OLD ENGLISH PHONETICS AND ORTHOGRAPHY.
WRITING AND BORROWINGS.
1. The first consonant shift. Grimm’s law.
2. Verner’s law
3. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Beowulf works of OE
4. OE alphabet
5. OE vowels and consonants
6. OE phonetic phenomena as the sources of forming diphthongs and new sounds. Phonetic phenomena :
· Fracture (Breaking)
· Palatalization
· Back Mutation
· I-mutation
7. OE Borrowings
Practical task:
1. Make up pairs of the following words according to Grimm’s Law.
- I.E. bhrata, nabhata, duo, болото, tres, pater, octo, иго;
- Germ. nebal, twa, brobor, breo, fadar, acht, oke pol
- Make up three groups of words keeping in mind different pronunciation of OE “z”
zleo, dazas, zear sinzas, folzian zod, sorz
zod, zlæd, ziefan, zewitan, dæz
strenz, stizel, slozon, zung, zeoc, zealu
- Explain the correspondence vowels in I.E. and O.E.
I.E. frater, octo, medius, ventus
O.E. bropan, ahtau, middle, wind
- Explain forming of diphthongs in the following pairs.
· hira >hiora; herot>heorot; fela>feola, caru>cearu;saru>searu
· ærm>earm; æld>eald; æhta>eahta; herte>heorte; melcan>meolcan; feh>feoh;
· zefan>ziefan, zæf>zeaf, scacan>sceacan, scort>sceort.
- What influenced on changing of the following vowels:
framian>fremman; namnian>nemnan
tællian>tellan
ofstian>efstan; domain>deman
fullian>fyllan; cupian>cypan
hleahian hliehhan eleafian eliefan
afeoria afierran etreowi etriewe
Text. OE period.
From “The Song of Beowulf”
(West Saxon, ab. 700 A.D.)
"The Song of Beowulf" is one of the oldest English heroic epics. The author is unknown. The date of the composition of the poem is uncertain, for it includes religious elements both of a Christian and a heathen character. Probably it was composed somewhere about A.D. 700 by an Anglian poet in the vicinity of Northumbria. But the manuscript, and it is the only one, which still survives, was written down in West Saxon three hundred years later, about the year 1000.
The materials for the poem are mainly from theScandinavian history, folk tales. The events take place in Denmark and Sweden. Its subject takes us back to the first half of the sixth century. It speaks of the victory of the Franks over the Geats led by Hygelac, which occurred about 512-520. In this fight a young warrior Beowulf distinguished himself by strength and valour.
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Like all Anglo-Saxon poems it is written with a long line. The lines do not rhyme, but they are in the alliterative verse, which was common to the early Germanic poetry. Each line is divided into halves by a pause and the half lines are linked by alliteration. The same consonant is repeated at the beginning of stressed syllables, either once in the first half of the line and twice in the second or vice versa. Note, for example, the repetition of "f" and "b" in the following lines:
Fyrst ford jewat: flota wæs on ydum,
bat under beorze. Beornas zearwe...
If a stressed syllable begins with a vowel, the vowels can alliterate with one another, (see lines 219, 224).
The poet has a special and extensive vocabulary. He uses archaic and poetic terms, which are not employed in prose. For example the notion "warrior" can be expressed in dozens of ways. A distinctive stylistic effect is achieved by the wide use of two-term (double) metaphors, for example, the poet uses such "picture—names" for the things and people he describes: the "swan's road" or "whale-path" for sea, "ring-bestower" for king, "bound wood" for ship.
BEOWULF
(A. sea-monster is disturbing the king of the Danes. A young warrior called Beowulf comes to the rescue. With fourteen adventurers he sails to Denmark).
210 Fyrst ford zewat: flota wæs on ydum,
bat under beorze. Beornas zearwe
on stefn stizon: streamas wundon,
sund wid sande; seczas bæron
on bearm nacan beorhte frætwe.
215 zudsearo zeatolic: zuman ut scufon,
weras on wilsid wudu bundenne.
Gewat pa ofer wæzholm winde zefysed
flota famiheals fuzle1 zelicost,
od pæt ymb antid opres dozores2
220 wundenstefna zewaden hæfde,
pæt da lidende land zesawon,
brimclifu blican3, beorzas steape,
side sænæssas: pa wæs sundliden,
eoledes æt ende.
Here is a version of the poem modernized by Benjamin Thorpe [3, p. 10]
Time passed; the floater was on the waves,
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the boat 'neath the hill; the ready warriors
stepped on the prow; the streams surged
the sea 'gainst the sand; the warriors bare
into the bark's bosom bright arms,
a rich war- array. The men shoved out
on the welcome voyage the wooden bark.
Most like to a bird the foamy-necked floater,
impelled by the wind, then flew o'er the waves
till about the same time on the second day
the twisted prow had sailed so far
that the voyagers land descried,
shining ocean-shores, mountains steep,
spacious sea-nesses. Then was the floater
at the end of its voyage.
Comments
1. fuzle - the unstressed vowel of the ending-ol (fujol) is dropped in the case-forms ( cf. Russian отец, отца ). This kind of change was possible only in two—syllable words.
2. dozores - the second letter "o" should be dropped in reading, thus dozres.
3. brimclifu blican - accusative with the infinitive construction.
Seminar No 4.
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