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FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON OLD ENGLISH.

(Baugh and Cable: A History of the English Language.

Chapter 4)

THE CONTACT OF ENGLISH WITH OTHER LANGUAGES

The product of the dialects brought to England by the

Jutes, Saxons and Angles formed the sole basis ot the

English grammar and the source of the largest part of tits

vocabulary.

But English was also brought into contact with at

least three other languages: the language of Celts, Romans

and Scandinavians.

1.- Celtic influence.

The conquest of the Celtic population of Britain by

the Anglo-Saxons and the subsequent mixture to the two

people should have resulted in a mixture of their

languages. But the Celts were by no means exterminated

except in certain areas and in most England large numbers

of them were gradually assimilated into the new culture.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports that:

a) In Andredesceaster and Penvensey not a single

Briton was left alive.

b) In the East and Southeast fewer survivals of

Celtic population remains, and large number of them

fled to the West, where they survived until fairly

late times.

c) Many Celts were held as slaves

d) In parts of the Islands contact between he two

peoples must have been constant and in some

districts intimate for several generations.

2.- Celtic place-names and other loanwords.

The evidence for the contact between Celts and Anglo-

Saxons survives in place-names. Kent, for instance, owes

its name to the Celtic word "Canti" or "Cantion" and also


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the names of two ancient Northumbrian kingdoms: Deira and

Bernicia. Other districts, especially in the West and in

the South-west preserve in their present-day names traces o

their earlier Celtic designations. Devonshire, Cornwall

(means the Cornubian Welsh), also the first syllables of

Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester or Worcester.

In the names of rivers, hills and places in proximity

to these natural features is where the greatest number of

Celtic names survive. For instance the Thames is a Celtic

river name.

Besides this purely Celtic elements, a few Latin

words, such as "fontana", "fossa" or "portus" were used in

naming places during the Roman occupation of the island and

were passed on by the Celts to the English. The evidence of

these names shows that the Celts impressed themselves upon

the Germanic consciousness at least to the extend of

causing the newcomers to adopt many of the local names

current in Celtic speech.

Not more a score of word in OE can be traced to a

Celtic source. Within this small numbers of words it is

possible to distinguish two groups:

a) Those that the Anglo-Saxon learned through everyday

contact with the naives (transmitted orally and of a

popular character).

b) Those that were introduced by the Irish missionaries in

the North (connected with religious activities and more

or less learned words).

In 563 St. Columba had come with twelve monks from

Ireland to preach in Britain. He established his monastery

in the isle of Iona off the west coast of Scotland. As a

result of the spread of Christian doctrine, words such as

"hermit" "magician" "bell" or "history" came into at least

partial use in OE.


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Since the surviving Celts were a submerge people, the

Anglo-Saxons found little occasion to adopt Celtic modes of

expression and the Celtic influence remains the least of

the early influences that affected the English language.

3.- The three Latin influences on OE.

Latin was not the language of a conquered people, it

was the language of a highly regarded civilisation one form

which the Anglo-Saxon wanted to learn.

a) For several hundred years, while the Germanic tribes,

who later became the English, were still occupying their

continental homes, they had various relations with the

Romans through which they acquired a considerable number

of Latin words.

b) When they came to England they learnt from the Celts

additional number of Latin words

c) A century and a half later, when the Roman missionaries

reintroduced Christianity into the island, this new

cultural influence resulted in a quite extensive

adoption of Latin elements into the language.

Chronological criteria.

In order to form and accurate idea of the share that

each of these three periods had in extending the resources

of the English vocabulary it is first necessary to

determine the date at which of the borrowed words entered

the language.

a) Words in literature. If a given word occurs with fairly

frequency in texts such as Beowulf such occurrence

indicates that the word has had time to pass into

current use and that t came into English no later that

the early part of the period of Christian influence. The

problem is that it does not tell us how much earlier it

was known in the language because the earliest records

in English do not back beyond the year 700. Moreover the


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late appearance of a word in literature is no proof of

late adoption.

b) The character of the wordsometimes gives us some clue

to its date. Some words are learned and point to a time

when the church had become well established in the

Island

c) The early occurrence of a word in several of the

Germanic dialects points to the general circulation of

the word in Germanic territory and its probable adoption

by the ancestors of the English on the continent.

d) A number of words found in OE and in Old High German,

for example, can hardly have been borrowed by either

language before the Anglo-Saxons migrated to England but

are due to later independent adoption under conditions

more or less parallel, brought about by the introduction

of Christianity into the two areas. It can be hardly

doubted that a word like "cooper", which is rare in OE,

was nevertheless borrowed on the continent when we find

it in no less than six Germanic languages.

e) Phonetic form of a word. The changes that take place in

the sounds of a language can often be dated with some

definiteness, and the presence or absence of these

changes in a borrowed word constitutes and important

test of age.

1.- Umlaut palatal.

This change affected certain accented vowels and

diphthongs when they are followed in the next syllable

by /i/ or/j/. This change occurred in English in the

course fo the seventh century, and when we find it

taking place in a word borrowed form Latin it

indicates that the Latin word had been taken into

English by that time.

2.- Palatal diphthongization.


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By this sound-change, and /oe/ or /e/ in early OE

was changed to a diphthong when preceded by certain

palatal consonants. In many words evidence for date is

furnished by the sound-changes of Vulgar Latin. For

example, an intervocalic /p/ and /p/ in the

combination /pr/ in the late Latin of northern Gaul

(7th century) was modified to a sound approximating to

/v/ and the fact that the Latin words such as "cuprum"

"coprum" appears in OE as "copor" with the /p/

unchanged indicates a period of borrowing prior to

this change. Again the Latin /i/ changed to /e/ before

A.D. 400 so that words like OE "biscop" (Latin

"episcopus") "disc" (Latin discus) etc, which do not

show this change were borrowed by English on the

continent.

Continental borrowing (Latin influence of the zero period).

Several hundred Latin words found in the various

Germanic dialects at an early date, testify to the

extensive intercourse between the two peoples. Moreover

intercommunication between the different Germanic tribes

was frequent and made possible the transference of Latin

words from one tribe to another. In any case some fifty

words from the Latin can be credited with a considerable

degree of probability to the ancestors of the English in

their continental homes.

Next to agriculture, the chief occupation of the

Germanic tribes in the empire was war and this is reflected

in words like: battle, banner, wall, etc.

More numerous words are connected with trade (bargain,

trade, etc.). One of the most important branches of Roman

commerce with the Germanic people as the wine-trade (wine,

new wine, vinegar, etc.). Also a number of new words relate

to domestic life and designate household articles,

clothing, also the speakers of the Germanic dialects


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adopted Roman words for certain foods such as cheese,

pepper, mustard, etc. Roman contribution to the building

arts are evidenced by such words as chalk, copper, tile.

In general if we are surprised at that number of words

acquired form the Romans at so early date by the Germanic

tribes that came to England, we can see that the words were

such as they would be likely to borrow and such as reflect

in a very reasonable way the relation that existed between

the tow peoples.

Latin through Celtic transmission: First period.

Not five words outside fo a few elements found in

place-names can be really proved to owe their presence in

English to the Roman occupation of Britain. It is probable

that the use of Latin s spoken language did not long

survive the end of the Roman rule in the island and that

such vestiges as remained for a time were lost in the

disorders that accompanied the Germanic invasions. Thus,

there was no opportunity for direct contact between Latin

and OE in England.

The Celtic has adopted a considerable number of Latin

words (more that 600 had been identified) but the relations

between Celts and the English were such, that these words

were not passed on. Among the few Latin words that the

Anglo-Saxons seem to have acquired upon settling in

England, on of the most likely, in spite of its absence

from Celtic languages is "ceaster". This word represents

the Latin "castra" (camp) an is a common designation in OE

for a town or enclosed community. It forms a familiar

element in English place-names such as: Chester,

Colchester, Manchester, Worcester, etc. All these names do

not refer to Roman camps it seems that the English attached

if freely to the designation of any enclosed place intended

for habitation and many of the places so designated were

known by different names in Roman times.


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It is possible that some of the Latin words that the

Germanic speakers had acquired on the continent, such as

"street" "wall" "wine" etc, were reinforced by the presence

of the same words in Celtic. The Latin influence of the

First Period remains much slightest of all the influences

that OE owed to contact with Roman civilisation.

Latin influence of the Second Period.

The greatest influence of Latin upon OE was occasioned

by the conversion of Britain to Roman Christianity,

beginning in 597. Irish monks had been preached the gospel

in the north since the founding of the monastery of Iona by

Columba in 563. However, 597 marks the beginning of a

systematic attempt on the part of Rome to convert the

inhabitants and make England a Christian country.

According to Bede Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine to

England with about 40 monks Augustine arrived to Kent.

AEthelberht, the king, had sought his wife among the

powerful nation of the Franks, and the princess Bertha had

been given to him only on condition that she be allowed to

continue in her Christina faith. AEthelberht set up a small

chapel near his palace in Canterbury and there the priest

who accompanied Bertha to England conducted regular

services for her and the numerous dependents that she

brought with her. AEthelberht as himself baptised within

three months and his example was followed by numbers of his

subjects. By the time Augustine died seven years later, the

kingdom of Kent had become wholly Christian.

The conversion of the rest of England was a gradual

process. In 635 Aidan, a monk from the Scottish monastery

of Iona, independently undertook the reconversion of

Northumbria ant the invitation of King Oswald. Within

twenty years he had made all Northumbria Christian.


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1.- Words whose phonetic form shows that they were borrowed

early and the early adoption is attested also by the fact

that they had found their way into literature by the time

of Alfred.

2.- Words of a more learned character, first recorded in

the tenth and eleventh centuries and owning their

introduction to the religious revival that accompanied the

Benedictine Reform.

Words are generally taken over by one language from

another in answer to a definite need. They are adopted

because they express ideas that are new or because they are

so intimately associated with an object or a concept that

acceptance of the thing involves the acceptance also the

word.

The Anglo-Saxons had come in contact with bishops

before they came to England. But the great majority of

words in OE having to do with the church and its services,

its physical fabric and its ministers, when not of native

origin were borrowed at this time. But the church also

influence on the domestic life and a certain number of

words having to do with education and learning, which shows

another aspect of the church's influence. Finally we may

mention a number of words too miscellaneous to admit

profitable classification.

The Benedictine Reform.

One cause of the decline of the flourishing state of

church is to be attributed to the Danes, who at the end of

8th century began their ravages upon the country.

Lindisfarne was burnt in 793, and Jarrow, Bede's monastery,

was plundered the following year. In the 9th century

throughout Northumbria and Mercia churches and monasteries

lay everywhere in ruins. By the 10th century the decline

had affected the moral of the church and the clergy relaxed

their efforts.


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We hear much complaint about immoderate feasting and

drinking and vanity in dress. In the religious houses

discipline became lax, services were neglected, monasteries

were occupied by groups of secular priests, many of them

married; immorality was flagrant. The work of education was

neglected and learning decaying.

But abuses when bad enough have a way of bringing

about their own reformation. What is needed generally is an

individual with the zeal to lead the way and the ability to

set an example that inspires imitation. King Alfred had

made a start besides restoring churches and founding

monasteries, he strove for twenty years to spread education

in his kingdom and foster learning. But in the later half

of the 10th century three great religious leaders, imbued

with the spirit of reform, arose in the church: Dunstan,

archbishop of Canterbury, Athelwold, bishop of Winchester

and Oswald, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York.

As the first step in the reform the secular clergy

were turned out of the monasteries and their places filled

by monks pledged to the threefold vow of chastity,

obedience and poverty. In their work of restoring

monasteries they received support for the example of

continental monasteries.

Athelwold prepared a version of the Benedictine Rule,

known as the Concordia Regularis. All these facts brought

about a kind of religious revival in the island together

with the improvement of education, the establishment of

schools and the encouragement of learning among the monks

and the clergy. By the close of the century the monasteries

were once more centres of literary activity. Works in

English for the popularising of knowledge were prepared by

men who thus continued the example of King Alfred and

manuscripts both in Latin and the vernacular were copied

and preserved.


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Influence of the Benedictine Reform on English.

As a result of the renewed literary activity just

described, a new series of Latin importations took place.

They are especially frequent in the works of Aelfric and

reflect not only the theological and pedagogical nature of

his writings but also is classical tastes and attainments.

Literary and learned words predominate. A great number of

plant names are recorded in this period and also medical

terms. In general, the later borrowings of the Christian

period come through books.

THE APPLICATION OF NATIVE WORDS TO NEW CONCEPTS.

The English did not always adopt a foreign word to

express a new concept. Often an old word was applied to a

new thing and by a slight adaptation made to express a new

meaning. The Anglo-Saxons, for example, did not borrow the

Latin word "deus" because their own word "God" was

satisfactory equivalent. Likewise "heaven" and "hell"

express conceptions known to Anglo-Saxon paganism and are

consequently English words.

Specific members of the church organisation such as

"pope" "bishop" "monk" etc, represented individuals for

which the English had no equivalent and therefore borrowed

the Latin terms.

It is important to recognise that the significance of

a foreign influence is not to be measured simply by the

foreign words introduced, but is revealed also by the

extend to which it stimulates the language to independent

creative effort and causes it to make full use of its

native resources.

The Extend of the influence.

As a result of the Christianising of Britain some 450

Latin words appeared in English writings before the close


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of the Old English period. But about 100 of these were

purely learned or retained so much of their foreign

character as hardly to be considered part of the English

vocabulary. Of the 350 words that have a right to be

considered, some did not make their own way into general

use until later. The real test of a foreign influence is

the degree to which the words that it brought in were

assimilated. When, for example, the Latin noun "planta"

comes into English as the noun "plant" and later is made

into a verb by the addition of the infinitive ending (-ian:

plantian) and other inflectional elements, we may feel sure

that the word has been assimilated. Assimilation is

likewise indicated by the use of native formative suffixes.

The Latin influence of the Second Period was not only

extensive but throughout and marks the real beginning of

the English habit of freely incorporating foreign elements

into its vocabulary.

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE IN

ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND.

This essay examines the period in which the parent of

Modern English became a separate language, distinct form

other continental Germanic languages. That process began

around AD 450. Within a few hundred years, Anglo-Saxon was

substantially different from continental Saxon or Norse,

though speakers of these varieties could clearly understand

each other.

First the records from this period give us glimpse of

the processes that occurred as a number of subtly different

varieties evolved into a single national variety. Since

this was also the period during which speakers of English

first became writers of English, we can also become


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informed about the role writing can play in the development

of a national variety.

The form of language is determined by the function of

language. We know that we speak more carefully to

strangers, watch our languages, and know the topics are

possible and those that are taboo. Also we know that in

speech situations a number of factors are involved: eye

contact, the need of acknowledge of those to whom we have

such contact, etc. That is everyone naturally speaks, but

writing in somehow less natural. All languages are spoken

but relatively few are written.

Spoken language is found wherever humankind has

developed. But writing systems do not develop

spontaneously. They are spread by such social forces as

conquest, education, political influence, religious

conversion, and trade. That means that written language has

a separate, official status -an authority- that most spoken

varieties lack. Written language greatly mask individuality

and the more formal the writing the fewer distinguishing

characteristic remains.

English has been written for over 1000 years, and the

literate traditions of that millenium have slowed

dramatically the rate at which the written language has

changed. Only when we reach as far back as Shakespeare do

we begin to encounter significant difficulties, and hearing

a Shakespeare play is easier than reading one. One reason

the rate of change of written English has slowed is that it

has simply become too powerful device for communication to

allow individual differences to get in the way of that

communication. Written language in not only a powerful

instrument, but an instrument of power and of the powerful.

Historical linguists cannot go out and collect new

data using the rigorous methods of such modern

sociolinguists as William Labov or Peter Trudgill.


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Historical sociolinguists are forced to make do with the

records that have managed by chance to survive through the

centuries. We can, as Labov suggested, "use the present to

explain the past". Customs and traditions are transitory

and change easily until they become written.

A comparative look at the rates of literacy across our

pluralistic society quickly reveals how closely economic

and social status is related to education and the ability

to read and write our language. When, as speakers of Old

English, our ancestors learned to write their speech, they

also learned a powerful way of establishing and maintaining

social structures.

Venerable Bede, the great Anglo-Saxon scholar,

although he was English he had to write in Latin, since

only the classical languages were regularly written until

this time. Bede pioneered the practice of translating major

texts into English, although unfortunately none of them

survives. He further urged that the clergy be able to teach

the rudiments of Christian doctrine in English. The

principle was so important to him that he spent his waning

energies in dictating from his deathbed an English

translation of St. John's Gospel. His students felt it

worth reporting that Bede chose to sing his death song in

our English speech.

The earliest attestations of written OE are English

names in Latin texts ,in legal documents, or on coins. Soon

English equivalents of difficult Latin words made their

way into texts extending a practice of glossing difficult

Latin words with more common Latin words. Later scribes

began to insert more extensive English glosses in the

spaces between the lines of Latin texts. In the 8th and 9th

centuries, these occasional glosses were assembled and

large Latin-Latin glossaries were complied. (Interlineal

glosses). Not until the educational reforms of King Alfred


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do we find independent translations of Latin words into

idiomatic OE.

To understand the importance of OE texts, we need to

understand the contexts in which they were written. Writing

had broad political and social consequences. Before the

Anglo-Saxon began to write the varieties they spoken, they

were a heterogeneous amalgamation of small and disparate

tribes. These tribal people began to be an to think of

themselves as an English nation just when they began to be

writers of our English language.

By AD 600 the larger, more powerful tribes had

consolidated themselves into the seven kingdoms of the so-

called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (Northumbria, Mercia, East

Anglia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex and Kent. The kings of these

tribal groups were locally powerful warlords who managed

temporarily to secure a tenuous influence over their

eventual usurpers. According to Bede, an overlord was

occasionally able to extend his political influence over

neighbouring kingdoms and to establish a sort of stability

we take for granted. Even though the traditional view of

seven early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is an oversimplification,

it is a useful starting point. In fact, three kingdoms,

each with successively greater influence, were able to

establish widespread influence. First, the Northumbria's

( AD 625-675) about whom Bede is a local resource, were a

dominant influence that gave a period of peace to the whole

nation.

Later, Mercians (AD650-825) fo western and central

England were able to consolidate power over all the

southern English. The West Saxons (AD 800-1050) were the

most successful and Alfred the Great could truly claim to

be king of England in something approaching the modern

sense-


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Of particular interest is the fact that in each case

some degree of political stability occasioned a flowering

of learning. The Northumbrian kings, for example,

established the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow and the

climate that produced the famous school at York, the most

extensive library in Europe and such students as Bede and

Alcuino.

The most authoritative version of the Latin Vulgate

text is preserved in the Codex Amiatinus. That manuscript

was one of three completes Bibles produced around AD 175 in

Northumbria, each of them over 1000 leaves. The immense

cost of such production point out the measure of Anglo-

Saxon dedication to the Word and hence a direct indication

of the importance of literacy to Anglo-Saxon kings.

Ceowulf, of Northumbria paid especial attention to the

production of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Both Ceowulf

and Bede knew the powers of the written word.

Hegemony was developed into something more like

genuine kingship during the West-Saxon period. In fact,

William conquered English in AD 1066 by subduing one

English king. The period of political stability under the

West-Saxons typically fostered its own development of

learning and resulted in a wealth of written products that

reflect, because of already well-established traditions,

the native language of the people and their king. In fact,

the very success of the West- Saxon hegemony has made

studying earlier periods more difficult. because almost all

the surviving OE texts date form the West-Saxon period and

because they are written in a very regular, standardised

literary language. "West-Saxon is often treated as a

synonymous of OE.

The contents of the West-Anglo texts reflect a south-

western view of reality just as certainly as Bede's history

reflects the northern, Northumbria, perspective. Since the


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West-Saxons were the immediate conquerors of the Mercians,

the exigencies of hegemony would encourage neither a

faithful assertion of Mercian strength nor an accurate

account of the glories of the Mercian political and social

achievements. The Mercian hegemony bridges the gap between

Northumbria's first attempts at the political unification

of what is now England and the West-Saxons accomplishment

of that fact. As such, the Mercian period is necessarily

the focus for a study of the origins of English vernacular

literacy. Unfortunately such study is made more difficult

by the fact that the Mercian failed to produce either a

local historian of Bede's stature or a surviving

independent chronicle tradition such as that which aids the

reconstruction of West-Saxon history. For these reasons the

beginnings of English literacy have been understudied and

the contribution of Mercians to the development of English

political and literate culture have been undervalued.

Alfred the Great, in his translation of Gregory's

Pastoral Care complains of the poor state of Latin

literacy. It is important to observe that he is affirming a

higher standard fo English literacy: "yet many could read

English writing". That level of native literacy could only

have been a Mercian achievement. In fact, we have direct

evidence that Alfred was able to build on a strong base of

Mercian scholarship in his efforts to further extend

vernacular literacy. Four of his seven chief aides in that

task were learned Mercians.

The Tribal Hidage is an important document for

understanding the political and social structure of early

Anglo-Saxon England. This document is a listing of the

names of tribal groups. Since the term "hide" designated a

nuclear family or the land they needed to support a nuclear

family, it is clear that this document is some sort of


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census list. No one has ever doubted that the list was

drawn up from a Mercian perspective.

1.- The fact that none of the folk north of the Humber

River are included is a strong indicator that the text was

a southern production

2.- The opening entry establishes the focus of the list

while implying that the current influence of the Mercian

had spread.

The text became intelligible when it is regarded as an

attempt to guide a king's ministers in the exaction of his

dues from subject provinces.

The power of one kingdom might be extend over its peer

kingdoms for a time, but the basic fabric of Anglo-Saxon

unity during the Mercian period was still tribal in nature.

Political unification would depend on an overlord's ability

to effect and maintain a confederation of large and small

tribal groups. The Mercian kings rose from the obscurity of

pre-literate times just as they were first converted to

Christianity. Even Bede, who elsewhere had been able to

ignore the Mercian dynasty, ended his history with a

political survey of England for AD 731 in which he was

forced to recognise the extend of the rising influence of

Mercia. A charter of AD 736 confirms Bede's statement and

describes AEthelbald as "king not only the Mercians but

also of all the provinces which are called by the general

name of South English". AEthelbald's authority at London

is clear from the fact that he regularly collected tolls

form ships in this the major city of his realm.

AEthelbald's confederacy dissolved during a period of

civil war in Mercia that followed his murder, but a distant

cousin Offa, was able to restore peace so quickly that the

years of his reign nominally begin with the year of

AEthelbald's death.


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Two dealings with subkings demonstrate clearly both

the expansion of Offa's powers and the means by which he

was able to effect that expansion. Not only was he granting

lands throughout England at will, but he was able to annul

one of Egbert of Kent's grants and confiscate the subject

lands. A subking, he argued, could not give to another what

was given him by his overlord except with his overlord's

permission. A charter (AD780) of Oslac, an ealdorman of

Sussex, constitutes the first direct evidence that an

Anglo-Saxon king has writers in his employment whom he can

use for official business. The charter itself is written in

a crude an apparently unpractised hadOffa's endorsement is

written in a typical insular hand of the period. Offa's

personal royal scriptorium marks the creation of a

professional learned class whose express concern it was to

record the king's English.

We have evidence that Offa used his professional

scriptorium to help him assert his kingship through the

production of genealogies and laws (in addition to

charters). Offa substantiated the claim of an early charter

that describes him as "sprung form the royal stock of the

Mercians and made king by appointment of Almighty God" by

having his own genealogy compiled from available sources

(probably Northumbrian sources). The survival of that

genealogy in a number of different manuscripts is strong

indication that it was considered a very important

document.

Offa manipulated social convention to make good his

claim to being king of all the English people. he increased

his own dignity by making royal personages of his wife and

son. His wife is the only consort ver to appear on an

English coin. Offa was able to secure the succession of his

son Ecgfrith. Also he maximised his own security by giving


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his daughters in marriage to the kings of Wessex and

Northumbria.

An important measure of Offa's greatness was the

respect he was afforded outside England. He carried on an

extended, friendly correspondence with Charlemagne and

Charlemagne was ever careful to treat Offa as a peer, even

suggesting the marriage of his son Charles to one of Offa's

daughters.

Cultural achievements during the period of Mercian

supremacy reflected the cumulative effect of 18 years of

relative peace under AEthebald and Offa. Archaeological

excavations indicate that this was a period of extensive

fortification and development of towns. For example, Offa

defined the western frontier of his kingdom by initiating

the construction of a 70-mile-long defensive earthwork,

which has been compared to the pyramids in terms of

expenditure of effort. Also the several hundred coins that

survived form Offra's reign evidence an administrative

structure that was both extensive and profitable.

The synod of Clovesho in AD 747 had required that

priest know the mass, the rite of baptism, the creed, and

the Lord's Prayer in English. That requirement helps

account for the impulse among the Anglo-Saxon literati to

compile Latin-Old English glossaries and to make

interlinear glosses to religious texts. The presence of

English glosses in these texts further indicates that the

addition of the vernacular was considered and adornment to

these deluxe productions.

Since the church played such a crucial role in the

establishment of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, kings would

understandably commission of the production of deluxe

Bibles and Psalters for use at state occasions. Any Mercian

king would also want to have his own copy of Bede's


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Ecclesiastical History, the text that proclaims the

ascendancy of the Mercian dynasty

Cynewulf the only major OE poet we know by name, has

long been accepted as a Mercian. The interest that the

author s of the Beowulf and Widsith poems showed in the

continental King Offa prompted Whitelock to suggest that

they were composed during Offa's reign if not at his court.

Powerful kings enabled the Anglo-Saxon peoples to

build a society and culture based on peace rather than on

constant intertribal hostility. 8th century literacy was an

especially Mercian literacy. Eighth-century texts were

Mercian texts no matter where in the southern England were

produced. Since Mercian kings made bishops and founded

monasteries, the religious establishments, the source of

literate scribal class was dependent upon royal patronage.

The construction of Tribal Hidage was among the first

Mercian acts of literacy. The text formalised the economic

base for the Mercian hegemony. The revenue derived form the

Hidage made possible the construction of Mercian defensive

dykes along the western frontier; the ability to assess

taxes no doubt encouraged the production of coins and the

regulation of their integrity. The resultant political

stability enabled the solidification of the powers of the

Mercian kings, and the charters were drawn up to define and

confirm royal prerogatives. Royal support for the major

religious houses made possible the extensive production of

fine manuscripts. The expansion of libraries reinforced the

Mercian renaissance of Latin and English learning. As

literacy flourished in the Rome mode, attention was

directed to the writing of genealogies and the codification

of laws. With the establishment of a royal Mercian

scriptorium, peculiarly Mercian orthographic practices

developed while the production of charters mushroomed.


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The consolidation of Anglo-Saxon politics and culture

was the development of English politics and culture largely

because of the act of English kings writing their own

English language. From earliest times, writing the English

language has been a political act.

if we take manuscripts data seriously and put them

into their historical context, two things happen:

1.- We expect that a heterogeneous , tribal culture on the

verge of making the transition from orality to literacy

would produce documents that reflect a range of spoken

varieties.

2.- When the linguistic variation in the texts is compared

chronologically, distinct patterns of historical

development emerge within data that had first seemed

chaotic. Using as an example the Anglian development of a

raised and rounded vowel before nasal consonant (the

Anglian "lond" vs. non-Anglian "land").

The language of the Vespasian Psalter represents a

standard written variety that can be associated

geographically with the west midlands of England,

politically with the Mercian kings, and chronologically

with the 9th century.

The written standard reflects the geographical dialect

of the politically powerful. Using again the example of the

development of [a] before nasals, it is noteworthy that

political documents written in Kent, a non-Anglia area,

exhibit the Anglian spelling of [o] only during the period

in which Mercia dominated political affairs in the south of

England, and when in fact Offa the Great had installed his

younger brother as the king of Kent. Documents written

before this period reflect the local variety [a]

spellings, as do the documents written during the period of

West Saxon political domination. It is unlike that the

Kentish changed their pronunciation of these words, and it


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is remarkable that they accepted as standard a spelling

that reflected Mercian pronunciation in a way that

parallels the modern divergence of the written and spoken

languages.

Even though we might know that we speak a language

that is a lineal descendant of OE, we also know that the

language has changed, just as dramatically as the nature

and needs of its speakers have change.

TEMA III

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

23.12.99.

1.- POLITICAL HEGEMONY, LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE.

Goidelic , Gaelic Celts Irish

(500.000)

Celtic Scottish Gaelic

(75.000; 5.000 as autonomous)

Manx (Isle of Man, extinguished after the WW

Brythonic Celts Welsh (1/4 of the

Welsh, 2% autonomous)

Cornish (spoken in

Cornwall; extinguished in 18th c)

Celtic is one of the largest IE language families, and can

be divided into two main branches: Goidelic (tribes who

arrived first in Britain) and Brythonic (who arrived later)

In modern times these languages are represented by Irish,

Scottish and Welsh.


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Autonomy.

A language is considered to be autonomous when it is

all you need for communication. The main difference with

dialect is that dialect is not necessarily autonomous at

least when you have a standard language, because you can

use dialect for daily purposes but need the standard form

for more formal uses. A language is autonomous because is

all what you need. If we use a dialect we can be bilingual

but if we use an autonomous language we are not bilingual.

Historical facts.

The story of language contact starts in 55 BC, date of

the 1st Roman expedition to England but before the Romans

arrived, the British Isles had already been settled by

other Indo-European people - the Celts.

In the 5th the 3rd and the 1st centuries different waves

of Celts came to the British Isles. These waves of

immigration are attested though there could already have

been Celts living on the islands. They came from the

continent, from an area that later becomes a province of

Roman Empire: Gaul. The Celts came to the British Isles for

two main reasons:

1. - Either as voluntary settlers looking for new

territories (expansionism).

2. - Or as refugee settlers being expelled from their own

territories.

So there were Celts on both sides of the Channel - the

Celts in Gaul were not easily subjected to Roman supremacy

and as they apparently kept in contact with the Celts in

the British Isles, in 55 BC a Roman general - the Conqueror

Julius Caesar, decided to carry out the 1st Roman

expedition to "England". His purpose could have been to

include these territories into the Empire making England

into another roman province or it could have been a warning


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to the British Celts, a way of discouraging them from

further support to the Continental Celts. This expedition

was not very successful as they found more resistance than

they had expected.

The second expedition was carried out in the year 54

BC and it was successful. Julius Caesar managed to install

himself in the South East of England but for some reasons

the Emperor Augustas ordered Julius Caesar to withdraw his

troops and head for Egypt.

In the year 43 AD the real conquest began under the

Roman emperor Claudius. Claudius and the senator Plautius

arrived with four legions of Roman soldiers (40.000

soldiers approx. according to Baugh and Cable) at the

Islands and reached up to the South bank of the Thames. The

battle took place and after the Roman victory the emperor

returned to Rome to celebrate it. Plautius became the

governor of the new province of the Roman Empire.

Romans used a military strategy for this success. The

Roman troops were very well organised and the first thing

they did was to construct a network of communication. They

built a complete network of Roman roads that crossed the

Island. There were three main roads crossing the country:

1.- Ermine Street: London to Lincoln

2.- Watling Street: London to Wroxeler

3.- Exeter to Lincoln

These roads allowed the Romans to move quickly, to

arrive easily at a place and also to retire from it.

Around the year 70AD the situation was the following:

The whole south and central part of England was under

Roman control. This area is the most fertile of the

Island (corn production)

The military target was Wales and the North of England


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In the year 100 AD the Lowlands were under Roman control

but the Celts, who had been pushed up into the Highlands

were very rebellious and the Roman solution was the

construction of Hadrian's wall, to keep hundreds of

thousands of Celts away from the Roman Empire. This fact

brought about the creation of a social, political and

linguistic division so that nowadays Scotland and England

are what they are because of the wall. The frontier between

Scotland and England is Hadrian's wall. Offla's Dyke was

built by a Saxon king for the same reason, to keep the

Celts in Wales (it is the frontier between Wales and Mercia

-see map A).

Hadrian's wall was 76 miles long, 15 feet high and in

front of it was a 10-foot deep ditch. At regular intervals

there were fortifications (16) to keep the Celts out.

In conclusion, Roman forces displaced the Celtic

population in England but certain areas never came under

Roman control such as Cornwall, Wales and the Scottish

Highlands. (The lowlands were under partial control as

fighting meant that the frontier was mobile).

The approximately 400 years between 43 and 410 AC were

the years of Roman supremacy in England. In 410 came the

definite fall of the Roman Empire with the sacking of Rome

by vandals (Germanic tribes).

Before this date we have a long process of

disintegration that begins in the middle of 3rd century.

Around 240 AD were the 1st Saxon raids on the West Coast of

England. The Romans tried to fortify York and Chester to

make England more secure from Saxon pirates.

In the second half of the 3rd century the Goths

(godos) invaded the Balkan provinces, also part of the

Roman Empire; the Franks crossed the Danube and the Rhine

and entered Gaul and went as far south as Spain. The Roman

Empire was being attacked on many fronts though all the


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Germanic tribes originated in Denmark and just south of

there. In Britain Saxons and Frisians were attacking the

West Coast and the pressure on the Romans from the North

was also very heavy. Finally Hadrian's wall was crossed

and the last battle took place in 410, the same year as the

final blow for the Empire - the year when Rome was sacked.

1.3.99.

The British Isles were under Roman supremacy from 43

AD 409 AD. In 409 the Roman troops in England were

withdrawn and left for the continent in order to help

protect Rome from Germanic attack. The fact that the Roman

troops left Britain meant that the Roman Empire was left

unprotected. There were 40 years of no protection from 409

to 449 and in 449 we have the first attested Germanic

invasions (Angles, Saxon and Jutes).

From a linguistic point of view the contact between

Latin and Celtic brought about a diglossic situation. This

means that there are two different languages or varieties

of languages that are used at the same time but for

different social situations, according to the value placed

on these languages or varieties of language. One language

is used in certain situations and the other in different

situations. An example of a diglossic situation is what

happens in Arabia, where there are two completely different

varieties of Arab. The high variety is always used for

writing, official and for administrative purposes and the

low variety is used at home and for daily purposes. This

situation is completely different from what happens in

Britain now, where there is a standard form used for

writing and academic situations as well as for everyday

speech. There are some speakers who only use the standard

while others may also use a non-standard code for everyday

use but, and this is the important thing these do not need


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more than one language - this differs from diglossia in

which there is a very strict separation of use.

Linguistic situation.

1.- From 43 to 409.

The linguistic situation in those years was diglossia,

in which Latin was the high language and Celtic the low

language. This meant that part of the population spoke only

Latin and another part spoke only Celtic. However a third

section of the population knew both languages and used

them. These then can be described as being in a situation

of diglossic bilingualism - they used Latin or Celtic

according to the situation.

We have evidence that some of the Celtic people

adapted to the new situation under the Roman Empire. E.g.

part of the local administration was in hands of local

aristocracy (Celts), other groups of Celts simply fled to

areas where Romans could never arrive and another section

of the Celtic population were made into slaves and were put

to work extracting copper and lead from the mines.

In the 400 years of coexistence with Latin, Celtic

dialects are believed to have survived amongst Britons and

Roman Celts. These languages would have been used as a low

language and Latin would have been in use as the high

language. Therefore we do not have any Celtic inscriptions

from these years, even the graffiti was written in Latin.

There was also a kind of geographic distribution of

the languages - Latin was used in towns and Celtic in rural

areas. The Romans liked to settle in the urban areas, so

they occupied the major towns throughout the country as

well as the self-supporting villas used for agricultural

purposes. In towns the language spoken was Latin and in

rural areas Celtic, in-between what we have is a diglossic

situation.


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For education Latin was used, the sons of the Celtic

aristocracy would learn Latin and the illiterate lower

classes used only Celtic.

2.- 409-449.

In 409 as Roman troops withdraw we have a period of

economic insecurity. It is believed that the Roman towns in

Britain had to protect themselves from ruffian bands.

Probably the whole English economy would have moved from

the towns to the country as the towns became insecure and

in the countryside, the villas were self-supporting. The

basic means of communication in the towns was Latin and in

the country was Celtic. This return to the country means

the return to Celtic. The truth is that we have very little

information about these facts. We do not know whether there

was a Latin or Celtic speaking population in 449. Baugh and

Cable assume that the population was Celtic speaking.

For the relationship between Celtic and Latin we have 800

attested loan words from Latin into Celtic and 600 loan

words into Welsh. It is not a great amount of loan words if

we think that there was a period of over 400 years of

contact.

Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire

and it was omnifunctional, standardised (urbanised),

autonomous and developed, while the Celtic at the time of

Roman invasion was undeveloped and oral vernacular.

We say that Celtic was oral vernacular in the sense

that the Celts do not use the alphabet for literature, they

used it only for inscriptions. We say that Celtic was

undeveloped in the sense that the society in which the

Celts lived was undeveloped, they were farmers.

On the other hand we say that Latin was omnifunctional

since it would be the only communicative code needed.

Latin had two varieties: Classical and vulgar. Classic

Latin was the standardised variety, spoken by the important


30/67

writers in Rome, the language taught in schools. In the

provinces the variety used was vulgar Latin - rusticas -

non-standard varieties also spoken by soldiers.

The Roman troops made use of a number of soldiers from

different countries (Spain, Africa, etc.) so these soldiers

used vulgar Latin as a lingua franca.

In 449 it is believed that there was a decline in the

public use of Latin and a return to the Celtic language. In

449 the Germanic Invasion of the British Isles takes place.

In Spain the Romans were attacked by Germanic tribes

(Suevos y Pictos) and they invited a Germanic tribe from

the North of Europe to help them against these other

Germanic tribes. The tribe invited was that of the

Visigoths. This Germanic tribe took over the whole

administration in Spain. Finally the Visigoths became

Christian and as Latin was the language of religion, the

Visigoths adopted it. This produced a case of language

shift and spoken Latin became the base of modern Spanish..

The same happened in the area that is now France. The

Franks were converted to Christianity and adopted Latin

which became the base of modern French. But this did not

happen in Britain

2.3.99.

Pack at photocopy service. From Cable and Baugh, make an

scheme:

1.- Continental borrowings (to what extend, type of lexical

items

2.-Roman Celtic influence

Latin influence on OE

3.- Christianity


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Geographical distribution

In the South of England, The Roman Empire was more

predominant than in the North, so in the South Latin

displaced Celtic, while in the North Latin was probably

never imposed.

By 410 the towns had become depopulated their

inhabitants fleeing to rural areas for fear of invasions as

the Roman troops were withdrawn. Great part of Europe, the

ex-Roman provinces, were left with no military protection

and as such were susceptible to invasion. As a consequence,

Britain has to administer its own affairs. This was a

period of instability and depression.

From the linguistic point of view, there is a return

to the Celtic language and a decline in the public use of

Latin. In Britain Latin evloves in the following way:

Celtic displaces the spoken Latin of the Empire

nevertheless we still have some Latin influence in OE. The

influence now comes from Classic Latin. This is what we

call cultural bilingualism. We have a situation of cultural

bilingualism when a language is used mainly in the written

form and not as a mean of communication among people. The

reinstatement of Latin was due to Christianism. The

emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity and this

became the official religion at the end of the Roman

Empire. However before this the Roman troops had taken

their mythology and their divinities to the island.

Therefore when the Roman Empire collapsed there was an

ideological break down as well as the political and

cultural break down and people sought new values and a new

creed. A new and exotic religion, called Christianity,

seems to have appealed to many people probably as a result

of its radical differences with the anterior roman creeds.

It was exotic for them as it came from an exotic and far


32/67

away country. Christianity brought with it not only a new

ideology but also the spread of Latin.

The importance of Christianity for the English language.

England was not fully Christianised until the year

700. The process had started toward the end of the 6th

century and therefore took a little more than a century.

In British Christianisation we find influences from both

the Church of Rome and from the Irish church. Just when

England became converted to Christianity the Viking raids

started. These were heathens as Denmark was not

Christianised until the 10th century.

Germanic invasions.

The Germanic tribes on the continent had abandoned

their native tongues e.g. in Spain - the Visigoths and in

Gaul -the Franks but the same did not happen in England.

Latin use had greatly diminished and roman influence

disintegrated, England had returned to Celtic at the time

of the German invasions, so when they arrived they couldn't

adopt Latin as it has been displaced by the Celtic

language. The first Germanic tribes arrived in 449 and the

Roman troops had abandoned England in 409. The invasion

took place gradually and the fact that there was a lapse of

40 years between the withdrawal of the Roman troops and the

arrival of the Germanic tribes is a key clue to understand

why Latin was not adopted. The idea is that the German

settlers meet a Celtic speaking population more than a

Latin speaking one.

Anglo-Saxon England.

There are two sources of information on this period:

1. - Archaeological evidence.


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34/67

The Chronicle was written from a kind of Southern

perspective (while the Ecclesiastical... gives a

northern one).

8.3.99.

Once the Anglo-Saxons were established in Britain, the

Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy was built up and as a consequence

four main dialectal areas were created. Although we talk

about the Anglo-Saxons we should bare in mind the fact that

there was a third tribe in Britain, the Jutes. These came

from Jutland; nevertheless a complementary theory has been

put forward suggesting that there were migrations of Jutes

to the Baltic coast and the Frisian coast prior to their

migration to the British Isles. This theory is the

conclusion of architectural evidence, which shows the

similarity between the burial practices of these areas and

those of Kent - the area where they settled in Britain.

The motivation of their migration to Britain was similar to

the case of the Visigoths in Spain - they were invited by a

Romano-Celtic chieftain who discovered (too late) the

dangers of looking for foreign aid. According to Bede,

Vortigen - this chieftain, appealed to Rome for help

against a Celtic tribe - the Picts. (This tribe was from

Scotland and Bede's story is the only evidence that

situates them in the South of England). But Aetius -the

chief of the Roman Council in Gaul, did not help them, so

Vortigen followed the same dangerous policy as that

followed in Spain - he appealed for help to a Germanic

tribe, the Jutes. The Jutes were invited to England to help

them subject the Picts (in Kent). In return they would get

gold and territories.

The Jutes arrived in 449 in 3 longships under the

leadership of Hengest and Horsa. They did subject the Picts

but were afterwards dissatisfied with their reward and


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turned against their host Vortigen in AD 455, according to

the Chronicle.

By 488, the first Germanic kingdom had been

established in Kent. Aesc, Hengest's son, became the first

king of Kent. Kentish is one of the four Old-English

dialectal areas (the same as in Middle English).

The next invasion recorded in the Chronicle is that of

the Saxons. The Saxons were a more extensive group than

that of the Jutes, probably a regional group not just one

tribe like in the case of the Jutes. The Saxons made use of

the seax, a short sword, and the name probably comes from

the use of this weapon. The Saxons were the most feared

enemies in Western Europe. They lived on the other side of

the Rhine and Danube and the Roman Empire never reached

there. The Saxon proceeded from the area including

Holstein, at the very north of Germany, and around the

river Elbe. The Saxons were voluntary settlers in England

and we can distinguish three different Saxon tribes:

1.- East-Saxons, who created the kingdom of Essex

2.- South- Saxons, who created the kingdom of Sussex (the

first to arrive)

3.- West-Saxons, who created the kingdom of Wessex..

The South-Saxons, according to the Chronicle, arrived

in 477 and they were the first to arrive. They established

themselves next to the Kingdom of Kent taking advantage of

the fact that the Romano-Celts were occupied fighting

against the Jutes. This made it easy for them to settle

territories and create another Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Bede

says in his Ecclesiastical History that by the year 681,

7000 pagan families were settled in Sussex, where once

Roman villas were scattered throughout the landscape. Bede

completed his Ecclesiastical History by the year 731

summing up the most important facts of the history of

Britain from the birth of Christ till that year from his


36/67

personal Christian (and northern) point of view - this

event was important to Bede given the influx of pagans.

After the South-Saxons, the West-Saxons arrived by the

year 495 and the kingdom of Wessex was established in 519.

Wessex is very important because during the 9th and 10th

century it was the most important political and cultural

centre in all England. The kingdom of Wessex expands slowly

and gradually through continuous wars from the coast of

Hampshire to the West. The court was established in

Winchester and this became an important city in the history

of England, where most texts were written. It was also the

capital of Britain before London took over. By the year 570

the kingdom had expanded to the West and Bath (near

Cornwall) and Gloucester were conquered.

The legendary figure of king Arthur is thought by

historians to be a Romano-Celtic chieftain who fought

against these Germanic invaders.

Essex was the last of the three Saxon kingdoms to be

established. Essex rose as a kingdom in the second quarter

of the 6th century. The Saxons settled down as farmers.

They preferred small-scale settlements and the country

instead of the towns (unlike the Romans); they preferred

small villages rather than the Roman towns or the Roman

villas. They seemed to prefer having their settlements near

rivers and in the valleys, unlike the Celts who preferred

hill crests where they built hill forts, called "oppida" by

the Romans. Many of these villages today have Saxon names

but the rivers have Celtic names. So in the South of

England there were the 4 Germanic kingdoms of Kent, Sussex,

Wessex and Essex and Cornwall which remained in Celtic

hands with Cornish as language.

The next group to arrive was that of the Angles. These

formed an even more extensive group than the Saxons, they

were not a single tribe but branches of Angles and they


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came more or less from the same area as the Jutes, from the

North of Germany, the South of Denmark or from the

Peninsula of Jutland. The Angles settled in the North of

England and created three independent kingdoms. For this

reason it is important to highlight that they were not one

tribe which arrived and then split into 3 kingdoms but

three branches of Anglos arriving independently and

creating independent kingdoms. The three kingdoms were:

Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. Northumbria means

North of the River Humber but we have evidence that

Northumbria was composed of two kingdoms (Deira and

Bernicia), but we talk about Northumbria as a unity. Wales

remained in Celtic hands and with a Celtic tongue.

The 7 kingdoms established by the invaders were all

Germanic but they were constantly at war amongst

themselves. Not only did the Angles fight against the

Saxons, but Angles against Angles. It is important to

realise that although of a common origin, the kingdoms were

completely independent. We can not therefore talk of a

nation at this point, the 7 kingdoms were like 7 different

countries which fought amongst themselves trying to impose

overlordship.

One of these kingdoms then would gain political power

over the rest and this centre of power would move from one

area to another (overlord, important concept in the

readings).

In 641 King Oswald of Northumbria died in a battle

against another Angle, king Penda of the Mercians. Oswald's

successor was Oswin, who decided to take revenge and

organised another battle against the kingdom of Mercia.

Mercia joined forces with the East Anglians and Aethelhere,

(king of East-Anglia) and Penda were killed in the battle.

This shows how they perceived themselves as independent

kingdoms even though they come from the same origin and


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from the same part of England. Oswin's victory meant that

Northumbria became the most important kingdom in the

heptarchy and its supremacy was not only political but also

cultural. In order to understand this situation we must

take into account:

1.- The notion of overlordship

2.- The rise of Christianity. The existence of literacy,

education and schools cannot be understood without taking

Christianity into account.

9.3.99.

We do not know so much about the relationship between

oral and written language in OE but we know that there is a

strong relation between cultural growth and political

stability.

In the 7th C Northumbria was the leading Anglo-Saxon

kingdom in both political and cultural terms, however the

texts were written in Latin. By the 9th and 10th centuries

Wessex had become the leading kingdom and texts were

written in the vernacular language. In 1066 when William

the Conqueror arrives in England he had only to deal with

one king as by that time the country was united under one

leader. The majority of extant texts then come down from

this period preceding the Norman invasion - the period when

Wessex held political and cultural supremacy and when texts

were written in the vernacular West-Saxon dialect. This

means that the tradition of writing in OE had developed

between the 7th century and 9-10th C.

Christianity is an essential factor in order to

understand literacy, cultural growth and political

supremacy. By the year 600 the Heptarchy was established

and by the 700 England was Christian.

When the Anglo-Saxons arrived they believed in Nordic

mythology, the same as the Vikings. Their Gods were Thor,

Woden, Tiw, Frig, Eostre.


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Thor1 Thunder / Thursday

Woden Wednesday

Tiw Tuesday

Frig Friday

Eostre Easter

Christianity.

The Celtic and Roman forms of Christianity were

introduced in Britain in two different ways, so we have to

take these two trends into account. The first Christians

in England were the Celts and the first monastery

established was Tintagel in Wales (470). The first

Christian monasteries founded in England by rich Roman-

Celts were in those years just before the Anglo-Saxons

invasions.

The Celtic Christianity spread to Ireland. Many Roman-

Celts fled to Ireland during the Roman invasion. The two

most famous missionaries were St. Patrick and St. Columba,

both of them important figures of this Irish Christianity.

The famous monastery at Iona in Scotland was founded by

Columba.

Oswald, King of Northumbria, apparently was Christian

since he received a Christian education from Scottish

teachers. In 634 he invited Aidan, a monk, to carry out the

evangelisation of his kingdom; then Aidan founded the

monastery of Lindisfarne (on the holy isle) (map B), which

became the home of the missionary movement in England.

Later on Jarrow was founded, a very important monastery for

literacy (Bede wrote there).

Celtic missionaries carried Christianity to

Northumbria and it spread there in a popular way (preaching

among people). Then Mercia and East-Anglia were

1 Thor crosses the sky with a chariot provoking thunder and when he throws his hammer (one of his main

attributes) it provokes lightening.


40/67

christianised so in this way Christianity spread as far

south as Wessex.

Christianity brought about new ideas and values but

also schools, education and the tool of the written text

(this was something powerful and appealing especially to

the aristocracy). The monks built up churches, monasteries

and schools and in the monasteries there were schools and

scriptoria.

St. Augustine arrived in Kent in 597. Pope Gregory

sent him to christianise the people there. The king of

Kent, , was married to Queen Bertha - a Christian Frank,

who introduced her husband into Christianity, this helped

Augustine in his mission. The methods used by the Roman

missionaries were different from those used by the

missionaries from Ireland who preached to the people - the

Romans were interested only in the conversion of the upper

strata of society - of the sovereigns, and simply assumed

the people would follow their leaders..

By the mid 7th

C. there were two contending

traditions: Celtic Christianity and Roman Christianity.

There was no consensus as regards certain aspects of

religion (remember that Christianity was then being

created). The Celts and the Romans did not agree on the

tonsure or the dating of Easter, etc. All these

disagreements made it difficult to follow a united kind of

Christianity. In order to solve these differences a Synod

at Whitby was held in 664.

The Celtic tradition, represented by the bishop of the

monastery of Lindisfarne, represented the majority of the

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. However, the final outcome was that

the Roman tradition came out the winner for the simple

reason that in this way the Church of England followed the

line of other Christian churches in Europe (Roman

Christianity was more organised hierarchically). If the


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Celtic tradition had been accepted England's line of

thought would have differed from the rest of the Continent.

1.- The first written Anglo-Saxon words that we find are

names of places/persons included in Latin texts or coins.

2.- We also find words or small stretches of speech, of

vernacular inserted within Latin speech, firstly we find:

a) Original Latin text with difficult Latin words

explained with simpler Latin words

b) Latin texts with certain difficult Latin words

translated into the vernacular dialect (above or

below) by the monks working in the scriptorium.

This practice became more and more common until the Latin

model were written with big spaces to allow the

introduction of interlinear glosses (with word by word

translation). Later on direct translation would appear.

Therefore we do have early examples of the vernacular but

with Latin as a model - we do not get real written prose in

vernacular until the 9th

C.

15.3.99.

Social and political contexts of language change in Anglo-

Saxon England(Photocopies)

All societies have a spoken language but the majority

of them do not have a written form and obviously these oral

languages are not the important ones. The widespread

literacy belongs to this century and only to the developed

societies of the 1st world. 3rd world illiteracy is still

common. The speech channel of communication is more natural

while written channels are less natural.

(pg. 29, 30)

Toon associates the written language with a developed

society with a centralised government, so he talks about

the authority of written language, which spoken dialects

lacks, and develops this idea through the article. It


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equates written language with a developed society with a

centralised government that needs that authority than

written language can provided. Kings could show and fix

their political power through the written word.

Literacy is closely connected with the church and

there is a relation of dependency between the court and the

church, as the documents were written by church scribes.

So, the clergy provided this written evidence that the

king's needed.

(pg. 32)

The Heptarchy is described as a tribal affair. The

authors talk of overlord. The king of the three big

kingdoms of the Heptarchy acquires such power that he

establishes his influence and power over the rest of kings

who became sub-kings (but it does meant that the overlord

conquered the other kingdoms).

Northumbrians acquire political supremacy over the

rest in the years 625-675; the Mercians 650-825 and the

West-Saxons from 800 to 1050. The Northumbrian king was the

most powerful overlord in the country. Toon describes the

state of learning in Northumbria in this period. Along with

the political stability comes cultural growth (monasteries

such as Jarrow, Wearthmouth and York, where there was the

largest library in the whole Europe). Three Bibles,

beautiful decorated, were produced around 715 in

Northumbria. These are only Latin texts though Bede

translated into the Vernacular but these texts have been

lost. The Northumbrian kings promoted learning and the

church is already connected to the royal court.

In the West-Saxon period (800-1050) there is political

unification of the whole nation. Power is concentrated in

one king: Alfred the Great of Wessex. The Mercians had had

control over the all England, except Northumbria but the

Viking invasions had begun forcing the kingdoms to unite


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and defend and Alfred unified the country against the

foreign invaders. The administration was centralised at

Winchester (Wessex). There is a process of standardisation

and almost all extant texts were written in West-Saxon

dialect and the majority of them from the late West-Saxon

period. This dialect (late West-Saxon) is different from

OE. Late West-Saxon dialect is just one of the dialects of

the period. There were 4 main dialects: Northumbrian,

Mercian, Kentish and West-Saxon).

There are two main reasons why the majority of texts

were written in West-Saxon dialect:

1.- Under the King Alfred the Great (dead in 899) there is

a shift in emphasis from use of Latin, as the official

instrument to the use of the vernacular dialects.

2.- The process of standardisation.

Due to the standardisation this dialect becomes the

more prestigious variety from the West-Saxon period

onwards. All scribes, even from Northumbria, will make use

of this dialect (the Northumbrian dialect still exists).

But this process of standardisation was interrupted by the

Norman conquest. Toon's idea is that in Northumbria the

majority of texts are written in Latin while in West-Saxon

period lots of texts were written in vernacular. Toon

considers it wrong that Alfred himself started that process

but that the process starts in the Mercian supremacy.

Pg. 34.

Alfred complains about the state of Latin learning but

many could read in English, so it means a Mercian

achievement. Among the learned that Alfred had in his court

there were learned Mercians. We know little about the

Mercian period because there is no important written texts

form this period, at least extant. Bede concludes his

Ecclesiastical History in 731 (the time of Mercian

supremacy in the south) and gives the Northumbrian's point


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of view. Also the West-Saxons have their Anglo-Saxon

Chronicle written with the West-Saxon's perspective,

ignoring Mercia, the formerly powerful neighbour.

16.3.99. (Photocopies pg. 35).

The country is not only divided in geographical

regions but also is divided tribally. In the south of the

river Humber there were Mercians with 30.000 hides (enough

land to support 30.000 nuclear families) West-Saxons

100.000 hides and Kentish 15.000 hides. The Mercian king

was the overlord, ruling over Kent and West-Saxon tribes.

These three groups mentioned above were the most important

groups but there were other smaller groups, which also

depended directly on the overlord who offered them

protection. So the different tribes depend on one mighty

ruler. The political stability secured this way was fragile

as one of the big tribe leaders may convince other tribes

that he was more powerful and take over the role of

overlord. The overlord doesn't conquer the neighbouring

kingdoms rather these are loyal to and depend on that

ruler.

Pg. 36.

Wulfhere, Penda's son, was the first to achieve such

power as to be considered overlord. He conquered West-

Saxons and granted lands to neighbouring kingdoms. When a

piece of land is granted the state of affairs is reflected

in charters and the receiver of lands referred to in the

charter as sub-king under the authority of the overlord.

Pg. 37.

Written documents that proved how mighty a ruler was,

increased and legitimised the authority of that ruler. It

reinforces overlords's power changing it from a military

supremacy to a political authority. The Mercian reigns of

Athelbald (716-757) and Offa the Great (757-796) provided

England with approximately 80 years of political stability


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and in order to have culture what we need is political

stability.

Pg. 40: Relation between political power and the church

Offa had another archbishop officiated in Lichfield.

Formerly there was one in Kent and in York (now one was

created in Lichfield). The fact that the Pope permitted the

creation of another archbishop is an indication of Offa's

influence. The new archbishop was an important witnesses to

Offa's acquisition of land in Kent, something that the

Archbishop of Canterbury (Kent) and York were reluctant to

witness certain actions of the Mercian king. Toon says that

the new archbishop acts as witness of a grant in Kent. This

is also the relationship between king and Church.

Pg. 40.

The Synod priests were told to say mass in vernacular

and were required to have knowledge of OE to communicate

with the people in their own language. As a result of the

Synod there are more interlinear glosses. The documents of

the land grants (charters) were still written in Latin and

still the interlinear glosses were written in Mercian

dialect. The real source of Mercian that we have is in

interlinear glosses. Little by little the tradition of

writing in English was created in the Mercian period. Offa

built an offensive dyke separating the Welsh from Mercia

(map A). This also accounts for the fact that the Welsh,

based on Celtic, remained so different from Anglo-Saxon

dialects.

8th, 9th and 10th centuries: West-Saxon period.

The 8th century is still the period of Mercian

supremacy, but the Viking invasions. The majority of extant

texts come down from the late West- Saxon period (those

from the 10th century are partially translated).


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In the 9th century we have the figure of King Alfred

and Wessex has become the most powerful kingdom. (In the

9th century there was lot of variation in the spelling of

the West-Saxon text). Not until the 10th century do we find

the spelling standardisation.

The story begins with the Vikings (8th century). The

Vikings both culturally and linguistically made a cohesive

group. They came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Their

huge expansion began in the 8th century. The Swedes went

towards the East and South (Russian, Poland and the

Balkans). The Norwegians and the Danes headed primarily

West and South (Germany, France, Britain as far as south

Spain - Viking ships went up the Guadalquivir). Their

expansion, North-South, was stopped by Charlemagne in

France, in the last quarter of the 8th century. Charlemagne

ruled over France, Frisia, Germany, Old-Saxony, and the

major part of the West Europe except Spain.

Viking expansion began with a series of rapid raids

for pillage on the east coast of Britain and the islands.

Their main targets were wealthy monasteries and abbeys. The

Vikings were pagans (they believed in the same Nordic

mythology as the late Germanic tribes -who were now

Christian in Britain) and their motivations were strictly

to get gold and silver. The year 793 marks the beginning of

a massive Viking's attack. The monastery of Lindisfarne,

placed on an island off Northumbria, was an easy target and

was destroyed. The burning of these monasteries to get at

gold and silver meant the loss of invaluable documents.

22.3.99. (No hubo clase)


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23.3.99

WESSEX SUPREMACY

9TH CENTURY 10TH CENTURY

AElfred the Great Benedictine Reform

(Literacy) (Process of Standardisation)

VIKING'S PRESENCE

In the 9th century we have to discuss the role of

AElfred the Great, and in the 10th century the Benedictine

Reform and its implications in the process of the

standardisation, interrupted by the Norman Conquest.

England is under Danish rulers till 11th century. The first

Viking invasions began in the later 9th century. In 793

Lindisfarne was destroyed and in 794 Jarrow was also burnt

by Vikings.

Relationship between language and Scandinavian invasions.

The first time we have evidences that Scandinavian

people spent the winter in England is the year

850. From 793 to 850 Danish people made short incursions, a

series of raids for pillage, usually in spring, but in 850

they spent the winter in Kent and from then onwards the

motivation was just not economical but the settlement in

England. It is thought that the true motive of the Viking


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expansion through Europe was simply overpopulation in their

homelands.

In 850 AEthelwulf was the king of Wessex and during

his reign the

Viking attacks increased both in force and in number. His

four sons followed AEthelwulf. In 865 AEthered, his third

son, was king of East-Anglia. In East-Anglia, a great

Viking Army was landed and they remained a whole year

before proceeding their expansion towards the north

(Northumbria) and South (Sussex).

AElfred the Great (AEthelwulf's fourth son) became

king of Wessex at the age of 24 years old, upon his

brother's death. AElfred was born in 849, and he went to

Rome at least in two occasions, when he was 4 and when he

was 6 years old to see the Pope. His father died when he

was 9 and his mother had died when he was 7 years old. He

married the daughter of a Mercian nobleman.

AElfred is a young king of Wessex when all the Viking

attacks increased, especially in the North. In 872, AElfred

and the Mercians realised the danger of Vikings as they

were too powerful to be subjected at battlefield, so they

made an agreement with the Vikings. Viking Chieftains began

to exact tribute to maintain the peace. The tribute was

called Danelged or Danelaw (Danelged, exactly means

"danelaw"). Danelged is "money for the Danish (geld means

"gold" in German).

In 875, 3 years later the Danelaw, both Mercia and

Northumbria were occupied by Viking forces. In 878, the

Viking target is Wessex as Kent is simply insignificant and

the only real Anglo-Saxon kingdom out of control of Vikings

was Wessex.

In 878 AElfred won a victory over Guthrum, a Viking

chieftain called Guthrum, who was baptised and apparently


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had promised no to attack Wessex and Kent. He break his

promise and the following year he attacked Wessex again.

In the same year, a kind of political stability is

acquired and Viking settlements were controlled and Mercia

is also part of the Kingdom of Wessex. The fact is England

had became divided into two different spaces (the Roman

road called "Watling Street" divided the "country"): the

north and the South. AElfred has become king of England,

but although this fact, he had little control over the

North and he had to respect the political North supremacy,

so there was a relative peace.

This is the situation until the second Scandinavian

invasion, when Vikings occupied the whole of England.

I