1. Old English period

The development of the English language began with the Germanic settlement (Germanic invasion) in Britain in the 5th century. The separation of island dialects from the continental tongues gave rise to the development of new language. The origins of the English language consisted of a number of tribal dialects, OE being a synthetic language based on the Anglo-Saxon and Frisian dialects. There was no written language at the beginning of this period. Writing appeared only in the 7th century, with the first alphabet being runic.

Historically the OE period is the period of transition from a tribal system to feudalism, and linguistically it is reflected in the transition of dialects from tribal to regional. By the end of this period the West Saxon dialect prevailed. One of the important events to note was the adoption of Christianity in the 7th century. Its influence on the language consisted of the use of Latin alphabet, and words borrowed from Latin. Religious services and teaching were conducted in Latin.

During this period Scandinavians started to attack Britain, and in the 9th century the Scandinavian invasion began.

The Scandinavian presence in Britain had certain linguistic consequences – many Scandinavian words entered the English vocabulary. The constant contacts of the two languages caused morphological simplification of the English language as the Scandinavian language was assimilated.

The structure of old english vocabulary

OE vocabulary was made up of three ‘layers’: Common Indo-European words, Old Germanic words and specifically English words. There were also a few loan words in the OE vocabulary. Together, these categories formed the foundation of the OE vocabulary, also called the basicvocabulary, which is characterized by the following:

1) The words have common use

2) The words are stable (do not change) and remain in the vocabulary for centuries

3) The words are stylistically neutral

4) The words are often used as the basis for derivation and composition.

5) The words are used in set expressions, idioms and proverbs.

Common Indo-European words included nouns denoting familial relations, parts of the human body, animals and plants; adjectives denoting colors and size; numerals from 1 to 100; some pronouns; verbs denoting basic activities.

Common Germanic words included nouns denoting parts of the human body, animals, plants, natural phenomena, time, metals, lodging, and means of transportation; adjectives of color and size; verbsof perception, speaking and some basic activities.

Specifically English words are those words not found in other Germanic languages, and most of them are compounds.

Loan wordswere not few, and most of them entered Germanic languages at early stages of their development. As the English language began to develop some Celtic words were borrowed.

COMMON INDO-EUROPEAN WORDS
OE	Other Indo-European Languages	NE words
mann mōdor sunu nosu ʒos beorc twā thū sittan	L. mās (mans) L. mater R. мать R. сын L. nasus R. нос R . гусь R . береза L . duo R . два L . tu R . ты L . sedere R . сидеть	man mother son nose goose birch two thou sit
COMMON GERMANIC WORDS
hēaford hānd cealf sǣ reʒn dæʒ winter ʒrēne sēon drincan	Gt. haubi þ Germ. Haupt Gt. handus Germ. Hand Gt. kalb ō Germ. Kalb Gt. saiws Germ. See Gt. rign Germ. Regen Sw. regn Gt dags Germ. Tag Sw. dag Gt. wintrus Germ Winter Sw. vinter Germ. grün Sw. gron Gt. saihwan Germ. sehen Sw. se Gt. drinkan Germ. trinken	head hand calf sea rain day winter green see drink
SPECIFIC ENGLISH WORDS
OE	ORIGIN	NE words
wifman hlāford	wīf – жена + man - человек hlāf – хлеб + weard – хранитель	woman lord
LOAN – WORDS
pund strǣt bete munuc	L. pondo L. strāta L. beta L. monachus	pound street beet monk

Form-building in OE

The parts of speech in OE had a peculiar morphological feature. It means they had a system of synthetic forms. This synthetic grammatical forms were built by means of grammatical endings, sound interchange in the root, grammatical prefixes or through suppletion. Grammatical endings, or inflections, were the principal ways of form-building and were used by all parts of speech that could change their forms.

The use of sound interchange was limited and usually combined with the use of inflections. The use of grammatical prefixes was rare. They were found only in verb forms—and suppletive formation wasn’t widely spread either. Several pronouns had suppletive case forms, a few adjectives had suppletive degrees of comparison and a few verbs had a suppletive paradigm.

The lexicon changed significantly during the period of OE. These changes reflected the historical development of English people. New activities appeared, their knowledge of the world grew, and as such new ideas colored their existence. The vocabularyincreased in three ways: 1) new words formed from pre-existing words by means of word-building (derivation) and word-composition; 2) words were borrowed from other languages and 3) words developed through semantic changes.

WORD-BUILDING

With respect to morphological structure, the words within the OE vocabularycan be divided into three types:

1. simple words containing a root-morpheme and no derivational affixes;

2. derived words consisting of a root-morpheme and one or more affixes;

3. compound words consisting of more than one root-morpheme.  

Word Derivation built new words with the help of affixes; occasionally sound interchange and word stress played a role in deriving new words.

Prefixation was a productive way of word-building in OE, however it is important to note that prefixes were mostly used in the formation of verbs. Some prefixes originated from the common IE prefix (un-), while others developed in PG and OE from adverbsand prepositions (mis-, be-, ofer-).

PREFIXATION IN OE
PREFIX	OEWORD	NEEQUIVALENT
mis-	misdæd	misdeed
	misfaran	to lose one’s way
un-	unfaʒer	unfair

Suffixation was the most productive means of word derivation in OE. Suffixes could both modify the meaning of a word and refer it to another part of speech. Suffixes were employed by various parts of speech. Some new suffixes developed from root-morphemes, for example: ‘-hād’ (состояние, условие, сословие), ‘-dōm’ (суждение , постановление, решение), ‘-scipe’ (положение, звание). These suffixes signified abstract concepts in OE and had a more general meaning than the nouns they originated from.

SUFFIXATION IN OE
SUFFIX	OE WORD	NE EQUIVALRNT
NOUNS
-ere	fiscere bacere	fisher baker
-estre	bæcestre	baker (fem.)
-inʒ	Æþelwulfinʒ	belonging to the family tribe
-linʒ	dēorlinʒ	darling
- þu	lenʒþu	length
-inʒ	ʒrētinʒ	greeting
-unʒ	leornunʒ	learning
-nis -nes	īdelnis swētnes	idleness sweetness
-hād	cīldhād	childhood
-scipe	frēondscipe	friendship
-dōm	frēodom	freedom
ADJECTIVES
-iʒ	busiʒ	busy
-lic	dēadlic	deadly
-ful	þancful	thankful
-lēas	recelēas	reckless
-isc	Englisc	English
-en	ʒylden	golden

Word composition was widely used in the formation of words in OE. It was productive with nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, and most compounds were formed through the combination of two stems. Compounds also developed from syntactic groups: (Noun in Gen. sing. + Head noun). The latter pattern was the basis for the names of the days of the week.

OE	NE equivalent
NOUNS
hlāf + diʒe > hlæfdiʒe	lady
hlāf + weard > hlāford	lord
scēap + hyrde > sceaphyrde	shepherd
hāliʒ + dæʒ > hāliʒdæʒ	holiday
sunne + dæʒ > Sunnadæʒ	Sunday
mōna + dæʒ > Monandæʒ	Monday
Tiw (god of war) + dæʒ >Tiwesdæʒ	Tuesday
Wodan (god of wind) + dæʒ > Wednesdæʒ , Wōdnesdæʒ	Wednesday
Þunor (god of thunder) + dæʒ > þunresdæʒ	Thursday
Friʒu (goddess of love) + dæʒ > Friʒedæʒ	Friday
Sætern (<Saturnus) + dæʒ > Sæternesdæʒ	Saturday
wis + dōm > wisdōm	wisdom
freond + scipe > freondscipe	friendship
cild + hād >cildhād	childhood
norð + man > norðman	Northman
sæ + man >sæman	seaman
wif _ man > wifman	woman
ADJECTIVES
īs + ceald > īsceald	ice-cold
ADVERBS
on + weʒ > onweʒ	away