1.2.2. Old English written records

Old English written records which are rather numerous are generally classified either in accordance with the alphabet used or in accordance with the dialect of the scribe who wrote the record. If we speak about the first criterion — the alphabet (runic or insular) —the first group is rather scarcely represented (Frank's casket, Ruthwell cross), the other group having many written records. But generally the records are classified in accordance with their dialect: Northumbrian (Franks' casket, Ruthwell cross, Caedmon's hymns), Mercian (translation of the Psalter), Kentish (psalms), West Saxon (The Anglo-Saxon chronicle, the translation of a philosophical treatise Cura Pastoralis, King Alfred's Orosius — a book on history).

There were also many translations from other dialects, an example of which is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD). Bede, a learned monk at Jarrow, is said to have assimilated all the learning of his time. He wrote on language, science and chronology and composed numerous commentaries on the Old and New Testament.

With the rise of Wessex to the dominant position among the Old English kingdoms in the" 9 th and 10th centuries, and thanks to the powerful influence of their learned King Alfred, the West Saxon dialect became the chief vehicle of literature. All the works of literary importance that have survived, both prose and poetry, are written in West Saxon, with only occasional traces of other dialects, and in this sense it may be regarded as typical of 1 he Old English period.

2. Inner history

During the period the language was developing very slowly.

2.1. Phonetics

The phonetics of the Old English period was characterised by a system of dynamic stress. The fixed stress fell on the first root syllable. The vowels had the following characteristic features:

4. The quantity and the quality of the vowel depended upon its position in the word. Under stress any vowel could be found, but in unstressed position there were no diphthongs or long monophthongs, but only short vowels [a], [e], [i], [o], [u].

5. The length of the stressed vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs) was phonemic, which means that there could be two words differing only in the length of the vowel.

6. There was an exact parallelism of long and short vowels:

The consonants were few. Some of the modern sounds were non-existent The quality of the consonant very much depended on its position in the word, especially the resonance and articulation

2.2. Spelling

The Old English spelling was mainly phonetic, i.e. each letter as a rule denoted one sound in every environment. Note should be taken that the letters f, s, could denote voiced consonants in intervocal positions or voiceless otherwise; the letter c was used to denote the sound [k] (palatal or velar); the letter y denoted

the sound [y] (similar Russian [ю] in the word "бюро").

The letter could denote three different sounds: • - .

[j] — before or after front vowels [ ], [e], [i] :

[Y] — after back vowels [a], [o], [u] and consonants [1] and [r]

[g] — before consonants and before back vowels [a], [o], [u]: