Proper noun

Singular Old English

Plural -

Old English

1. The ancestor language of modern English, also called Anglo-Saxon, spoken in Britain from about 400 AD to 1100 AD. The language is a more inflected language, maintaining strong and weak verbs, nouns, and adjectives. It has a clearly marked subjunctive mood, and has 5 cases of nouns and adjectives. In addition to singular and plural grammatical numbers, there was a dual number for two people. After ca. 884, many Old Norse words made their way into Old English, as Norse settlers in the Danelaw interacted with native Anglo-Saxons.

Synonyms

• Anglo-Saxon

Related terms

• English
• Middle English
• Modern English

Old English (Englisc), also called Anglo-Saxon, is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon.

It is a West Germanic language and is closely related to Old Frisian. It also experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.

Development

Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 700 years – from the Anglo-Saxon migrations that created England in the 5th century to some time after the Norman Conquest of 1066 when the language underwent a dramatic transition. During this early period it assimilated some aspects of the languages with which it came in contact, such as the Celtic languages and the two dialects of Old Norse from the invading Vikings, who occupied and controlled large tracts of land in northern and eastern England, which came to be known as the Danelaw.

• Bibliographies@ (9)
• Courses@ (9)
• Dictionaries@ (20)
• Grammars@ (7)

See also:

• Arts: Literature: World Literature: British: Anglo-Saxon (286)
• Science: Social Sciences: Linguistics: Historical Linguistics (28)

• The MANCASS C11 Database
  arts.manchester.ac.uk
  A tool for studying writing and spelling in eleventh century manuscripts. Helps scholars to determine whether a standard form of written English existed in the eleventh century.
• Junicode Font Page
  junicode.sourceforge.net
  Junicode is a font for medievalists created by Peter Baker. If a computer is unable to display certain characters that can appear in online Old English texts, the Junicode font supplies the needed characters. Site describes the font and includes a link to a page from which the font can be downloaded.
• The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language
  wmich.edu
  Explains who the Anglo-Saxons were, where their language came from, and what their language was like. Also describes the relationship of Old English to other Germanic languages and to modern English. By Peter Baker.