General Characteristics of Old English Phonetics

Se / seo / þæt – this, that (ms / fm / neuter)

Palatal Mutation brought about new means of word-building

There were two principal means for forming verb-stems in Old English: (1) by means of vowel interchange of the root vowel

2.11M

Categories: english

english

lingvistics

Eald Englisc sprac

1. Eald Englisc sprac

5th-11th centuries

2. Written records

Caedmon’s Hymn, 7th century
Beowulf, put down in 7th-8th centuries

3.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Book of Durrow (in Latin)

4. General Characteristics of Old English Phonetics

Vowels were short and long, with direct parallelism
• Short: i, e, (œ), æ, a, o, u, y (ie), ea, eo
• Long: i:, e:, (œ:), æ:, a:, o:, u:, y: (ie:), ea:, eo:
Sound [y] was similar to [ю].
Consonants included some sounds non-existent today:
[ɣ] (g was pronounced as [g] after n, and [ɣ] in other cases.
Later palatalisation added more sounds:
•/k/ became /tʃ/
•/sk/ became /ʃ/
•[ɡ] became [dʒ]
•[ɣ] became [ʝ]

5. Spelling

Spelling was phonetic :
• Cniht /kniht/
• Hlāf
• Hring
Had letters, which later disappeared: æ, þ, ð, ʒ (g).
Letter „k“ was hardly used. „C“ was never used as [s].
Letters could be voiced or voiceless depending on their position.
Compare: „hlaf“ but „hlaford“ [hlavord]
„Climb“, but „cild“ [ʦild]

6. Grammar

• No fixed word order
• Synthetic language (lexical and grammatical notions were in one unit).
• Highly inflected, with many affixes:
Ic cepe – þu cepst – he cepð

7. Vocabulary

• The majority of words were native, of proto-Germanic origin.
• Had some Latin borrowings: win (wine), æppel (apple), ciese (cheese),
Stræt (street), weall (wall), myln (mill), biscop (bishop), munic (monk)

8. Old English Vocabulary

Old English
Modern English
Þu / ʒe –
thou / you
eala –
Ƿes cu hal –
hello
Ƿesaþ ʒe hale -
hello / goodbye (plural)
Hu gæþ hit mid þe / eoǷ –
how are you (sg/pl)
Hit gæþ god mid me –
I’m fine
Ic þancie þe / eoǷ –
thank you
Ic bidde þe / eoǷ -
please (sg / pl)
Hu hatst þu / hataþ ʒe –
what are you called (sg / pl)
Ic hate –
I’m called
Ic Ƿille -
I want
Ic mæʒ -
I may
Ic licie –
I like
hello / goodbye (singular)

9. Se / seo / þæt – this, that (ms / fm / neuter)

Old English
Modern English
Ic sceal –
I must, shall
Se Ƿer –
man, husband
þæt Ƿif
The wife
Þæt cild
The child
Se cnaf(p)a –
the boy
Seo mæʒð –
that meid, girl
þæt cynn –
family, the kin
Se fæder
The father
Seo modor
The mother
Se broðor
The brother
Seo sǷeoster
The sister
Se sunu
The son
Seo dohtor
The daughter

10. Old English Phonetics

11. Vowels

12.

13.

14. 15. Palatal Mutation brought about new means of word-building

16. Consonant system

Strange, but in early Old English period there were no affricates:

17. How the affricates came into being

20. Cases in Old English

• Nominative
• Genitive
• Dative
• Accusative
eaʒan (eyes)
eaʒena
eaʒum
eaʒan

21. Declensions

Vowel (strong) declensions
Consonant (weak) declensions Root-stem
declension
A-stem
N-stem
O-stem
R-stem
U-stem
S-stem
i-stem

22.

23.

24.

25. 26. Root-stem declension

27. Verbal System

28.

Old English Verbs and their
categories
Finite
Tense
Person
Number
Mood
Nonfinite(Infinitive and
Participle)
• Tense (for participle)
• Case

29. Case of non-finite verbs

Dative case
To wretenne
For me to write
To cepenne
For me to keep
To drincenne
For me to drink

30. There were two principal means for forming verb-stems in Old English: (1) by means of vowel interchange of the root vowel

(strong
verbs) and (2) by means of suffixation (weak verbs).
Strong verbs
Weak verbs
I, II, III, IV, V, VI,
VII classes
I, II, III classes