Old English

Tutor: Andrei Avram

Introduction

External history
the historical background
language contacts

Internal history
the structure of the language
language change

Pre-Celtic Britain
non-Indoeuropean population
archaeological evidence only (e.g. Stonehenge)
language(s) spoken: unknown

Celtic Britain
c. 900 BC: arrival of the Celts
archaeological evidence
rural society
the British, the Picts, the Scots
Celtic languages spoken in Britain:
Gaelic – descendants: Irish (spoken in Ireland), Gaelic (spoken in Scotland)
British – descendants: Welsh (spoken in Wales), Breton (spoken in Brittany)
Cornish (spoken in Cornwall until the end of the 18th c.)

Roman Britain
55 BC: Julius Caesar attempts to invade Britain
54 BC: Julius Caesar invades Britain, but then withdraws to Gaul

43 AD: Claudius occupies Britain, with an army of 40,000

122: Hadrian’s wall, the northern limit of the area under Roman rule, defence against
attacks from the North by the Picts and by the Scots
urban civilization: the Romans build roads, bridges, temples, baths (e.g. Bath)
the Romans introduce Christianity
after 400: first attacks from the East (“the Saxon shore”) by Germanic tribes
410: withdrawal of the Roman administration and army
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The “Anglo-Saxon” invasion

wars between the various Celtic tribes
449: Vortigern, king of the British, appeals to the Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa, for
military assistance against the Picts
the Angles are granted lands in the South-East of Britain
further aid is sought, including from the Saxons and from the Jutes
next century and a half: influx of settlers, who included large numbers of Frisians

Anglecynn ‘the Angle kin’

Anglia ‘Anglia’
Englaland lit. ‘land of the Angles’ > England
Englisc ‘language of the Angles’ > English

the Celts are either driven into Wales or become serfs

the Celtic inhabitants are called Wealas / Walas, pl. of wealh ‘foreigner, stranger; serf’, or
Bretwalas ‘Brito-Welsh’; cf Welsh, Wales, Cornwall

settlement areas of the Germanic invaders

the Angles: East Anglia, Middle Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria (i.e. north of the river
Humber)
the Saxons: Essex, Sussex, Wessex
the Jutes: Kent, the Isle of Wight, the coastal areas facing the Isle of Wight

c. 550-850: “the Heptarchy”, i.e. Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex,
Wessex, Kent; varying supremacy, confederacies, personal unions, etc.

597: Pope Gregory I sends missionaries to Christianize the English

The Viking invasions

1st Viking period
793-795: sporadic, isolated attacks by the Vikings
851: the Vikings begin to spend the winters on islands off the English coasts
865: the Danes invade England
877: the Danes occupy Northumbria and eastern Mercia
878: King Ælfred the Great defeats the Danes at Eddington; the Treaty of Wedmore
delimits the territory under Viking rule, i.e. the “Danelaw”

2nd Viking period

1013: Danish invasion
1016: Cnut becomes king of England (later also of Denmark and of Norway)
1042: death of Harthacnut (Cnut’s son)