Old/Anglo-Saxon English
In IBDP English, Germanic tribes gradually invaded from the east over several generations, pushing Celts west into Scotland, Wales, and Ireland
Saxons took dominance - new Anglo-Saxon nation became known as ‘Anglaland’/‘Englaland’ (the Land of the Angles)
English began to distinguish itself from Germanic dialects around 600 AD
Four major dialects - Northumbrian (north), Mercian (midlands), West Saxon (west and southwest), and Kentish (southeast)
Oldest surviving text from Old English literature is Cædmon’s Hymn, composed between 658 and 680 AD
Became a fully developed poetic language by the 11th century, with particular emphasis on alliteration and percussive effects
Included a lot of synonyms - popular Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf uses 36 different words for ‘hero’, 20 for ‘man’, 12 for ‘battle’, and 11 for ‘ship’
Contains many interesting ‘kennings’ (allusive compound nouns) e.g. “hronrad” (whale road/sea), “banhus” (bone house/body), and “beadoleoma” (battle light/sword)
Nouns had three genders - male, female, neuter - and there were up to 5 different cases for inflection
In IBDP English, Adjectives could have up to 11 forms
Once punctuation and spelling orthography is taken into account, many Old English words become similar to today’s version of the language
Many common English words come from Anglo-Saxon English, such as the, a, be, of, he, she, you, no, not, water, earth, house, food, drink, sleep, sing, night, and strong
A lot of words are similar to Old English words, but have changed significantly in spelling/meaning, such as ‘wif’ (now ‘wife’, but originally meaning any woman)
Anglo-Saxon consonant cluster ‘sk’ became ‘sh’ at some point in the sixth century - ‘skield’ became ‘shield’, ‘disk’ became ‘dish’ etc.
A vowel shift influencing pronunciation occurred in the 7th century, when vowels began to be pronounced more to the front of the mouth
Plural forms of nouns began to be represented by pronunciation rather than inflections
In IBDP English, These changes resulted in revised spellings, which have led to inconsistencies e.g. ‘foot’ and ‘feet’, ‘goose’ and ‘geese’, ‘mouse’ and ‘mice’ etc.
Around 85% of 30,000 Anglo-Saxon words died out under Viking and Norman invasions, leaving only around 4,500
Of the 100 most commonly used words in Late Modern English, it is thought that all of them are of Anglo-Saxon origin, although many have changed significantly in spelling and/or meaning
Viking English
Vikings invaded the east from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in the late 8th century
A treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings establishing the Danelaw was signed in 878, which split the country along a line from London to Chester (Norsemen in the north, Anglo-Saxons in the south and west)
In IBDP English, Vikings introduced ‘-son’ ending of family surnames e.g. ‘Johnson’ and ‘Harrison’
Accents/pronunciations in northern England are heavily influenced by Old Norse
Old Norse merged into the English language over time, introducing many Scandinavian terms to the lexicon
Only around 150 Norse words feature in manuscripts from the period, as most only came into usage in the following centuries
In IBDP English,
Up to 1,000 Norse words became permanent additions to the lexicon, including skull, skin, leg, neck, freckle, sister, husband, fellow, wing, bull, score, seat, root, bloom, bag, gap, knife, dirt, kid, link, gate, sky, egg, cake, band, bank, birth, scrap, skill, thrift, widow, gasp, gap, law, anger, trust, silver, clasp, call, crawl, dazzle, scream, screech, race, life, get, give, are, take, mistake, rid, seem, want, thrust, hit, guess, kick, kill, rake, raise, smile, hug, cast, clip, die, flat, meek, rotten, tight, odd, rugged, ugly, ill, sly, wrong, loose, happy, awkward, weak, worse, low, both, same, together, again, and until
Many Old Norse words were alternatives for synonyms for Anglo-Saxon words e.g. ‘skill’ and ‘craft’, ‘want’ and ‘wish’, ‘ill’ and ‘sick’, and ‘anger’ and ‘wrath’
English adopted some Norse grammar, including the third person pronouns ‘they’, ‘them’, and ‘their’
Anglo-Saxon word endings and inflections became less common under the Danelaw, as prepositions like ‘to’, ‘with’, and ‘why’ came into usage to make meanings clearer
Some Anglo-Saxon inflections remained in common usage in the south and west, the areas furthest away from Viking influence
I hope it helps~
