A biography of the English Language

Disturbed by the decline in learning caused by the Viking attacks on monasteries (the only real
centers of intellectual activity), Alfred had important Latin texts translated into English, arranged for
the compilation of other texts, founded schools, and instituted the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a log of
important events that was kept continuously in some areas of England until well after the Norman
Conquest. Fortunately for England, Alfred had competent heirs. His son Edward the Elder was king of
Wessex and his daughter Æthelflæd ruled Mercia after her husband died; they kept Danish power in
check and further unified the country.

Perturbado por el declive en el aprendizaje causado por los ataques vikingos a los monasterios (el
centros de actividad intelectual), Alfred hizo traducir importantes textos latinos al
English, hizo arreglos para la compilación de otros textos, fundó escuelas e instituyó la Crónica
anglosajona, un registro de eventos importantes que se mantuvo continuamente en algunas áreas
de Inglaterra hasta mucho después de la conquista normanda.
Afortunadamente para Inglaterra, Alfred tenía herederos competentes. Su hijo Eduardo el Viejo
fue rey de Wessex y su hija Æthelflæd gobernó Mercia después de que su esposo
fallecido; mantuvieron el poder danés bajo control y unificaron aún más el país.

William, Duke of Normandy, who insisted that Edward had promised him the throne. In 1066, Harold
Haardraade landed a huge fleet in Yorkshire; he was killed at Stamford Bridge and Harold Godwinson
routed his troops. Two days later, Duke William sailed from Normandy with a large army bound for
Essex. Harold Godwineson force-marched his troops 190 miles south to meet William, and the two
armies met near Hastings in East Sussex. William had the great advantages of fresh troops and
cavalry (Harold had only infantry). After Harold was killed by an arrow through his eye, William won
the battle and eventually all of England. William, Duke of Normandy, who insisted that Edward had
promised him the throne. In 1066, Harold Haardraade landed a huge fleet in Yorkshire; he was killed
at Stamford Bridge and Harold Godwinson routed his troops. Two days later, Duke William sailed
from Normandy with a large army bound for Essex. Harold Godwineson force-marched his troops
190 miles south to meet William, and the two armies met near Hastings in East Sussex. William had
the great advantages of fresh troops and cavalry (Harold had only infantry). After Harold was killed
by an arrow through his eye, William won the battle and eventually all of England.

A principios del siglo XI, las renovadas invasiones nórdicas produjeron más disturbios y terminaron
con el rey danés Cnut en el trono inglés (1016). de canuto
hijos, menos capaces que él, tan mal gobernaron Inglaterra que el poder volvió a Alfredo
línea en 1042 en la persona de Eduardo el Confesor. Edward murió sin
heredero directo en 1066. De los varios pretendientes al trono, el más importante
eran (a) el cuñado de Edward, Harold Godwinson, a quien un grupo de
señores ingleses seleccionados como rey; (b) Harold Haardraade, rey de Noruega; y Guillermo,
duque de Normandía, quien insistió en que Eduardo le había prometido la
trono. En 1066, Harold Haardraade desembarcó una gran flota en Yorkshire; él fue asesinado
en Stamford Bridge y Harold Godwinson derrotó a sus tropas. Dos días después, Duke
William zarpó de Normandía con un gran ejército con destino a Essex. Harold Godwineson hizo
marchar a la fuerza a sus tropas 190 millas al sur para encontrarse con William, y los dos
ejércitos se reunieron cerca de Hastings en East Sussex. William tenía las grandes ventajas de la
comida fresca
tropas y caballería (Harold solo tenía infantería). Después de que Harold fuera asesinado por una
flecha
a través de su ojo, William ganó la batalla y eventualmente toda Inglaterra.

CONSONANTS

With a few exceptions, the OE consonant inventory is the same as that of PDE. In addition, sound
changes had given Old English three new sounds(/š, c, j ˇ ˇ/) (new ones developed between Common
Germanic and Old English) that were phonemic by late Old English, if not earlier.

In contrast toits vocalic (vowel) system, the OE consonant system looks surprisingly modern;Present-
Day English still has all the same phonemes, though it has since acquired a few new ones, and the
distribution of some of the consonants has shifted.

All the consonants of PDE except one appeared at least allophonically in OE; the one exception, PDE
/ž/, developed late and is still rare in English.

All the structurally significant changes in consonants sounds between Common Germanic and Old
English occurred with the velar consonants /k/ and /g/. At first these changes would have been only
allophonic, but eventually phonemic fission took place.

The only major difference between the consonant phonemes of OE and of PDE is the lack of
phonemic voiced fricatives in OE. Voiced fricatives (v, ð, z) did, however, appear as allophones of
their corresponding voiceless fricatives (f, T, s).

When the fricative was surrounded by voiced sounds, it became voiced; otherwise, it was voiceless.

In Old English, [Î] was simply an allophone (a nondistinctive variant) of /n/ that appeared before /k/
or /g/

Old English /h/ deserves some comment because its distribution was much wider in OE than in PDE
and it had several allophones not present in PDE. Initially before vowels and the consonants /l, r, n,
w/, it was /h/ as in PDE (OE hand ‘hand’; hlædel ‘ladle’; hræfn ‘raven’; hnappian ‘take a nap’; hw¯tı
‘white’). After front vowels, it was a palatal fricative [ç]: OE sihþ ‘sight’. Elsewhere it was the
forcefully articulated velar fricative [x]: OE þurh ‘through’; he¯ah ‘high’; eahta ‘eight’.

The OE consonant system also differed from that of PDE in having phonemically long (or “doubled”)
consonants.1 In writing they were indicated by doubling the letter; for example, OE bed
‘prayer’/bedd ‘bed’; OE fy¯lan ‘to befoul’/fyllan ‘to fill’. (To get some feeling for the difference
between long and short consonants, compare the length of the /m/ sound in PDE home-made with
that of homey.)

Finally, Old English had some clusters of consonants that have been lost in PDE. Most noticeable are
the clusters with /h/ mentioned above, of which all but /hw/ have lost the /h/ today—and even
/hw/ is restricted to certain dialects, though it is still regularly spelled (as in what, whale, whistle).
We have also lost in pronunciation the OE initial clusters /kn/ and /gn/. Again, the PDE spelling
system usually retains them as “silent” letters: OE cne¯ow ‘knee’; gnæt ‘gnat’.
In short, the English consonant system has remained highly stable for at least the past twelve
hundred years. Even the thousands of loanwords that have entered English since OE times have not
affected the basic system; in general, English speakers have adapted non-English consonants in
these words by substituting similar English sounds for them.

VOWELS

Throughout the history—and prehistory—of English, its vowels have been much less stable than its
consonants. With respect to the overall system, the following qualitative changes occurred between
CGmc and OE; most of these involve the Gmc diphthongs.

By far the most important and widespread vowel change between Germanic and Old English was
front mutation (also known as umlaut or i/j mutation). if a stressed syllable was followed by an
unstressed syllable containing /i/ or /j/, the vowel of the stressed syllable was fronted or raised; that
is, the preceding stressed vowel partially assimilated to the following high front /i/ or /j/. Only low
front and back vowels and diphthongs were affected.

Note that the examples of words with mutated vowels show no following /i/ or /j/. This is because,
after front mutation had taken place, the /i/ or /j/ that had caused it in the first place either dropped
out entirely or changed to /e/.

This change in the phonology of English, regular enough in itself, had drastic effects on the
morphology of English. Four parts of the OE morphological system were especially affected.

• One class of OE nouns had had an /i/ in the endings of the dative singular and the
nominative-accusative plural.
• Some common adjectives had i-mutation in their comparative and superlative forms:
• Many Germanic weak verbs were formed by adding a formative suffix beginning with /j/ or
/i/ to another part of speech or a form of a strong verb.
• The second- and third-person singular present indicative forms of strong verbs had originally
had /i/ in their endings; after mutation, these forms had a different root vowel from the rest
of the present-tense paradigm.

Because the precise phonetic quality of OE vowels is not known and because even the phonemic
status of some is uncertain, the vowels listed in Figure 5.5 can represent only an approximation. The
OE short vowels /i, e, o, u/ were probably tense vowels, more like the vowels of Continental
languages today than like PDE /I, E, O, U/.

Prosody is the stress or pitch patterns that give a language its perceived rhythms. Although many
surviving OE texts are punctuated with marks that apparently indicated “breath-groups” and served
as a guide to reading aloud, we have no direct evidence of the prosody of OE because stress and
pitch have never been indicated systematically in English writing.