Old English

Question 1

What did old English sound like?

Answer 1

• different syllable stress: syllables are more stressed than they are today
• 3 genders (like in modern German)
• nouns and adjectives mark for gender and case
• pronouns: different forms for gender and cases (e.g. him)
• demonstratives: case and gender distinction

Question 2

Inflectional Morphology - Demonstrative Pronouns

Answer 2

• definite article was not distinct from demonstrative
• no indefinite article

Question 2

Inflectional Morphology - Personal Pronouns

Answer 2

• dual: distinction between one (sing.), two (dual) and three or more (plural)
• masculine/neutral were indistinguishable in some cases

Question 2

Inflectional Morphology - Nouns

Answer 2

• masculinum/neuter: nominative/accusative similar
• distinction between singular and plural
• plural -s: only in strong masculine nouns

Question 2

Syntax

Answer 2

• word order was relatively free → inflections show the function
• SVO = preferred pattern

Question 2

Inflectional Morphology - Verb Morphology

Answer 2

• be emerged from three verbs
• many of Old English strong verbs are now irregular verbs

Question 3

Why the dramatic loss?

Answer 3

a) Incomplete Paradigms: many forms overlap (= syncretism) → more likely to lose a grammatical category
b) Phonological Weakening: unstressed syllables are weakened (e.g. to a schwa) → became indistinguishable (incomplete paradigms)
c) Language Contact

Question 4

Roman Britain - Linguistic Influence

Answer 4

• Celtic and Latin very little influence
• most visible influence: placenames (e.g. Lat. -chester; Celt. Kent, London)

Question 5

Germanic Invasion - Linguistic Influence

Answer 5

• grammar and lexis
• mutually intelligible dialects
• no written tradition
• basics of grammar: conjunctions (ænd)
• function words: oft - ‘often’
• basic lexical vocabulary: hūs (‘house’)

Question 6

Christianization - Linguistic Influence

Answer 6

• written records start emerging (in Latin)
• lexical borrowing:
  1) basic (early) phase: school, master, cup, sock, silk
  2) philosophical (later) phase: antichrist, apostle
• linguistic integration:
  a) word formation: martyr (Latin) > martyrdom (OE suffix; more abstract)
  b) derivation: planta (lat.) > plant (n.) > plantian (v.)

Question 7

Viking Invasion - Linguistic Influence

Answer 7

• new words (but no new concepts)
• bilingualism & pressure of language contact
• lexical borrowing: easy & conscious; happened quickly; grammatical borrowing: difficult & subconscious
• Syntax: loss of noun inflections; pronouns (they, them, their); to be: ‘are’ = ON