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Linguistic situation in Britain from the 5th to 7th cc

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Old English dialects. The peculiarities of linguistic situation of that period

The Germanic tribes (the 5^th and 6^th) spoke closely related tribial dialects belonging to the West Germanic group. Common origin, separation from related tongues, joint evolution in Britain transformed them into English. Old English dialect acquired common features which distinguished them from continental Germanic tongues, but it displayed growing regional divergence. Tribal dialectical division was suppressed by geographical division.

OE dialects :

Kentish, spoken in Kent and Surrey, Isle of Wight, developed from Jutes

West Saxon, rest of England south of the Themes and the Bristol Channel. Except Wales and Cornwall. Other Saxon dialects has not survived in written form

Mercian, derived from speech of southern Angles, was spoken in kingdom Mercia, from Temes to Humber.

Northumbrian, anglien dialect, from Humber north to river Forth => northhumbrian.

Dialects passed into one another imperceptibly and dialectical forms were freely borrowed from one dialect into another. Throughout this period dialects were more or less equal.

In 8^th c Northumbrian dialect became a leader. Writing was in Latin

9^th political & cultural center moved to Wessex, wessex dialect was preserved in greater number of texts than other OE dialects.

Towards 11^th written form of West Saxon developed into bookish type of language.

Thus in early OE from 5^th -7^th the would be English language consisted of a group of spoken tribal dialects having nether written nor a dominant form. At the time of written OE dialect – from tribal to regional; oral & written forms, no longer equal. West Saxon prevailed, Latin was used in writing.

Old English written records and Manuscripts

The earliest written record of E – runes. “Rune” means “secret” => denote inscriptions believed to be magic. Germanic tribes knew runic inscription long before they came to Britain (it was found in Scandinavia). These runes were used as letters, each symbol indicated separate sound. One rune could stand for all word (thorn)

Runic is a special Germanic alphabet not to be found in other language group. Latters are angular, lines preffered, curves avoided. To this day the origin of runes is a matter of conjecture. Runes in England were of more amounts – 28-33, 16-24 on continent. Runic texts were used to put magic on objects.

Franks Casket – the earliest runic inscription on a box. Made of whale bone, probably in Northumbria in 720, was presented to the British museum by british archeologist A.W. Franks. The panel of the casket is a remarkable illustration of the co-existence of pagan and Christian traditions in early Northumbria culture. The runic inscription on the panel is the sample of the Northumbrian dialect. The text above the pictures is to be read from left to right, it tells the story of the whale bone.

Another short text on a stone cross Dumfriesshiere near village Ruthwell, known as “Ruthwell Cross”, (the middle of the 8^th century). Each of the inscriptions contain a few lines from “the Dream of the Rood” – 10^th century book of Old English poetry.

Many runic inscriptions have been preserved on weapons, coins, amulets, rings, cross fragments. Some runic inscriptions in OE occur in manuscripts written in Latin. The total number runic inscriptions – 40, the last belong to the end of OE.

Types of records: Poetic and prose

King Alfred is called the founder of English prose.

Records:

8^th: Glosses (very few of them)

9^th: much more,

10^th -11^th: the majority. The King himself translated: Cura Pastoralis (papa Gregory I, 6^th) – Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Angorum (Bede 8^th), World History (monk Orosius 5^th). In his translation Alfred made omissions and some additions of his own; Consolation of Philosophy (Boethius 6^th) one of the most famous books of the Middle Ages. Alfred also caused a record to be compiled of the important events of English history, past and present, and this, as continued for more than two centuries after his death, is the well-known Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

In the tongue of many poetic records dialectical peculiarities are both of Wessex and of English dialects, this can be explained by the fact that first the records were written in Northumbria, and only in 10^th-11^th they were rewritten in Wessex. But also there exist another theory which assert that at that time common literary language of Old English poetry existed and it was different from prosaic, it combined several dialectal features.

Beowulf - a poem of some 3,000 lines belonging to the type known as the folk epic the end of 10^th. For a long time this poem existed only in oral expression, it describes the time when Jutes, Angles and Saxons lived in the continent, customs, rituals and believes of old germans of pre-Christian epoch are depicted in the poem, but in the main plot of the story we can observe later episodes reflecting Christian religion influence.

Anglo-Saxon poetry, just like the versification of other Germanic people, was written by the means of alliteration ; rhyme is absent, rhythm was built at the basis of stress. Figurativeness and metaphor were characteristic features for Anglo-Saxon poetry. To express different notions there existed dozens of synonymic words phrases, and sustained metaphors

Recedes muth = the mouth of the house= the door

Segl-rad = the road of sails = sea

Hond-ge-mot = hand meeting = fight

About 800 an Anglian poet named Cynewulf wrote at least four poems on religious subjects, into which he ingeniously wove his name by means of runes. Two of these, Juliana and Elene, tell well-known legends of saints. A third, Christ deals with Advent, the Ascension, and the Last Judgment. The fourth, The Fates of the Apostles, touches briefly on where and how the various apostles died. There are other religious poems besides those mentioned by Cynewulf he was probably a Mercian writer of early 9^th , such as the Andreas, two poems on the life of St. Guthlac, a fine poem on the story of Judith in the Apocrypha; The Phoenix, in which the bird is taken as a symbol of the Christian life; and Christ and Satan, which treats the expulsion of Satan from Paradise together with the Harrowing of Hell and Satan’s tempting of Christ. All of these poems have their counterparts in other literatures of the Middle Ages. They show England in its cultural contact with Rome and being drawn into the general current of ideas on the continent, no longer simply Germanic, but cosmopolitan.

Deor, a poem about a minstrel, is the lament of a scop who for years has been in the service of his lord and now finds himself thrust out by a younger man. But he strong man, he doesn’t whine . Life is like that. Age will be displaced by youth. He has his day. Deor is one of the most human of Old English poems. The Wanderer is a tragedy in the medieval sense, the story of a man who once enjoyed a high place and has fallen upon evil times. His lord is dead and he has become a wanderer in strange courts, alone, without any friends. The Seafarer is a monologue in which the speaker alternately describes the perils and hardships of the sea and the eager desire to dare again its dangers. In The Ruin the poet reflects on a ruined city, once prosperous and imposing with its towers and halls, its stone courts and baths, which is now nothing but the tragic shadow of what it once was.

Another literature monuments written in wessex dialect are Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – the oldest chronicles of the country by Wulfstan, whose Sermon to the English is an impassioned plea for moral and political reform (beginning 11^th ), and one more founder of english prose – Aelfic - the author of two books of homilies (проповедь) and grammar of Old English and glossary.