Old English: Early Germanic Britain

Place-names (toponyms)

• the first speakers of an Indo-European language - the Celts - settled in Britain around 2000 BCE, though more likely around 1000 BCE
• Celtic contributed little to English, its influence is most manifest in place-names
• two main sources of linguistic origins of place names (toponyms):
  • prominent features of the landscape (a river, a hill, a flat-plain)
  • name of the inhabitants of the area (whose place it is)
• two kinds of toponyms:
  • source in one single language
    • Purely Celtic names
      • Bernicia, Devon = tribal names
      • Kent – “border”
      • Kingdom of Deira < Celtic Deifr – “water”
      • Rivers: Avon – “river”, Esk and Exe < isca – “water”, Ouse – “stream, Thames – “dark river” < tamesis – “darkness”
  • hybrid forms
    • Celtic-Latin combinations
      • Lincoln – combines Celtic lindon (“pool”) with Latin colonia (“colony, settlement”)
      • Lancaster – combines the Celtic names for the River Lune (“pure” / “healthy”) with –caster (~ - caster, -chester) derived from Latin castrum (“camp”, “settlement”)
    • Celtic-Germanic combinations
      • Cornwall – cornovii (a Celtic tribe) + wealas (Germanic “foreigner, servant, slave”)
      • Cumberland – Cymry (Celtic “Welsh”) + land (Germanic “land”)
• reflect the distribution of the tribes – tell us who lived where and occupied the land long enough to impose their own place-names
  • Celtic toponyms appear all around England, but more prominent toward the West and North – areas which remained Celtic-speaking longer
  • West Germanic place – names found esp. in the South and Southeast
    • -ham – “homestead” (Birmingham)
    • -bury, -borough – “castle” (Marlborough, Salisbury)
    • -ing(s) – “the people/family of” (Hastings, Worthing)
    • -ton – “enclosure, village” (Northampton)
    • -field (Sheffield)
  • North Germanic (Scandinavian) – found esp. in the North and Northeast
    • -by – “farm”/”town” (Barmby)
    • -holm – “flat riverside, land, or island” (Downholme)
    • -thorp(e) – “village” (Nunthorpe)
    • -thwaite – “isolated parcel of land” (Langthwaite)
    • -toft – “homestead” (Langtoft)
• influence of the Roman settlement
  • Latin borrowings:
    • portus – “harbour” (Portsmouth)
    • strata – “street, road” (Stratford)
    • vicus – “farm”/”village” (Keswick)
• influence of the Norman Conquest
  • French
    • Beaulieu – beau- (“beautiful”) + -lieu (“place”)
    • Beaumont - -mont (“hill”)
    • Enville - -ville (“village, farm, field”)

Influence of Celtic/Latin on OE

• Celtic - no record of the original language, predecessor of Scottish Gaelic and Welsh
  • otherwise few traces in English, not much influence on grammar and pronunciation, presumably because of high degree of Romanization of Celtic Britain
  • only few words survived (bannock), most words of Celtic origin are toponyms

• Latin - some words entered OE through Celtic (ass, cross)
  • greatly advanced proces of Romanization in towns and cities (the wealthy adopted Roman life-style) leading to Celtic-Latin bilingualism, however despite the great importance of Roman culture, Latin have not much contributed to OE, probably because of the civic military disorder during the transitions from Roman to Celtic to Saxon power, also due to the farming culture of Germanic nations as opposed to urban culture of Romans and Britons (the original rural population was subjugated, driven off or ignored)
  • much more importantly, Latin returned later with the introduction of Christianity

Christianization in Britain. 

• happened between the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and the invasion of the Vikings (late 6th century)
• arrived in 597 with St. Augustine of Canterbury (a missionary sent by Pope Gregory I) who converted the King of Kent (Æðelbirht), the most powerful king south of the Humber River
• close relationship between Church and State rivalry between the Celtic and the Roman churches
• dispute settled at the Synod of Whitby (664)
• all England is nominally Christian by 700
• cultural upswing, use of Latin in the services, flowering of ecclesiastical learning, stimulation of vernacular literature and art
• emergence of church music, modernized agriculture, development of literacy
• monasteries produce manuscripts for liturgical and educational use
• successful cultivation and preservation of Latin literature
• Nordic-Germanic runes still present (Ruthwell Cross)
• Latin script adapted for use with English is adopted
• earlier pagan practices remained e.g. weekdays named for Nordic gods, Easter named for dawn-goddess
• Latin returned with the introduction of Christianity and exerted considerable influence on English: loanwords of religious and scientific nature.

Inflectionally Expressed Grammatical Categories in Old English

Nouns

• case: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative

giefu giefe giefe giefe

• number: singular/plural

gift(feminine) - gifts giefu giefa/giefe

Adjectives

• case: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative

gōda gōdan gōdan gōdan

• number: singular/plural (gōda/gōdan)
• gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter

gōda gōde gōde

• comparative {-ra} and superlative {-ost(a)}.

dear dearer dearest

lēof lēofra lēofost

Pronouns

• case: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental (masculine and neuter of the 3rd person singular)

hē his him hine hȳ /heō

• number: singular, plural, dual (later replaced by plural)

we two - wit

you two - git

• gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter

this this (feminine) this (neuter)

þes þeōs þis

Verbs

• strong/weak conjugation
• person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd)

am are is

eom eart is

• number (singular/plural)

to come came (he) came (they)

cuman cōm cōmon

• tense (present or past {-ode}/preterite {-od})

to live lives lived had lived

wunian wunað wunode wunod

• mood: (indicative/subjunctive/imperative)

be would be

bēo bēon

• aspect (expressed by prefixes)

burn burn up

beornan forbeornan

Limitations in the Literature from Old English Period

• little material available before 700
• limited fields of writing: mostly legal and religious texts
• diversity of form and content