do you speak Anglo-Saxon?

Old English grammar

Old English had three genders - masculine, feminine and neuter

Old English had a definite article se, in the masculine gender, seo, feminine, and þæt, neuter. These words functioned both as demonstrative pronouns and as grammatical articles. In Middle English these had all fallen together into þe (pronoinced "the", the ancestor of the Modern English word. So, in effect, everything noun in Modern English is masculine.

The adjectives also agreed with the noun -

Seo brade lind wæs tilu and ic hire lufod.
(Literal translation:) That broad shield was good and I loved her.

Since the noun lind (shield) is grammatically feminine, the pronoun seo (the, that) and the adjectives brade (broad) and tilu (good), which refer to lind, must also appear in their feminine forms, as well as the pronoun hire (her), which adopts the grammatical gender of its referent.




Masculine Nouns



Most masculine nouns decline like stán, by simply adding the endings as necessary. This is true of about 64% of masculine nouns, including those with suffixes –dóm, -ing, -ling, and –els.



Case / Number
1 the/that
2 this
3 singular
4 the/those
5 these
6 plural

nominative
1 se
2 þes
3 stán
4 þá
5 þás
6 stánas

genitive
1 þæs
2 þisses
3 stánes
4 þǽra
5 þissa
6 stána

dative
1 þǽm
2 þissum
3 stáne
4 þǽm
5 þissum
6 stánum

instrumental
1 þý/þon
2 þýs/þís
3 stáne
4 þǽm
5 þissum
6 stánum

Accusative
1 þone
2 þisne
3 stán
4 þá
5 þás
6 stánas



NOTE: Nouns like dæg, with æ and one consonant at the end, change æ to a in the plural [dagas, daga, dagum]. The word mǽg kinsman is irregular, plural either mágas (common), or mǽgas.

NOTE: Nouns like mearh drop the h ending in inflected forms, and lengthen the vowel [méares, méaras].

NOTE: The words scóh shoe, slóh slough, mire, and eoh horse don’t add ending vowels in inflected cases. So, in order, scóh is [scós, scó; pl scós, scóna, scóm, scós], slóh is [slós, sló; pl slós, slóna, slóm, slós], and eoh is [éos, éo; pl éos, éona, éom, éos].



Grammar: Use the instrumental to tell by what something is done: he áswefede synnum his ealdorscipe he destroyed his eldership by sins. Hé ríxað tornum he rules by grief.



VOCAB:




Animals

ǽl – eel

bár – boar

bucc – buck

bulluc – bullock

cocc – cock

earn – eagle

eoh – horse

eolh – elk

fearh – pig, boar

fisc – fish

forsc – frog

fox – fox

géac – cuckoo

hǽring – herring

hengest – horse

hund – dog

hwæl – whale

mearh – horse

seolh – seal (animal)

swertling – titlark

wulf – wolf

People

beorn - warrior

bydel - beadle

ceorl – churl

cniht – boy

cyning – king

dweorg – dwarf

eorl – nobleman

gást – spirit

hæft – captive

hwelp – whelp

mǽg – kinsman

þegn – thane

þéof – thief

wealh – foreigner

wer – man


Concepts

áð – oath

borg - pledge

céap – price

coss – kiss

cræft – skill, strength

cwealm – death

dóm – doom

dream – joy, revelry

fæðm – embrace

fléam – flight

gang – going

gielp – boasting

hlæst – burden

hréam – cry, shout, uproar

torn – grief

þanc – thought

wæstm – growth


Nature

æcer – field

bæst – bast

béam – tree

beorg - hill

blóstm – blossom

bóg - bough

bolt – bolt

bróm – broom (the plant)

clam – mud

clút – patch

cnoll – knoll

codd – cod, husk

cropp – sprout

forst – frost

hægl – hail

hærfest – autumn

healm – haulm

hláf - loaf

horh – dirt

hrím – rime

hýdels – hiding place, cave

mæst – mast

mór – moor

múð – mouth

regn - rain

sealh – willow

slóh – slough, mire

stán – stone

storm – storm

stréam – stream

swamm – fungus

Body

beard – beard

bearm - bosom

bósm – bosom

búc – stomach

cnyttels – sinew

earm – arm

heals – neck

hóf – hoof

lást – footprint

múð – mouth

nægl – nail




Clothing / Accessories

béag – ring, bracelet

gyrdels – girdle

helm – helmet

hring – ring

scóh – shoe

séam – seam

smocc – smock

stæf – staff

wrigels – covering


Buildings / Places

botm – bottom

byrgels – tomb

ealh – temple

geard – yard

hám – home

healh – corner

hwamm – corner

pearroc – park

rúm – room

stól – stool

þorp – farm, village

þrop – farm, village

weall – wall




Other

ád – funeral pile

bát – boat

béod - table

brand – firebrand

brǽð – odor

brǽdels – covering, carpet

brídels – birdle

bydel - beadle

camb – comb

cassuc – sedge

céac – jug

céol – ship

cláð – cloth

cocc – cock

cocer – quiver

dæg – day

fǽtels – vessel, tub

hnæpp – cup

mattuc – mattock

mǽrels – mooring-rope

miercels – mark

nægl – nail

pæð – path

pott – pot

ráp – rope

rǽdels – riddle

récels – incense

sceaft – shaft

sceatt – property, money

smierels – ointment

sticels – goad

weg – way






Pronouns

hé – he (nominative); pl híe – they

his – his (genitive); pl hira – their; (hiera, heora)

him – him (dative); pl him - them

hine – him (accusative); pl híe - them





Masculine Nouns that are also feminine and neuter

slóh – slough, mire



Masculine nouns that are also Neuter

eoh – horse

horh – dirt



Further Study

-ing, -ling: Forms nouns denoting people from adjectives

-dóm: forms nouns denoting state, condition

-oð/-að: forms a gerund (-ing form) from a verb stem



Further Nouns to Study

Activities

campdóm – contest, war

fiscnoð – fishing

fiscoð – fishing

fugelnoð – fowling

fugeloð – fowling

huntoð – hunting

sǽdnoð – sowing




People

æðeling – son of a noble, prince

cnæpling – youth

déorling – favorite, darling

fóstorling – foster-child

gædeling – companion

geongling – youth

gesibling – kinsman

hæftling – prisoner

héafodling – equal, companion

hearding – hero, bold man

ierðling – ploughman

ierming – poor wretch

lýtling – child

needling – slave, bondman

rǽpling – prisoner

þéowling – slave


Objects

bíesting – first milk of a cow after calving

cásering – a coin

cynedóm – kingdom

féorðling – farthing, forth part

hemming – shoe of hide

lǽcedóm – medicine

scilling – shilling

silfring – silver coin





Animals

hǽring – herring

swertling – titlark


Concepts

drohtað – way of life

fréodóm – freedom

langoð – longing, desire

reccenddóm – rule, governance

sweoloð – heat, burning

swícdóm – deceit

swoloð – heat, burning

þéowdóm - service
Other

abbuddóm – abbacy

drúgoð – dryness, drought

ealdordóm – authority

hæftedóm – captivity

hláforddóm – lordship

hýrling – hireling

láréowdóm – office of teacher

<<I agree more with those people who say that English today would probably be a lot like Dutch had there been no Norman conquest.>>

Yep. That's how I imagine it anyway.

Who ever is interested have a look how many words, to my mind , are similar to Dutch.
Would love to see Icelandic next to it or even Frisian


Animals

ǽl – eel aal

bár – boar beer

bucc – buck bok (male goat)

bulluc – bullock

cocc – cock

earn – eagle adelaar

eoh – horse

eolh – elk elk

fearh – pig, boar

fisc – fish vis

forsc – frog

fox – fox vos

géac – cuckoo

hǽring – herring haring

hengest – horse hengst (male horse)

hund – dog hond

hwæl – whale walvis

mearh – horse merrie (female horse)

seolh – seal (animal)

swertling – titlark

wulf – wolf wolf
People

beorn - warrior

bydel - beadle

ceorl – churl

cniht – boy knecht ( helper, workman)

cyning – king koning

dweorg – dwarf dwerf

eorl – nobleman

gást – spirit geest ( obviously ghost)

hæft – captive

hwelp – whelp welp

mǽg – kinsman

þegn – thane

þéof – thief dief

wealh – foreigner

wer – man man


Concepts

áð – oath ede

borg - pledge (waar)borg

céap – price koop ( buy)

coss – kiss kus

cræft – skill, strength kracht

cwealm – death

dóm – doom doem

dream – joy, revelry

fæðm – embrace

fléam – flight vlucht

gang – going gaan

gielp – boasting

hlæst – burden last

hréam – cry, shout, uproar schreeuwen

torn – grief

þanc – thought gedachte

wæstm – growth gewas /wassen (to grow)


Nature

æcer – field akker ( obviously acre)

bæst – bast bast

béam – tree boom

beorg - hill berg

blóstm – blossom bloesem

bóg - bough

bolt – bolt

bróm – broom (the plant) bloem (flower)

clam – mud

clút – patch

cnoll – knoll knol

codd – cod, husk

cropp – sprout krop

forst – frost vorst

hægl – hail hagel

hærfest – autumn herfts

healm – haulm halm

hláf - loaf

horh – dirt

hrím – rime rijm

hýdels – hiding place, cave

mæst – mast mast

mór – moor

múð – mouth mond

regn - rain regen

sealh – willow

slóh – slough, mire

stán – stone steen

storm – storm storm

stréam – stream stroom

swamm – fungus zwam

Body

beard – beard baard

bearm - bosom

bósm – bosom boezem

búc – stomach buik

cnyttels – sinew

earm – arm arm

heals – neck hals

hóf – hoof hoef

lást – footprint

múð – mouth mond

nægl – nail nagel




Clothing / Accessories

béag – ring, bracelet

gyrdels – girdle

helm – helmet helm

hring – ring ring

scóh – shoe schoen

séam – seam

smocc – smock

stæf – staff staaf

wrigels – covering


Buildings / Places

botm – bottom bodem

byrgels – tomb

ealh – temple

geard – yard

hám – home haven ( now means port in dutch)

healh – corner

hwamm – corner

pearroc – park park

rúm – room

stól – stool stoel

þorp – farm, village dorp

þrop – farm, village

weall – wall wal




Other

ád – funeral pile

bát – boat boot

béod - table

brand – firebrand brand

brǽð – odor

brǽdels – covering, carpet

brídels – birdle

bydel - beadle

camb – comb kam

cassuc – sedge

céac – jug

céol – ship kiel (only part of ship)

cláð – cloth das (tie, scarf)

cocc – cock

cocer – quiver

dæg – day dag

fǽtels – vessel, tub

hnæpp – cup

mattuc – mattock

mǽrels – mooring-rope

miercels – mark

nægl – nail nagel

pæð – path pad

pott – pot pot

ráp – rope

rǽdels – riddle raadsel

récels – incense

sceaft – shaft schaft

sceatt – property, money

smierels – ointment

sticels – goad

weg – way weg






Pronouns

hé – he (nominative); pl híe – they hij zij

his – his (genitive); pl hira – their; (hiera, heora) zijn hun

him – him (dative); pl him - them hem hun hen

hine – him (accusative); pl híe - them hem hun hen





Masculine Nouns that are also feminine and neuter

slóh – slough, mire



Masculine nouns that are also Neuter

eoh – horse

horh – dirt



Further Study

-ing, -ling: Forms nouns denoting people from adjectives

-dóm: forms nouns denoting state, condition

-oð/-að: forms a gerund (-ing form) from a verb stem



Further Nouns to Study

Activities

campdóm – contest, war kampen

fiscnoð – fishing vissen

fiscoð – fishing vissen

fugelnoð – fowling vogel (bird)

fugeloð – fowling

huntoð – hunting jagen (met honden)

sǽdnoð – sowing zaden /zaaien




People

æðeling – son of a noble, prince adel /edelman

cnæpling – youth knaap (youn boy)

déorling – favorite, darling

fóstorling – foster-child

gædeling – companion gade

geongling – youth jongeling

gesibling – kinsman

hæftling – prisoner

héafodling – equal, companion

hearding – hero, bold man held

ierðling – ploughman

ierming – poor wretch arm (poor)

lýtling – child

needling – slave, bondman

rǽpling – prisoner

þéowling – slave


Objects

bíesting – first milk of a cow after calving

cásering – a coin keizering ( from ceasar?)

cynedóm – kingdom koningdom/koningrijk

féorðling – farthing, forth part

hemming – shoe of hide

lǽcedóm – medicine

scilling – shilling

silfring – silver coin zilverling





Animals

hǽring – herring haring

swertling – titlark


Concepts

drohtað – way of life

fréodóm – freedom vrijheid

langoð – longing, desire

reccenddóm – rule, governance

sweoloð – heat, burning

swícdóm – deceit

swoloð – heat, burning

þéowdóm - service
Other

abbuddóm – abbacy

drúgoð – dryness, drought droogte

ealdordóm – authority ouderdom

hæftedóm – captivity

hláforddóm – lordship

hýrling – hireling huurling

láréowdóm – office of teacher leeraar (teacher)

I actually do know a few people who can speak Anglo-Saxon. It's easier to learn than Latin, because it has fewer inflections.

It's harder to learn than Latin. It had three genders compared to Latin's two and it has several letters that don't exist in most European languages.

Grammatical Case:

Old English, Middle English, Modern English

Case refers to a pattern of inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that expresses different syntactic functions in a sentence. In inflected languages, case is indicated by endings (i.e., morphemes known as suffixes); in noninflected languages, case is indicated by the position of a word in a sentence. (A morpheme is a combination of sounds that has meaning, but does not necessarily equal a word: s, as in the mark of the plural, is a morpheme.)

English is a member of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European (IE) family of languages. Its ancient case system was much the same as those of Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, and Old High German. However, by the time Old English (aka Anglo-Saxon) literature was committed to writing, this case system had broken down. Cases had begun to assimilate or fall together (often because of phonetic change); that is, two or more cases that were originally separate and distinct had become identical. In other instances, one case ending was abandoned for another.

In Modern English, it is said that we have two cases only: the common case and the genitive case. Actually, what this really means is that we only mark one case, the genitive; the other "cases" are identified by word order and meaning.

The historical IE cases and their functions (much simplified) are:

nominative (aka subjective): subject of a finite verb (i.e., not infinitive form: to + verb)

genitive: modification, possession, etc.

dative: indirect object, object of a preposition

accusative (aka objective): direct object of the verb

in the following sentences, the italicized part is the indirect object, the underlined the direct object

The judges awarded Pumpsie the prize.
The judges awarded the prize to Pumpsie.

instrumental: means, accompaniment, manner, place, time (sometimes used with a preposition in Latin and English [by, with, from, in, on, at], sometimes without)

ablative: separation, direction away from; sometimes manner or agency

vocative: direct address

locative: place or the place where

The instrumental case is rare in OE, and had assimilated with the ablative and was expressed by the dative case; it functions more fully in other languages. The vocative had the same form as the nominative in Latin. The locative is still found in Sanskrit.

In Old English, nouns and adjectives had grammatical gender (as is still the case in Romance languages). To complicate matters, each gender of noun had a separate ending: stan, "stone," for example, is classed as a masculine noun, and is declined according to a different paradigm than wif, "wife, woman" a neuter noun, and giefu, "gift," a feminine noun. Furthermore, an adjective in OE had to correspond (or, as grammarians say, agree) in case with the noun it modified. Today, we classify nouns in English not by inflectional ending, but by natural gender: a buck is masculine, a doe is feminine, a chair is neuter.

. . . . . . . Old English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Middle English

. . . . . . singular . . . . . plural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . singular . . . . . . . . plural
. .N. . . .stan . . . . . stanas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ston . . . . . .stones
. .G. . . .stanes . . . stana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .stones . . . . stones
. .D./I. . stane . . . . stanum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ston(e) . . . .stones
. .A.. . . stan . . . . . stanas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ston . . . . . . stones

Modern English is part inflected; it still contains "fossils" of the earlier, fully-inflected OE system: who/whom, he/him, they/their. (She/her is a more complicated issue.) In the Middle English period, English began to lose most of its inflectional endings. These processes still continue today--witness how people misuse or avoid whom, which may lead to its final demise. Today, English nouns have two grammatical inflections, one indicating number and one indicating case (we lost gender, remember). Adjectives have no inflections at all. The apostrophe is a relatively recent invention.

http://www.dac.neu.edu/english/kakelly/med/lang.html

>> It's harder to learn than Latin. It had three genders compared to Latin's two and it has several letters that don't exist in most European languages. <<

Latin has 3 genders also for example: femina (woman) feminine gender; vir (man) masculine; oppidum (town) neuter; and its declensions are not as hard to learn to recognize as Latin's. Verb conjugations are also easier. And notice it doesn't have that pesky ablative case...more prepositions...

The letters that it does have are not at all hard to learn for modern English speakers: for example the thorn and eth are now written as th (initially it's pronounced voiceless) ...that's not very hard to learn... Ash (ae) is the same as modern English [{]. Other than the rounded vowels like [y], and the [x] sound (spelled 'h') (like in German "ach") it's not at all difficult for a Modern English speaker to pronounce, the sounds are virtually exactly the same as in Modern English, and at least it's spelt a lot more consistently. It's a heck of a lot easier to learn to read than Latin...

Adam : « It's harder to learn than Latin. It had three genders compared to Latin's two and it has several letters that don't exist in most European languages. »

Encore une fois, tu te vautres dans le ridicule le plus total : le latin comporte trois genres, pas deux. En revanche le vieil-anglais ne comptait que 4 cas, contre 6 pour le latin. Le latin regroupe 5 déclinaisons du nom contre seulement 4 pour le vieil-anglais.

Mais même si le latin ne comportait aucune déclinaison, ça n'en aurait pas fait une langue plus "simple" que le vieil-anglais.

Enfin, fais-nous plaisir et cesse de parler du latin dont tu ignores absolument tout : ce sujet-là t'écrase comme un pauvre petit insecte.

Adam : >> It's harder to learn than Latin. It had three genders compared to Latin's two and it has several letters that don't exist in most European languages. <<

Once again, you are spouting nonsense. Latin has three genders, not two. On the other hand Anglo-Saxon only had 4 cases, whereas Latin has 6. Latin has 5 declensions, but there are only 4 in Anglo-Saxon. But even if Latin did not have any inflections, that would not necessarily make it is simpler than Old English. Finally, please let's cease to speak of Latin, of which you have absolutely no knowledge: This subject crushes you like a bug.

Latin had NO definite or indefinite articles, whereas Anglo-Saxon had three definite articles - se (masculine), seo (feminine), and þæt (neuter).

Add to that the fact there were two or three letters that Anglo-Saxon had that Latin and most modern European languages don't have, then I think Old English was a bit more difficult than Latin.

Now go and annoy someone else, you irritating little Frenchmen. Go and have a strike or burn some Peugeots or get lorry drivers block the Channel Tunnel to stop us British from travelling through or something else that you all liike doing often..

My language's ancestor language was more difficult than your language's ancestor language. At least for Latin we don't have to learn a partially different alphabet.

Adam

Is it my language's ancestor language or
language's ancestor's language?

Just wondering

« At least for Latin we don't have to learn a partially different alphabet. »

Et cela rend le latin plus facile pour les sinophones ?

Of course, learning three new letters is a near-impossible task. It took me about three minutes when I first looked into Old English a few years ago. I cannot even begin to describe the shear effort which I put in when I learnt this:

Æ æ = ae (still exists in words such as 'encyclopædia' anyway) — called 'ash'
Ð ð = th (voiced) — called 'eth'
Þ þ = th (unvoiced) — called 'thorn'

<< Of course, learning three new letters is a near-impossible task. It took me about three minutes when I first looked into Old English a few years ago. I cannot even begin to describe the shear effort which I put in when I learnt this:

Æ æ = ae (still exists in words such as 'encyclopædia' anyway) — called 'ash'
Ð ð = th (voiced) — called 'eth'
Þ þ = th (unvoiced) — called 'thorn' >>


Haha !! LOL !!!

>> Latin had NO definite or indefinite articles, whereas Anglo-Saxon had three definite articles - se (masculine), seo (feminine), and þæt (neuter). <<

Actually Latin has words such as ille, iste, etc., and while they weren't definite articles per se, they were used in an equivalent manner to the Old English words se/seo/thaet. OE had far fewer inflections of these: in Latin you have to learn to decline ille, iste, hic, etc.: that's sure a lot to learn... whereas OE only had se/seo/thaet. Not to mention the fact that Latin has more cases including a very confusing ablative case... There's no question Anglo-Saxon is easier to learn for a speaker of Modern English.