How did the change from Gothic to English change the people who spoke it?

Old English language—an overview

One-time English language is the name given to the earliest recorded stage of the English language, upward to approximately 1150AD (when the Center English language period is generally taken to have begun). Information technology refers to the language as it was used in the long period of time from the coming of Germanic invaders and settlers to Uk—in the menses following the plummet of Roman Britain in the early on fifth century—up to the Norman Conquest of 1066, and beyond into the beginning century of Norman rule in England. Information technology is thus first and foremost the language of the people normally referred to by historians equally the Anglo-Saxons.

'Anglo-Saxon' was one of a number of alternative names formerly used for this period in the language's history. On the history of the terms encounter Erstwhile English n. and adj., Anglo-Saxon northward. and adj., English adj. (and adv.) and due north., and also Centre English north. and adj.

Historical groundwork

Before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, the majority of the population of Britain spoke Celtic languages. In Roman Britain, Latin had been in extensive use as the language of government and the armed services and probably likewise in other functions, peculiarly in urban areas and amongst the upper echelons of society. Notwithstanding, information technology is uncertain how much Latin remained in employ in the mail-Roman flow.

During the course of the next several hundred years, gradually more and more than of the territory in the area, later to exist known every bit England, came nether Anglo-Saxon command. (On the history of the name, see England n.)

Precisely what fate befell the majority of the (Romano-)British population in these areas is a thing of much debate. Certainly very few words were borrowed into English language from Celtic (it is uncertain whether there may accept been more influence in some areas of grammar and pronunciation), and practically all of the Latin borrowings plant in Quondam English could exist explained as having been borrowed either on the continent (i.e. beforehand) or during or later the conversion to Christianity (i.east. afterwards).

The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, which began in the belatedly 6th century and was largely complete past the late seventh century, was an event of huge cultural importance. Ane of its many areas of touch was the introduction of writing all-encompassing texts in the Roman alphabet on parchment (every bit opposed to inscribing very short inscriptions on forest, bone, or rock in runic characters). Nearly all of our surviving documentary evidence for Old English is mediated through the Church building, and the print of the literary culture of Latin Christianity is deep on almost everything that survives written in Old English.

Conflict and interaction with raiders and settlers of Scandinavian origin is a central theme in Anglo-Saxon history essentially from the time of the first recorded raids in the late eighth century onwards. However, the linguistic impact of this contact is mainly evident but in the Middle English period. Likewise, the cataclysmic political events of the Norman Conquest took some time to show their full bear upon on the English language language.

Some distinguishing features of Onetime English

In grammar, Old English language is chiefly distinguished from afterwards stages in the history of English by greater use of a larger ready of inflections in verbs, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, and as well (connected with this) by a rather less fixed word social club; it as well preserves grammatical gender in nouns and adjectives.

An example: The following couple of lines from Ælfric'south De temporibus anni:
'Ðunor cymð of hætan & of wætan. Seo lyft tyhð þone wætan to hire neoðan & ða hætan ufan.'

may exist translated word-for-discussion as:

Thunder comes from estrus and from moisture. The air draws the moisture to it from below and the estrus from above.

To pick out a very few grammatical features:

The nouns hæte, 'heat', and wæta, 'moisture', both take the inflection –an in the start sentence, considering both are in the dative case, governed by the preposition of 'from'.

In the second sentence they both again accept the inflection –an, only this time they are in the accusative case, equally the direct objects of tyhð 'draws'.

The forms of the definite article agree with these nouns, but you will annotation that they are dissimilar in each instance, þone wætan 'the moisture' (straight object), but ða hætan 'the heat' (also direct object). The difference arises because wæta 'moisture' is masculine but hæte 'oestrus' is feminine, and the commodity (similar other adjectives) agrees in gender besides equally case.

For another example of gender agreement, look at the pronoun hire (i.eastward. the antecedent of mod English language her) referring to seo lyft (feminine) 'the air'.

In vocabulary, Sometime English is much more homogeneous than later stages in the history of English language. Some borrowings from Latin date back to before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons to Great britain (i.due east. they were borrowed on the continent), while many others date from the menses of the conversion to Christianity and later. However, words borrowed from Latin or from other languages make up simply a tiny pct of the vocabulary of Old English, and the major influx of words from French and from Latin belongs to the Middle English menses and after. (At that place are likewise numerous loan translations and semantic loans from Latin in Old English, reflecting the influence of Latin on the language of organized religion and learning.)

Some Old English language words of Latin origin that have survived into modern English language include belt, butter, chalk, chest, loving cup, fan, fork, mile, minster, mint, monk, pepper, school, sock, strop, wine.

Some borrowing from early on Scandinavian is attested in later Old English language, simply once more the major impact of contact with Scandinavian settlers becomes evident only in Heart English language.

There is besides a great deal of continuity between Old English and later stages in the history of the language. A slap-up bargain of the core vocabulary of modern English goes back to Onetime English language, including most of the words nigh frequently used today.

For a very few examples see I pron. and n.², i adj., northward., and pron., and conj.¹, adv., and n., homo north.¹ (and int.), woman n.

For further information on which Old English words are included in the OED, and on how Old English material is dated in the lexicon, run into One-time English language in the OED past Anthony Esposito.

Some letters from the Quondam English language alphabet which modern English has lost:

þ, ð both correspond the same sounds every bit mod thursday, as e.g. in sparse or then;
æ and a represent distinct sounds in Old English language, formed with the tongue respectively at the front and back of the mouth.

The pronunciation of e.g. trap or man in many modern varieties of English comes close to Old English language æ, whereas Old English language a was more like the audio in modern German Mann 'man' or Spanish mano 'manus' (similar the sound in modern English language father, merely shorter).

Back to elevation

The beginning of Old English language …

It is very difficult to say when Old English began, because this pushes u.s. back beyond the appointment of our earliest records for either Former English or any of its closest relatives (with the exception of very occasional inscriptions and the evidence of words and names occurring in Latin or in other languages). Everyone agrees in calling the language of our earliest extensive sources establish in contemporary copies 'Former English': these are Latin-English language glossaries from around the year 700. (Some other material was certainly equanimous before 700, merely survives only in later copies.) By this fourth dimension Old English language was already very distinct from its Germanic sister languages (run into below) as a event of many sound changes (i.e. changes in how certain sounds were pronounced, chiefly when they occurred virtually to certain other sounds) and other linguistic developments. In fact, most of the most important changes which nosotros can trace through our surviving Old English documents had already happened earlier this time. Some of them were very probably well in progress or even consummate before the time of the settlement in England.

Some Latin-English glosses from ane of our earliest sources (the Épinal Glossary):

anser goos (i.e. 'goose')
lepus, leporis hara (i.e. 'hare')
nimbus storm (i.e. 'tempest')
olor suan (i.eastward. 'swan')

Some scholars distinguish the undocumented flow before our primeval texts every bit 'pre-Old English', while others are happy just to utilize the name 'Quondam English' for this menstruum as well as for the documented period. In do, the dividing line is hazy. Most of our documentary testify for Erstwhile English comes from much later (late ninth century and onwards), and even in the later menstruum in that location is much that nosotros practice not know. In the before part of the documented period, the gaps and uncertainties mean that we often know just equally little most a certain topic as we do for the preceding undocumented period.

If we trace its history dorsum further, Old English belongs to the Due west Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, along with Former Frisian, Old Saxon, Erstwhile High High german, and the diverse dialects which afterwards gave rise to Old Dutch. The major early representatives of the North Germanic branch are Quondam Icelandic, Old Norwegian, Onetime Swedish, and Old Danish (although the earliest extensive remains for all of these are much later than the earliest Old English language documents), while the only representative of the E Germanic branch for which extensive remains survive is Gothic. Ultimately, all of these branches diverged from a unmarried hypothetical ancestor, (proto-)Germanic, which itself constitutes a branch of the larger Indo-European linguistic communication family. Other branches of Indo-European include Celtic, Italic (including Latin and hence the Romance languages), Greek, Indo-Iranian (including Sanskrit and Farsi), Baltic, and Slavonic (these final two being regarded by many every bit a single branch, Balto-Slavonic).

In fact, very many details of the pre-historic relationships between Old English and the other Germanic languages are much debated and very controversial, which greatly complicates any attempt to say when 'Old English' began.

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The end of Sometime English language

The conventional dividing appointment of approximately 1150 betwixt Old English and Eye English reflects (very roughly) the period when these changes in grammar and vocabulary begin to go noticeable in most of the surviving texts (which are non very numerous from this transitional period). In what is oftentimes called 'transitional English' the number of singled-out inflections becomes fewer, and discussion lodge takes on an increasing functional load. At the same time borrowings from French and (especially in northern and eastern texts) from early Scandinavian become more frequent. All of these processes were extremely gradual, and did not happen at the same rate in all places. Therefore any dividing date is very arbitrary, and can only reflect these developments very approximately.

Old English dialects

The surviving Old English documents are traditionally attributed to iv different major dialects: Kentish (in the south-east), West Saxon (in the south-west), Mercian (in the midland territories of Mercia), and Northumbrian (in the north); because of various similarities they show, Mercian and Northumbrian are ofttimes grouped together as Anglian. This segmentation is largely based on linguistic differences shown by various of the major early sources, although many of the details are highly controversial, and some scholars are very critical of the traditional association of these linguistic differences (nonetheless approximately) with the boundaries of various politically defined areas (which are themselves only poorly understood), and today many of the details of where each multifariousness was centred geographically are subject field to argue. For political and cultural reasons, manuscripts written in the West Saxon dialect hugely predominate among our after records (although much of the verse is something of a special case), reflecting the widespread adoption of a form of West Saxon as a written language in the later Old English period.

There are simply a few named figures in the history of writings in Quondam English. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography you lot tin read about: Ælfric of Eynsham, Wulfstan [Lupus], Alfred [Ælfred], Æthelwold, Cædmon, and Cynewulf.

Quondam English verbs

Verbs in Old English show an extensive range of inflections, reflecting distinctions of person and number (eastward.m. first person atypical, first person plural, etc.), tense (present or past), and mood (indicative, subjunctive, or imperative); many other distinctions are realized by periphrastic constructions with be 5., worth five., will v., or shall v. as auxiliary in combination with non-finite forms of the verb.

With the exception of some (by and large high frequency) irregular or anomalous verbs, Old English verbs belong to one of ii main groupings: stiff verbs and weak verbs.

The strong verbs realize differences of tense past variation in the stem vowel. They are assigned to seven main classes, co-ordinate to the vowel variation shown. Thus RIDE v., a Form I potent verb, shows the following vowel gradation in its "principal parts", from which all of its other inflections can be inferred:

infinitive: rīdan
by tense singular: rād
past tense plural: ridon
past participle: (ge)riden

Similarly, the Grade Iii strong verb Demark v. shows the following principal parts:

infinitive: bindan
by tense singular: band (or bond)
by tense plural: bundon
past participle: (ge)bunden

The principal parts of the various classes can simply be memorized as fairly arbitrary sets (with various subclasses and exceptions). To understand the causes of this variation we demand to go back to a much earlier system of vowel gradation called ablaut, which Germanic inherited from Indo-European, and which Germanic made extensive use of in the strong verb organization.

Since ablaut as well ultimately explains the relationships betwixt many other One-time English words, it can be very useful to have some understanding of how it works, although it is far from unproblematic. See the text box for a very brusk sketch.

A very short introduction to ablaut The stem vowels ī, ā, i, i shown by rīdan ultimately reflect Indo-European *ei, *oi, *i, *i (giving by regular development Germanic *ī, *ai, *i, *i, giving ultimately Sometime English ī, ā, i, i). Thus the principal parts in One-time English tin can be explained as reflecting Indo-European *i in combination with either *e (hence *ei), *o (hence *oi), or naught (hence *i). For these reasons, the infinitive rīdan is said to show the Indo-European east-grade, the past tense atypical rād is said to show the Indo-European o-form, and the by tense plural ridon and past participle (ge)riden are said to show the Indo-European zero-grade, even though, confusingly, the Former English forms themselves practice not show eastward, o, or naught. Similarly bindan ultimately reflects a sequence *en, *on, *n, *n, in which *e, *o, or zippo appear in combination with *north. Similar variation figures largely in a peachy many etymologies: for some examples come across e.g. Dearest northward.¹, OWE v., RAW adj. and due north.¹, Absurd adj., adv., and int., Ruddy adj., n., (and adv.), RIFT n.,

The weak verbs class the past tense and past participle in a quite different mode, using a suffix with a vowel followed by -d-, which is the ancestor of the modern inflection in -ed (see '-ED' suffix¹). Thus lufian Beloved v.¹ (a weak Form II verb) shows 1st and 3rd person by singular lufode.

Weak verbs ofttimes originated as derivative formations, and often preserve some attribute of this in their pregnant, every bit for instance showing causative or inchoative pregnant: see below on cēlan 'to (crusade to) cool' and cōlian 'to become cool'.

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Derivational relationships and sound changes

Many Former English words vest to large groups of words all derived ultimately from the same base, and are related to i some other in means that would have been fairly transparent to speakers of the language. However, in the menses of our literary documents the relationships between words were ofttimes much less clear than they are likely to have been before, because sound changes and other developments had obscured the derivational relationships.

For example, cōl 'cool' (run into Cool adj., adv., and int.) has a small family of related words in Old English, including cōlnes COOLNESS n., which clearly shows the same base plus '-NESS' suffix. The relationship is similarly clear in the case of the derivative Form II weak verb cōlian 'to become cool' (see COOL v.¹).

However, the human relationship is less immediately articulate in the case of the derivative Grade I weak verb cēlan 'to (cause to) cool' (see KEEL v.¹). In this example the difference in the stem vowel was caused by an important process chosen i-mutation which occurred before the date of our primeval records. The earlier form was probably *kōljan. In the process called i-mutation an i or j caused a change in the vowel in the preceding syllable, in this case *ō > *ē. In this word (equally in many others) the j was then itself lost, so that by the time of our surviving texts nosotros find cēlan in the same word family unit every bit cōl, cōlnes, and cōlian.

The same process explains the variation that nosotros discover in the stem vowel in the plural of some words. The word mouse of form shows in modern English language the plural course mice; similarly in Old English language we find singular mūs only plural mȳs. The earlier forms would accept been atypical *mūs, plural *mūsi (earlier *mūsiz); i-mutation caused the change *ū > *ȳ in the plural, and and so the i was in turn lost, so that in our surviving texts we discover singular mūs but plural mȳs.

This and like processes explain many of the rather complex relationships between related word forms in Old English.

Farther reading on Onetime English

Richard Hogg, An Introduction to Old English (2002)
Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English (7th edn., 2006)
Roger Lass, Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion (1994)
Richard Hogg ed., The Cambridge History of the English language Language vol. i: The Ancestry to 1066 (1992)
Philip Durkin, The Oxford Guide to Etymology (2009)

Where now with the OED Online?

there's a growing list of commentaries on English in time, charting historical lexicography from Old English to the modern day. Too as this introduction to Old English, you lot can also read a similar overview of early mod English by Edmund Weiner, deputy editor of the OED, as well as a guide to Old English in OED.
the OED Online includes more than 7500 entries for which the starting time show of utilize is dated 1150 or earlier.

How practice I search for these? With subscriber admission to the OED Online you can search for entries past engagement, usage, origin, region, and subject using the Avant-garde Search option. To group entries by fourth dimension period, utilise Advanced Search/date of entry or entry range. All results tin exist displayed as timelines (only click on the link at the peak of the results list), or y'all can browse the OED via the Timelines choice.

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