History of English I

Ohtere sæde his hlaforde, Ælfrede cyninge, þæt
he ealra Norðmonna norþmest bude. He cwæþ
þæt he bude on þæm lande norþweardum wiþ þa
Westsæ. He sæde þeah þæt þæt land sie swiþe
lang norþ þonan; He said, however, that the land is
[i.e. extends] very long to the north from there. Ac
hit is eal weste, buton on feawum stowum
styccemælum wiciaþ Finnas, on huntoþe on
wintra, and on sumera on fiscaþe be þære sæ.
Ohtere sæde his hlaforde, Ælfrede cyninge, þæt
he ealra Norðmonna norþmest bude. He cwæþ
þæt he bude on þæm lande norþweardum wiþ þa
Westsæ. He sæde þeah þæt þæt land sie swiþe
lang norþ þonan; He said, however, that the land is
[i.e. extends] very long to the north from there. Ac
hit is eal weste, buton on feawum stowum
styccemælum wiciaþ Finnas, on huntoþe on
wintra, and on sumera on fiscaþe be þære sæ.

Ohthere saede his hlaforde – Ohthere
(Ottar) said to his lord (“lord” is here used to
convey respect to his host, Ohthere – a
Nordic tradesman – was not King Alfred’s
subject)

Disguised compounds – words that were originally compounds but due to shortening are not transparently compounds any more
Hlaford < hlaf + weard (loaf – guardian:
bread-keeper) – LORD, (cf hlaefdige < hlaf + dig- to knead
(as in DOUGH) – LADY)
Other examples:
god-spela (good news)– GOSPEL, shire’s reeve (=
county’s head) – SHERIFF, and many more)
Later in the text: buton < be + utan (BE OUT) –
BUT (all words in bold print are disguised compounds –
notice that some were disguised compounds in Old Eglish
and have been shortened even further)

Old English had 4 cases (just like Present-
Day German):
Nominative (basic meaning – what? who?)
Genitive (basic meaning – of what? whose?)
Dative (basic meaning – to what? to whom?)
Accusative (basic meaning – what? who? as
objects)
Ohthere saede his (Genitive Singular) hlaforde
(Dative Singular), Aelfrede cyninge (both Dative
Singular) – Ohthere said to his lord, to Alfred the King

cyning – KING (cf Estonian “kuningas” –
has retained the Proto-Germanic endig – az)
Cf German König

Bude (praeterite from) buan - 1) to dwell, to
cultivate land), 2) to stay, visit
(cf BOER, German Bauer, Gebaude)
The two meanings yield two interpretations of where Ohthere actually lived and what places he visited. (Lennart Meri “Hõbevalge” – Ottar visited what is present-day Estonia)

that he ealra Northmonna northmest
bude – that he of all Northmen (=Danes,
Vikings) northernmost lived (or stayed,
visited)

He cwaeth thaet he bude on thaem lande
northweardum with tha Westsae – he said
that he was (or lived) on that land northwards against that
(the) West Sea (probably the North Atlantic off the
Norwegian coast).
cwaeth - praeterite from cwethan – to say,
to speak; QUOTH as in “quoth he”, “quoth the
Raven: Nevermore” (“Ütles ronk: ei iialgi”, Edgar
Allan Poe), notice that the word order is always reversed in
Modern English! Also BEQUEATH (pärandama) < be-
cwethan.

with - against (see Beowulf)
tha, thaet, thaere – see next slide (pick the
correct forms on your own!)

Declension of the demonstrative pronoun that (for those interested, Introduction p. 53 - not obligatory!):
Singular
Masculine Feminine Neuter
N se seo thaet
G thaes thaere thaes
D thaem thaere thaem
A thone tha thaem
Plural (all genders)
N tha
G thara, thaera
D thaem, tham
A tha

The demonstrative pronoun was often used in the function of an article but was not grammaticalised (i.e., not obligatory and subject to rules). In that respect, Old English was much like Estonian (“Pane raamat lauale”, “Pane see raamat lauale”, but hardly ever “Pane see raamat sellele lauale”, as against Modern English “Put the book on the table” – here the article is grammaticalised, i.e. compulsory in both positions – the same was true already of Middle English)

theah – though, THOUGH
thaet – conjunction
thaet - demonstrative pronoun
sie - Subjunctive from beon/wesan (to be), used to denote reported speech, the so-called quotative function (as in present-Day German sei – olevat; in many cases the Estonian olevat implies far more doubt than the German sei, though there are cases where the Estonian olevat also has a mere quotative function).

swithe – very much
thonan – thence, from there (THENCE is
still used in Modern English, just like
whence, hence, hither, thither, etc).
He saede theah thaet thaet land sie
swithe lang north thonan – he said though
that that land is (i.e. extends) very long north
from there

Ac - but (has not survived except as a loan
in Estonian: aga)
hit is eal weste – it is all empty (WASTE as
in T.S. Eliot’s “Wasteland”).

buton – except for, BUT, see above,
disguised compounds
stow – place (place is a French loan); TO
STOW, a STOWAWAY (“jänes”, a person
riding without paying, originally on a ship, a
person hiding/stowed in the hold of a ship)

stycce - piece (cf German Stück – piece,
Estonian tükk)
styccemaelum (adjective/adverb, originally from the Dative
plural of the respective adjective) – piecemeal;
here and there (NB! Notice how one part of a
Germanic word – stycce – has been replaced by a
French loan (pièce), the other part has remained
Germanic. This word also shows the path from the
Dative Plural ending –um to the adverbial ending –
om, as in seldom, whilom).

on feawum stowum styccemaelum – in a
few places here and there (on in the
meaning of where? takes the Dative, in the
meaning of to where? whither? takes an
Accusative, as in on stefn stigon in
“Beowulf”; this is exactly the rule in Present-
Day German)

wiciath – Present Plural from wician (a
weak verb, i.e. the predecessor of Modern
English regular verbs) – to dwell
(wic – dwelling place, village, cf Modern
English –WICH, -WICK in placenames).
An early loan from Latin (vicus – village).

Finnas - might have been predecessors of
present-day Lapps (Samis); might have
been Estonians?
On feawum stowum styccemaelum
wiciath Finnas - in a few places here and
there live/dwell Lapps/(Estonians?)

On huntothe on wintra and on sumera on
fiscathe – (living) on hunting in winters
and in summers on fishing
be thaere sae – by that see (thaere – Dative
singular of the feminine form of thaet, see
the Table above).