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450
Celts and Romans
TCeltic tribes controlled most of England when the Romans were around. However, they left in A.D. 450 allowing germaic tribes to migrate to England. The romans left only 5 words in England while the Celts left 20. -
450
Old English Words
These words were probably around before the influence of the French but bear Scandinavian or Germanic origins.
hliehhan - ‘to laugh’
lÿþerlic - ‘bad’
geong - ‘young’
eald - ‘old’
twëgen - ‘two’
fëower - ‘four’
fïf - ‘five’
eahta - ‘eight’
nigon - ‘nine’
niht - ‘night’
morgen - ‘morning’
dæg - ‘day’
dagung - ‘dawn’
morðor - ‘murder’
scüfan - ‘to push/shove’
cÿðð - ‘kinship’ -
Period: 450 to Dec 31, 1150
Old English
Vocabulary: Many Germanic words, nouns, relating to religion. Mostly borrowed from invaders such as the Vikings and French.
Syntax: English uses a Latin grammatical structure, meaning old English would have been heavily influenced by the church.
Word endings: Many bilabial and Alveolar stops (n,m). Words were articulated from the back of the mouth, phonemes rarely came from the front (dental or labiodental) except for word endings. -
Period: 450 to Dec 31, 1150
Statement
The audience of my timeline is high school students in VCE who have some knowledge in English Language as a subject, or those who are studying the history of Old English. The purpose of my timeline to give a summarized and easy to understand source of information for those who may need it. This is done through the integration of examples, key dates/events and simple language (with some metalanguage) that ties back to the subject of English Language. (Instead of a general historic timeline) -
Jan 1, 750
Translation of Extract
There at the harbour stood with ringed prow icy and keen to set out a noble’s vessel.
They then laid down the beloved king the giver of rings in the bosom of the ship, the mighty by the mast; there were many treasures from far away precious things loaded.
Never heard I more comely of a ship equipped with war-weapons and war-dresses, swords and coats of mail; on his bosom lay many treasures that with him should on the flood’s control go far away. -
Jan 1, 750
Beowulf
It is estimated that Beowulf was composed around this time. The author, purpose and location is unkown. It was written in unrhymed, four-beat alliteratives, depicting a hero, Beowulf. The first part is about his adventures in Denmark battling the monster Grendel on behalf of the King Hrothgar of the Danes.
The the second part tells of his later years, a fight with a fire-dragon, during his reign as the King of Geatland. -
Jan 1, 750
Beowulf Extract
The description of Scyld’s funeral ship (32-42)
þår æt hÿðe stöd hringedstefna ïsig ond ütfüs æþelinges fær. älëdon þä lëofne þëoden bëaga bryttan on bearm scipes mårne be mæste. þår wæs mädma fela of feorwegum frætwa gelåded. Ne hÿrde ic cÿmlïcor cëol gegyrwan hildewåpnum ond heaðowådum billum ond byrnum. him on bearme læg mädma mænigo þä him mid scoldon on flödes æht feor gewïtan. -
Jan 1, 1000
Semantics
The semantics of words in Old English were likely simple, where each word meant one thing. Although negative/positive connotations were stillprevalent. The many French words that came into English provided multiple words for the same definition, resulting in slight variations in meaning. E.g. liberty and freedom, answer and respond... The influence of the French also made the semantics of some old English words to narrow, e.g. apple, all fruits -> a specific fruit -
Jan 1, 1066
Norman Conquest
French was the language spoken by the powerful (royalty, aristocrats, high-powered officials), used in politics and literature. Latin remained the language of the church and of scholars, however most of the general population (commoners) spoke English. This saw the ntroduction of silent letters into the spelling of words.
About 10 000 French words came into English, most were words of power (crown, castle, court, parliament, army, duke, servant, peasant, traitor and governor) -
Jan 1, 1131
Simplification (1131-1154)
At the end of old English, it became simpler. It dropped the use of genders and simplified spelling. (E.g. Loven -> Loveth -> Loves) As it was still the language of a lower social class, it made it easy for the Norman conquest to change the grammatical structure of English. -
Anglo Saxons
Anglo Saxon dialects form the basis of Old English.
Approximately 15% of the 30 000 Anglo-Saxon word given to English survives today mostly basic verbs: Earth, house, food, sing, night and sleep. -
St Augustine
St. Augustine led christian missionaries, converting the Anglo-Saxons from Pagan beliefs to a Catholic Christian faith. The language of the Church in Europe was Latin.
English was spoken differently in different counties but only 4 main dialects resembled modern English. (Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish)
Many Latin words were absorbed by English, they referred to religion (altar, mass, school, and monk), and simple verbs such as fork, spade, spider, tower, and rose. -
Anglo Saxon Chronicles (848-899)
The earliest known history of England written in English. Most probably compiled by King Alfred's command and distributed to monasteries for copying around 892, after which each copy was kept up to date by a member of the monastic community. -
King Alfred the Great (871-899)
Vikings controled most of Eastern England for a century but were pushed back into the North East by King Alfred the Great.King Alfred develops a sense of national identity amongst the people using the English Language, started to educate the people of it. He ordered the comletion of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles. Latin was still kept as the language of the church.The Norse raiders and settlers brought about 2000 words into the English vocabulary. (anger, cake, die freckle) -
Normans
Vikings settled in England, called Normans. The Norman society had French speaking aristocrats and English peasants.Hence, skilled trades had French names (tailor, mason, painter) and the lesser trades had English names (baker, miller, shoemaker). The same applied for animals (sheep, cow,ox) but when cooked, they cahnged to French names (beef, mutton, veal, bacon).
