Introduction to Old English

by Begon, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780631234548
• ISBN10: 0631234543
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc

Summary

This innovative introduction to the Old English language focuses on what students need to know in order to engage with Old English literary and historical texts. Designed for a new generation, the book assumes no expertise in traditional grammar or in other languages. An opening chapter reviews basic grammar for those who need to be brought up to speed. ls"Quick Startrs" sections begin the major chapters, allowing students to learn the basics of Old English quickly. ls"Minitextsrs" accompanying most chapters give students practice in reading the language, while a detailed introduction to poetic meter and style helps them to read poetry. The book as a whole contains more than 200 illustrative quotations, fourteen Old English readings including ls"The Wandererrs", ls"The Dream of the Roodrs" and ls"Judithrs", and a comprehensive glossary. Supplementary readings and exercises are available at the ls"Old English Aerobicsrs" website - http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/OEA/ - which complements the text.

Author Biography

Peter S. Baker is Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Table of Contents

Preface	xii
How to use this book	xiv
1 The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language	1	(10)
1.1 Who were they?	1	(2)
1.2 Where did their language come from?	3	(1)
1.3 What was Old English like?	4	(5)
1.3.1 The Indo-European languages	5	(1)
1.3.2 The Germanic languages	6	(1)
1.3.3 West Germanic and Low German	7	(1)
1.3.4 Old and Modern English	8	(1)
1.4 Old English dialects	9	(2)
2 Pronunciation	11	(11)
2.1 Quick start	11	(5)
2.1.1 Vowels and diphthongs	11	(3)
2.1.2 Consonants	14	(2)
2.1.3 Sermonette	16	(1)
2.2 More about vowels	16	(2)
2.2.1 Short a, æ and ea	16	(1)
2.2.2 I-mutation	17	(1)
2.2.3 Silent e; o for u	18	(1)
2.3 More about c and g	18	(2)
2.4 Syllable length	20	(1)
2.5 Accentuation	20	(1)
2.6 On-line pronunciation practice	21	(1)
2.7 Summary	21	(1)
3 Basic Grammar; A Review	22	(12)
3.1 Parts of speech	22	(6)
3.1.1 Nouns	22	(1)
3.1.2 Pronouns	23	(1)
3.1.3 Verbs	24	(2)
3.1.4 Adjectives	26	(1)
3.1.5 Adverbs	26	(1)
3.1.6 Prepositions	27	(1)
3.1.7 Conjunctions	27	(1)
3.1.8 Interjections	27	(1)
3.2 Phrases	28	(1)
3.3 Clauses	28	(2)
3.4 Elements of the sentence or clause	30	(3)
3.4.1 Subject	30	(1)
3.4.2 Verb	30	(1)
3.4.3 Object	31	(1)
3.4.4 Complement	32	(1)
3.4.5 Predicate	33	(1)
3.5 On-line exercises	33	(1)
4 Case	34	(7)
4.1 What is case?	34	(1)
4.2 Uses of the cases	35	(5)
4.2.1 Nominative	36	(1)
4.2.2 Accusative	36	(1)
4.2.3 Genitive	37	(1)
4.2.4 Dative	38	(1)
4.2.5 Instrumental	39	(1)
4.3 On-line exercises	40	(1)
5 Pronouns	41	(9)
5.1 Quick start	41	(3)
5.1.1 Personal pronouns	41	(2)
5.1.2 Possessive adjectives	43	(1)
5.1.3 Demonstrative pronouns	44	(1)
5.2 More about personal and demonstrative pronouns	44	(1)
5.2.1 The dual number	44	(1)
5.2.2 Common spelling variants	45	(1)
5.3 Interrogative pronouns	45	(1)
5.4 Indefinite pronouns	46	(1)
5.5 Relative pronouns	47	(1)
5.6 Reflexive pronouns	48	(1)
5.7 Reciprocal pronouns	48	(1)
5.8 On-line exercise	49	(1)
6 Nouns	50	(12)
6.1 Quick start	50	(6)
6.1.1 Strong nouns	51	(2)
6.1.2 Weak nouns	53	(2)
6.1.3 Athematic nouns	55	(1)
6.2 More about strong nouns	56	(3)
6.2.1 Two-syllable nouns	56	(1)
6.2.2 Nouns with changes in the stem syllable	57	(1)
6.2.3 Nouns with -w- or -g- before the ending	58	(1)
6.3 Minor declensions	59	(2)
6.3.1 u-stem nouns	59	(1)
6.3.2 Nouns of relationship	59	(1)
6.3.3 Nouns with -r- plurals	60	(1)
6.3.4 Nouns with -p- endings	60	(1)
6.4 On-line exercises	61	(1)
7 Verbs	62	(25)
7.1 Quick start	62	(5)
7.1.1 Strong and weak verbs	62	(3)
7.1.2 Preterite-present verbs	65	(1)
7.1.3 Béon 'to be'	65	(2)
7.2 More about endings	67	(1)
7.2.1 Assimilation	67	(1)
7.2.2 Plurals ending in -e	68	(1)
7.2.3 Subjunctive plural endings	68	(1)
7.3 More about weak verbs	68	(4)
7.3.1 Classes 1 and 2	69	(1)
7.3.2 Weak verbs that change their vowels	70	(1)
7.3.3 Contracted verbs	71	(1)
7.3.4 Class 3 weak verbs	72	(1)
7.4 More about strong verbs	72	(6)
7.4.1 The strong verb classes	72	(3)
7.4.2 Verbs affected by grammatical alternation	75	(1)
7.4.3 Contracted verbs	76	(1)
7.4.4 Tips on strong verbs	77	(1)
7.5 Verbs with weak presents and strong pasts	78	(1)
7.6 More about preterite-present verbs	79	(1)
7.7 Don, gan, willan	79	(1)
7.8 Negation	80	(1)
7.9 The verbals	81	(2)
7.9.1 Infinitives	81	(1)
7.9.2 Participles	82	(1)
7.10 The subjunctive	83	(3)
7.11 On-line exercises	86	(1)
8 Adjectives	87	(6)
8.1 Quick start	87	(2)
8.2 Strong adjectives	89	(1)
8.3 Weak adjectives	90	(1)
8.4 Comparison of adjectives	91	(1)
8.5 On-line exercises	92	(1)
9 Numerals	93	(3)
9.1 Quick start	93	(1)
9.2 Cardinal numbers	94	(1)
9.3 Ordinal numbers	95	(1)
9.4 On-line exercise	95	(1)
10 Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions	96
10.1 Quick start	96	(1)
10.2 Adverbs	96	(2)
10.2.1 Comparison o f adverbs	98	(1)
10.3 Conjunctions	98	(1)
10.4 Correlation	99	(2)
10.5 Prepositions	101	(1)
10.6 On-line exercises	102
11 Concord	10	(102)
11.1 Quick start	103	(1)
11.2 Subject and verb	104	(3)
11.2.1 Impersonal verbs	106	(1)
11.3 Pronoun and antecedent	107	(1)
11.4 Noun and modifiers	108	(1)
11.5 Bad grammar?	109	(2)
11.6 On-line exercises	111	(1)
12 Word-order	112	(7)
12.1 Quick start	112	(1)
12.2 Subject-Verb	112	(2)
12.3 Verb-Subject	114	(1)
12.4 Subject...Verb	115	(1)
12.5 Correlation	116	(2)
12.6 Periphrastic verbs	118	(1)
12.7 On-line exercise	118	(1)
13 Metre	119	(10)
13.1 Alliteration	120	(2)
13.2 Rhythm	122	(7)
13.2.1 Lifts, half-lifts and drops	122	(2)
13.2.2 Rhythmic types	124	(3)
13.2.3 Hypermetric verses	127	(2)
14 Poetic Style	129	(13)
14.1 Vocabulary	130	(3)
14.2 Variation	133	(3)
14.3 Formulas	136	(6)
14.3.1 Phrases	136	(2)
14.3.2 Themes	138	(1)
14.3.3 Originality and quality	139	(3)
15 The Grammar of Poetry	142	(10)
15.1 Inflections	142	(1)
15.1.1 Pronouns	142	(1)
15.1.2 Verbs	142	(1)
15.1.3 Adjectives	143	(1)
15.2 Syntax	143	(9)
15.2.1 Omission of subjects and objects	143	(2)
15.2.2 Omission of prepositions	145	(1)
15.2.3 Adjectives used as nouns	146	(1)
15.2.4 Word-order	146	(2)
15.2.5 Independent and subordinate clauses	148	(4)
16 Reading Old English Manuscripts	152	(8)
16.1 Construction of the manuscript	152	(1)
16.2 The Old English alphabet	153	(2)
16.3 Abbreviations	155	(1)
16.4 Punctuation and capitalization	155	(3)
16.5 Word- and line-division	158	(1)
16.6 Errors and corrections	159	(1)
Appendix A Common Spelling Variants	160	(3)
A.1 Vowels of accented syllables	160	(1)
A.2 Unaccented syllables	161	(1)
A.3 Consonants	162	(1)
Appendix B Phonetic Symbols and Terms	163	(3)
B.1 International Phonetic Alphabet symbols	163	(2)
B.2 Phonetic terms	165	(1)
Anthology	166	(63)
1 The Fall of Adam and Eve	166	(2)
2 The Life of St Æthelthryth	168	(3)
3 Cynewulf and Cyneheard	171	(2)
4 The Martyrdom of Ællheah	173	(3)
5 Sermo Lupi ad Anglos	176	(6)
6 The Story of Cædmon	182	(4)
7 Boethius on Fame	186	(8)
8 A Lyric for Advent	194	(1)
9 The Wanderer	195	(6)
10 The Dream of the Rood	201	(5)
11 Wulf and Eadwacer	206	(1)
12 The Wife's Lament	207	(3)
13 The Husband's Message	210	(3)
14 Judith	213	(11)
Textual Notes	224	(5)
Glossary	229	(89)
References	318	(6)
Further Reading	324	(4)
1 General works	324	(1)
2 Grammars	324	(1)
3 Dictionaries and concordances	324	(1)
4 Bibliographies	325	(1)
5 Old English texts and translations	325	(1)
6 Literary criticism; sources and analogues; metre	326	(1)
7 History and culture	326	(1)
8 Manuscripts, art and archeology	326	(1)
9 On-line aids	327	(1)
Index	328