Alphabets

Old English Written Records

Lecture 6

Old English Dialects

Kingdom	Kent	Wessex	Mercia	Northumbria
Dialect	Kentish	West Saxon	Mercian	Northumbrian
Spoken	in Kent, Surrey, the Isle of Wight	along the Thames and the Bristol Channel	between the Thames and the Humber	between the Humber and the Forth
Origin	from the tongues of Jutes/ Frisians	a Saxon dialect	a dialect of north Angles	a dialect of south Angles
Remarks		9^th c. – Wessex was the centre of the English culture and politics. West Saxon – the bookish type of language (Alfred the Great – the patron of culture and learning)		8^th c. – Northumbria was the centre of the English culture

The first historian who started to record the history of the Germanic tribes on the British Isles and is considered to be the first English historian is Bede the Venerable, an English monk, who wrote “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People”.

The most important dialect in the Old English period was the WEST SAXON DIALECT.

8. Christianity – 597 (6^th c.)

There were 2 forces that worked together to spread Christianity in Britain:

· missioners from Rome (founded the religious centre in Canterbury);

· missioners from Ireland (the Celts were already christened).

Consequences:

· centralization of the country;

· development of the culture and learning (monasteries, schools, etc.); Latin was the language of the church and learning.

9. In the 8^th – 9^th c. Britain was raided and attacked by the Danes/Scandinavians/Vikings. The only king who was able to keep them at bay was Alfred the Great of Wessex. In 878 the Treaty of Wedmore was signed and England was divided into Wessex (belonged to Alfred) and Danelaw (belonged to the Danes). But as soon as the Scandinavian dialects also belonged to the Germanic group, the Danes soon linguistically merged into the local Old English dialects leaving some Scandinavian elements in them.

The first Old English written records are considered to be the runic inscriptions. To make these inscriptions people used the Runes/the Runic Alphabet – the first original Germanic Alphabet.

Runes/Runic Alphabet:

· appeared in the 3^rd – 4^th c. A.D.;

· it was also called Futhark (after the first 6 letters of this alphabet);

· the word “rune” meant “secret, mystery” and was used to denote magic inscriptions on objects made of wood, stone, metal;

· each symbol indicated a separate sound (one symbol = one sound);

· the symbols were angular due to the fact that they had to be carved on hard materials;

· the number of symbols: GB – 28-33; on the continent – 16-24).

See the copy of the alphabet (additional information)

Best known Runic Inscriptions:

1. Franks Casket – a box with 4 sides made of whale bone, each side contained a picture in the centre and runic inscriptions around the picture that told the story of the whale bone in alliterative verse.

2. Ruthwell Cross – was found near thevillage of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, it is a 15 feet tall stone cross ornamented in all sides with runic inscriptions that are actually a passage from a religious poem “The Dream of the Rood”.

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