1. Who were the first Indo-European inhabitants of the British Isles?

2. When did the Romans come to the British Isles and for how long did they stay there?

3. What territory of the British Isles was not conquered by the Romans?

4. What does the Hadrian’s Wall mark?5. Why did the Romanized Celts ask the West

Germanic tribes for help, after the Romans left the British Isles?

6. When did Germanic tribes start settling in the British Isles? Which Germanic tribes?

1. List the kingdoms that were established by the Germanic tribes in the British Isles.

2. What are the two historical events that influenced the development of Old English?

3. Which dialect is usually taken as a standard of OE?

4. What are the two kinds of letters (alphabets) used by the OE scribes?

5. Which Modern English letter combination is represented by the OE letter ‘þ’?

6. What three variants of pronunciation did the OE letter ‘ӡ’ have?

the reign of Alfred (871 —900) West Saxon

æ – ash (æsc), which represents the vowel in Modern English 'hat' ;

þ – thorn, which represents Modern English 'th' ;

ð – eth (or ðæt), which also represents Modern English 'th'. Capital ð is written Ð;

œ – the combination of o and e; Ʒ=g (yogh), that could be

pronounced in 3 different ways ƿ = w (wynn)

E.g.: ƿest, NORĐAN HYMBRA,

a phonetic principle a macron – a line over the top.

Short vowels:i, e, u, o, a, æ, y;Long vowels:ī, ē, ū, ō, ā, æ:, ŷShort diphthongs:ea, eo, ie, io,Long diphthongs:

Labials: p, b, f, v Dentals: d, t, s, þ (English [th] in 

thin), ð English [th] in this) Velars: c [k], h, g/Ʒ, Liquids: r, l Nasals: n, m

1. As English [g] gōd . 2. As Greek 'gamma' [ɣ] dagas, folgian. 3. As English [j] in yellow: Ʒiefan (to give),

dæƷ .

1) before or after a front vowel it gave sound [j], [], [г’] – dæƷ

2) after r, l, or between back vowels – [] – folƷian, maƷan, daƷum

3) At the beginning of the word before back vowels and consonants, and after n – [g] – sinƷan, Ʒōd, Ʒrēn.

1. Mutation/umlaut Gothic sandjan – OE sendan Gothic hailjan – OE hæ:lan Gothic *mūsiz– OE mӯs

fronting and raising of vowels through the influence of [i] or [j] in the immediately following syllable

the sounds [i] or [j] were common in suffixes and endings, so palatal mutation was widespread.

all vowels, except ē, ī, æ:, were affected by i-mutation.

due to this law there appeared a new vowel [y] and a new diphthong [ie] in OE.

Before After

a e

a: æ:

o, o:, e, e:

u,u: y,y;

ea:, ea ie:, ie ( >y:, y)

eo:, eo ie:, ie ( >y:, y)

Goth. Kalds – OE ceald Goth. ahtau – OE eahta Goth. melkan – OE meolcan Goth. leihts – OE lēoht

Early OE OE Position Other OG languages

OE (West Saxon)

*æ ea before r, l, h + a cons. or h at the end

æld eald

*e eo before r, l, h + a cons. or h at the end

herza heorte

Early OE

OE Position OtherGermaniclanguages

OE

*æ ea sc [sk’]-, c [k’]-, g [γ’]-

L. castra ceaster chester

*æ: ea: sc [sk’]-, c [k’]-, g [γ’]-

OHG. jar gea:r year

*e ie sc [sk’]-, c [k’]-, g [γ’]-

L. cerasus cierescherries

e > eo hevfon > heofon

1. Voicing Fricative sounds f, s, þ (ð)

were voiced when between vowels and voiced consonants:

risan, hlafas, paþas, wyrþe

In other positions, including the beginningand end of words, they remained voiceless:

sittan, hlaf, pæþ, oftThe prefix ӡe- does not cause voicing: findan and its past participle ӡe-funden both have sound [f].

Velar consonants were palatalized before/after a front vowel (e, i) and remained velar before back vowels (a, o, u,)

Cild [k’] >[t] scip [sk’] ecg [g’] Can, gan, dagas