Old
English (450-ca. 1150): Period of Full Inflections
Old English was not one single
language but existed in the form of various dialects:
- No fixed spellings;
- Some sharp differences in pronunciation;
- Special letters for "th": ð and þ;
- Old English nouns could be masculine, neuter or feminine;
- Nouns had inflectional endings for up to four cases;
- Adjectives agreed with the noun in gender, case and number;
- Verbs had inflectional endings for number
and for person:ic lufie I love Þu lufast you love he Lufað he loves - The forms of the verb "be" were extremely irregular.
- Many Old English words have been passed on to Modern English, differing only in spelling and pronunciation:
Many words have changed their meaning and many have been replaced by French, Latin or Danish words.
Examples of Latin Influence on the English Language
| English | Latin |
| candle | candela (Wachsschnur) |
| offer | offere (darbieten) |
| priest | prior (der Vordere) |
| temple | templum (Heiligtum, geweihter Raum) |
| cap | caput (Haupt, Kopf) |
| pear | pirum (Birne) |
| lentil | lentis (Linse) |
| oyster | ostreum (Auster) |
| fever | fervor (Glut, Hitze) |
| circle | circulus (Kreis, Ring) |
| school | schola (Schule, Vortrag) |
| master | magister (Lehrer, der Höchste) |
| grammatical | grammatica (Sprachwissenschaft) |
An example of an Old English text: From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (about the Danish invasion):
| Her wæs Gypeswic gehergod; ond æfter þam swiðe raðe wæs Brihtnoð ealdorman ofslægen æt Mældune. Ond on þam geare man gerædde þæt man geald ærest gafol Denscan mannum for þam mycclan brogan þe hi worhtan be am særiman; þæt wæs ærest tyn þusend punda. | Hier wurde Ipswich geplündert; und sehr bald danach
wurde der Ealdorman (~ Statthalter) Brihtnoð zu Maldon geschlagen.
In jenem Jahr entschied man, dass zum ersten Mal Tribut gezahlt werden
sollte an die dänischen Männer wegen der großen Furcht,
die sie an der Küste entlang verursacht hatten; das waren zuerst zehn tausend Pfund. |
Expressions which entered the English language due to Danish influence
| Nouns: | birth, egg, link, skill, skin, skirt, sky, trust, want |
| Adjectives: | awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, tight, weak |
| Verbs: | cast, crawl, die, get, give, glitter, take, thrust |
Middle English (1150-1500): Inflections
have become reduced
The Norman Conquest of 1066 decisively changed the development of the
English language. For more than 200 years Norman
French became the everyday language of the ruling classes. A consequence
of this period is the predominance of French
borrowings in the fields of:
- Politics: sovereign, crown, state, country, power, minister, parliament, council, peace, war, battle, arms, officer
- Law: justice, just, crime, property, to sue, plea, cause, to accuse
- Religion: service, virgin, to preach, to pray, to save
- Art: beauty, colour, design, paint, arch, tower, column, palace
In the 14th century English became the language officially used at law courts and taught at schools.
Modern English since 1500: Period
of lost Inflections
The English that SHAKESPEARE used was Early Modern English. It is thought that Modern English was in use from around 1500. By 1500
English had lost most of its inflections, and the grammatical patterns
of contemporary Modern English hardly differed. An exception is the use
of the personal pronoun:
- thou - you (singular, nominative)
- thee - you (singular, accusative)
However, much attention has to be paid to the use of vocabulary; many Early Modern English words have changed their meaning or are out of use in Modern English.
Some Early Modern English words:
- lest - if, in case
- thither - to that place
- whither - to which place