Old English (Anglo-Saxon)

1.When was Old English spoken?

-Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon, Englisc by its speakers) is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and southern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century.

2. Name 4 language groups which influenced the development of Old English.

- Germanic Germánico
-West Germanic West germánicas
-Anglo-Frisian Anglo-frisón
-Anglic Anglic

3. In the Phonology section, name 5 phonetical differences between Old English & Modern English.


-[dʒ] is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminated.
- [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and /g/
-[v, ð, z] are allophones of /f, θ, s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants.
- [ç, x] are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels respectively.
-[ɣ] is an allophone of /g/ occurring after a vowel, and, at an earlier stage of the language, in the syllable onset.


4. Are there any similarites between Old English and Modern English? Name them.

-Unlike modern English, Old English is a language rich with morphological diversity and is spelled essentially as it is pronounced. It maintains several distinct cases: the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and (vestigially) instrumental, remnants of which survive only in a few pronouns in modern English.

5. In the Orthography section, enlarge the picture of the runic alphabet. How many letters (runes) are there in this alphabet?

-Contains all 34 runes in the Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc.

6. Which epic poem was originally written in Old English?

- The first example is taken from the epic poem Beowulf. The translation is quite literal and represents the original poetic word order. As such, it is not typical of Old English prose. The modern cognates of original words have been used whenever practical to give a close approximation of the feel of the original poem. The words in brackets are implied in the Old English by noun case and the bold words in parentheses are explanations of words which have slightly different meanings in a modern context.


7. In the See Also section, click on: Beowulf. Appoximately when was Beowulf written?

-Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th to the 11th century.


8. Even though Beowulf was written in England, the story takes place in which countries?

-events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden.


9. In the poem, which 3 antagonists does Beowulf battle or fight against?

-In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, battles three antagonists: Grendel, who has been attacking the mead hall in Denmark called Heorot and its inhabitants; Grendel's mother; and, later in life after returning to Geatland (modern southern Sweden) and becoming a king, he fights an unnamed dragon.


10. What happens to Beowulf at the end of the story?

- Beowulf is fatally wounded in the final battle, and after his death he is buried in a barrow in Geatland by his retainers.


11. Who was the author of Beowulf?

- the author was Laurence Nowell.


12. What were the titles and the dates of the two film versions of Beowulf?

The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes: Scribe A and Scribe B, the latter of whom took over at line 1939. The handwriting of the two scribes is ill-matched. The script of Scribe B is archaic. Both scribes proofread their work, and Scribe B even proofread the work of Scribe A.The work of Scribe B bears a striking resemblance to the work of the first scribe of the Blickling homilies, and so much so that it is believed they derive from the same scriptorium. In fact, for at least a century, some scholars have maintained that the description of Grendel’s mere in Beowulf was borrowed from St.Paul’s vision of Hell in Homily 16 of the Blickling homilies.