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English is aWest Germanic language that originated fromIngvaeonic languages brought toBritain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD byAnglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwestGermany, southernDenmark and theNetherlands. The Anglo-Saxons settled in theBritish Isles from the mid-5th century and came to dominate the bulk of southern Great Britain. Their language originated as a group of Ingvaeonic languages which were spoken by the settlers inEngland and southern and easternScotland in the earlyMiddle Ages, displacing theCeltic languages, and, possibly,British Latin, that had previously been dominant.Old English reflected the varied origins of theAnglo-Saxon kingdoms established in different parts of Britain. TheLate West Saxon dialect eventually became dominant. A significant subsequent influence upon the shaping of Old English came from contact with theNorth Germanic languages spoken by the ScandinavianVikings whoconquered and colonized parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries, which led to much lexical borrowing and grammatical simplification. TheAnglian dialects had a greater influence onMiddle English.
After theNorman Conquest in 1066, Old English was replaced, for a time, byAnglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French, as the language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English or Anglo-Saxon era, as during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into a phase known now as Middle English. The conquering Normans spoke aRomancelangue d'oïl calledOld Norman, which in Britain developed into Anglo-Norman. Many Norman and French loanwords entered the local language in this period, especially in vocabulary related to the church, the court system and the government. As Normans are descendants ofVikings who invaded France, Norman French was influenced byOld Norse, and many Norse loanwords in English came directly from French. Middle English was spoken to the late 15th century. The system oforthography that was established during the Middle English period is largely still in use today. Later changes in pronunciation, combined with the adoption of various foreign spellings, mean that thespelling of modern English words appears highly irregular.
Early Modern English – the language used byWilliam Shakespeare – is dated from around 1500. It incorporated manyRenaissance-era loans fromLatin andAncient Greek, as well as borrowings from other European languages, includingFrench,German andDutch. Significant pronunciation changes in this period included theGreat Vowel Shift, which affected the qualities of mostlong vowels.Modern English proper, similar in most respects to that spoken today,[citation needed] was in place by the late 17th century.
English as we know it today was exported to other parts of the world throughBritish colonisation, and is now the dominant language in Britain andIreland, theUnited States andCanada,Australia,New Zealand and many smaller former colonies, as well as being widely spoken inIndia, parts ofAfrica, and elsewhere. Partially due to influence of the United States and its globalized efforts of commerce and technology, English took on the status of a globallingua franca in the second half of the 20th century. This is especially true in Europe, where English has largely taken over the former roles of French and, much earlier, Latin as a common language used to conduct business and diplomacy, share scientific and technological information, and otherwise communicate across national boundaries. The efforts of English-speakingChristian missionaries have resulted in English becoming a second language for many other groups.[1][2]
Global variation among differentEnglish dialects andaccents remains significant today.
English has its roots in the languages of theGermanic peoples of northern Europe. During theRoman Empire, most of the Germanic-inhabited area,Germania, remained independent from Rome, although some southwestern parts were within the empire. Some Germans served in theRoman military, and troops from Germanic tribes such as theTungri,Batavi,Menapii andFrisii served in Britain (Britannia) under Roman command. Germanic settlement and power expanded during theMigration Period, which saw thefall of the Western Roman Empire. AGermanic settlement of Britain took place from the 5th to the 7th century, following theend of Roman rule on the island.[4]
TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that around the year 449Vortigern, king of theBritons, invited the "Angle kin",Angles allegedly led by the Germanic brothersHengist and Horsa, to help repel invadingPicts, in return for lands in the southeast of Britain. This led to waves of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms, known as theheptarchy. TheChronicle was not a contemporaneous work, however, and cannot be regarded as an accurate record of such early events.[5]Bede, who wrote hisEcclesiastical History in AD 731, writes of invasion byAngles,Saxons andJutes, although the precise nature of the invasion and settlement and the contributions made by these particular groups are the subject of much dispute among historians.[6]
The languages spoken by the Germanic peoples who initially settled in Britain were part of theWest Germanic branch of theGermanic language family. They consisted of dialects from theIngvaeonic grouping, spoken mainly around theNorth Sea coast, in regions that lie within modernDenmark, north-westGermany and theNetherlands. Due to specific similarities between early English andOld Frisian, anAnglo-Frisian grouping is also identified, although it does not necessarily represent a node in the family tree.[7]
These dialects had most of the typical West Germanic features, including a significant amount of grammaticalinflection. Vocabulary came largely from the core Germanic stock, although due to the Germanic peoples' extensive contacts with the Roman world, the settlers' languages already included a number ofloanwords fromLatin.[8] For instance, the predecessor of Modern Englishwine had been borrowed into early Germanic from the Latinvinum.
The Germanic settlers in the British Isles initially spoke a number of different dialects, which developed into a language that came to be called Anglo-Saxon. It displaced the indigenousBrittonic Celtic, and theLatin of theformer Roman rulers, in parts of the areas ofBritain that later formed theKingdom of England. Celtic languages remained in most ofScotland,Wales andCornwall, and many compound Celtic-Germanic place names survive, hinting at early language mixing.[9] Old English continued to exhibit local variation, the remnants of which continue to be found in dialects of Modern English.[10] The four main dialects wereMercian,Northumbrian,Kentish andWest Saxon. West Saxon formed the basis for the literary standard of the later Old English period. The dominant forms of Middle and Modern English developed mainly from Mercian.
Old English was first written using arunic script called thefuthorc. This was replaced by aversion of the Latin alphabet introduced by Irish missionaries in the 8th century. Most literary output was in either the Early West Saxon ofAlfred the Great's time, or the Late West Saxon, regarded as the "classical" form of Old English, of the Winchester school, inspired by BishopÆthelwold of Winchester, and followed by such writers as the prolificÆlfric of Eynsham, "the Grammarian". The most famous surviving work from the Old English period is theepic poemBeowulf, composed by an unknown poet.
Theintroduction of Christianity from around the year 600 encouraged the addition of over 400Latin loan words into Old English, such as the predecessors of the modernpriest,paper, andschool, and a smaller number ofGreek loan words.[11] The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was also subject to strongOld Norse influence due toScandinavian rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century (see below).
Most native English speakers today find Old English unintelligible, even though about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots.[12] Thegrammar of Old English was much moreinflected than modern English, combined with freerword order, and was grammatically quite similar in some respects to modernGerman. The language had demonstrative pronouns, equivalent tothis andthat, but did not have the definite articlethe. The Old English period is considered to have evolved into theMiddle English period some time after theNorman Conquest of 1066, when the language came to be influenced significantly by the new ruling class's language,Old Norman.[13][14]
Vikings from modern-dayNorway andDenmark began toraid parts of Britain from the late 8th century onward. In 865, a major invasion was launched by what the Anglo-Saxons called theGreat Heathen Army, which eventually brought large parts of northern and eastern England, theDanelaw, under Scandinavian control. Most of these areas were retaken by the English underEdward the Elder in the early 10th century, althoughYork andNorthumbria were not permanently regained until the death ofEric Bloodaxe in 954. Scandinavian raids resumed in the late 10th century during the reign ofÆthelred the Unready.Sweyn Forkbeard was briefly declared king of England in 1013, followed by the longer reign of his sonCnut from 1016 to 1035, and Cnut's sonsHarold Harefoot andHarthacnut, until 1042.
The Scandinavians, orNorsemen, spoke dialects of aNorth Germanic language known asOld Norse. The Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians thus spoke related languages from different branches (West and North) of theGermanic family. Many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammatical systems were more divergent. It is likely that significant numbers of Norse speakers settled in theDanelaw during the period of Scandinavian control. Manyplace-names in those areas are of Scandinavian provenance, those ending in-by, for example. It is believed that the settlers often established new communities in places that had not previously been developed by the Anglo-Saxons. The extensivecontact between Old English and Old Norse speakers, including the possibility of intermarriage that resulted from theacceptance of Christianity by the Danes in 878,[15] undoubtedly influenced the varieties of those languages spoken in the areas of contact.
During the rule of Cnut and other Danish kings in the first half of the 11th century, a kind ofdiglossia may have come about, with the West Saxon literary language existing alongside the Norse-influenced Midland dialect of English, which could have served as akoine or spoken lingua franca. When Danish rule ended, and particularly after theNorman Conquest, the status of the minority Norse language presumably declined relative to that of English, and its remaining speakers assimilated to English in a process involvinglanguage shift andlanguage death. The widespreadbilingualism that must have existed during the process possibly contributed to the rate of borrowings from Norse into English.[16]
Only about 100 or 150 Norse words, mainly connected with government and administration, are found in Old English writing. The borrowing of words of this type was stimulated by Scandinavian rule in the Danelaw and during the later reign of Cnut. Most surviving Old English texts are based on theWest Saxon standard that developed outside the Danelaw. It is not clear to what extent Norse influenced the forms of the language spoken in eastern and northern England at that time. Later texts from the Middle English era, now based on an eastern Midland rather than a Wessex standard, reflect the significant impact that Norse had on the language. In all, English borrowed about2,000 words from Old Norse, several hundred surviving inModern English.[16]
Norse borrowings include many very common words, such asanger,bag,both,hit,law,leg,same,skill,sky,take,window, and even the pronounthey. Norse influence is also believed to have reinforced the adoption of the pluralcopular verb formare rather, than alternative Old English forms likesind. It is considered to have stimulated and accelerated themorphological simplification found in Middle English, such as the loss ofgrammatical gender and explicitly markedcase, except in pronouns.[17] That is possibly confirmed by observations that simplification of the case endings occurred earliest in the north, and latest in the southwest. The spread ofphrasal verbs in English is another grammatical development to which Norse may have contributed, although here a possibleCeltic influence is also noted.[16]
Some scholars have claimed that Old English died out entirely and was replaced by Norse towards the end of the Old English period and as part of the transition to Middle English, by virtue of the Middle English syntax being much more akin to Norse than Old English.[18] Other scholars reject this claim.[19]
Middle English is the forms of English spoken roughly from the time of theNorman Conquest in 1066 until the end of the 15th century.
For centuries after the Conquest, the Norman kings and high-ranking nobles in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles spokeAnglo-Norman, a variety ofOld Norman, originating from a northernlangue d'oïl dialect. Merchants and lower-ranked nobles were often bilingual in Anglo-Norman and English, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people. Middle English was influenced by both Anglo-Norman, and later Anglo-French. Seecharacteristics of the Anglo-Norman language.
Until the 14th century, Anglo-Norman and then French were the language of the courts and government. Even after the decline of Norman, standard French retained the status of a formal orprestige language. About 10,000 French and Norman loan words entered Middle English, particularly terms associated with government, church, law, the military, fashion, and food.[20] SeeEnglish language word origins andList of English words of French origin.
Although English is a Germanic language, it has a deep connection toRomance languages. The roots of this connection trace back to the Conquest of England by the Normans in 1066. The Normans spoke a dialect of Old French, and the commingling of Norman French and Old English resulted in Middle English, a language that reflects aspects of both Germanic and Romance languages and evolved into the English we speak today, where nearly 60% of the words are from Latin & Romance languages like French.
The strong influence ofOld Norse on English becomes apparent during this period. The impact of the nativeBritish Celtic languages that English continued to displace is generally held to be very small, although a few scholars have attributed some grammatical forms, such asperiphrastic "do", to Celtic influence.[21][22]These theories have been criticized by a number of other linguists.[23][24][25] Some scholars have also put forwardhypotheses that Middle English was a kind of creole language resulting from contact between Old English and either Old Norse or Anglo-Norman.
English literature began to reappear after 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline inAnglo-Norman made it more respectable. TheProvisions of Oxford, released in 1258, was the first English government document to be published in the English language after theNorman Conquest. In 1362,Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English. ThePleading in English Act 1362 made English the only language in which court proceedings could be held, though the official record remained in Latin.[26] By the end of the century, the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language. Official documents began to be produced regularly in English during the 15th century.Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived in the late 14th century, is the most famous writer from the Middle English period, andThe Canterbury Tales is his best-known work.
The English language changed enormously during the Middle English period, in vocabulary, in pronunciation, and in grammar. While Old English is a heavilyinflected language (synthetic), the use ofgrammatical endings diminished in Middle English (analytic). Grammar distinctions were lost as many noun and adjective endings werelevelled to-e. The olderplural noun marker-en, retained in a few cases such aschildren andoxen, largely gave way to-s.Grammatical gender was discarded. Definite articleþe appears around 1200, later spelled asthe, first appearing in East and North England as a substitute for Old Englishse andseo, nominative forms of "that."[27]
English spelling was also influenced by Norman in this period, with the/θ/ and/ð/ sounds being spelledth, rather than with the Old English lettersþ (thorn) andð (eth), which did not exist in Norman. These letters remain in the modernIcelandic andFaroese alphabets, having been borrowed from Old English viaOld West Norse.
English underwent extensive sound changes during the 15th century, while its spelling conventions remained largely constant.Modern English is often dated from theGreat Vowel Shift, which took place mainly during the 15th century. The language was further transformed by the spread of a standardized London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardizing effect of printing, which also tended to regularizecapitalization. As a result, the language acquired self-conscious terms such as "accent" and "dialect".[28] As mostearly presses came from continental Europe, a few native English letters such as þ and ð died out. For some timeþe (modern "the") was written asye. By the time ofWilliam Shakespeare (mid 16th – early 17th century),[29] the language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published,A Table Alphabeticall.
Increased literacy and travel facilitated the adoption of many foreign words, especially borrowings fromLatin andGreek, often terms for abstract concepts not available in English.[30] In the 17th century, Latin words were often used with their original inflections, but these eventually disappeared. As there are many words from different languages and English spelling is variable, the risk ofmispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in theWest Country. During the period, loan words were borrowed from Italian, German, and Yiddish. British acceptance of and resistance toAmericanisms began during this period.[31]
The first authoritative and full-featured English dictionary, theDictionary of the English Language, was published bySamuel Johnson in 1755. To a high degree, the dictionary standardized both English spelling and word usage. Meanwhile, grammar texts byLowth,Murray,Priestly, and others attempted to prescribe standard usage even further.
Early Modern English and Late Modern English, also called Present-Day English (PDE), differ essentially in vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from theIndustrial Revolution and technologies that created a need for new words, as well as international development of the language. TheBritish Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's land surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and North American English, the two major varieties of the language, are together spoken by 400 million people. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one billion.[32] There have been attempts to predict future English evolution, though they have been met with skepticism.[33]
Over the last 1,200 years or so, English has undergone extensive changes in its vowel system, but many fewer changes to its consonants.
In theOld English period, a number ofumlaut processes affected vowels in complex ways. Unstressed vowels were gradually eroded, eventually leading to a loss ofgrammatical case andgrammatical gender in the Early Middle English period. The most important umlaut process was *i-mutation, c. 500 CE, which led to pervasive alternations of all sorts, many of which survive in the modern language: e.g. in noun paradigms (foot vs.feet,mouse vs.mice,brother vs.brethren); in verb paradigms (sold vs.sell); nominal derivatives from adjectives ("strong" vs. "strength",broad vs.breadth,foul vs.filth) and from other nouns (fox vs. "vixen"); verbal derivatives ("food" vs. "to feed"); and comparative adjectives ("old" vs. "elder"). Consonants were more stable, althoughvelar consonants were significantly modified bypalatalization, which produced alternations such asspeak vs.speech,drink vs.drench,wake vs.watch,bake vs.batch.
TheMiddle English period saw further vowel changes. Most significant was theGreat Vowel Shift, c. 1500 CE, which transformed the pronunciation of all long vowels. This occurred after the spelling system was fixed, and accounts for the drastic differences in pronunciation between "short"mat, met, bit, cot vs. "long"mate, mete/meet, bite, coat. Other changes that left echoes in the modern language werehomorganic lengthening beforeld,mb,nd, which accounts for the long vowels inchild,mind,climb, etc.;pre-cluster shortening, which resulted in the vowel alternations inchild vs.children,keep vs.kept,meet vs.met; andtrisyllabic laxing, which is responsible for alternations such asgrateful vs.gratitude,divine vs.divinity,sole vs.solitary.
Among the more significant recent changes to the language have been the development ofrhotic and non-rhotic accents (i.e. "r-dropping") and thetrap-bath split in many dialects ofBritish English.
The following table shows the principal developments in the stressed vowels, from Old English through Modern English.C indicates any consonant:
| Old English (c. 900 AD) | Middle English (c. 1400 AD) | Early Modern English (c. 1600 AD) | Modern English | Modern spelling | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ɑː | ɔː | oː | oʊ əʊ (UK) | oa, oCe | oak, boat, whole, stone |
| æː,æːɑ | ɛː | eː | iː | ea | heal, beat, cheap |
| eː,eːo | eː | iː | ee, -e | feed, deep, me, be | |
| iː,yː | iː | əiorɛi | aɪ | iCe | ride, time, mice |
| oː | oː | uː | uː | oo, -o | moon, food, do |
| uː | uː | əuorɔu | aʊ | ou | mouse, out, loud |
| ɑ,æ,æɑ | a | æ | æ | a | man, sat, wax |
| aː | ɛː | eɪ | aCe | name, bake, raven | |
| e,eo | e | ɛ | ɛ | e | help, tell, seven |
| ɛː | eː | iː | ea, eCe | speak, meat, mete | |
| i,y | ɪ | ɪ | ɪ | i | written, sit, kiss |
| o | o | ɔ | ɒ ɑ (US) | o | god, top, beyond |
| ɔː | oː | oʊ əʊ (UK) | oa, oCe | foal, nose, over | |
| u | ʊ | ɤ | ʌ | u, o | buck, up, love, wonder |
| ʊ | ʊ | full, bull |
The following chart shows the primary developments of English vowels in the last 600 years, in more detail, sinceLate Middle English ofChaucer's time. TheGreat Vowel Shift can be seen in the dramatic developments fromc. 1400 to 1600.
Neither of the above tables covers thehistory of Middle English diphthongs, the changes before /r/, or various special cases and exceptions. For details, seephonological history of English as well as the articles onOld English phonology andMiddle English phonology.
The vowel changes over time can be seen in the following example words, showing the changes in their form over the last 2,000 years:
| one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | mother | heart | hear | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Germanic,c. AD 1 | ainaz | twai | θriːz | feðwoːr | fimf | sehs | seβun | moːðeːr | hertoːː | hauzijanã |
| West Germanic,c. AD 400 | ain | θriju | fewwur | moːdar | herta | haurijan | ||||
| Late Old English,c. AD 900 | aːn | twaː | θreo | feowor | fiːf | siks | sĕŏvon | moːdor | hĕŏrte | heːran,hyːran |
| (Late Old English spelling) | (ān) | (twā) | (þrēo) | (fēowor) | (fīf) | (six) | (seofon) | (mōdor) | (heorte) | (hēran, hȳran) |
| Late Middle English,c. 1350 | ɔːn | twoː | θreː | fowər | fiːvə | siks | sevən | moːðər | hertə | hɛːrə(n) |
| (Late Middle English spelling) | (oon) | (two) | (three) | (fower) | (five) | (six) | (seven) | (mother) | (herte) | (heere(n)) |
| Early Modern English,c. 1600 | oːn >!wʊn | twuː >tuː | θriː | foːr | fəiv | siks | sevən | mʊðər | hert | heːr |
| Modern English,c. 2000 | wʌn | tuː | fɔː(r) | faiv | sɪks | mʌðə(r) | hɑrt/hɑːt | hiːr/hiə | ||
| one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | mother | heart | hear |
TheEnglish language once had an extensivedeclension system similar toLatin,Greek, modernGerman andIcelandic.Old English distinguished among thenominative,accusative,dative, andgenitive cases, and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separateinstrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). Thedual number was distinguished from the singular and plural.[34]Declension was greatly simplified during theMiddle English period, when theaccusative anddative cases of the pronouns merged into a singleoblique case, that also replaced the genitive case after prepositions. Nouns in Modern English no longer decline for case, except for thegenitive.
Pronouns such aswhom andhim, contrasted withwho andhe, are a conflation of the old accusative and dative cases, as well as of the genitive case after prepositions, whileher also includes the genitive case. This conflated form is called theoblique case or theobject (objective) case, because it is used for objects of verbs (direct, indirect, or oblique) as well as for objects of prepositions. Seeobject pronoun. The information formerly conveyed by distinct case forms is now mostly provided byprepositions and word order. In Old English, as well as modernGerman andIcelandic as further examples, these cases have distinct forms.
Although some grammarians continue to use the traditional terms "accusative" and "dative", these are functions rather than morphological cases in Modern English. That is, the formwhom may play accusative or dative roles, as well as instrumental or prepositional roles, but it is a singlemorphological form, contrasting with nominativewho and genitivewhose. Many grammarians use the labels "subjective", "objective", and "possessive" for nominative, oblique, and genitive pronouns.
Modern English nouns exhibit only one inflection of the reference form: thepossessive case, which some linguists argue is not a case at all, but aclitic. See the entry forgenitive case for more information.
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine, feminine (person) | Nominative | hwā | who | who |
| Accusative | hwone, hwæne | whom | whom, who1 | |
| Dative | hwām, hwǣm | |||
| Instrumental | ||||
| Genitive | hwæs | whos | whose | |
| Neuter (thing) | Nominative | hwæt | what | what |
| Accusative | hwæt | what, whom | ||
| Dative | hwām, hwǣm | |||
| Instrumental | hwȳ, hwon | why | why2 | |
| Genitive | hwæs | whos | whose3 |
1 – In some dialects "who" is used where formal English only allows "whom", though variation among dialects must be taken into account.
2 – An explanation may be found in the last paragraph ofthis section of Instrumental case.
3 – Usually replaced byof what (postpositioned).
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Nominative | iċ | I, ich, ik | I |
| Accusative | mē, meċ | me | me | |
| Dative | mē | |||
| Genitive | mīn | min, mi | my, mine | |
| Plural | Nominative | wē | we | we1 |
| Accusative | ūs, ūsiċ | us | us | |
| Dative | ūs | |||
| Genitive | ūser, ūre | ure, our | our, ours |
1 – Old English also had a separatedual,wit ("we two") et cetera; however, no later forms derive from it.
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Nominative | þū | þu, thou | thou (you) |
| Accusative | þē, þeċ | þé, thee | thee (you) | |
| Dative | þē | |||
| Genitive | þīn | þi, þīn, þīne, thy; thin, thine | thy, thine (your, yours) | |
| Plural | Nominative | ġē | ye, ȝe, you | you1 |
| Accusative | ēow, ēowiċ | you, ya | ||
| Dative | ēow | |||
| Genitive | ēower | your | your, yours |
1 –Note that the ye/you distinction still existed, at least optionally, in Early Modern English: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" from theKing James Bible.
Here the letterþ (interchangeable withð in manuscripts) corresponds toth. For ȝ, seeYogh.
| Old English | Middle English | Modern English | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||||||||
| Case | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | Formal | Informal | |
| Nominative | þū | ġē1 | you | thou | you | ye | you | ||||||
| Accusative | þē, þeċ | ēow, ēowiċ | thee | you | |||||||||
| Dative | þē | ēow | |||||||||||
| Genitive | þīn | ēower | your, yours | thy, thine | your, yours | your, yours | |||||||
1 –(Old English also had a separatedual, ġit ("ye two") etcetera; however, no later forms derive from it.)
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine singular | Nominative | hē | he | he |
| Accusative | hine | him | him | |
| Dative | him | |||
| Genitive | his | his | his | |
| Feminine singular | Nominative | hēo | heo, sche, ho, he, ȝho | she |
| Accusative | hīe | hire, hure, her, heore | her | |
| Dative | hire | |||
| Genitive | hir, hire, heore, her, here | her, hers | ||
| Neuter singular | Nominative | hit | hit, it | it,they |
| Accusative | hit, it, him | it, them | ||
| Dative | him | |||
| Genitive | his | his | its, their | |
| Plural1 | Nominative | hīe | he, hi, ho, hie, þai, þei | they |
| Accusative | hem, ham, heom, þaim, þem, þam | them | ||
| Dative | him | |||
| Genitive | hira | here, heore, hore, þair, þar | their, theirs |
1 – The origin of the modern forms is generally thought to have been a borrowing fromOld Norse forms þæir, þæim, þæira. The two different roots co-existed for some time, although currently the only common remnant is the shortened form'em. Cf. also the demonstrative pronouns.
Beowulf is an Old Englishepic poem inalliterative verse. It is dated from the 8th to the early 11th centuries. These are the first 11 lines:
Hwæt! WēGār-Dena ingeārdagum, þēodcyninga þrymgefrūnon, hūðā æþelingas ellenfremedon. OftScyld Scēfing sceaþenaþrēatum, monegummǣgþum, meodosetlaoftēah, egsodeeorlas. Syððanǣrestwearð fēasceaftfunden, hēþæs frōfregebād, wēox underwolcnum, weorðmyndumþāh, oðþæt himǣghwylc þāra ymbsittendra ofer hronrāde hȳran scolde, gombangyldan. Þæt wæsgōdcyning!
Which, as translated byFrancis Barton Gummere, reads:
Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!
This is the beginning ofThe Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, a prose text in Old English dated to the late 9th century. The full text can be found atWikisource.
| Original: Ōhthere sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cyninge, ðæt hē ealra Norðmonna norþmest būde. Hē cwæð þæt hē būde on þǣm lande norþweardum wiþ þā Westsǣ. Hē sǣde þēah þæt þæt land sīe swīþe lang norþ þonan; ac hit is eal wēste, būton on fēawum stōwum styccemǣlum wīciað Finnas, on huntoðe on wintra, ond on sumera on fiscaþe be þǣre sǣ. Hē sǣde þæt hē æt sumum cirre wolde fandian hū longe þæt land norþryhte lǣge, oþþe hwæðer ǣnig mon be norðan þǣm wēstenne būde. Þā fōr hē norþryhte be þǣm lande: lēt him ealne weg þæt wēste land on ðæt stēorbord, ond þā wīdsǣ on ðæt bæcbord þrīe dagas. Þā wæs hē swā feor norþ swā þā hwælhuntan firrest faraþ. Þā fōr hē þā giet norþryhte swā feor swā hē meahte on þǣm ōþrum þrīm dagum gesiglau. Þā bēag þæt land, þǣr ēastryhte, oþþe sēo sǣ in on ðæt lond, hē nysse hwæðer, būton hē wisse ðæt hē ðǣr bād westanwindes ond hwōn norþan, ond siglde ðā ēast be lande swā swā hē meahte on fēower dagum gesiglan. Þā sceolde hē ðǣr bīdan ryhtnorþanwindes, for ðǣm þæt land bēag þǣr sūþryhte, oþþe sēo sǣ in on ðæt land, hē nysse hwæþer. Þā siglde hē þonan sūðryhte be lande swā swā hē meahte on fīf dagum gesiglan. Ðā læg þǣr ān micel ēa ūp on þæt land. Ðā cirdon hīe ūp in on ðā ēa for þǣm hīe ne dorston forþ bī þǣre ēa siglan for unfriþe; for þǣm ðæt land wæs eall gebūn on ōþre healfe þǣre ēas. Ne mētte hē ǣr nān gebūn land, siþþan hē from his āgnum hām fōr; ac him wæs ealne weg wēste land on þæt stēorbord, būtan fiscerum ond fugelerum ond huntum, ond þæt wǣron eall Finnas; ond him wæs āwīdsǣ on þæt bæcbord. Þā Boermas heafdon sīþe wel gebūd hira land: ac hīe ne dorston þǣr on cuman. Ac þāra Terfinna land wæs eal wēste, būton ðǣr huntan gewīcodon, oþþe fisceras, oþþe fugeleras. | A translation: Ohthere said to his lord,King Alfred, that he of all Norsemen lived north-most. He quoth that he lived in the land northward along the West Sea. He said though that the land was very long from there, but it is all wasteland, except that in a few places here and there Finns [i.e.Sami] encamp, hunting in winter and in summer fishing by the sea. He said that at some time he wanted to find out how long the land lay northward or whether any man lived north of the wasteland. Then he traveled north by the land. All the way he kept the waste land on his starboard and the wide sea on his port three days. Then he was as far north as whale hunters furthest travel. Then he traveled still north as far as he might sail in another three days. Then the land bowed east (or the sea into the land — he did not know which). But he knew that he waited there for west winds (and somewhat north), and sailed east by the land so as he might sail in four days. Then he had to wait for due-north winds, because the land bowed south (or the sea into the land — he did not know which). Then he sailed from there south by the land so as he might sail in five days. Then a large river lay there up into the land. Then they turned up into the river, because they dared not sail forth past the river for hostility, because the land was all settled on the other side of the river. He had not encountered earlier any settled land since he travelled from his own home, but all the way waste land was on his starboard (except fishers, fowlers and hunters, who were all Finns). And the wide sea was always on his port. TheBjarmians have cultivated their land very well, but they did not dare go in there. But the Terfinn's land was all waste except where hunters encamped, or fishers or fowlers.[35] |
FromAyenbite of Inwyt ("the prick of conscience"), a translation of a French confessional prose work into the Kentish dialect of Middle English, completed in 1340:[36]
Nouich wille þet yeywite houhit isywent
þet þis boc isywritemid Engliss of Kent.
Þis boc isymad vorlewede men
Vor vader and vor moder and vor oþerken
ham vor toberȝe vram alle manyerezen
þet inehareinwytte nebleve no voulwen.
'Huo ase god' in his nameyzed,
Þet þis boc made god himyeve þet bread,
Of angles of hevene, and þerto hisred,
Andondervonge hiszaulehuanne þet he isdyad. Amen.
The beginning ofThe Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in poetry and prose written in the London dialect of Middle English byGeoffrey Chaucer, at the end of the 14th century:[37]
Whan that Aprill with his shouressoote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne inswich licour
Of which vertu engendred is theflour;
WhanZephiruseek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in everyholt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in theRam his half coursyronne,
And smalefoweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with openyë
(Sopriketh hem nature inhir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
Andpalmeres for to seken straungestrondes,
Tofernehalwes,kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury theywende,
Thehooly blisful martir for to seke,
Thathem hath holpen whan that they wereseeke.
The beginning ofParadise Lost, anepic poem in unrhymediambic pentameter written in Early Modern English byJohn Milton, first published in 1667:
Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
A selection from the novelOliver Twist, written byCharles Dickens in Modern English and published in 1838:
The evening arrived: the boys took their places; the master in his cook's uniform stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out, and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared, the boys whispered each other and winked at Oliver, while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger and reckless with misery. He rose from the table, and advancing, basin and spoon in hand, to the master, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity—
"Please, sir, I want some more."
The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder, and the boys with fear.
"What!" said the master at length, in a faint voice.
"Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some more."
The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle, pinioned him in his arms, and shrieked aloud for thebeadle.
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