1.2.

Old English: The

Language
• The Germanic language that emerged in
England carried with it the differences of the
various invading tribes and led to the
development of the four main dialects of the
Old English language: Northumbrian, Mercian,
Kentish, and West-Saxon
• Before 597 Old English was scarcely
written, but English had certainly been
spoken for centuries before that
• This OE language survives mostly in
the West Saxon dialect, which became
the official and literary language from
the 890s until the Norman Conquest
thanks to King Alfred
• Under his leadership education was
revived and a policy of translating
important books from Latin into Old
English was initiated
• As a result of King Alfred’s influence and
the work of contemporary and subsequent
scholars such as Ælfirc, Abbot of
Eynsham, not only did the West Saxon
dialect become the literary standard, but
also was far more developed for the
expression of prose and poetry than any
contemporary European vernacular by the
time of the Norman Conquest
• The language in which Old English literature
is preserved is purely a Germanic one in its
syntax, morphology, and lexis
• The word “English” derives from anglisc, the
speech of the Angles, who settled in Mercia
and Northumbria
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• AN. ccccxlix. Her … Hengest 7 Horsa from
Wyrtgeorne geleaþade Bretta kininge
gesohton Bretene on þam staþe þe is
genemned Ypwinesfleot ærest Brettum to
fultume ac hie eft on hie fuhton.
• Here … Hengest and Horsa by Vortigern
invited, Britons’ king, sought Britain in the
place which is named Ebbsfleet, first to
Britons as help, but they afterwards
against them fought