An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

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An Introduction to
Old English
Edinburgh University Press
Richard Hogg

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An Introduction to Old English
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Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language
General Editor
Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh)
Editorial Board
Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington)
Derek Britton (University of Edinburgh)
Olga Fischer (University of Amsterdam)
Norman Macleod (University of Edinburgh)
Donka Minkova (UCLA)
Katie Wales (University of Leeds)
Anthony Warner (University of York)
    
An Introduction to English Syntax
Jim Miller
An Introduction to English Phonology
April McMahon
An Introduction to English Morphology
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy
An Introduction to International Varieties of English
Laurie Bauer
An Introduction to Middle English
Simon Horobin and Jeremy Smith
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An Introduction to
Old English
Richard Hogg
Edinburgh University Press
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© Richard Hogg, 2002
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in Janson
by Norman Tilley Graphics and
printed and bound in Great Britain
by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7486 1329 3 (hardback)
ISBN 0 7486 1328 5 (paperback)
The right of Richard Hogg
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
To readers
viii
1 Origins and source
1
1.1
Introduction
1
1.2
Indo-European and Germanic
2
1.3
The Anglo-Saxon settlement
3
1.4
The look of Old English
4
1.5
Vowels
5
1.6
People, places and texts
6
1.7
The sound system of Old English
8
Exercises
12
2 The basic elements
13
2.1
Change and continuity
13
2.2
Nouns
14
2.3
Demonstratives
18
2.4
Pronouns
19
2.5
A simple sentence
22
Exercises
24
3 More nouns and adjectives
26
3.1
Irregular nouns
26
3.2
Minor declensions
29
3.3
Adjectives
32
3.4
The verb ‘to be’
35
Exercise
37
4 Verb forms
39
4.1
Verb types
39
4.2
A weak verb
41
4.3
More weak verbs
42
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4.4
Unmutated verbs
45
4.5
A phonological interlude
46
4.6
More weak verbs
48
4.7
‘Anomalous’ verbs
49
4.8
More on i-mutation and suppletion and adjectives
50
Exercise
51
5 Strong verbs
54
5.1
Present-day English
54
5.2
Ablaut
54
5.3
Strong verb classes
55
5.4
Variation in strong verbs
61
5.5
Modal verbs
64
Exercises
66
6 Noun phrases and verb phrases
68
6.1
The elements of syntax
68
6.2
The noun phrase
68
6.3
Concord
75
6.4
Tense in the verb phrase
77
6.5
Aspect
78
6.6
Voice
80
6.7
Mood
82
Exercise
85
7 Clauses
86
7.1
Word order
86
7.2
Verb-second order
87
7.3
Verb-final order
90
7.4
Noun phrase order
92
7.5
Negation
94
7.6
Relative and other clauses
95
7.7
Impersonal verbs
98
Exercise
100
8 Vocabulary
102
8.1
The sources of vocabulary
102
8.2
Core vocabulary
103
8.3
Affixation
105
8.4
Compounds
107
8.5
Latin loans
109
8.6
Other loan words
112
Exercise
113
vi
AN INTRODUCTION TO MIDDLE ENGLISH
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9 Variety
115
9.1
Introduction
115
9.2
Chronology
116
9.3
Prose
117
9.4
Poetry
118
9.5
Dialect
123
Exercise
126
10
The future
128
10.1 Introduction
128
10.2 The past
129
10.3 Towards Middle English and beyond
130
10.4 Envoi
135
Exercises
136
Old English – present-day English glossary
138
Glossary of linguistic terms
147
Recommended reading
154
References
158
Index
161
CONTENTS
vii
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To readers
This textbook is designed for students for whom this is the first
experience of the language of the earliest period of English, namely
the period from the time of the invasions of Britain by the English in the
fifth century until the time of the Norman Conquest or shortly there-
after. If it is undoubtedly true that the first sighting of the English of that
time comes as a shock to most beginning students, there can be no doubt
that an understanding of that language is essential for a proper appre-
ciation of how English has evolved over time.
The approach taken here is somewhat different from that usually
taken in introductory textbooks of Old English. Most such books offer
a two-part solution, consisting, firstly, of a freestanding account of the
grammar, and, secondly, a group of texts which the student is expected
to read by reference to the relevant material in the grammar. The
distinctive feature of this work is that I have attempted to present an
integrated account, in which, for the most part, accounts of the linguis-
tic history of Old English are immediately followed by relevant and
exemplary texts. Given the scope of this work, this has meant that some
traditional features have had to be omitted. For example, there are no
complete texts, except in one special case, and of necessity the grammar
sections are also not as full as those which some textbooks provide. On
the other hand, alongside some features not usually present at this level,
such as a discussion of dialectal material, the material presented here is
intended to provide the amount of work which can sensibly be covered
in one-term or one-semester courses of the kind common today.
I have deliberately omitted some features which are usually included;
in particular there is at no point any extended discussion of phonology.
There is no doubt that the student who wishes to take his or her study
of Old English further will need, at that stage, to acquire a deeper
knowledge of the phonological features of the language. But my own
experiences suggest that too great an emphasis on phonology at a very
early stage actually inhibits an understanding of other linguistic matters
and even of the reading of original texts. Also, unlike in the other texts
viii
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in this series, there are no discussions of the exercises. This would have
been pointless given that for the most part these exercises consist only of
passages for translation.
Throughout this work I have tried, wherever appropriate, to relate
Old English structures to those of the present day. The principal motiv-
ation for this is to demonstrate how much of the language has remained
stable over time, rather than merely to assist the reader in his or her
understanding of Old English. I am also aware that this work will often
be used by readers whose first language is other than English, and there-
fore I have tried to relate Old English structures to those of our nearest
relatives.
I owe a debt of gratitude to a variety of people. My thanks go to Heinz
Giegerich, not merely for inviting me to write this work, but also for
his helpful comments on the work as it progressed. Olga Fischer read the
whole manuscript and suggested many improvements with her usual tact
and intelligence. Some years ago I tested a small part of this work out on
my students, and I am grateful to them for their responses at that time,
as well as to my colleague Chris McCully for his valuable remarks
on that first attempt. My thanks also go to my fellow authors Jeremy
Smith and Simon Horobin for sharing their work on Middle English
with me. Sarah Edwards, at Edinburgh University Press, has been
incredibly patient with an author at whom she must have despaired,
and I am grateful for her patience. In completing this work I have also
benefited from the support of the Leverhulme Trust and their award of
a Senior Research Fellowship, and for that support I am most grateful.
Finally, my sons have also read through parts of this work with an
undergraduate’s eye, and for that, and much more, I dedicate this book
to them.
TO READERS
ix
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