9Th c. Translation of the Psalter, hymns

Kentish:

Translation of Psalms, Old Charters.

Among the religious poems the best known are Genesis and Exodus written by Caedmon, Andrew and Elene by Cynewulf and Christ. Lyrical poems are the Seafarer, Widsith (The Traveller’s Song) and The Wanderer. The greatest poem of the time was Beowulf – the oldest epic poem. The author of Beowulf is unknown. In the first part of the epic young Beowulf arrives at the court of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, to fight Grendel, a sea monster and the second part shows Beowulf as an old man and a famous hero who dies in the fight with a monstrous dragon. It’s believed that many OE poems were composed a long time before they were written down, and then they were handed down from generation to generation in oral form. Perhaps, they were first recorded in Northumbria in the 8^th c. and then were rewritten by the WS scribes.

Old English Lexicology. Ways of developing OE vocabulary. OE native and loan words

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics that treats of the derivation, signification and application of words. The words in a language constitute the lexicon, or the vocabulary. The OE vocabulary is mainly homogeneous. Except for a small number of borrowings, it consisted of native words inherited from Proto-Germanic or formed from native roots and affixes.

Native OE words can be subdivided into a number of etymological layers coming from different historical periods. The three main layers are: 1. Common Indo-European words, which were inherited from the Indo-European parent language: substantives fæder, mōdor, nama, tunge, fōt, niht, heorte, adj. neowe, geong, riht, long, verbs sittan, licgan, beran, teran. 2. Common Germanic words: subst. eorđe, land, sæ, heall, sand, earm, adj. earm, grene, verbs findan, singan, steorfan. 3. Specifically English words, not found in any other language, the verb clipian to call.

The OE vocabulary develops in two ways: 1. by forming new words from elements existing in the language, 2. by taking over words from other languages.

Old English Loan-Words comprises words from Celtic languages, Latin and Scandinavian languages.

1. Celtic languages had but a marginal influence on the English vocabulary. Among Celtic loan-words we can mention dūn dune, dun dun (brown color), binn bin (box). Some Celtic elements are preserved in geographical names: llan church in Llandaff, coil forest in Kilbrook, inis island in Innisfail.

2. a) Latin loan-words comprises names of products which the Anglo-Saxons bought from Roman merchants, names connected with trade, agriculture, building, measurement, places: stræt < strāta, weall < vallum, pipor < piper, wīn < vīnum, pund < pondo. The Latin substantive castra camp made part of the names of cities: Chester, Manchester, Winchester.

b) another layer of Latin words formed after the introduction of Christianity. The new religion introduced a large number of new concepts which required new names. They were adopted from Latin: biscop, candel, clerec clergyman, dēofol, mynster.

c) The spread of education led to the wider use of Latin because teaching was conducted in Latin. Thus many words were borrowed: scōl, māgister, dihtan compose.

The Scandinavian conquest influenced the English language immensely. A lot of words penetrated English, morphological elements were borrowed.

3. a) A considerable part of the vocabulary was common to English and to Scandinavian dialects: sunu – sunr, heorte – hiarta, fōt – fōtr, feallan – falla. Close relationship between English and Scandinavian made mutual understanding quite possible. Another part of Scandinavian vocabulary did not correspond to English. Among these words are military terms līþ navy, words related to different spheres of life - lagu law, hūsbonda, callen call, tāken, skye. Scandinavian elements became part of many geographical names: by village in Kirkby, Derby, toft grassy spot, hill in Langtoft, ness cape in Inverness.

b) Even the 3^rd plural personal pronoun was taken over from Scandinavian into English. The English hīe was replaced by the Scandinavian þeir > they.

c) In a similar way the genetive of the Scandinavian pronoun þeirra, superseded the native hira and became MnE their. The dative þeim superseded him and became MnE them.

In the regions inhabited by Scandinavians, where the two languages were mixed, there occurred blending of entire lexical layers. In many cases a Scandinavian word differed from its English equivalent only in small details. Sometimes it’s impossible to decide whether the English word was superseded by the Scandinavian or whether the phonetic structure of the English word changed under Scandinavian influence. Both languages were spoken by the same social layers and had equal rights. The result was the blending of Scandinavian and English dialects especially intensive in the North and East.

Lecture 5. Old English Nominal Morphology.

Contents:

1. Nominal morphology

2. OE substantives (nouns) and their categories

3. OE adjectives

4. OE pronouns

5. OE numerals