ænglisc
humble beginnings of the world’s most widespread language
With over 1.5 billion speakers, modern English is the most spoken language on the planet. English, as a Germanic language, may seem like it should bear a major similarity to languages like Dutch or German; however, due to the 11th century invasion of Britain by the Norman French, the language was changed forever, taking in a multitude of Latin-originated vocabulary. In fact, just around 30% of modern English vocabulary is Germanic of origin, the rest is either French, Latin, or other various sources. Old English, spoken until the Norman invasion, is a gateway into English’s roots, where one can see this overwhelming similarity to the rest of the Western Germanic languages. Let’s break down certain features that were lost to time.
Letters
Old English had some letters that are not used in Modern English. For example, Old English had a letter called thorn (þ) which represented the “th” sound in “thanks.” Also representing a modern “th” (like in “that”), the letter eth (ð) was important. Another letter was ash, which represented a vowel sound that is not found in Modern English, but very similar to the short a in “cat.” Written as æ, it was used in words like “æfter” (after) and “æsc” (ash tree). Old English also had a letter called wynn (ƿ), which represented a sound similar to the “w” sound in Modern English, but was eventually replaced by the letter “w” itself. Another unique letter in Old English was yogh (ȝ), which was used to represent a sound similar to the “y” in “yellow” or the “ch” in Scottish “loch.” These unique letters give Old English a distinct look and feel, and show how the language has changed and evolved over time.
Noun Cases
Old English had various noun cases that are no longer present in Modern English. The dative, accusative, and instrumental cases were among them, with the genitive case being the only one to survive in the form of the ‘s suffix in Modern English. These cases were essential to Old English grammar and syntax, with each one serving a unique purpose. For instance, the accusative case indicated the direct object of a verb, while the dative case indicated the indirect object. Similarly, the instrumental case showed the means by which an action was carried out, often coinciding with the dative case in form. The loss of these cases in Modern English has simplified the language in some ways, but it also makes it challenging for readers to understand Old English texts, which relied heavily on case inflection to convey meaning.
Gender
Old English nouns were categorized into three grammatical genders, a feature that is absent in Modern English. These genders included masculine, feminine, and neuter, which were similar to the gender distinctions observed in present-day German.
The gender of a noun was dependent on several factors, including its form and ending. For example, words ending in -dōm, -hād, -scipe, and -ere were classified as masculine, while those ending in -nes and -ung were feminine. Each noun was paired with a specific version of the definite article to match its gender, such as sē for masculine, sēo for feminine, and ðæt for neuter. Moreover, these articles underwent changes based on the noun’s case. While the grammatical gender system in Old English allowed for precise and nuanced expression, it has since been simplified in Modern English.
Conjugations
In Old English, conjugating verbs was much more complex than in Modern English. Instead of just a few conjugations, there were many for each verb, and each perspective (1st, 2nd, and 3rd person) had its own unique form. Verbs were also categorized as strong or weak, depending on how they changed in different tenses. For example, the verb “to sing” had three different stems in Old English: singan (present tense), sang (preterite singular), and sungon (preterite plural). In contrast, the modern English verb “to sing” has only two forms: sing (present tense) and sang (past tense).
To make things even more complex, Old English verbs, nouns, and adjectives were also categorized as strong or weak, and followed different patterns for different cases. However, over time, certain aspects of these conjugations became standardized, simplifying the language. For instance, the -ed suffix in Modern English’s past tense comes from the preterite tense of weak verbs, which were more predictable than strong verbs. In Old English, the language only had two tenses: present and preterite.
Word Order
To better understand the differences between Old English and its modern equivalent, those familiar with modern German or Dutch word order may find it helpful to compare the three types of word order found in Old English.
The normal word order is simple subject-predicate, such as “he is much smaller than other boys.” In contrast, inverted word order occurs when the predicate precedes the subject, which happened when modifiers or words like “then” and “there” caused the subject and predicate to switch places. For example, the sentence “then he went” would be written as “then went he” in Old English. This switch could also happen in interrogative and imperative sentences.
The transposed order occurs when multiple modifiers precede the predicate but follow the subject (subject + … + predicate), which is observed in dependent clauses. For instance, “after he went from his own home” would be written as “after he from his own home went.”
Furthermore, if a pronoun was in the accusative or dative case, it would come before the predicate, as in “he him saw” (instead of the modern “he saw him”).
Here are a few interesting things I discovered about Old English that provide insights into the workings of other Germanic languages. In my personal experience, learning Dutch has helped me to better comprehend Old English, primarily due to the incredible similarity between the two languages. Moreover, it’s quite enjoyable to mess around with the Old English translator (https://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/) by entering different words and discovering the corresponding translations. For instance, the strong adjective lígfámbláwende became popular a few years back for its rather funny meaning, which means “vomiting fire.”
