The early writings of the English Language

The earliest written records, or writings of English are inscriptions in a special alphabet known as the runes. A few Runic documents have come down to us. The two best known are the inscription on the Ruthwell Cross, a religious poem engraved on a tall stone cross near the village of Ruthwell in Scotland, and the other is the Frank’s Casket, made of whalebone, found in France. Both texts are probably of the 9^th century. After the Anglo-Saxons came into contact with the Roman culture the Runic alphabet was superseded by Latin. As the Latin alphabet was insufficient to denote all OE sounds Anglo-Saxon scribes borrowed some letters from the Runic alphabet. For example, the letter þ was taken to denote the dental sound and a special rune ƿ for the sound [w] was introduced.

The Northumbrian, Mercian, West-Saxon, Kentish dialects

The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain in the 5^th and the 6^th c. spoke closely related dialects belonging to the West Germanic subgroup. These dialects acquired certain common features since the earliest times though later they showed some divergences. As the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians settled in Britain, they established their kingdoms in which the people spoke different dialects. These dialects were called according to the names of the tribes: Northumbrian, Mercian, West-Saxon and Kentish dialects. The Northumbrian dialect was spoken by Angles living north of the Humber, Mercian was spoken by Angles between the Humber and the Thames, West-Saxon was the language of the Saxons south of the Thames, and Kentish was the language of the Jutes.

The boundaries between the dialects were uncertain and probably movable. By the 8^th c. the center of English culture had shifted to Northumbria, but then in the 9^th c. the West-Saxon dialect became the dominating literary language since the rise of Wessex as a political power. The West-Saxon dialect has been preserved in a greater number of texts than all the other OE dialects. Towards the 11^th c. the written form of the West-Saxon dialect developed into a bookish type of language used by all English-speaking people. This dialect became a standard written language and is sometimes referred to as ‘Classic West-Saxon’.

Writings in OE are very numerous and belong to different kinds of literature – there are prosaic and poetic works.

West-Saxon:

9^th c. The prosaic works of King Alfred (original compositions and translations of Latin texts).

King Alfred’s Orosius – an Alfred’s translation of A History against the Heathens written by the Spanish monk Orosius. It’s valuable for the king’s own original additions to the text

King Alfred’s translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People

King Alfred’s translation of The Pastoral Care written by Pope Gregory I.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - a year-for-year account of the events in English history

10^th c. The works of the abbot Ælfric (The Latin Grammar of Ælfric)

10^th c. The Homilies / Lives of Saints.

11^th c. Sermons of Wulfstan (The Homilies of Wulfstan)

Northumbrian:

The Runic texts of the Ruthwell Cross, Frank’s Casket

Translation of the gospels

The religious poems Caedmon’s Hymn, Bede’s Dying Song.

Mercian: