OLD ENGLISH (c. 500 – c. 1100)

1. OLD ENGLISH (c. 500 – c. 1100) Germanic Tribe Invasion Christianity & Literacy Anglo-Saxon (Old English) The Vikings

2. Germanic Tribe Invasion No longer protected by the Roman military against the constant threat from the Picts and Scots of the North, the Celts felt themselves increasingly vulnerable to attack.

3. Protection of the Jutes Around 430AD, Celtic warlord Vortigern invited the Jutish brothers Hengest and Horsa (from Jutland in modern-day Denmark), to settle on the east coast of Britain to protect against sea raids by the Picts.

4. Other Germanic peoples The Angles from a region called Angeln The Frisian people, from the marshes and islands of northern Holland and western Germany (from 450 A.D.) From the 470s, the war-like Saxons (from the Lower Saxony area of north-western Germany) Began to displace the Celts

5. Echoes of language Frisian, especially spoken, has a resemblance to English, Some Frisian words were incorporated into English, miel (meal), laam(lamb), goes (goose), bûter (butter), tsiis (cheese), see (sea), boat (boat), stoarm(storm), rein (rain), snie (snow), frieze (freeze), froast (frost), mist (mist), sliepe (sleep),blau (blue), trije (three), fjour (four),

6. What does Frisian sound like? https://youtu.be/XqeJn-MAC8Q It’s thought that modern English sounds most like this northern Dutch province’s unique language: *Frisian

7. Actually an ‘invasion’? A gradual blending over several generations Not a proper invasion, With the exception of the more remote areas, which remained strongholds of the original Celtic people of Britain.

8. Foreigners in their own land The Celts referred to the European invaders as “barbarians” (as they Germans had previously been labelled themselves) The invaders referred to the Celts as weales (slaves or foreigners in their Germanic tongue), the origin of the name Wales. Thus, it can be said that nowadays, the ‘true natives’ of England live in Wales, which itself claims to be its own country in modern times but is under the governmental control of the United Kingdom

9. Celtic language The Celtic language survives today only in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland, the Welsh of Wales, and the Breton language of Brittany.

10. Germanic Heptarchy The Germanic tribes settled in seven smaller kingdoms: the Heptarchy.

11. Place Names Evidence: place names throughout England ending with the Anglo-Saxon “-ing” meaning people of (e.g. Worthing, Reading, Hastings) “-ton” meaning enclosure or village (e.g. Taunton, Burton, Luton) “-ford” meaning a river crossing (e.g. Ashford, Bradford, Watford) “-ham” meaning farm (e.g. Nottingham, Birmingham, *Grantham) “-stead” meaning a site (e.g.Hampstead).

12. Albion – Brittania - Anglaland Albion (before Roman invasion) Britannia under the Romans Became known as Anglaland or Englaland (the Land of the Angles), later shortened to England Its emerging language as Englisc (now referred to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon, or sometimes Anglo-Frisian). *Englisc is NOT modern day English*

13. Not just a dialect! Our language began to develop its own distinctive features in isolation from the continental Germanic languages, by around 600AD. Four major dialects of Old English gradually emerged: Northumbrian in the north of England, Mercian in the midlands, West Saxon in the south and west, and Kentish in the southeast.

14. Christianity and Literacy St. Augustine and missionaries from Rome brought Christianity to the pagan Anglo-Saxons 597 AD. Pope Gregory the Great chose him in 595 to lead a mission to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent.

15. Archbishop of Canterbury Augustine was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 601 AD and several great monasteries and centres of learning were established particularly in Northumbria (e.g. Jarrow, Lindisfarne). Literacy spread through Christianity.

16. Runes Alphabet The Celts and the early Anglo-Saxons used an alphabet of runes, angular characters originally developed for scratching onto wood or stone.

17. First known written English Sentence “This she-wolf is a reward to my kinsman.” gaegogaemaegaemedu Itis an Anglo-Saxon runic inscription on a gold medallion Found in Suffolk Dated to about 450-480 AD.

18. “This she-wolf is a reward to my kinsman.”gaegogaemaegaemedu

19. From Runes to Roman Alphabet Early Christian missionaries introduced the more rounded Roman alphabet Easier to read and more suited for writing on vellum or parchment. The Anglo-Saxons adopted the new Roman alphabet, but with the addition of letters such as   ("wynn"), þ (“thorn”), ð (“edh” or “eth”) and 3 (“yogh”) from the old runic alphabet for certain sounds not used in Latin. 

20. More church words from Latin Loanwords often enter a language from the area of life it touches most (Latin – education – church) priest, vicar, altar, mass, church, bishop, pope, nun, angel, verse, baptism, monk, eucharist, candle, temple

21. Poet, Historian, Scholar England with its first great poet (Caedmon in the 7th Century) Its first great historian (the Venerable Bede in the 7th-8th Century) Its first great scholar (Alcuin of York in the 8th Century) ALL OF THEM WROTE IN LATIN!

22. Oldest surviving Old English text "Cædmon's Hymn", composed between 658 and 680.

23. Anglo Saxon (Old English) Most well-known long epic poem: “Beowulf” May have been written any time between the 8th and the early 11th Century by an unknown author or authors The 3,182 lines of the work shows that Old English was already a fully developed poetic language by this time.

24. Beowulf Let’s listen to a reading in Old English for a few minutes. Can you understand anything? Old English is as foreign to a native speaker of modern English as it is to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K13GJkGvDw

25. The complexity of Old English Nouns had three genders (male, female and neuter) Nouns could be be inflected for up to five cases. There were seven classes of “strong” verbs and three of “weak” verbs, and their endings changed for number, tense, mood and person. Aren’t you glad modern English has evolved and simplified? 

26. Root words and false friends Many of the most basic and common words in use in English today have their roots in Old English, including words like water, earth, house, food, drink, sleep Be careful of ‘false friends’ wif (wife, which originally meant any woman, married or not),  fæst (fast, which meant fixed or firm, - more similar to FASTEN- not rapidly).

27. Current influence on modern English Anglo-Saxon vocabulary died out a lot after Vikings started invading Less than 1% of our current vocabulary is influenced by Old-English However, 100 of the top most commonly used words are of Old-English origin Although pronunciations and spellings may have changed significantly over time.

28. THE VIKINGS By the late 8th Century, the Vikings (or Norsemen) began to make sporadic raids on the east coast of Britain.

29. Viking Destruction In 793, they sacked and looted the wealthy monastery at Lindisfarne in Northumbria

30. Danelaw Viking expansion was finally halted by Alfred the Great

31. A split country In 878, a treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings established the Danelaw, splitting the country along a line roughly from London to Chester Would last about 100 years Imagine if the line still existed – can you draw any similarities to Korea?

32. Influence of Danes on Anglo-Saxon Under the influence of the Danes, Anglo-Saxon word endings and inflections started to fall away during the time of the Danelaw Prepositions like to, with, by, etc. became more important to make meanings clear

33. Alfred the Great – Champion of ENGLISH! From his capital town of Winchester, Alfred the Great set about rebuilding and fostering the revival of learning, law and religion.

34. Scholar King Crucially, he believed in educating the people in the vernacular English language, not Latin He made several translations of important works into English, including Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”. (Remember: Bede was a monk at one of the destroyed monasteries, who wrote only in Latin)

35. Revered Alfred the Great He is revered by many as having single-handedly saved English from the destruction of the Vikings The West Saxon dialect of Wessex became the standard English of the day He helped raise English to a higher status dialect than any other European one of the times

36. Review Quiz Your professor will put you into groups randomly. You may not select your group. On a piece of paper, write all your names. Ask one member to clearly write the answers. Another group will check your answers and score the quiz. You can get answers to the quiz at the end.

37. Group Quiz 1. T/F 450 A.D. is when Jutes began arriving to help protect Celts from Picts and Scots of the North. 2. Was it really a Germanic tribe invasion of England? Why/ why not? 3. Where do the ‘true natives’ of England live? 4. The ____ tribes of Germanic people settled into kingdoms known as a: _______. 5. T/F Anglaland or Englaland where the modern name England is derived from.

38. Group Quiz Continued 6. Who was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 601 A.D.? 7. Why is the data from Q. 6 significant? 8. T/ F The Aramaic and Roman alphabets are significant in English history. 9. Which language did the first great scholar, poet, and historian of England write in? (like Korean scholars used to write in Chinese) 10. T/F The oldest surviving text in any recognizable English dialect is Beowulf.

39. Group Quiz Continued 11. Fill in the blanks: Less than ___ % of our current vocabulary is influenced by Old-English However, ____ of the top most commonly used words are of Old-English origin 12. In which century did the Vikings (Norsemen) begin sporadic raids on England’s east coast? 13. Danelaw was _____________.

40. Group Quiz Continued 14. Prepositions like to, with, by, took over during Danelaw’s time to make meaning clear and the _____-edendings of English faded away 15. Open ended question: Why is Alfred the Great revered as a Champion of English?

41. Group Quiz Answers 1. True 2. No - A gradual blending over several generations 3. Wales 4. 7, heptarchy 5. True 6. St. Augustine 7. Several great monasteries and centres of learning were established particularly in Northumbria (e.g. Jarrow, Lindisfarne) and literacy spread through Christianity.

42. Group Quiz Answers 8. F. The RUNIC (angular characters originally developed for scratching onto wood or stone) and Roman alphabets are significant 9. Latin 10. F. "Cædmon's Hymn", composed between 658 and 680. 11. Less than 1% of our current vocabulary is influenced by Old-English. However, 100 of the top most commonly used words are of Old-English origin

43. Group Quiz Answers 12. 8th Century 13. In 878, a treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings established the Danelaw, splitting the country along a line roughly from London to Chester. Would last about 100 years 14. Inflected 15. Alfred the Great set about rebuilding and fostering the revival of learning, law and religion. He believed in educating the people in the vernacular English language, not Latin. He made several translations of important works into English, including Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”. He helped raise English to a higher status dialect than any other European one of the times