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In order to understand and interpret in its historical and linguistic backdrop, The Gospel of SaintMatthew in West Saxon: edited from the manuscripts by James Wilson Bright. Belles Lettres Series.
Boston, MA & London: Heath, 1910: p.27. I will first give a historical overview of the emergence of Old
English and the influence of Latin and Old Norse before proceeding to further points of discussion.
During the 5th and 6th centuries, after the Roman withdraw from Britain by 420 CE, Germanic tribes
knowns as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain and established mutually intelligible dialects,
which formulated the starting point of Old English. The Celts inhabited Britain before the arrival of the
Anglo-Saxons. However little linguistic features of the Celtic language were retained because the
Germanic invaders and their language became dominant (ENG3701 2020:10) Bragg 2003:5 Questions
the reason for the lack of Celtic influence on the English language, as it was a language which grew by
embracing infiltration. “One answer could be that the invaders -Anglo Saxons- despised those they
overcame. They called the Celts ‘Wealas’ (which led to Welsh) but fifteen hundred years ago it meant
slave or foreigner and the Celts became both of these in what had been their own country” (Bragg
2003:5)
Roman influence later returned to the region in the form of missionaries from the Roman Catholic
Church. With Roman Catholic Churches’ aim of converting Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, a strong Latin
influence on English can be traced back to 600 CE. “Because the Latin used emanated from the Church,
much of the vocabulary that entered the language was associated with religion, specifically Christianity
(Crystal 1995:24). The basis of the Old English alphabet was formed by manuscripts written by the
early Roman missionaries, which consisted out of twenty-four letters. This alphabet aided Old English
with a written language which enabled record keeping. Although most of the Old English alphabet was
based on the Latin alphabet, some runic symbols from the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet were also used.
The following Anglo-Saxon symbols were present in the Old English Alphabet but have now become
obsolete. These symbols can also be identified in the extract of The Gospel of Saint Matthew in West
Saxon:
ᴁ → “fᴁder” (Matthew 7: 7-11. Old English) which translates as ‘Father’, and sounds somewhere
between ‘a’ and ‘e’
Ϸ → “Ϸe” (Matthew 7: 7-11. Old English) which translates as ‘that’, and sounds like the ‘th’ in ‘thistle’
or ‘there’
ᴆ/ð → “bið” (Matthew 7: 7-11. Old English) which could sound like ‘bith/be’, as it is used
interchangeable with ‘Ϸ’
Ƿ → sounds like ‘W’ and is often replaced with a ‘W’ symbol in modern editions of Old English texts.
As a result of the Viking onslaughts/invasions which started in 787 CE, a number of words deriving
from Old Norse entered English. Numerous places were given Scandinavian names, especially in the
north-eastern area of England. After defeating the Vikings in battle in 878, king Alfred, realising the
Viking lust for land and relentlessness, came upon the solution of dividing his kingdom into two parts,
and allocated the north-eastern land to the Vikings -this area came to be known as Danelaw. With
the exception of trade, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons were not allowed to cross the division -thus
Viking/Norse language had a stronger linguistic influence in the north of England. “The words they
brought were bedded into the local dialect for more than a thousand largely undisturbed years. To use
‘-by’ as an example: which within a few miles of the town in which I grew up, Wington, there are Ireby,
Thursby, Wiggonby, Corby, Lazenby, Thornby, Dovenby and Gamblesby” (Bragg 2003:22) Aside from
place names, Vikings also influenced family names and added common words such as skirt, sky, skin,
they, their, them, both, same, get and give (ENG3701 2020:16)
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