Lets start this blog off with something I find particularly neat:
A Very Brief Overview of the Anglo-Saxon language.
Also known as Old English, the term Anglo-Saxon refers to the language spoken by the Germanic inhabitants of Britain during the period roughly between 500 and 1066 CE. A member of the Germanic branch of languages, it was much more closely related to the Scandinavian languages of the time, such as Old Norse and Old Icelandic, than to Latin or any of the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) While modern English is also Germanic and many of our modern words come from Old English, today's English speakers can not comprehend Old English and it considered by many to be a different language. The term Anglo-Saxon is often used to highlight this difference.
Old English is distinguished from middle and modern English in several awesome ways:
- Old English was a synthetic language, much like Latin or modern German. This means that a sentence gave meaning through the use of inflectional endings on words. Word order did not matter. In Latin, to use a textbook example, it did not matter whether a person wrote "Nero interfecit Aggrippinam" or "Aggrippinam interfecit Nero". Both sentences convery the same meaning: Nero killed Aggrippina. Modern English on the other hand is an analytic language, where a sentence gives meaning based on word order. It makes a big difference whether someone writes "the punk hit the car" or "the car hit the punk".
- The existence of several extra letters in the alphabet:
- æ - ash - sounds like the 'a' in hat. appears in words like þæt (that) and bæc (back).
- þ - thorn - makes the 'th' sounds in thistle, thin, and with. appears in words like þæt (that), wiþ (with) and þorn (thorn, yea, looks like porn).
- ð - eth - makes the voiced 'th' sound in then, that, there. Appears in ðæt (a demonstrative pronoun roughly meaning 'the') and norðfolc (northfolk).
- Vowels were pronounced differently, and many sounds in general were represented differently. You can google information on this subject with instant success.
- Methods of neology, or making new words, were different. One of the most prominent differences is that modern English borrows many words from other languages, something that Old English almost never did. Instead it relied on compounding existing words to create its rich word-hoard. Compounding is, in my opinion, one of the greatest traits of the English language. We still use it today. When you try to put together two absurd or vulgar terms to insult your friend (i.e. gerbil-butt, buttlump, etc.) you are compounding! And, as today compounding has an art to it, back then it did as well. Poets of the period used compounding to form kennings, compoundings that render artistic metaphors for the things they describe. For instance, in Beowulf the ocean is referred to as a "whale road" and joints in the arm are called "bone locks", illustrating how bones are kept in their place by joints. Compounding was most often used in creating self-explaining compounds such as 'hlaf-ord' (loaf-guard "he who guards the food and valuables) which is the origin of the word 'lord'.
So what happened? Why is modern English so different? Well the obvious answer is that things change over time. The Norman Conquest played a very significant role, but we'll get to that later.
A few final fun facts:
- Many think that the closest current language to English is Frisian, spoken mostly in the Netherlands.
- Anglo-Saxon was occasionally written in a runic alphabet, especially on runestones, jewelry and weaponry. This runic alphabet was called the Futhorc.
- Want to actually hear this ancient language? Visit
Anglo-Saxon Aloud and hear the words of poets who have been dead for over 1000 years spoken exactly as they wrote them down? Listen to Beowulf and feel the guttural bloodlust.
In true blog-fashion I will post the obligatory photo. I bought this today for $2.00.
f Fortune, or Rota Fortunae. Men were attached to the wheel, and as Fortune turned the wheel some were rising, some were falling, some were o top and some were being crushed underneath. So while her turning wheel brought some men into prosperity, it crushed others and undid their well-being. Note the king second from the bottom on the right losing his crown as the wheel tips him upside-down. For an insightful treatment of the concept of Fortune, read Chaucer's aptly-titled poem Fortune.
