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Learn Old English with Leofwin
Matt Love
First Published 2013 by
Anglo-Saxon Books
Hereward, Black Bank Business Centre
Little Downham, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB6 2UA England
Printed and bound by
Lightning Source
Australia, England, USA
Revised March 2014
© Matt Love
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in connection with
a review written for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper.
This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed
of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that
in which it is published, without the prior consent of the publishers.
ISBN 9781898281672
To the memory of my Mum and Dad
Thanks for everything
Unregarded, unrenowned,
men from whom my ways begin.
Here I know you by your ground,
but I know you not within —
there is silence, there survives
not a moment of your lives.
Edward Blunden, Forefathers
Contents
Foreword
Going Back in Time — New English to Old English
A note on Old English Writing and Pronunciation
How to Use this Book
Meet Leofwin!
Leornungdeel 1 — min cynn / my family
Leofwin’s family
Family questions
More about Leofwin’s family
Leofwin’s neighbours
Wesan - ‘to be’
Hatan — ‘to be called’
Family phrases
Yes and no
Likes and dislikes
Numbers 1-30
More family vocabulary
Foxtail describes his family
Mini-essay: Anglo-Saxon Families
YA Leornungdeel 2 — min his / my house
Leofwin’s house
House vocabulary
Gender — some grammar!
Describing people
Golde describes her family
Describe your family
Spreculmuth’s family
Some more characters
Meet Aelfgifu
Béon — ‘to be’
Habban — ‘to have’
Colours
Translation!
Eth and thorn — two Old English letters
Mini-essay: Farmsteads, villages and towns
page 39 Leornungdeel 3 — iite / outside
39 1 Where Leofwin lives
40 2 ‘oneardian’ - to inhabit
40 3. Plurals - examples so far
42 4 Plurals — strong and weak nouns
43 5 Strong and weak nouns - test
44 6 Leofwin describes his village
46 7 Some verb patterns
47 8 Animals
48 9 Consolidating plurals - strong and weak nouns
48 10 Subjects and objects — more grammar!
49 11 Weak nouns
51 12. Word order
51 13 (aand b) Basic survival guide — some essential phrases
54 14. Mini-essay: Prittlewell in Anglo-Saxon times
55 Leornungdeel 4 — timan, weder / seasons, weather
55 1 The four seasons
56 2 Reading task (easy!), and discussion on verbs
oy| 3. Fairly easy translation task
58 4 Foxtail describes the seasons — and offers a feast of verbs
60 5 Grammar task on verbs
61 6 Months of the year (harder than you’d think)
63 7 Birthdays
64 8 Numbers 31 — 100
65 9 Weather
66 10 Clufweart talks about the weather
67 11 Writing about the weather yourself
67 12 Revision of greetings
68 13. Days of the week
69 14. (a) Times of the day
(b) Hours of the day
70 15 Mini-essay: dividing the year
7 Leomungdeel 5 - gesceaftlice woruld, gedaeghwamnlic lif / natural world, daily life
a 1 Leofwin’s world
a 2 Wordsnake
13 3 More on Leofwin’s world
74 4 ‘this’ — some grammar, and a test!
ie) 5 Leofwin’s daily routine
7 6 Tasks on daily routine
78 7 More on daily routine
80 8 Consolidation of verb patterns
83 9 Mini-essay: the Round of the Year
page 87 Leornungdeel 6 - mete, drenc and mé!l / food, drink and meals
1 Clufweart milks the cow
2 Food and drink vocabulary
3. Revision of plurals and checking of new vocabulary
4 (a) Foxtail talks about mealtimes
(b) Mealtimes — true, false or unknown
5 ‘drincan’, to drink and ‘etan’, to eat
6 More on mealtimes
7 Leofwin asks you about your mealtimes
8 Talking animals: translation
9 ‘niman’ to take, and ‘giefan’ to give
10 More food and drink vocabulary
11 Revise likes and dislikes
12 Revision of negatives
13. Leofwin describes Easter
14. Three new verbs — cooking, catching, answering
15 Belonging — possessive adjectives
16 Ealhstan’s Easter Sermon
17 Mini-essay — food and drink / cooking and eating
Vocabulary: New English (NE) to Old English(OE)
Vocabulary: Old English (OE) to New English (NE)
Transcripts and Answers
Grammar Summary
Foreword
Nearly ten per cent of the people on our planet speak English either as their mother tongue,
or as a first foreign language of choice. It’s a global language. But where did it come from?
How long has it been around? How much has it changed over time?
This book aims to give the reader who is not a language specialist a glimpse of the English
language as it was spoken over a thousand years ago by a couple of million people on a
green and pleasant island off the coast of mainland Europe.
Old English, as it is called, or Anglo-Saxon, survives in a fairly substantial number of
manuscripts, which include laws, charters, wills, histories, religious works, poetry,
medical and scientific treatises and other material. If everything were collected together,
it would take up the equivalent space of about forty or so medium-sized books. The
material dates from the 8" to the 11" century, during which time the language was
evolving constantly; it continues to do so today.
There are, of course, gaps, regional variations, and since what survives is necessarily rather
‘bookish’, there are some aspects of the everyday language which can only be inferred.
Nevertheless, it is this everyday language of Anglo-Saxon England that I’ve tried to present
in this book. Old English tends rather to be the playground of paleo-linguists and
philologists, who are interested primarily in how language changes over time and in the
relationship of languages to each other. Although there’s a fairly wide range of books on
Old English, many can appear rather intimidating and inaccessible to anyone who’s not
already heavily involved in this kind of study.
‘Leofwin’ presents Old English, as far as possible, as if it were a living language, and I
hope it will fill the need for a lively, entertaining and attractive introduction for anyone
interested in the roots of our quirky and marvellous tongue.
My thanks are due to David Cowley, who checked the draft text, and to Steve Pollington,
who put me up to the whole project. Also to Linden Currie, and my other friends in ‘The
English Companions’, who’ve given me every encouragement. To Maria Legg, who
provided all the female voices in the audio passages, and to the wonderful people of
‘Centingas’, who share my passion for Anglo-Saxon Living History. To my son Thomas,
for all his help with computer issues, and finally to Tony Linsell of Anglo-Saxon books,
for whose patience, support, guidance and gentle criticism I’m very grateful. Whatever
errors still lurk within these pages are, of course, my own responsibility.
MWL, Leigh-on-Sea, September 2012
Going Back in time - New English to Old English
Language never stops changing! New words are being born all the time, while others fade away.
The way we pronounce words changes slowly over time as well, while more slowly still we alter
the rules of our grammar. How hard will it be to learn the English spoken here more than a
thousand years ago?
1800
If you could travel back in time 200 years, you’d be able to understand the English spoken here in
England without any difficulty, although a few of the sounds and words might be just a little
unfamiliar at first. Because of Britain’s Empire, English is already a global language, spoken in
North America, the Caribbean, India, Australia, parts of Africa and elsewhere.
1600
Another 200 years back: this is the language of Shakespeare. It’s recognizably English, but with
many unfamiliar words and expressions. Printing has helped to ‘standardize’ the language, and lots
of Greek and Latin words are being brought in which we take for granted in the 21° century.
However, many words and some of the grammar seem strange. The language of this period is called
‘Early Modern English’.
1400
Now we’re back to medieval times. Printing hasn’t been invented yet, so all writing is done by
hand. The thousands of French words which flooded into English after the Norman Conquest of
1066 are still settling in to the language. The language sounds very different, and without studying
it, you’d find many words unrecognizable. The language of these times is called ‘Middle English’.
1200
There are two different languages being spoken in England. Norman-French is the language spoken
by the king, the court, and the upper classes, because of the Norman Conquest. English is spoken
by the English people, with just a few words beginning to be adopted from French. These are the
last generations to speak alate form of ‘Old English’. For 21“ century English-speakers, it’s virtually
a foreign language.
1000
Another 200 years back in time: the Battle of Hastings hasn’t yet been fought. Old English is
spoken across the length and breadth of England. Because of the efforts of King Alfred the Great,
many literary and religious texts have been translated into English, and it has become a language
capable of expressing sophisticated thought. Trade and cultural links across the North Sea, and the
settlement of Vikings in the east and north is playing a part in simplifying Old English. This book is
set in this period, in the late 900s.
800
As we go ever further back in time, it starts to grow difficult to find surviving documents in Old
English. There are several different English-speaking kingdoms across the land, often at war with
each other.
600
The English at this time are still fighting with the people who were here before they arrived — the
Britons. They’ve been coming from across the North Sea for a hundred and fifty years or so: in
particular from the areas known today as Angeln, Saxony, Jutland and Frisia. These times have
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