Alfred the Great's most important contribution to Old English prose literature Content

4. Study of the features of the Old English language on the example of written monuments
First, the corpus of surviving Old English (and Old Germanic) prose texts is several times larger than the corpus of poetic texts. Scholars have calculated that the ratio of Old English prose to poetry is 10:1. Data from one of the dictionaries of the Old English language (the Toronto Dictionary of Old English project) [12] is also given, in which out of three million words, 69% are labeled “prosaisms” and only 6% are labeled “poeticisms”. Nevertheless, the attention of researchers is mostly riveted to ancient Germanic poetry, and not to prose, which, in general, is explained by the extraordinary content and formal originality of poetic texts, however, it leads to a distortion of our ideas about the real historical, cultural and literary contexts of the era. . The poetic vocabulary of the English language of the ancient period differs significantly from the vocabulary of Old English prose. ¹¹
The first thing to note in this regard is the abundance of synonyms that we find in poetic language (epic formulas), especially for those concepts that are of particular importance in the life of Old English society. These formulas include thaet waes god cyning! - the king was kind! Numerous names of the ship also belong to them - flota, bāt, wunden-stefna; the names of the sea - hrān-rād, strēamas, brim, the names of warriors - beorn, rinc, pe_n, mec_, sec_, wer. There were 37 poetic synonyms for the concept of 'hero' in Old English, 17 for the concept of sea, and 12 for battle.
Most of the surviving prose is represented by sermons and Latin translations of religious works. Old English prose began to appear in the ninth century, and continued to develop through the twelfth .
A well-known author of Old English was King Alfred, who translated many books from Latin into Old English. So he translated from the Latin language, which he learned only in the 36th year of his life, into the Anglo-Saxon language the famous work of Boethius "On the Consolation of Philosophy"; The “History” of Bede the Venerable, in its revision, became for centuries the favorite reading of the people; he translated the "History" of Orosius and inserted into it a description of the Germanic and northern lands according to the stories of two navigators who visited these places. He translated and revised the work of Pope Gregory the Great "Care for the Soul". They also write that he translated some chapters from the Bible and the writings of Blessed Augustine, Aesop's fables and some other books. At the initiative of Alfred, in 891, the work that we now know as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was started.¹²
Aelfric the Grammar, wrote at the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century. He was the greatest author and created many Anglo-Saxon sermons that were copied and adapted only in the 13th century. He also wrote many biographies of the saints, pastoral letters, translations of the first six books of the Bible, commentaries and translations of other parts of the Bible including Proverbs, Wisdom and Ecclesiastes.
One of the earliest Old English prose texts is the Lives of the Martyrs. It is preserved in six fragments.
There are many Old English translations of many parts of the Bible. Elfric made many translations of the Old Testament. The gospel was the most popular.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was probably begun in the time of King Alfred and continued for over 300 years as a historical record of Anglo-Saxon history.
The only example of a classic novel that has survived is a fragment of the Apollonius of Tire story from the 11th century.
There are many interesting medical works. Collection of texts - Bald's Leechbook , is a 10th century book containing some surgical treatments. The third collection, known as Lacnunga, includes many charms and spells.
Anglo-Saxon legal texts are a large and important part. By the 12th century, they were collected in two large collections (Textus Roffensis). They include the laws of kings.¹³
Secondly, due to the peculiarities of the ancient Germanic alliterative verse, not all structural types of words could be used in poetry. In particular, this concerns borrowings from Latin and other languages, as well as a large number of word-formation cripples, which were the most characteristic sign of the historical period under consideration as a result of active contact with a foreign culture. The neglect of prose texts in this case turned out to be the reason for underestimating the significance and role of this layer of vocabulary for the development of the Germanic languages.
At first, Old English was written in the runic alphabet, but switched to Latin with some additions: yoh ( Ȝ ), borrowed from Irish; the letter ed (Ð, eth) and the letters thorn (Þ) and winn ( Ƿ ), which are runic in origin. Also used was the union symbol "and", similar to the number "7" and the symbol of the relative pronoun þæt ( that ) - the letter thorn with a line on the upper tail. In addition, longitude marks over vowels were occasionally used, abbreviations for the following letters "m" or "n". [ 13]
5. The study of the features of the Old English language on the example of the text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ca. 898-902
Brief records of the events that, starting from the 7th century, were kept in the Anglo-Saxon monasteries, were in the 2nd half of the 9th century. united and replenished in Winchester, the capital of Wessex England. These early Winchester Chronicles were then rewritten at Winchester itself and elsewhere in England, augmented by later insertions, and records of subsequent events were added to them from year to year. The famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the result of this work. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a series of parallel records united in a book, starting from the era of Caesar and continuing to different times in different manuscripts - from the 10th to the 12th centuries. Of all the manuscripts, two are the most important: the Parker manuscript [14], in which entries up to 891 г. written in the Wessex dialect by a ninth-century scribe. and which is thus the earliest surviving manuscript, and the so-called P eter borough chronicle, which, unlike other chronicles, continues until 1154.¹⁴
This year the army came to Reading in Wessex; and three nights after this the two chiefs met with Alderman Ethelwulf at Inglefield; there he fought them and was victorious. About four nights after this, King Ethered and Alfred, his brother, brought the main army to Reading, where they fought the enemy; and there were great casualties on both sides, Ethelwulf the alderman was among the slain; but the Danes remained masters of the battlefield. After this, Alfred, his brother, son of Ethelwulf, took possession of the kingdom of Wessex. And a month after this, King Alfred, with a small force, fought against the whole army at Wilton, and pursued it for a long time during the day; but the Danes remained masters of the battlefield. In this year, there were nine great battles in the kingdom with the army south of the Thames; besides those skirmishes in which Alfred the king's brother, and every alderman and thane of the king, often rode against them; which cannot be counted. Also in this year nine jarls and one king were slain; and in the same year the West Saxons made peace with the army.

Foreign influence on the vocabulary (Celtic languages, Latin, Scandinavian languages). The lexical composition consisted mainly of words of Germanic origin:

Cu ō m past. temp. from cuman - German. k omenn (dvn. queman ), dsk. koma ;
Here - German . Heer, dsk . herr;
Night - German . Nacht, dsk . natt;
Cynin_ - German König ( dvn . kuning), cf. dsk . konungr;
ēare - German . Jahr, dsk . ar;
Brōþur - German . Bruder, dsk . bróðir;
Fēn_ past . from fon - German . fangen ( Dbr . fāhan), dsk . fa;
Rīce - German . Reich, dsk . riki;

In the Old English period, words are borrowed from the Latin language:

M ō na þ - lat. Mēnsis ; _
Nā mon - lat. nomen ;

Prefix:
the prefix _e forms the perfect form of the verb -

_ em ē tte - past. from the word m ē tan ;
_ efeaht - past. from the word feohtan ;
_efuhton
_eslæ
_ehwæþre
_ewald
_efliemde
_efohten

Phrasing:

Aldorman (alderman, leader) \ u003d alder (leader) + man (man)
Folc _ efeoht (great battle) = folc (people) + _e feoht (battle, battle)
The original letters of William the Conqueror are kept in the London City Hall. The first of the charters probably refers to the beginning of the reign of William (1066-1087), the second, apparently, was written later, but not later than 1075 гthe last year of the bishopric of William of London. These documents are very important because they are the first linguistic monuments of the city of London. The literate language, which hardly differs from the Wessex dialect, speaks of the latter's special position as a "supra-dialect" form. At the same time, although the spelling of the monuments is generally conservative, a number of deviations from the Late Wessex (and especially the phonetic spellings encountered) indicate a certain loosening of the norm.
Will(el)m kyn_ _ret Will(el)m bisceop and _osfre_ð portirēfan and ealle( all ) þā burhwaru(citizens) binnan( at ) Londone, Frencisce and En_lisce, frēondlīce(friendly). And ic kyðe( to declare ) ēow(you) þæt( this one ) ic wylle þæt _et bēon(to be) eallra þæra la_a weorðe(worthwhile, valuable) þē _yt( still ) wæran( to be ) on Eadwordes dæ_e( day ) kyn_es. And ic wylle þæt ælc( each ) cyld bēo his fæder yrf-nume æfter his fæder dæ_e. And ic nelle _eþolian(suffer?) þæt æni_( everyone , anyone ) man ēow æni_ wran_( wrong ?) bēode. _ od (good) ē ow (you) _ ehealde ! [fourteen]
Reverse word order in sentences:

Direct word order:

words from latin:
bisceop - lat . episcopus
bēon - lat . fui
words from the Gothic language:
ky ð e – Goth. gaswikun þ jan
þæ t - Goth. Þ ata
æ lc - Goth. aiws , lat. aevum
_ od - goth. goþs _

Prefix:
prefix _e

_ehealde _
_ e þ olian
Will(el)m kyn_ _rēt(call?welcom?) Will(el)mb(isceop) and Swe_n scyr_erēfan and ealle( all ) mīne( me ) þe_nas( man ) on Ēastseaxan frēondlīce. And ic kyðe( to declare ) ēow( you ) þæt ic habbe( to rise ?) _eunnen(to grant) Dēormanne, mīnan men, þā hīde(measure of the earth) landes æt _yddesdune þē hi(m) of _eryden wæs. And ic nelle _eþolian( to suffer ) Frenciscan ne En_liscan þæt him æt æni_an(everyone , any ) þin_an misbēode. [fourteen]

Reverse word order in sentences:

Direct word order:
words of Gothic origin:
_ e þ olian - Goth. Þulan
Prefix:
prefix _e
Findings:
1) in these passages, the bulk of the words are borrowed from the German language;
2) borrowings from French are not significant; Latin borrowings are associated with trade;
3) in most sentences the word order is direct;
4) the most common prefix is the prefix _e;
Conclusion

So, having studied and analyzed the literature on history, geography, linguistics and linguistics, and on the basis of this literature, as well as on the basis of my research, this work was written.

The subject of the study was various written monuments of the Old English period. Based on the subject of research, I tried to solve the following problems:

1. 
   identify the characteristic features of the formation of the English language;
   
2. 
   identify the features of the literary language in the Old English period;
   
3. 
   explore passages in Old English poetry and prose.
   

I also investigated and described the influence of historical eras on the formation of English writing.
I tried to describe the features of the poetic genre of the Old English period, and give a sufficient number of examples.
The value of the analysis is that, despite the fact that this topic has been sufficiently studied and described, I tried to consider it from the perspective of the influence of the emergence, difference and dependence of the current English writing system on the historical and territorial composition of England.
The above examples show how dramatic the history of the emergence and development of English writing is. The English language has undergone significant changes, due not only to geographical, but also to social reasons. Written monuments are not just information imprinted in the form of signs and letters, but a living source of the history of the ancient period, bearing the imprints of life, culture, and life features of the past era.
In the course of the work, excerpts from Old English prose and poetic works were studied and features of the language characteristic of the Old English language were identified. Compared with modern English, the language of the Old ­English period can be characterized as a synthetic language. This means that Old English had a grammatical structure in which a single word, such as a noun, adjective, or verb, takes on various formal elements (affixes) to express the relationship of this word with other words in a sentence. Borrowings are mainly from German, there are very few borrowings from other languages. The enrichment of the vocabulary also went through the formation of new words from those already existing in the language. Such methods as compounding, suffixing, prefixing were common.
Thus, Old English is very different from modern English, both syntactically and lexically.
The results of the work can be used to conduct theoretical courses on learning English.