![]() Still, The Battle of Maldon is not much easier to understand than Caedmon’s Hymn. This is because “w” didn’t exist in the Latin alphabet it’s a more recent innovation from English and other northern European languages. If you speak a modern Latin language like Spanish, you’ll know that they generally don’t use “w”, except in foreign words and names like Washington. Eventually ƿ was replaced with “uu”, which was then simplified to “w”, which explains why “w” is called “double-u”. The rune ƿ (“wynn”) also survived longer than most, used to represent the sound that we now write as “w”. (You can read a modern translation of The Battle of Maldon here.) So þæt means “that”, þe means “the”, and I have no idea what unforcuð means, but I imagine it was pronounced something like “un-for-kuth”. ![]() Both are pronounced like the modern “th” sound(s). The latter, called eth, is a modification of the Latin letter d. The former, called thorn, is a rune that stayed in use even after most other runes had been forgotten. What are those funny “þ” and “ð” characters? Þæt her stynt unforcuð eorl mid his werode, The following is an extract from the poem The Battle of Maldon, thought to be written shortly after the titular battle of 991 AD: A “Thorny Problem” with Old English Runes But while most runes fell into disuse, a few survived and were mixed in with the newer writing system. The Old English alphabet looked like this:īy the 11th century, the futhorc resembled one of the Tolkien novels that it inspired: lots of dead characters. Before the current writing system was introduced to Britain by Christian missionaries in the 9th and 10th centuries, English was primarily written with Anglo-Saxon runes. You’re reading this article in the Latin alphabet, but English wasn't always written like this. (Where do you think Tolkien got the idea from?) I thought the Old English alphabet used cool runic characters, kind of like what the dwarves use in Lord of the Rings?” “Apart from the weird “æ”, that hymn is written using modern English letters. It was roundabout this time that Cædmon (his name is pronounced roughly like “CAD-mon”) composed his hymn. Meanwhile, the various Germanic dialects slowly merged into a new language that its speakers called Englisc. That's why the few Celtic languages that remain in the British Isles today (Cornish, Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic) are only found in the archipelago’s northern and western extremities. Groups like the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes and Frisians sailed to and settled in Britain, bringing their Germanic languages with them.įor obvious geographical reasons, these invaders mainly came from the southeast. Throughout the first millennium AD, the Celtic-speakers of Britain were slowly displaced by waves of immigration and invasion from the European mainland. ![]() Before English came along, most people in the British Isles spoke Celtic languages, a family whose modern descendants include Irish and Welsh. Other Indo-European branches include Slavic, Italic, and Celtic.Įnglish originated in the area now called England (duh), but it wasn’t the first language to get here. The Germanic family, however, is just one branch of the wider Indo-European language family. How was Old English written? How did it change as we shifted into middle and more modern dialects? Why doesn't “count” rhyme with the first syllable of “country”? And why do we continue to torture ESL students with bizarrities like the sentence “a rough coughing thoughtful ploughman from Scarborough bought tough dough in Slough”?īelow, I'll explore all these questions, and also tell you why you're probably pronouncing the word “ye” wrong.īut first, a short history lesson about Old English:Įnglish is a Germanic language, meaning its closest living relatives are Dutch, Frisian, and of course German. For this article I'll focus on the history of Old English writing. (See here for an audio version of the original hymn.) Cædmon's Hymn is utterly incomprehensible to the modern English reader. There's no doubt about it: Old and Modern English might as well be two completely different languages. A few other connections shine faintly through, like hefaen for heaven, fadur for father, and uerc for work, but I can’t glean much else… and even in the modern version, I still have no idea what a “Wulder-father” is. ![]() Only two words appear unchanged: he and his. Separated by more than a millennium, these two texts are barely recognisable as the “same” language. Work of the Wulder-Father as he of wonders The might of the Measurer and his purpose Now shall we praise the Warden of Heaven-Kingdom Those are the first few lines of Cædmon's Hymn, a 7th-Century poem generally considered to be the oldest surviving work of English literature. ?Ĭan you read Old English writing? Here's a sample: Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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