Written records of English have been preserved for about 1,300 years; Near the Caspian Sea, a language was spoken that would develop into English; Proto-Indo-European; called this because it was spoken from Europe to India; proto = the earliest or first of something; Language spread throughout Middle East and Europe; Eventually changed into Persian, Greek, Russian, Spanish, etc. – called Indo-European

Speakers of Indo-European migrated all over the world; Some, called Angles and Saxons were part of Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe; Eventually, they migrated to the island of Britain around the middle of the fifth century; Britain inhabited by Indo-European cousins, the Britons – Celtic people after whom the island was named; Britain came to be called Engla land (England)– land of the Angles; Encountered Celts, although there was very little influence on language from them – Dover, London

Through missionary work from the Irish and the Roman church, the English language was strongly influenced; Latin from Roman soldiers and merchants; words like mile, street wall, wine, cheese, butter and dish Words borrowed from the Vikings who attempted to take over Britain but were unsuccessful: get, give, hit, kick, law, sister, etc.

Despite all influences, old English was a Germanic tongue; Compared to modern English, it had different words – costnunge for temptation; Different spellings and pronunciations – nama for name Different meanings – hlaf, in the sense of “bread”, loaf Grammar – All nouns were one of three genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter Ex: woman – hlæfdige was feminine; wif was neuter ; wifmann was masculine

Adjectives – different forms depending on the gender, number, and case of the nouns they modified Our verbs have two forms in the present tense (ride, rides); Old English had four: I ride – Ich ride You ride – pū ridest He rides - hē ridep We ride – wē ridon Old English used endings on words to show how they relate to one another and how they are used in a sentence; Rounded style of writing used; for special purposes a different alphabet was used called futhorc composed of letters called runes; straight, angular letters that were used for carving on wood;

Old English was mainly oral; writing was usually reserved for Latin; Latin was the language of church services, education, and contact with other nations – if you did not know Latin, you were considered illiterate; Old English is still evident in our language today; many of our modern words are survived from Old English: heart – heorte foot – fōt head – heāfod day – dæg year – gēar earth - eorpe Noun plural endings s and possessive ending ‘s, endings to compare adjectives (er, est), endings for past tense and past participle of our verbs (healed, has healed) all from Old English