To be honest with you, I don’t know if the grammar of that title is correct. I hope it means ‘English Writing’. We’ve had a look at Middle English, used from about 1100 to about 1450. We now step back over 1,000 years in time and look at Anglo-Saxon, also known as Old English. Here is the Old English alphabet. The first column shows how it looked when written. The middle column gives equivalents in a modern font. Please study all this carefully before you continue.
Upper case C had two forms.
Some people still use the old lower case d when they write.
The upper case E could be written like a Greek letter.
Lower case f had its tail below the line.
G has changed quite a lot. The lower case letter looked like a z. It was sometimes pronounced like the letter y.
You’re right! There was no letter J. It did not come into English until later. The Latin name Julius was spelt Iulius.
Upper case M had two forms.
There was no Q. Queen was spelt cwen.
It’s easy to confuse lower case r and s. They both had long tails below the line. You can see why lower case s had a long tail for many centuries, in handwriting and in printing.
There were two sets of upper and lower case letters for the two pronunciations of TH. You can hear them if you say aloud ‘thing’ and ‘those’.
There was no V. That came later.
Upper case W was totally different. If it easy to confuse it with one of the upper case TH letters.
Here are some lines from ‘The Saxon Chronicle’ for the year 1066. I have used a font called Beowulf for this extract. If you would like to download this exciting free font to your own computer, the instructions are on my main website The Brain Rummager. Meanwhile, have a go at reading this. There is a line-for-line transliteration and a rough literal translation below.
|
And the while came William earl of Normandy into Pevensey on St Michael’s
Mass-eve. And at once there he came to work on castle at Hastings-port.
This was to Harold king told and he gathered a large force. And came him
towards at the grey apple-tree. And William him came towards unaware
before his people were marshalled. Nevertheless the king there him very
much strongly fought with the men who would support him. And there was
much slaughter on either side. |
|
And ða
hwilc com Willelm eorl of
Normandige into Pefnesea on ste
Michaeles mæsse-æfen. & sona þæs hi fere
wæron
worhton castele æt Hæstinga-port.
Ðis wearð
þa Harolde cynge gecydde. & he
gaderade
þa mycelne here. & com him
togenes
æt þære haran apuldran. &
Willelm
him com ongean on unwær ær his
fole
gefylced wære. Ac se kyng þeah him
swiþe
heardlice wiþ feaht mid þam mannum þe
him
gelsctan woldon. & þær wearþ micel wæl
geslægen on ægþre healfe. |
One of the versions above is a ‘rough literal translation’. Please have a go at translating it into clear modern English so that readers will understand it easily and quickly.
q This passage is related to one of the most important events in British history. What was that event? (There are plenty of clues in the passage.)
q Have another look at the word worhton. Say it aloud. You probably pronounced it something like ‘warton’. Depending on where you live, you might not have sounded the letter r. It is unlikely that you would have sounded the letter h. In Old English:
Ø the o rhymed with the o in our word ‘hot’
Ø the r was sounded in the same way as an American speaker would pronounce it in the word ‘war’.
Ø the h was sounded in the same way as in our word ‘hot’
This word is translated as ‘to work’. It is related to another modern word we find in the phrase ‘wrought iron’. What can you find out (in your dictionaries) about the relationship between the words worhton, work and wrought?
q Heardlice is translated as ‘strongly’. It is made up of two parts, heard and lice. The c in lice was pronounced like k or ch. Can you work out a literal translation, using modern versions of those two Old English words? Clue: Ask a German-speaking friend for some help.
q What can you find out about the translation of ægþre healfe as ‘either side’? Remember that the letter þ stands for th.
When you have completed your research, then... scroll down for notes and answers.
The passage relates to the Battle of Hastings, part of the Norman Conquest which changed the course of history.
Worhton, work, wrought.
The etymology of ‘work’: Old English weorc (noun), wircan, wyrcan (verb).
The etymology of ‘wrought’: A 16th century spelling of worht from Old English geworht which is the past participle of the verb (ge)wyrcan, to work.
Worhton is the Middle English form of the Old English wircan or wyrcan. It could also be spelt wurchan. In those two forms, you can see the transition from the Old English form to the modern English spelling.
Heardlice was pretty easy for you to work out (or was it?) — it does not mean ‘headlice’ but ‘hardlike’! In modern German, hart means ‘hard, difficult, firm, tough’ and ähnlich means ‘like, similar’.
ægþre healfe æthre healfe The first word mean ‘either’. The second means ‘half’. Half refers to the two halves in the battle, namely, the two sides. ‘There was much slaughter on both sides.’ Remember that there were two special letters for different forms of th: þ and ð. Also remember that the lower case r had a long tale. That’s why the first word looks so difficult.