Terminology
What is Old English?
The earliest form of the English language (5th–11th century).
Who brought Old English to Britain?
The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.
When was Old English spoken?
Around 450–1100 AD.
Name one Old English dialect.
West Saxon.
How many cases did Old English nouns have?
Four (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative).
What is grammatical gender?
Nouns are masculine, feminine, or neuter.
What are strong verbs?
Verbs that change vowels (e.g., sing–sang).
What are weak verbs?
Verbs that add endings (e.g., love–loved).
Was Old English highly inflected?
Yes. Old English was a highly inflected language, which means word endings changed to show grammatical meaning (such as case, number, gender, tense, and person).
What does “synthetic language” mean?
Meaning is shown by word endings.
What alphabet was used?
Latin alphabet (with extra letters).
Name one Old English letter.
Þ (thorn).
What is Beowulf?
A famous Old English epic poem.
What influenced Old English vocabulary?
Germanic roots.
Did word order matter in Old English?
Less than in Modern English.
What role did Vikings play?
They added new words.
What religion influenced Old English texts?
Christianity.
What event ended Old English period?
The Norman Conquest (1066).
What type of poetry was common?
Alliterative poetry.
What is alliteration?
Repetition of initial sounds.
What is the dative case used for?
It shows the indirect object (to/for someone).
What is the genitive case used for?
It shows possession (like “’s” in Modern English).
Did Old English use articles like “the”?
Yes (e.g., “se”, “seo”, “þæt”).
What happened to Old English after 1100?
It developed into Middle English.
Why was Old English spelling different?
It was based on pronunciation, not fixed rules.