than relics. But the Old English must have
"recalled" this archaic instrumental, which existed, however, not for too
long and disappeared already in the 10th century, even before the Norman
conquest and transformation of the English language into its Middle stage.
As for other cases, here is a little pattern of their usage in the Old
English syntax.
1. Genitive - expresses the possessive menaing: whose? of what?
Also after the expression meaning full of , free of , worthy of ,
guilty of, etc.
2. Dative - expresses the object towards which the action is directed.
After the after the verbs like "say to smb", "send smb", "give to
smb"; "known to smb", "necessary for smth / smb", "close to smb",
"peculiar for smth".
Also in the expressions like from the enemy, against the wind, on the
shore.
3. Accusative - expresses the object immediately affected by the
action (what?), the direct object.
Three genders were strong enough, and only northern dialects could
sometimes lose their distinction. But in fact the lose of genders in Middle
English happened due to the drop of the case inflections, when words could
no longer be distinguished by its endings. As for the numbers, the Old
English noun completely lost the dual, which was preserved only in personal
pronouns (see later).
All Old English nouns were divided into strong and weak ones, the same
as verbs in Germanic. While the first had a branched declension, special
endings for different numbers and cases, the weak declension was
represented by nouns which were already starting to lose their declension
system. The majority of noun stems in Old English should be referred to the
strong type. Here are the tables for each stems with some comments - the
best way of explaining the grammar.
a-stems
Singular
Nom. stбn (stone) scip (ship) bбn (bone) reced (house) nнeten (ox)
Gen. stбnes scipes bбnes recedes
nнetenes
Dat. stбne scipe bбne recede
nнetene
Acc. stбn scip bбn reced
nнeten
Plural
Nom. stбnas scipu bбn reced
nнetenu
Gen. stбna scipa bбna receda
nнetena
Dat. stбnum scipum bбnum recedum nнetenum
Acc. stбnas scipu bбn reced
This type of stems derived from masculine and neuter noun o-stems in Proto-
Indo-European. First when I started studying Old English I was irritated
all the time because I couldn't get why normal Indo-European o-stems are
called a-stems in all books on Old English. I found it a silly and
unforgivable mistake until I understood that in Germanic the Indo-European
short o became a, and therefore the stem marker was also changed the same
way. So the first word here, stбn, is masculine, the rest are neuter. The
only difference in declension is the plural nominative-accusative, where
neuter words lost their endings or have -u, while masculine preserved -as.
A little peculiarity of those words who have the sound [ж] in the stem and
say farewell to it in the plural:
Masculine Neuter
Sing. Pl. Sing. Pl.
N dжg (day) dagas fжt (vessel) fatu
G dжges daga fжtes fata
D dжge dagum fжte fatum
A dжg dagas fжt fatu
Examples of a-stems: earm (an arm), eorl, helm (a helmet), hring (a
ring), mъю (a mouth); neuter ones - dor (a gate), hof (a courtyard), geoc
(a yoke), word, dйor (an animal), bearn (a child), gйar (a year).
ja-stems
N hrycg (back) here (army) ende (end) cynn (kind) rнce (realm)
G hrycges heriges endes cynnes rнces
D hrycge herige ende cynne rнce
A hrycg here ende cynn rнce
N hrycgeas herigeas endas cynn rнciu
G hrycgea herigea enda cynna rнcea
D hrycgium herigum endum cynnum rнcium
A hrycgeas herigeas endas cynn rнciu
Again the descendant of Indo-European jo-stem type, known only in
masculine and neuter. In fact it is a subbranch of o-stems, complicated by
the i before the ending: like Latin lupus and filius. Examples of this
type: masculine - wecg (a wedge), bуcere (a scholar), fiscere (a fisher);
neuter - net, bed, wнte (a punishment).
wa-stems
Singular Plural
Masc. Neut. Masc. Neut.
N bearu (wood) bealu (evil) bearwas bealu (-o)
G bearwes bealwes bearwa bealwa
D bearwe bealwe bearwum bealwum
A bearu (-o) bealu (-o) bearwas bealu (-o)
Just to mention. This is one more peculiarity of good old a-stems with the
touch of w in declension. Interesting that the majority of this kind of
stems make abstract nouns. Examples: masculine - snбw (snow), юйaw (a
custom); neuter - searu (armour), trйow (a tree), cnйw (a knee)
у-stems
Sg.
N swaюu (trace) fуr (journey) tigol (brick)
G swaюe fуre tigole
D swaюe fуre tigole
A swaюe fуre tigole
Pl.
N swaюa fуra tigola
G swaюa fуra tigola
D swaюum fуrum tigolum
A swaюa fуra tigola
Another major group of Old English nouns consists only of feminine nouns.
Funny but in Indo-European they are called a-stems. But Germanic turned
vowels sometimes upside down, and this long a became long o. However,
practically no word of this type ends in -o, which was lost or transformed.
The special variants of у-stems are jo- and wo-stems which have practically
the same declension but with the corresponding sounds between the root and
the ending.
Examples of у-stems: caru (care), sceamu (shame), onswaru (worry), lufu
(love), lбr (an instruction), sorg (sorrow), юrбg (a season), ides (a
woman).
Examples of jу-stems: sibb (peace), ecg (a blade), secg (a sword), hild (a
fight), жx (an axe).
Examples of wу-stems: beadu (a battle), nearu (need), lжs (a beam).
i-stems
Masc. Neut.
N sige (victory) hyll (hill) sife (sieve)
G siges hylles sifes
D sige hylle sife
A sige hyll sife
N sigeas hyllas sifu
G sigea hylla sifa
D sigum hyllum sifum
A sigeas hyllas sifu
The tribes and nations were usually of this very type, and were used always
in plural: Engle (the Angles), Seaxe (the Saxons), Mierce (the Mercians),
Norюymbre (the Northumbrians), Dene (the Danish)
N Dene
G Dena (Miercna, Seaxna)
D Denum
A Dene
Fem.
Sg. Pl.
N hyd (hide) hэde, hэda
G hэde hэda
D hэde hэdum
A hэd hэde, hэda
This kind of stems included all three genders and derived from the same
type of Indo-European stems, frequent also in other branches and languages
of the family.
Examples: masculine - mere (a sea), mete (food), dжl (a part), giest (a
guest), drync (a drink); neuter - spere (a spear); feminine - cwйn (a
woman), wiht (a thing).
u-stems
Masc. Fem.
N sunu (son)feld (field) duru (door) hand (hand)
G suna felda dura handa
D suna felda dura handa
A sunu feld duru hand
N suna felda dura handa
D sunum feldum durum handum
A suna felda dura handa
They can be either masculine or feminine. Here it is seen clearly how
Old English lost its final -s in endings: Gothic had sunus and handus,
while Old English has already sunu and hand respectively. Interesting that
dropping final consonants is also a general trend of almost all Indo-
European languages. Ancient tongues still keep them everywhere - Greek,
Latin, Gothic, Old Prussian, Sanskrit, Old Irish; but later, no matter
where a language is situated and what processes it undergoes, final
consonants (namely -s, -t, often -m, -n) disappear, remaining nowadays only
in the two Baltic languages and in New Greek.
Examples: masculine - wudu (wood), medu (honey), weald (forest), sumor (a
summer); fem. - nosu (a nose), flуr (a floor).
The other type of nouns according to their declension was the group of
Weak nouns, derived from n-nouns is Common Germanic. Their declension is
simple and stable, having special endings:
Masc. Fem. Neut.
N nama (name) cwene (woman) йage (eye)
G naman cwenan йagan
D naman cwenan йagan
A naman cwenan йage
N naman cwenan йagan
G namena cwenena йagena
D namum cwenum йagum
A naman cwenan йagan
Examples: masc. - guma (a man), wita (a wizard), steorra (a star), mуna
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