UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE SAN MARTIN

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y HUMANIDADES

ESCUELA PROFESIONAL DE IDIOMAS

TEMA: The Dialects of Old English. Some Characteristics of Old

English. The Resourcefulness of the Old English Vocabulary. Old
English Syntax. Old English Literature.

ASIGNATURA: Historia de la Lengua Inglesa

DOCENTE: Lc. Dr. Carlo Espinoza Aguilar

CICLO: VII

AUTORES: Keyla Adriana Cardenas de Paz

Tarapoto-Morales
Valeria Soto Ushiñahua
Ruth Guisela Valles García
Ingrid Tatiana Pérez Torres
Luis Antonio Jimenez
Francisco Calle Alva
The Dialects of
Old English
The dialects probably reflect differences already present in the continental
homes of the invaders. However, there is evidence that some characteristics
developed in England after settlement with the rise of Western Saxony reached
somewhat of the position of a literary standard, and both for this reason and for
the abundance of materials is made the base of the study of Old English.
England's speech was interrupted by the Norman Conquest, which reduced all
dialects to a common level of insignificance and when in the late middle English
period a standard English once again began to emerge.
 Some
Characteristics of
Old English
Old English is an old form of the English language that was spoken by the
Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England
and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the
mid-12th century.
The English Language has undergone so many changes that one cannot
read Old English without special study.

Following are some important characteristics of Old English.

 ★ SPELLING AND
PRONUNCIATION
Spellings and Pronunciation of Old English words
commonly differs somewhat from that of their modern
equivalents. In Old English the vowels were different
from that of Modern English.
Old English had six simple vowels, spelled a, æ, i, o, u
and y, and probably a seventh, spelled ie. It also had
two diphthongs; ea and eo. Each of these sounds came
in short and long versions.
 ★ GRAMMAR
One of the important feature of the Old English that distinguishes it from Modern
English is of its grammar. Inflectional languages falls into two classes: synthetic
and analytic.

A synthetic language is one which indicates the relation of words is a

sentence largely my means of inflections while the languages which make
extensive use of prepositions and auxiliary verbs and depend upon word
order to show other relationships are known as analytic languages.

Modern English is an analytic language and Old English is a synthetic language. Old
English resembles Modern German in its grammar.
 Old English inflections can be illustrated as below:

❖ The Noun
The inflection of the Old English noun indicates distinctions of number (singular
and plural) and case.
Old English nouns had grammatical gender, singular and plural number, and were
also classified as "strong" or "weak" according to the distinctness of their
inflectional endings.

❖ Grammatical Gender
The gender of Old English is not dependent upon considerations of sex.
Old English nouns belong to one of three genders: masculine, feminine
and neuter.
 Old English inflections can be illustrated as below:

❖ The adjective
One of the characteristics that distinguishes the Germanic languages is the use of two sets of
declension of adjectives; the strong declension and the weak declension.
Same is the case with the Old English, for example we have in Old English gōd mann (good
man) and sē gōda mann (the good man). We can have another example; the good kings, as
opposed to Good kings, or the kings are good.

❖ The Definite Article

Old English possessed a fully inflected definite article just as in German Language which is its sister
language of today.
The ordinary meaning of sē, sēo, ðæt is ‘the’, the word is really a demonstrative pronoun and
survives in the Modern English demonstrative that.
 Old English inflections can be illustrated as below:

❖ The Personal Pronoun

In Old English Personal pronouns had first, second and third person forms; singular, dual,
and plural numbers and were declined according to the standard cases i.e. nominative,
accusative, genitive, and dative.

Singular Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative

1st person ic mē mīn mē
2nd person þū þē þīn þē
3rd person masculine. hē hine his him
3rd person feminine. hēo hīe hire hire
3rd person neutral. hit hit his him
 Old English inflections can be illustrated as below:

❖ The Verb
Old English verbs have only two tenses: present and past. The present tense was also
used for the future, while the past perfect was signalled by the past tense with the
adverb.

A peculiar feature of Germanic Languages was the division of the verb into two great
classes, the weak and the strong, weak verbs are those that require 'ed' at the end but the
vowel remains the same, and strong verbs are those in which the vowel is changed or
modified.

Example of weak verb is to (walk, walked, walked )

Example of strong verb is to (sing, sing, sing.)
 The Resourcefulness of the Old English
Vocabulary
● The arrival of three Germanic tribes in the
British Isles in 500 B.C. The Angles, the
Saxons and the Jutes.
● The Angles called their own language Englisc.
● Latin is also mixed in and so the Germans
began to use words to describe common
objects.
● Before the arrival of the Germanic tribes, the
inhabitants of Great Britain spoke a language
of Celtic origin.
 ★ VOCABULARY
A large part of this vocabulary, moreover has
disappeared from the language.
When the Norman Conquest brought French
into England as the language of the higher
classes, much of the Old English vocabulary
appropriate to literature and learning died out
and was displaced later by words borrowed
from French and Latin.
Many of these words were inherited by English
together with some other Indo-European
languages from the same common
source.
OLD ENGLISH
SYNTAX
 Introduction to Old English Syntax

The syntax of Old English has several distinct

features that set it apart from modern English.
These include a flexible word order, the use of
case endings to indicate grammatical function,
and the presence of complex subordinate
clauses.
 The Evolution of English Syntax

Over time, the syntax of English has

undergone significant changes, with
many of the features of Old English
gradually disappearing. The word order
has become more fixed, the case system
has been greatly simplified, and
subordinate clauses have become less
common.
Old English
Literature
Introduction to Old English Literature

Old English literature refers to the works produced

in England from the early medieval period until the
11th century.
This period is also known as the Anglo-Saxon
period.Old English literature was primarily oral, and
it was only later that it was written down.

The most famous example of this is the epic poem

Beowulf, (which tells the story of a hero who battles
against monsters and dragons.)
 Conclusion
In conclusion, Old English syntax was a
complex and highly inflected system that
allowed for a great deal of variation and
nuance in expression. Its flexible word
order, extensive case system, and
complex subordinate clauses set it apart
from modern English and make it a
fascinating subject of study.
Old English Language has many
differences as compared to the Modern
English Language. The main
differences which we noticed between
Old and Modern English concern
spelling and pronunciation, the
vocabulary and the grammar.
Thanks!
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