Old English: The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes

Abstract

Old English is the earliest form of English, spoken between the early fifth century and c. 1100. Brought to England and southern Scotland by invaders from northwestern Germany, southern Denmark and probably Friesland, it shares a number of characteristics with closely related North Sea Germanic languages but has distinctively English ones by the time of the first writings of the eighth century. Old English may have been affected by contact with the languages spoken by Celts it encountered from the first period of settlement, and was certainly affected in its lexicon at least by contact with Scandinavian speakers from the middle of the ninth century. Significant changes can be discerned from the earliest to the latest period of Old English in phonology, morphology and syntax. Show more