Old English: The History Of The English Language

Have you ever wondered where the names of the different items you use daily came from? Or listened to people talk and find a particular word interesting or odd and wonder why it has become part of our English language? The English language that we speak today has developed as a result of many different influences and changes over thousands of years. The resulting changes to the English language can be split into three time periods that include, Old English or Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Modern English which is commonly used today Old English (450-1100 AD), which is also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, is thought historically to be the earliest form of the English language. Originating with the arrival of three West Germanic tribes, who encroached

Christian missionaries introduced the Germanic tribes to a much more rounded Roman alphabet, common to that we have today, which was easier to write with and read. Therefore, the Anglo-Saxons quickly adopted this new Roman alphabet. Old English literature developed rather quickly around the 6th and 8th Century. Many beautiful poems and text survive from this period in history, including the best known epic long poem “Beowulf” which may have been written in about the 8th century. With its three thousand one hundred and eighty two lines of work Beowulf shows that Old English was a fully developed language at this time. This poem also illustrates the variety and depth of the English vocabulary at that time, in addition to its fondness for synonyms and subtleties of meanings. Old English is considered a complex language in comparison with that of modern English used today. In Old

Nevertheless, some may find that the Old English is uncomplicated and a more consistent language since with it every letter specifically and invariably relates to a single sound. Unlike the modern English there are not silent letters or phonetic inconsistencies to confuse them. Several of the commonly used words today in English have their roots in Old English. Such words as water, strong, house, earth and many more can be traced to Old English. Also at some point in the 6th Century the Old English “sk” consonant cluster changed to “sk” consequentially changing words “skield” to “shield”. This change affected all “sk” words in existence in the language at that time. Therefore, any “sk” clusters in modern English became part of the English language after the 6th Century. Followed by, around the 7th Century, a shift in vowel pronunciation took place. With this vowels began to be pronounced more to the frontal area of the mouth. Consequently, the plural of several nouns also began to have modified vowel pronunciation instead of changes in inflection. This resulted at times in revised spelling which lead to the inconsistent modern English word pairing for example goose/geese, mouse/mice or blood/bleed to name a few. Late in the 8th Century the Viking from Scandinavia began to make raids on