Celts fled to Scotland
West to Wales, Ireland, and France
Saxons took few words.
Saxons used few words
Taken from remaining Celts
Such as 'crag' and 'bin'.
Celts had fled to France
Brittany for the Bretons
Four hundred A D.
Soon were established
The three Anglo-Saxon tribes
Each used same 'Englisc'.
Some used Latin words
Such as 'wine,' 'cup,' 'dish,' 'street,' 'mile'
Learned in trade before.
Then missionaries:
'Angel,' 'candle,' 'paper,' 'school.'
Italians added.
First texts in Englisc
Thus linguists say six hundred
Birth date of English.
Late seven hundreds
Alfred pushed Vikings back north
New place called Danelaw.
Now four dialects
All Germanic plus the Norse
New words: 'sail' and 'said.'
More Norse words were used
Eighteen hundred from Vikings:
Verb, 'are;' 'sky,' and 'they.'
Alfred used Wessex
Then dominant in England
Called now Old English.
This was synthetic
Word variations/endings
Determine meaning.
Inflections like 's'
Added to nouns, make plurals
'Ed' makes verbs the past.
Adjectives: 'er'/'ist'
Compare: 'big,' 'bigger,' 'biggest'
Added inflections.
Analytic speech
Word position gives meaning
'John ate the lion.''
OR: 'Lion ate John'
Word's position gives meaning
(So, does John survive?)
Here is synthetic:
'Mozart'S music concertoS'
Added inflections.
Here's analytic:
'Music concertos OF M.'
OF plus word order.
Old English simple?
Used: 'good,' 'bad,' 'eat,' 'drink,' 'sleep,' 'sing.'
Much literature!
From single root word
Old English made wide range of
Images, Rich scope.