Before Alfred

Arranged by:

Wildan Ahdiyat

Aulia Rachmawati

Maya Syarie

Shendy Pratama

Blake, NF. 1996. A History of the English Language. London: MacMillan Press LTD

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Who is Alfred?

Born at Wantage, Berkshire, in 849, Alfred was the fifth son of Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons.

As King of Wessex at the age of 21, Alfred (reigned 871-899) was a strong-minded but highly strung battle veteran at the head of remaining resistance to the Vikings in southern England.

He is the only king in Britain who has honor to be called “The Great”.

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Proto-Indo-European family of the

language: consist of all language in Europe (except

for Basque and the Finno-Ugric group,

that is Finnish, Hungarian, and some

related languages), and many in Asia.

survive only in an ancient form in some

restricted context such as religion, as is

true Sanskrit itself which remain a

religious language in India.

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Proto-Indo-European

Satem (eastern) Centum (western)

Included Indo-

Iranian, Balto-

Slavic, Armenian

and Albanian.

Includes Greek and

Mycenaean; Italic, which

includes Latin and its

descendant; Celtic, which

includes two major

subdivisions producing Welsh

on the one hand and Gaelic on

the other; and Germanic, to

which English belongs.

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continuation…

One important aspect of Proto-Indo-

European is that is was an inflected

language that is relied on changes at the

end of word.

In all modern languages this inflectional

system has broken down to a greater or

lesser extent, and this is particularly true

of English.

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The Proto-Germanic family

East

Germanic North

Germanic West

Germanic

Gothic

language Scandinavian

languages

English, Frisian,

Dutch, and

German and their

descendants

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Tacitus divided the Germanic

people into three major groups:

the

Ingvæones the

Istvæones

the

Erminones

included the

Frisians and the

Dutch

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In 8th century, about 450 AD, Bede (English Historian)

recorded in his Historia Ecclesiastical Gentis Anglorum

(Ecclesiastical History of the English Language) that

England was colonized by three Germanic tribes; they

were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.

Germanic tribes moved to Britain (England) only for

general migration, and cannot be considered an invasion.

The tribes were looking for new lands to settle as

either population growth or the pressure of the

movement of other people encouraged them to move

on. There was no sense of national identity and no

national language in these early centuries of settlement.

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continuation…

The Anglo-Saxons gradually settled the lands

occupied by the Celts. It seems very probable

that Anglo-Saxons had had some dealings with

Celts before they came to Britain.

The major impact of the Celtic language on

English has been through the names of places

and rivers.

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At the middle of the sixth century…

Several distinct regions: Wessex, Sussex,

Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia and North

Umbria

No one of these kingdoms was able to

achieve supremacy over the others,

though they did have some kind of loose

federal structure and the principal ruler

was known as the Bretwalda.

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continuation…

The impetus of writing came from the

conversion of the various kingdoms from

597 when St Augustine arrived in England

and establish a new monastic foundation

and commence producing manuscript for

liturgical use and educational purposes.

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A significant change was the contraction of vowels leading to compensatory lengthening. This occurred particularly where h fell between vowels.

In Old English the system which operated was that nouns had four cases in singular and plural:

Nominative

Accusative

Genetive

Dative

• All nouns are characterized by different forms within each group and these have characteristically been called masculine, feminine, and neuter.

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The verbs were divided into two major categories,

the so-called weak and strong verbs.

The weak verbs were a feature of Germanic

and were formed by adding an inflectional

ending that included a dental or alveolar

consonant.

The strong verbs were formed by changing the

stem vowel, usually through the process known

as ablaut (a form of vowel gradation) but

sometimes through reduplication.

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The strong verb fall into seven distinct

patterns 1. ī ā i i

A stable pattern unaffected by other changes.

ridan rad ridon riden ‘to ride’

2. ēo/ū ē u o

Usually with a single consonant after the stem vowel, which could show the

Stem vowel, which could show the effects of Verner’s law.

Leosan leas luron loren ‘to lose’

3. e æ u o

This original pattern was frequently disturbed because the root vowel was

Followed by two consonant, the first of which was a liquid or nasal.

Helpan healp hulpon holpen ‘to help’

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continuation…

4. e æ ǽ o

A single liquid or nasal after the root vowel

Beran baer baeron boren ‘to bear’

5. e æ ǽ e

A single consonant other than a liquid or nasal after the root vowel.

Sprecan spraec spraecon sprecen ‘to speak

6. a ō ō a

Faran for foron faren ‘to go travel’

7. Reduplication verbs; but the vowel and diphthong of the infinitive was repeated in the Past participle and both form of the preterite had either ē or ēo

Hatan het heton haten ‘to be called’

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ありがとう ございます みんな-さま

Thank’s for your attention

AD: Anno Domini

BF: Before Christ

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