An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press
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An Introduction to Old English 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page i Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language General Editor Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh) Editorial Board Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington) Derek Britton (University of Edinburgh) Olga Fischer (University of Amsterdam) Norman Macleod (University of Edinburgh) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Katie Wales (University of Leeds) Anthony Warner (University of York) An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller An Introduction to English Phonology April McMahon An Introduction to English Morphology Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy An Introduction to International Varieties of English Laurie Bauer An Introduction to Middle English Simon Horobin and Jeremy Smith 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page ii An Introduction to Old English Richard Hogg Edinburgh University Press 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page iii © Richard Hogg, 2002 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Janson by Norman Tilley Graphics and printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 1329 3 (hardback) ISBN 0 7486 1328 5 (paperback) The right of Richard Hogg to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page iv Contents To readers viii 1 Origins and source 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Indo-European and Germanic 2 1.3 The Anglo-Saxon settlement 3 1.4 The look of Old English 4 1.5 Vowels 5 1.6 People, places and texts 6 1.7 The sound system of Old English 8 Exercises 12 2 The basic elements 13 2.1 Change and continuity 13 2.2 Nouns 14 2.3 Demonstratives 18 2.4 Pronouns 19 2.5 A simple sentence 22 Exercises 24 3 More nouns and adjectives 26 3.1 Irregular nouns 26 3.2 Minor declensions 29 3.3 Adjectives 32 3.4 The verb ‘to be’ 35 Exercise 37 4 Verb forms 39 4.1 Verb types 39 4.2 A weak verb 41 4.3 More weak verbs 42 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page v 4.4 Unmutated verbs 45 4.5 A phonological interlude 46 4.6 More weak verbs 48 4.7 ‘Anomalous’ verbs 49 4.8 More on i-mutation and suppletion and adjectives 50 Exercise 51 5 Strong verbs 54 5.1 Present-day English 54 5.2 Ablaut 54 5.3 Strong verb classes 55 5.4 Variation in strong verbs 61 5.5 Modal verbs 64 Exercises 66 6 Noun phrases and verb phrases 68 6.1 The elements of syntax 68 6.2 The noun phrase 68 6.3 Concord 75 6.4 Tense in the verb phrase 77 6.5 Aspect 78 6.6 Voice 80 6.7 Mood 82 Exercise 85 7 Clauses 86 7.1 Word order 86 7.2 Verb-second order 87 7.3 Verb-final order 90 7.4 Noun phrase order 92 7.5 Negation 94 7.6 Relative and other clauses 95 7.7 Impersonal verbs 98 Exercise 100 8 Vocabulary 102 8.1 The sources of vocabulary 102 8.2 Core vocabulary 103 8.3 Affixation 105 8.4 Compounds 107 8.5 Latin loans 109 8.6 Other loan words 112 Exercise 113 vi AN INTRODUCTION TO MIDDLE ENGLISH 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page vi 9 Variety 115 9.1 Introduction 115 9.2 Chronology 116 9.3 Prose 117 9.4 Poetry 118 9.5 Dialect 123 Exercise 126 10 The future 128 10.1 Introduction 128 10.2 The past 129 10.3 Towards Middle English and beyond 130 10.4 Envoi 135 Exercises 136 Old English – present-day English glossary 138 Glossary of linguistic terms 147 Recommended reading 154 References 158 Index 161 CONTENTS vii 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page vii To readers This textbook is designed for students for whom this is the first experience of the language of the earliest period of English, namely the period from the time of the invasions of Britain by the English in the fifth century until the time of the Norman Conquest or shortly there- after. If it is undoubtedly true that the first sighting of the English of that time comes as a shock to most beginning students, there can be no doubt that an understanding of that language is essential for a proper appre- ciation of how English has evolved over time. The approach taken here is somewhat different from that usually taken in introductory textbooks of Old English. Most such books offer a two-part solution, consisting, firstly, of a freestanding account of the grammar, and, secondly, a group of texts which the student is expected to read by reference to the relevant material in the grammar. The distinctive feature of this work is that I have attempted to present an integrated account, in which, for the most part, accounts of the linguis- tic history of Old English are immediately followed by relevant and exemplary texts. Given the scope of this work, this has meant that some traditional features have had to be omitted. For example, there are no complete texts, except in one special case, and of necessity the grammar sections are also not as full as those which some textbooks provide. On the other hand, alongside some features not usually present at this level, such as a discussion of dialectal material, the material presented here is intended to provide the amount of work which can sensibly be covered in one-term or one-semester courses of the kind common today. I have deliberately omitted some features which are usually included; in particular there is at no point any extended discussion of phonology. There is no doubt that the student who wishes to take his or her study of Old English further will need, at that stage, to acquire a deeper knowledge of the phonological features of the language. But my own experiences suggest that too great an emphasis on phonology at a very early stage actually inhibits an understanding of other linguistic matters and even of the reading of original texts. Also, unlike in the other texts viii 01 pages i-x prelims 29/1/03 16:06 Page viii in this series, there are no discussions of the exercises. This would have been pointless given that for the most part these exercises consist only of passages for translation. Throughout this work I have tried, wherever appropriate, to relate Old English structures to those of the present day. The principal motiv- ation for this is to demonstrate how much of the language has remained stable over time, rather than merely to assist the reader in his or her understanding of Old English. I am also aware that this work will often be used by readers whose first language is other than English, and there- fore I have tried to relate Old English structures to those of our nearest relatives. I owe a debt of gratitude to a variety of people. My thanks go to Heinz Giegerich, not merely for inviting me to write this work, but also for his helpful comments on the work as it progressed. Olga Fischer read the whole manuscript and suggested many improvements with her usual tact and intelligence. Some years ago I tested a small part of this work out on my students, and I am grateful to them for their responses at that time, as well as to my colleague Chris McCully for his valuable remarks on that first attempt. My thanks also go to my fellow authors Jeremy Smith and Simon Horobin for sharing their work on Middle English with me. Sarah Edwards, at Edinburgh University Press, has been incredibly patient with an author at whom she must have despaired, and I am grateful for her patience. In completing this work I have also benefited from the support of the Leverhulme Trust and their award of a Senior Research Fellowship, and for that support I am most grateful. Finally, my sons have also read through parts of this work with an undergraduate’s eye, and for that, and much more, I dedicate this book to them. 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