Old English
The 
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See also the Old English Wikibooks |
Wes hāl and wilcume! Hello and welcome! This a Wikibook about Old English, the language spoken in England from about 500 AD (after the arrival of the Germanic tribes the Angles, the Saxon, and Jutes, from the area around northern Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark) to southern Britain, until about 1100 AD, shortly after the Norman Conquest lead by William I (also known as William the Conquerer, or William the Bastard), at which time Old English became Middle English. While we would like this Wikibook to be a useful resource for learning Old English, it is not at the moment in too good condition, but it is being improved. Leorna þū full spēdiglīce! Learn well!
If you are already a speaker of Old English, or are learning it, you can see some Old English texts at Wikisource. Also, there is an Anglo-Saxon Wikipedia to which you can contribute.
History [edit]
Lessons [edit]
- Fōresprǣc ~ The Alphabet and Pronunciation, A Short Example of Old English
Old English language reference and parts of speech [edit]
- Grammar
- Orthography
- I-mutation
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Pronouns
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Numbers
- Participles
- Conjunctions
- Prepositions
- Interjections
- Appositives
- Punctuation
- Syntax
Additional Old English resource pages [edit]
- An informal Old English phrasebook, with some explicitly marked neologisms
- Titles and Nicknames
- Telling time
- Legal Usage
- Phrases
- Directions
- The spoken language
Vocabulary [edit]
After you've mastered the grammar, the main thing to do is learn vocabulary, and idiomatic language usage. They both can be done by reading actual historical texts and practicing what you have already learnt, but here are some lists to help with the vocabulary.
Other electronic resources [edit]
Thankfully, there are many other quality online accessible resources already available for Old English. Here are some of them:
- An online searchable version of the Bosworth and Toller dictionary, and other Germanic language resources
- Another online searchable version of Bosworth and Toller, but this time with no other Germanic language resources
- The Electronic Introduction to Old English
- A fairly simple, non-comprehensive resource
