The Earliest English by Mccully, Chris -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Terminology

List of symbols and a note on conventions Abbreviations

Using this book UNIT 1: Thinking about the earliest English

1.0 Preliminaries 1.1 Uniformity and change 1.2 Initial terminology 1.3 Old English poetry 1.4 Reading passage 1.5 Words, words, words 1.6 Pronouncing Old English Summary Study questions; websites; further reading

UNIT 2: History, culture, language origins

2.0 Reading passage 2.1 Some history 2.2 A language-family tree 2.3 The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy Summary Study questions; websites; further reading

UNIT 3: Nouns

3.0 Mercenaries and settlers 3.1 The Germania 3.2 The Germania and the Anglo-Saxons 3.3 Local shires and their politics 3.4 Women 3.5 Reading passage 3.6 Inflections, nouns and grammatical roles 3.7 Inflections in other languages 3.8 Articles in OE 3.9 More on OE articles, noun inflections and grammatical case 3.10 Inflections on OE nouns 3.11 Additional noun declensions in OE 3.12 Pronouns 3.13 NPs, nominals, strong and weak adjectives Summary Study questions; websites; further reading Appendix 1: At-a-glance guide to OE inflections – nouns and adjectives

UNIT 4: Verbs

4.0 The conversion of England 4.1 Influence of the Celtic church 4.2 The convergence of the Celtic and Roman traditions 4.3 Reading passage (1) 4.4 Word order and pronouns in OE 4.5 OE verbs: present participles 4.6 Relative clauses 4.7 Thou and you in OE 4.8 OE and PDE verbs 4.9 ‘Less regular’ verbs 4.10 Still more on OE verbs 4.11 Weak verbs 4.12 Reading passage (2) 4.13 Comments on reading passage (2) – the subjunctive Summary Study questions; websites; further reading Appendix 2: At-a-glance guide to OE inflections – verbs

INTERLUDE: Working with dictionaries UNIT 5: OE metrics

5.0 Overview of OE metre 5.1 Stress in OE 5.2 Syllables in OE and PDE 5.3 Syllables and alliteration 5.4 How half-lines end: poetic closure in OE 5.5 Resolution 5.6 The concept of metrical position in OE verse 5.7 Half-line patterns that never occur 5.8 The Five Types 5.9 Secondary stress, metrical position and ‘L’ 5.10 Stress, L and alliteration Summary Study questions; websites; further reading

UNIT 6: Standards and crosses

6.0 Poetry and prose 6.1 The emergence of Wessex 6.2 Alfred’s programme of cultural reform 6.3 What makes West Saxon West Saxon? 6.4 Quibbling with ‘Breaking’ 6.5 What is ‘an account of linguistic change’? 6.6 Crosses Summary Study questions; websites; further reading

UNIT 7: Twilight

7.0 A ‘Silver Age’? 7.1 The reinvention of West Saxon prestige 7.2 Alliterative prose (1): Ӕlfric 7.3 Alliterative prose (2): Wulfstan 7.4 Inflectional loss: introductory questions 7.5 Inflectional loss (1): evidence from the late 10th century 7.6 Inflectional loss (2): what was lost? Summary Study questions; websites; further reading

UNIT 8: Rebuilding English

8.0 Hastings and after 8.1 English, Norman and Anglo-Norman 8.2 Was English ever a creole? 8.3 Remodelling the pronoun system 8.4 The Peterborough Chronicle: reading and study passage 8.5 New models of verse 8.6 Orm 8.7 Envoi: The ‘Alliterative Revival’ Summary Study questions; websites; further reading

Appendix 1: At-a-glance guide to OE inflections – nouns and adjectives Appendix 2: At-a-glance guide to OE inflections – verbs References Index