Old English English Germanic European Indo Natural Languages Linguistics

Old English, sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon, is a member of the Germanic family of the Indo-European languages. It is the earliest form of the English language. It was written and spoken in England from roughly the 5th to the 11th century. Its written records include the earliest known poems in the English language and a considerable body of prose.

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• Verb Movement in Old and Middle English: Dialect Variation and Language Contact - Studies the position of the verb in Old English word order and shows the influence of this “V2” (verb-second) syntax on the word order of Middle English dialects.
  
• Old English Compared to Modern English - Merriam-Webster Online article uses a passage from Aelfric's Homily on St. Gregory to show the similarities and differences between Old English and Modern English. Also compares Middle English to Modern English and describes the Germanic roots of Old Engl
  
• Old English Verb Conjugator - Online tool that accepts the infinitive form of an Old English verb as input and displays the complete conjugation of that verb as output. Also summarizes Old English verb groups and classes.
  
• Runes and Manuscripts - Studies the development of the alphabet and writing in Anglo-Saxon England. Topics include: the national Germanic alphabet (runes), the use of runes in literature, the influence of the Roman and Irish alphabets on the English hand, the tools of book-makin
  
• Old English Syntax: Some Literary Illustrations - Shows how selected literary texts exemplify characteristic features of Old English syntax.
  
• The Sounds of Old English - Robert D. Stevick's account of the Old English sound system. Includes exercises.
  
• Old English Alphabet - Shows the form and pronunciation of each letter in the Old English alphabet. Includes a sample text from a manuscript, a transcription of this text, and a modern English translation. Also shows the form, name, and equivalent English letter for each rune
  
• Case in Old English - Robert Stevick's study of case and other grammatical elements of Old English.
  
• The Grammar of Old English Poetry - Describes the features of grammar in Old English poetry that distinguish it from the grammar of prose. Covers inflections, syntax, and word order. By Peter Baker.
  
• The MANCASS C11 Database - A tool for studying writing and spelling in eleventh century manuscripts. Helps scholars to determine whether a standard form of written English existed in the eleventh century.
  
• An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts - An illustrated online seminar by Michelle Brown. Sessions include: Anglo-Saxon England and the Book, Reading and Writing the Manuscripts, Spiritual and Secular Worlds, Materials and Techniques, and Illustration and Ornament.
  
• Runes in Anglo-Saxon England - A summary of how the Anglo-Saxons used runes in art, literature, and daily life.
  
• Junicode Font Page - Junicode is a font for medievalists created by Peter Baker. If a computer is unable to display certain characters that can appear in online Old English texts, the Junicode font supplies the needed characters. Site describes the font and includes a link to
  
• A Brief History of Old English - Explains how political and cultural events changed the Anglo-Saxon language into the English spoken today. By Michael Drout.
  
• The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language - Explains who the Anglo-Saxons were, where their language came from, and what their language was like. Also describes the relationship of Old English to other Germanic languages and to modern English. By Peter Baker.
  
• Poetic Style in Old English - Explains the stylistic characteristics of Old English poems, including a vocabulary found only in poems, the use of variation in poetic sentences, and the formulaic nature of poetic phrases and themes. By Peter Baker.
  
• Meter in Old English Poetry - Describes the use of alliteration in Old English poems and the rhythmic patterns employed in the individual lines of these poems. By Peter Baker.
  
• Changes in the English Language: a Comparison of Old, Middle, and Modern English - For each verse of Luke 2:1-19, displays an Old English, Middle English, and Modern English version of the verse.
  
• Tricks for Translating Old English - Gives tips for making the translation of Old English easier. These tricks involve an understanding of certain grammatical constructions that are very common in Old English: modal plus infinitive, partitive genitive, locative dative, and the "ge"
  
• Old English Manuscripts Database - Gives descriptive information for each of the approximately 200 Old English manuscripts containing a significant amount of Anglo-Saxon. Includes a brief introduction to Old English manuscripts.
  
• Estimating Probabilities and Alliteration Frequencies in Old English Verse - Studies various kinds of alliteration rates for Old English poetry and shows how non-primary alliteration sometimes plays a functional and artistic role in Old English verse. By Thomas A. Bredehoft.
  
• Reading Old English Manuscripts - Provides essential information for reading Old English manuscripts as opposed to the transcriptions used in edited texts. Covers the Old English alphabet, manuscript abbreviations, punctuation, capitalization, word and line divisions, and errors and corre
  
• The Prosody of Old and Middle English - Explains the poetic principles and techniques that underlie all Old English poetry. Also covers the transition from Old English to Middle English poetic forms, foreign influences on Middle English poetry, and the alliterative revival of the 14th century.
  
• History of the English Language Lectures - Includes several videos, with narration, on Old English language topics. By Edwin Duncan.
  
• ASPR Search Engine - This online tool finds all occurrences of a specified word or phrase in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (ASPR), which contain the complete body of Old English poetry.
  
• Medieval Writing: Literate English - Study of the history of written English, with emphasis on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and the culture that produced them. Includes numerous illustrations and photos.
  
• Old English Graphotactics - A site dedicated to editions of Old English texts that include the graphotactics of original manuscripts and to studies of these texts. Graphotactics concerns the incidence and measure of spacings between strings of written symbols of a text. In such text
  
• Englisc Composition Listserv - An electronic discussion group dedicated to writing and communicating in Old English. Includes event announcements and links.
  
• The Language of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings - Describes the survival of Old English and Old Norse words in modern English. Includes illustrations.
  
• Changes in the Language to the Days of Chaucer - Studies the development of Old English and Middle English. Covers grammar, pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, and dialects.
  
• The Parable of the Prodigal Son in Different Stages of English - Gives Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English versions of Luke 15:11-32 and allows side-by-side comparisons of different versions. Includes audio of verses 11-21 in each version.
  
• The Runic Alphabet - Shows the entire set of Anglo-Saxon runic symbols. Includes the name of each symbol and the equivalent English letter for that symbol.
  
• Old English Language - Introduction to Old English from the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. Covers Germanic origins; Latin, Norse, and Celtic influence; dialects, phonology, and orthography; and grammar.
  
• About Old English - Answers the questions: What is old English, Why learn Old English, and Why is Old English so different from modern English. By Murray McGillivray
  
• Conceptual Semantics and Grammatical Relations in Old English - A study of Old English from the viewpoint of historical linguistics. Covers word order, theta roles, and word formation. By Ruta Nagucka.
  
• Old English Links - Includes links to books and articles on Old English language topics.
  
  

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