History of the English Language: The Old English Period

THE EARLY EXTERNAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN

• Settlement Background

  • The territory eventually known as England was not settled by Germanic peoples until approximately the fifth century $CE$.
  • The original inhabitants were primarily speakers of various Celtic languages.
  • The island was named "Britannia" by the Romans, after the Britons, a Celtic-speaking group.
  • Britons lacked a tradition of writing, meaning their history is largely understood through Roman historical records.

• Roman Military and Strategic Contact

  • $55$ and $54$ $BCE$: Julius Caesar led initial Roman military contacts with the Britons.
  • Primary Roman goals were obtaining tribute and preventing Britons from allying with Celtic tribes on the European continent, rather than full conquest.
  • $43$ $CE$: Under Emperor Claudius, the Romans successfully imposed rule on the Britons. This began a period of approximately $350$ years where Britannia was part of the Roman Empire.

• Life in Roman Britain

  • Infrastructure: Romans and Roman Britons constructed Roman-style villas, roads, and baths.
  • Culture and Literacy: Romans imported literacy; letters written by soldiers survive to provide a glimpse into colonial life. Christianity was introduced to Britain after being accepted by the Roman Empire.
  • Geopolitcal Challenges: Britannia was a distant outpost from the political center of Rome. It faced internal revolts and external attacks from the beginning of the occupation.

• Notable Revolts and Defenses

  • Boudicca’s Revolt ($60$ or $61$ $CE$): A major internal uprising where Britons fought Romans in several battles. Londinium (Roman London) was famously burned to the ground.
  • Hadrian’s Wall (early second century $CE$): A defensive structure stretching coast to coast across northern Britannia to mark the extent of Roman rule and defend against attacks.

• The Decline of the Empire

  • Fourth century $CE$: The Empire faced increasing attacks in outposts and at the center.
  • Germanic Tribes: Tribes like the Visigoths and Vandals penetrated the Empire’s center, sacking Rome in $410$ and $455$.
  • Troop Withdrawal ($410$ $CE$): Romans withdrew troops from colonial outposts to address central threats and internal problems. This created a power vacuum essential for the later migration of Germanic peoples.
  • Military Scale: At some periods, Romans maintained up to $50,000$ troops in Britain. James Campbell notes this was a larger force than any medieval king of England ever maintained, stating, "nor could any medieval king of England have maintained a standing force a tenth of that size."

THE ADVENT OF THE ANGLES, SAXONS, AND JUTES

• The Post-Roman Crisis

  • Following the Roman withdrawal, Britain was besieged by several groups: the Picts and Scots from the north and west, and tribes from the north Germanic plains to the east (Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and Jutes).
  • The British historian Gildas (writing in the sixth century) records an appeal to Rome for help: "The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea throws us back on the barbarians: thus two modes of death await us, we are either slain or drowned."

• The Arrival of Germanic Mercenaries

  • $449$ $CE$: According to the historian Bede (writing in $731$ $CE$), the British king Vortigern invited the Angles and Saxons to Britain to provide military aid against the Picts and Scots.
  • These mercenaries were granted land in exchange for service. Bede notes that "hordes of these alien peoples vied together to crowd into the island," leading the natives to live in terror.
  • Bede interpreted the resulting destruction by the pagans as "God’s just punishment on the sins of the nation."

• Migration and Political Shift

  • The settlement was likely a large-scale migration rather than a simple invasion, joining existing Germanic populations.
  • The Romanized Celtic-speaking Britons were pushed into the north and west (e.g., Wales).
  • Within a century, the island was dominated by several kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons.

LINGUISTIC AND SOCIAL RELATIONS WITH THE CELTIC BRITONS

• Indicators of Social Status

  • Anglo-Saxon word wealh: Meant "Briton" or "Welsh person," but also evolved to mean "stranger," "foreigner," and "slave."
  • Celtic words for Saxon: Scottish sassenach and Welsh saesneg remain synonymous with "foreigner" or "enemy."

• Celtic Borrowings into English

  • Place Names: Thames, Kent.
  • Geological Features: torr (a high, rocky peak), found in names like Torcross.
  • Nature of Borrowing: Borrowing was limited (numbering only about a dozen words), chiefly lexical, and tied to physicality rather than deep culture, suggesting limited initial influence by the Britons on their conquerors.
  • Modern Linguistic Views: Filppula et al. argue that Celtic influence may be more profound than previously thought, potentially impacting grammar, such as the use of the auxiliary verb do in questions (e.g., "Do you know the time?").

• Diversity in Early Britain

  • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ($9ᵗʰ$ century) reiterates Bede’s earlier description: "The island Britain is $800$ miles long, and $200$ miles broad. And there are in the island five languages; English, Welsh [or British], Scottish, Pictish, and Latin."
  • Archaeological and $DNA$ evidence suggests a sustained presence of Britons within Anglo-Saxon territories long after the initial settlement.

THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY AND THE EMERGENCE OF LITERACY

• The Mission of Augustine

  • $596/597$ $CE$: Pope Gregory the Great sent monks under Augustine to convert Anglo-Saxon settlers to Christianity.
  • Within several generations, much of what became Anglo-Saxon England was converted, later becoming a center for Christian learning.

• Impact on Literacy

  • Conversion brought literacy and written records. Pre-conversion records are minimal, such as runic letters on a deer’s ankle-bone found at Caistor-by-Norwich, Norfolk.
  • Christianity utilized Latin, the language of the Church. However, because Latin was foreign to Anglo-Saxons, texts were often "glossed" (annotated) with Old English ($OE$).
  • Lindisfarne Gospels ($7ᵗʰ$/$8ᵗʰ$ century): Produced in northern England, this Latin manuscript contains $OE$ words written over or beside the text by later scribes to aid readability.

• Latin Borrowings into Old English

  • Total Borrowings: Approximately $450$ words.
  • Religious Contexts: angel, mass, priest, nun.
  • Educational Contexts: school, gloss, verse.
  • Daily Items: oyster, sock.
  • Substitution Tendency: Anglo-Saxons often used native words for new concepts (e.g., using native god instead of Latin deus, or godspell ["good news"] for evangelium).

SCANDINAVIAN RELATIONS AND THE VIKING AGE

• The Start of the Viking Age

  • $793$ $CE$: Scandinavian raiders attacked and plundered the northern monastery of Lindisfarne.
  • While attackers were often called "Danes," they came from modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

• The Great Army and King Alfred

  • $865$ $CE$: Scandinavian attacks became a full-scale invasion led by the sons of Ragnar Lođbrok.
  • Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy: The seven small kingdoms fell one by one, leaving only Wessex by $878$ $CE$.
  • Battle of Edington ($878$ $CE$): Alfred the Great (ruled $871–99$) defeated the Scandinavian army led by Guthrum.

• The Danelaw and Political Unity

  • Treaty of Wedmore: Established a northern and eastern territory for Scandinavians called the Danelaw, where they lived under Scandinavian law.
  • Unification: Conflict with Scandinavians helped create a unified "Englishness." Alfred’s successors reclaimed Danelaw territory, annexing it into Wessex to form a unified kingdom of the English.

• Alfred’s Educational Reform

  • "Preface to Pastoral Care": Alfred lamented the decline of Latin literacy due to Viking raids. He noted churches once "stood full of treasures and books" which servants of God could not benefit from because "they were not written in their own language."
  • Reform Strategy: He proposed that students be taught to read and write in English first, translating central Christian texts into the vernacular to improve education.

OLD ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND PHONOLOGY

• Unique Letter Forms

  • Wynn ($ƿ$): A runic letter representing the sound $[w]$. Modern editions typically substitute it with $<w>$.
  • Thorn ($þ$) and Eth ($ð$): Both represent the interdental fricative sounds $[θ]$ and $[ð]$ (modern $<th>$).
  • Ash ($æ$): Represents the low front vowel $[æ]$ as in modern English "at."

• Digraphs and Spelling Conventions

  • $<sc>$: Represented the sound $[∫]$ (e.g., $OE$ scip for modern "ship").
  • $<cg>$: Represented the sound $[dʒ]$ (e.g., $OE$ ecg for modern "edge").
  • $<cw>$: Used for the sound $[kw]$ (e.g., $OE$ cwic for "quick").
  • $<ġ>$ and $<ċ>$: Modern editorial conventions for the sounds $[j]$ and $[t∫]$ respectively, typically occurring near front vowels.
  • Distinguishing Vowel Length: Vowels could be long or short, which was meaningful (distinctive). For example, god (short vowel) meant "god," while gŁd (long vowel) meant "good."

• Phonological Rules

  • Vowel Reduction: By the end of the $OE$ period, unstressed vowels moved toward $[ə]$ (schwa). PDE examples: télephòne $[tələfon]$, phótogràph $[fotəɡɹæf]$.
  • Fricative Voicing: The voiceless fricatives $/s, f, θ/$ became voiced $[z, v, ð]$ when occurring between voiced sounds (usually vowels), such as ofer $[over]$.
  • Allophones of $/x/$ (written as $<h>$):
    • $[h]$: Beginning of words before a vowel (e.g., hū s).
    • $[x]$: After a back vowel or before a consonant (e.g., seah, sŁhte).
    • $[ç]$: After a high vowel (e.g., niht).
  • Assimilation: Sounds becoming more alike (e.g., miss you becoming $[mɪ∫ju]$).
  • Deletion: Loss of sounds, such as $/n/$ loss between a short vowel and voiceless fricative (e.g., Gothic uns becoming $OE$ ū s).

OLD ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY: VERBS AND PRONOUNS

• The Strong-Weak Distinction in Verbs

  • Strong Verbs: Form past tense using ablaut (vowel gradation, e.g., sing-sang-sung).
  • Weak Verbs: Form past tense using a dental preterit suffix (e.g., talk-talked).

• Verb Tense, Mood, and Aspect

  • Tense: Grammatically distinguished between present and past.
  • Mood: Included indicative (fact), subjunctive (hypothetical/conditional), and imperative (command).
  • Aspect: Expressed through periphrastic forms like the perfect (auxiliary habban [have] or beon/wesan [be] + past participle).
  • Auxiliary choice: Beon was used for intransitive verbs denoting change of state or location; habban was used elsewhere.

• Personal Pronouns

  • Number: Singular, Plural, and Dual (representing exactly two persons, such as wit [we two] and unc [us two]).
  • Case System:
    • Nominative: Subject.
    • Genitive: Possession.
    • Accusative: Direct Object.
    • Dative: Indirect Object and object of prepositions.
  • Gender: $OE$ used grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) rather than natural gender. Example: mŁna (moon) is masculine, while sunne (sun) is feminine.

OLD ENGLISH SYNTAX AND WORD ORDER

• Basic Word-Order Patterns

  • Transition: $OE$ moved from a more synthetic (morphology-heavy) to an analytic (syntax-heavy) language.
  • Verb Position: $OE$ was an $OV$ (Object-Verb) language, whereas PDE is $VO$ (Verb-Object).
  • V2 Rule: In main clauses, the verb tended to be the second element (e.g., þā cŁmon wē… [Then came we…]).
  • Subordinate Clauses: The verb often appeared in the final position.

• Clause Combining Strategies

  • Parataxis: Coordinate clauses with parallel independent status (syndetic with conjunctions, or asyndetic juxtaposition).
  • Hypotaxis: Clauses dependent on one another but grammatically distinct (e.g., the "$OE$ $þā... þā$ construction" [When… then…]).
  • Subordination: One clause subsumed within the grammar of another (e.g., relative or noun clauses). This was rarer in $OE$.

ENGLAND AS PART OF A SCANDINAVIAN EMPIRE

• Late Viking Attacks and the Scandinavian Empire

  • $937$ $CE$: Battle of Brunanburh, an Anglo-Saxon victory against Scandinavians from Ireland.
  • Swein Forkbeard: Danish king who led serious attacks in the late tenth/early eleventh centuries. He became King of England in $1013–14$.
  • King Cnut: Ruled $1016–35$, controlling a Scandinavian empire including England, Denmark, and parts of Norway.
  • Danegeld: A tax paid by Æthelred the Unready to buy off attackers. Payments rose from $10,000$ pounds in $991$ to $48,000$ pounds in $1012$.

• Linguistic Influence of Old Norse

  • Lexical Borrowing: Norse borrowings doubled Latin borrowings in $OE$. Unlike Latin's specialized/religious vocabulary, Norse provided everyday words: egg, skin, sky, gift, give.
  • Grammatical Borrowing:
    • Third-person plural pronouns: $PDE$ they, them, their replaced $OE$ $h-$ starting forms ($hī e, heom$).
    • The verb "be": The plural form are is derived from Norse, replacing $OE$ sind or sindon.

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE AND POETICS

• Orality and MS Culture

  • Oral Poetry: The scop (oral poet) transmitted cultural knowledge through memory. The poem "Deor" alludes to myths like Weland the Smith to illustrate this tradition.
  • Manuscripts: Books were made from animal skin (vellum/parchment). Exeter Book Riddle $26$ narrates this process of "killing the animal" to create a "speaking object."

• Cultural Values

  • The Hall: Center of secular life and noble warrior bonds.
  • The Comitatus Bond: The formal relationship between a lord and his warriors (thanes). "The Dream of the Rood" recasts the crucifixion as the cross being a loyal thane to the heroic warrior Christ.

• Poetic Features

  • Alliteration: Repetition of initial word sounds to connect half-lines.
  • Caesura: A physical pause dividing a poetic line into two half-lines.
  • Apposition: Restating a noun phrase with another defining phrase (e.g., se ġŁda [the good man] appositive with mæġ Higelāces [kinsman of Higelac] in Beowulf).
  • Rhyme: Rare in $OE$ poetry; it did not become a regular feature until the Middle English period.

• The OE Corpus

  • Surviving manuscripts number around $950$, though only a small fraction are poetry. The corpus includes laws, medical texts, saints' lives, and histories.