Types of records: Poetic and prose
King Alfred is called the founder of English prose.
Records:
8th: Glosses (very few of them)
9th: much more,
10th -11th: the majority. The King himself translated: Cura Pastoralis (papa Gregory I, 6th) – Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Angorum (Bede 8th), World History (monk Orosius 5th). In his translation Alfred made omissions and some additions of his own; Consolation of Philosophy (Boethius 6th) one of the most famous books of the Middle Ages. Alfred also caused a record to be compiled of the important events of English history, past and present, and this, as continued for more than two centuries after his death, is the well-known Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
In the tongue of many poetic records dialectical peculiarities are both of Wessex and of English dialects, this can be explained by the fact that first the records were written in Northumbria, and only in 10th-11th they were rewritten in Wessex. But also there exist another theory which assert that at that time common literary language of Old English poetry existed and it was different from prosaic, it combined several dialectal features.
Beowulf - a poem of some 3,000 lines belonging to the type known as the folk epic the end of 10th. For a long time this poem existed only in oral expression, it describes the time when Jutes, Angles and Saxons lived in the continent, customs, rituals and believes of old germans of pre-Christian epoch are depicted in the poem, but in the main plot of the story we can observe later episodes reflecting Christian religion influence.
Anglo-Saxon poetry, just like the versification of other Germanic people, was written by the means of alliteration ; rhyme is absent, rhythm was built at the basis of stress. Figurativeness and metaphor were characteristic features for Anglo-Saxon poetry. To express different notions there existed dozens of synonymic words phrases, and sustained metaphors
Recedes muth = the mouth of the house= the door
Segl-rad = the road of sails = sea
Hond-ge-mot = hand meeting = fight
About 800 an Anglian poet named Cynewulf wrote at least four poems on religious subjects, into which he ingeniously wove his name by means of runes. Two of these, Juliana and Elene, tell well-known legends of saints. A third, Christ deals with Advent, the Ascension, and the Last Judgment. The fourth, The Fates of the Apostles, touches briefly on where and how the various apostles died. There are other religious poems besides those mentioned by Cynewulf he was probably a Mercian writer of early 9th , such as the Andreas, two poems on the life of St. Guthlac, a fine poem on the story of Judith in the Apocrypha; The Phoenix, in which the bird is taken as a symbol of the Christian life; and Christ and Satan, which treats the expulsion of Satan from Paradise together with the Harrowing of Hell and Satan’s tempting of Christ. All of these poems have their counterparts in other literatures of the Middle Ages. They show England in its cultural contact with Rome and being drawn into the general current of ideas on the continent, no longer simply Germanic, but cosmopolitan.
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Deor, a poem about a minstrel, is the lament of a scop who for years has been in the service of his lord and now finds himself thrust out by a younger man. But he strong man, he doesn’t whine . Life is like that. Age will be displaced by youth. He has his day. Deor is one of the most human of Old English poems. The Wanderer is a tragedy in the medieval sense, the story of a man who once enjoyed a high place and has fallen upon evil times. His lord is dead and he has become a wanderer in strange courts, alone, without any friends. The Seafarer is a monologue in which the speaker alternately describes the perils and hardships of the sea and the eager desire to dare again its dangers. In The Ruin the poet reflects on a ruined city, once prosperous and imposing with its towers and halls, its stone courts and baths, which is now nothing but the tragic shadow of what it once was.
Another literature monuments written in wessex dialect are Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – the oldest chronicles of the country by Wulfstan, whose Sermon to the English is an impassioned plea for moral and political reform (beginning 11th ), and one more founder of english prose – Aelfic - the author of two books of homilies (проповедь) and grammar of Old English and glossary.
14. Historical background and evolution of the Modern English spelling. )
Early modern English pronunciation and spelling
In the late-fifteenth century printers began printing books written in the form of London English which had already become a kind of standard in manuscript documents. Between 1475 and about 1630 English spelling gradually became regularized. There are noticeable differences in the look of printed English before the mid-seventeenth century, but after that date it is largely the same as modern English, the major difference being the use of the long s (∫) in all positions except finally.
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Spelling: general principles
At the start of the sixteenth century the main systematic differences in spelling from present-day English were as follows. (Examples are taken from the Ordynarye of crystyanyte or of crysten men, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1502.)
i). u and v were graphic variants of a single letter. The form v was used at the beginning of a word and u in all other positions, irrespective of whether the sound was a vowel or a consonant.
And we defende the that thou be not so hardy for euer to do vyolence vnto the holy token of the crosse the whiche we put in his forhede.
ii). Similarly, j was only an extended form of i. i was generally used for both the vowel and for the consonant sound (as in jam) in most positions in a word: its capital form, which resembles J, was beginning to be used in initial position for the consonant sound.
>by the whiche they ben Justely adiuged
iii). The final ‘silent’ -e was much more commonly found, not only as a marker of a ‘long’ vowel in the preceding syllable (as in take), but with no phonetic function, and sometimes after an unnecessarily doubled final consonant.
Also it is to be noted that this crosse made & gyuen vnto the newe crysten man is the seuenth crosse & the laste that is sette on his body.
iv). The letter y was commonly used for the vowel i, especially in the vicinity of ranging or ‘minim’ letters such as m, n, and u.
And man ought to byleue that the fayth of this artycle is deed that bereth not here the fruyte of this werke.
v). Double e (ee) or e..e was used for two different long front vowels: the ‘close’ vowel of meet and the formerly ‘mid’ vowel of meat, mete (the significance of this is now obscured since in most words the two sounds have become identical). The spelling e..e was gradually restricted to the latter while additionally ea was beginning to be introduced as an alternative spelling.
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By the the fruyte that procedeth of the tree menynge the boode or the floure and the leef.
vi). Similarly o (oo) or o..e were often used for two different long back vowels: the ‘close’ vowel ofmoot and the ‘mid’ vowel of moat, mote. o..e was gradually restricted to the latter and, during the 16th century, oa was introduced on the analogy of ea.
>bytwene the more goodnes and the lesse goodnes / and bytwene the more ylle and the lesse or the moost lytell.
vii). Instead of t in the ending now usually spelt -tion the letter c was frequently used.
He is very lorde by creacyon by redempcyon & for ye resurreccyon.
Numerous abbreviations used in manuscript were carried over into print. A short line above a vowel was often used to replace m or n. The forms yt and ye were used to abbreviate that and the.
Spelling: particular words
Variation in the spelling of particular words is due to two main factors.
During the early modern period numerous words were respelt according to their true or (occasionally) false Latin etymologies; this tendency began in late Middle English but gathered strength in our period. In some of these words the pronunciation has been adjusted to conform to the spelling, while others have not (hence the existence of ‘silent’ consonants). Examples:
Examples include:
· anchor (Middle English, anker)
· author (Middle English, autour; Latin, auctor)
· doubt (Middle English, doute)
· fault (Middle English, faute)
· nephew (Middle English, neuew)
During the period also, forms derived from different dialects or varieties of speech gradually ousted those originally used.
· friend only became common after 1530
· frend disappeared after 1630 (but the pronunciation remained)
· during the overlap, frind was also found
· before 1500 the word height was usually found with –th as the final consonant (in various forms such as heyth, highth)
· After 1550 the northern form h(e)ight became predominant (though Milton favoured highth)
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· before 1500, sword(e) was rare and swerd(e) common
· between 1500 and 1550 they were about equally common
· after 1550, sword(e) was much commoner than swerd(e)
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