Historical Linguistics

The English Language

ELT 322 Historical Linguistics
Spring 2022
Esma Latić
Historical Linguistics
Old English (450–1150)
ELT 322 Historical Linguistics
Spring 2022
Esma Latić
Modified Roman Alphabet
Carvings on wood and stone – Runic alphabet
(Futhorc)
Sound changes
Fricative voicing

Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard

Now we should praise the quardian of the heavenly kingdom.
Fricative voicing

MoE: wife – wives; knife – knives: leaf – leaves (voiceless in the final position,
voiced between two vowels)

• Most v- and z-initial words are loans (French/Latin: very, vacuum, vaccine,
vital; Greek: zodiac, zone, zebra)
Palatalization
• In OE, the three velars are fronted, in particular before a front vowel:

Germanic Old English

skirt shirt
skatter shatter
kirk church
ege eye
Breaking of vowels
• Breaking of the front vowels, when followed by l or r and a consonant, or an
h, into diphtongs, the final sound of which is a back vowel:

• ald – eald; half – healf, werc, weorc

Fronting of vowels
• back vowels fronting when followed by an i:
Fronting of vowels
mouse mice
Gmc. /mu:s/ /mu:si/

i-Umlaut (fronting!):
/mu:s/ /my:si/
/u:/ > /y:/ / _/i/

Loss of /i/ /mu:s/ /my:s/

Unrounding of /y:/ >
/mu:s/ /mi:s/
/i:/

GVS: /u:/ > /au/; /i:/ > /maus/

Alliteration
• Alliteration – the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
or stressed syllables, is a basic structural principle of the early Germanic
verse: e.g. metudæs maecti end his modgidanc
Caedmon’s Hymn
Nu we sculon herigean heofonrices Weard

sc – ʃ (palatalization before a back vowel)

g – j (palatalization before a front vowel)
f – v (fricative voicing between two vowels)
c – tʃ (palatalization before a front vowel)
Caedmon’s Hymn
Meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc

g – j (palatalization before a front vowel)

Þ – ð (fricative voicing between two vowels)
Caedmon’s Hymn
weorc Wuldor-Fæder swa he wundra gehwilces
ece Drihten or onstealde

g – j (palatalization before a front vowel)

c – tʃ (palatalization before a front vowel)
Caedmon’s Hymn
He ærest sceop ielda bearnum

sc – ʃ (palatalization)
Caedmon’s Hymn
heofon to hrofe halig Scyppend

f – v (possible fricative voicing between two vowels)

sc – ʃ (palatalization)
Caedmon’s Hymn
ða middangeard mancynnes Weard

g – j (palatalization before a front vowel)

Caedmon’s Hymn
ece Drihten æfter teode
c – tʃ (palatalization before a front vowel)

firum foldan Frea ælmihtig

OE Grammar
English: Evolution from a
synthetic into an analytic
language
OE Grammar
 Nouns Verbs
Strong Weak Weak 1 Pret.
Strong Weak 2 “to be”
Neut. Fem. u-stem Athematic Short Long Pres.
Masc. Masc. Neut. Fem.
Short Long Short Long Innitive helpan emman hǣlan luan witan wesan bēon
N. sg. ġiefu sorg nama tunge Inected tō tō tō tō tō tō
stān scip þing ēage sunu mann Innitive helpanne emmanne hǣlanne luanne witanne bēonne
A. ġiefe sorge naman tungan
Pres. Part. helpende emmende hǣlende luende witende wesende bēonde
G. stānes scipes þinges ġiefe sorge naman ēagan tungan suna mannes
Past. Part. holpen emed hǣled lufod
D. stāne scipe þinge ġiefe sorge naman ēagan tungan suna menn
Present
N/A pl. stānas scipu þing ġiefa sorga naman ēagan tungan suna menn
1 Sg. helpe emme hǣle lue wāt eom bēo
G. stāna scipa þinga ġiefa sorga namena ēagena tungena suna manna
2 Sg. hilpst emest hǣlst lufast wāst eart bist
D. stānum scipum þingum ġiefum sorgum namum ēagum tungum sunum mannum
3 Sg. hilpð emeð hǣlð lufað wāt is bið

Adjectives Interrogative Plural helpað emmað hǣlað luað witon sind(on) bēoð

Strong Weak Pronouns Subj. Sg. helpe emme hǣle lue wite sīe bēo

Neut. Fem. Masc., Fem. Neut. Subj. Pl. helpen emmen hǣlen luen witen sīen bēon
Masc. Masc. Neut. Fem.
Short Long Short Long hwā Imp. Sg. help eme hǣl lufa wite wes bēo

N. sg. hwæt hwatu gōd gōda gōde hwone, hwæt Past

hwæt gōd gōde hwæne
A. hwætne hwate gōde gōdan gōdan 1, 3 Sg. healp emede hǣlde lufode wisse, -ste wæs

G. hwætes gōdes hwæs 2 Sg. hulpe emedest hǣldest lufodest wistest wǣre
hwætre gōdre gōdan
D. hwatum gōdum hwām, hwǣm Plural hulpon emedon hǣldon lufodon wisson, -ston wǣron

I. hwate gōde hwȳ, hwon Subj. Sg. hulpe emede hǣlde lufode wisse, -ste wǣre

N/A pl. hwate hwatu gōd hwata, -e gōda, -e gōdan Subj. Pl. hulpen emeden hǣlden lufoden wissen, -sten wǣren
Compare the
G. hwatra gōdra hwatra gōdra gōdra, gōdena boxes with Classes of Strong Verbs
D. hwatum gōdum hwatum gōdum gōdum matching colors!
Innitive Third pers. sg. First past Second past Past part.
1 wrītan wrītt wrāt writon writen
Demonstrative Pronouns Personal Pronouns
2a ċēosan ċīesð ċeas curon coren
“the,” “that,” “those” “this,” “these” Third Person
Sg. Dual Pl. 2b lūcan lȳcð lēac lucon locen
Masc. Neut. Fem. Masc. Neut. Fem. Masc. Neut. Fem.
3a singan singð sang sungon sungen
N. sg. se sēo þes þēos N. ic wit wē hē hēo
þæt þis hit 3b helpan hilpð healp hulpon holpen
A. þone þā þisne þās A. 1st mē, mec unc ūs hine hīe
Sg. 3c hweorfan hwierf hwearf hwurfon hworfen
G. þæs þisses G. pers. mīn uncer ūre his
þisse, 4a stelan stilð stæl stǣlon stolen
þǣre hire
D. þām, þǣm þissum þisre D. mē unc ūs him 4b niman nimð nam nōmon numen
I. þȳ, þon þȳs N. þū ġit ġē 5 sprecan spricð spræc sprǣcon sprecen
hīe
N/A pl. þā þās A. 2nd
þē, þec inc ēow 6 bacan bæcð bōc bōcon bacen
Pl.
pers.
G. þāra, þǣra þissa, þisra G. þīn incer ēower hira 7a hātan hǣtt hēt hēton hāten
D. þām, þǣm þissum D. þē inc ēow him 7b )ōwan )ēwð )ēow )ēowon )ōwen
Personal pronouns:

hiene/hyne
Personal pronouns:
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns
Demonstratives

• usually translated using the Modern English ‘the’

• generally not required
• the indefinite article ‘a/an’ is not used, but sometimes an ‘one’ and sum ‘some’
are
Demonstrative as relative pronouns

• In Old English, demonstratives are often used where Modern English

uses relatives.
OE Nouns
Nouns (vowel stems/strong nouns)

• Nouns have endings on number, case and gender

Nouns (consonantal stems/weak nouns)

• Weak nouns are considered grammatically weak because there are very few
variations in how they decline.
 Nouns (vowel stems/strong nouns) grammatical gender ≠ natural gender

> the English

possessive –’s

> the General English plural -(e)s

> ⌀ plural suffix (deer, sheep)
OE Adjectives and Adverbs
Comparison of adjectives
hard
heard – heardra – heardrost

narrow
nearu – nearora – nearwost

good
god – betra – betst

evil
yfel – wyrsa – wyrst (suppletive forms)
Adverbs
• In Old English, adverbs are usually formed by endings -e as in (a) and -lice
(which later becomes -ly):

(a) heofodwoþe hlude cirme

voice-DAT loud-ADV cry-out-1S
‘I cry out loudly with my voice’
OE Verbs
Old English Verbs
• The endings on verbs depend on the tense (past and present), the person
and number (of the subject), and the mood (imperative and subjunctive).
• They are divided into strong and weak: the first change their stem vowels in
the past tense and the past participle, while the weak ones get regular
inflections.
Strong Verbs (‘drife’ – ‘to drive, force’)
Weak Verbs (‘fremme’ – ‘do’)
Subjunctive
The irregular ‘to be’
Auxiliaries and Infinitives
• Modern English modal auxiliaries such as can, could, will, and would, and
auxiliaries have and be are regular (lexical) verbs in Old English
• From Old and Modern English, these verbs grammaticalize, i.e. they lose
their meaning but gain grammatical function.
• Infinitives in Old English have an ending and an optional to.
OE Syntax
Syntax
• OE had a relatively free word order with some rules:
- Pronouns usually occur near the beginning of the sentence
- Verbs often occur at the end (which is a marked position in MoE)

- Verbs sometimes occur in second position

Syntax
• Subject pronouns are more optional in OE:
Syntax
• Questions do not have the auxiliary ‘do’:

• Auxiliaries ‘have’ and ‘be’ are often omitted: aspectual prefix

Syntax
• OE often uses ‘and’ or no coordination/subordination:
Syntax
• The negative adverb often immediately precedes the verb:

• Multiple negatives occur:

OE Wordhoard
OE lexicon
• OE lexicon was predominantly Germanic (est. 3% non-Germanic)
• French, Latin, Scandinavian loanwords later replaced them

• Compounding (e.g. ‘mod’ = ‘heart’/‘mind’)

 OE lexicon
• Semantic shifts:
1. Narrowing (meat, OE = food)
2. Widening (tail, OE = hairy part on the backside of a horse)
3. Metaphorical extension (crane, OE = bird)
4. Amelioration and pejorization (silly, OE = blessed; clown, OE = rural person)