1. History of Old English The Origins of the language of Beowulf

2. I. The base: Proto-Indo-European proto- means first ; spoken from India to Europe 7,000 years ago they traveled and spread out became Persian, Hindi, Armenian, Greek, Russian, Polish, French, English, Spanish, German, Norweigian, etc. Also was the language of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

3. I. The base: Proto-Indo-European Indo-European words for “father” Sanskrit - piter Classical Greek - pater Latin - pater Gothic - fadar Old Irish - athir French - pere Spanish - padre Italian - padre Portuguese - pai English - father German - vader

4. II. Britons (Celts) and the conquering Romans Romans invaded Celts and then left to defend Rome - left trade and soldiering words like: mile, street, wall, wine, cheese, butter, dish, port Celts, without Roman protection, were easily conquered and driven to Wales -left very little language influence

5. III. Angles, Saxons, and Jutes come in and kick some Celtic booty (A.D. 449) brought Germanic form of O.E, basic words survived -heart, foot, head, day, year, earth, father, mother, son, daughter, name, east, full, hound, tooth, eat, weave, and sew mainly oral language

6. III. Angles, Saxons, and Jutes come in and kick some Celtic booty (A.D. 449) Old English Word Daege’s Eage Hlaf-Dige Half-ward Wita Wyrd Wyrm Meaning of Old English Word Day’s eye Loaf kneader Loaf gaurdian Wise person Fate Dragon Modern English Daisy Lady Lord Wit Weird Worm

7. IV. St. Augustine and Christianity (597-1066) Latin became language of the Church and learning -school, candle, altar, paper, circle, abbey church services, books, school classes in Latin to not know Latin = illiterate more lasting impact than any other language

8. V. Vikings invade... and invade, and invade brought Old Norse from Scandinavia 8th century fierce fighters- ruthless big language influence -get, give, hit, kick, law, sister, outlaw, knife, take, egg, sky, they, their, them

9. VI. Grammar changes all nouns were one of 3 genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) 4 verb forms instead of 2 -Modern English= I ride, she rides, they ride, we ride -O.E.= ic ride, u ridest, he ride, and we ridon Word endings showed relationship, not word order Pronunciation changes (especially vowels)