Old English

Old English
Anglo-Saxon
Ænglisc, Englisc, Anglisc
A detail of the first page of the Beowulf manuscript, showing the words "ofer hron rade", translated as "over the whale's road (sea)". It is an example of an Old English stylistic device, the kenning.
Pronunciation	[ˈæŋliʃ]
Region	England (except the extreme south-west and north-west), southern and eastern Scotland, and the eastern fringes of modern Wales.
Era	mostly developed into Middle English and Early Scots by the 13th century
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Old English
Dialects	Kentish Mercian Northumbrian West Saxon
Writing system	Runic, later Latin (Old English alphabet).
Language codes
ISO 639-2	ang
ISO 639-3	ang
ISO 639-6	ango
Glottolog	olde1238

The Old English language, often called Anglo-Saxon, was spoken in England from 450 AD to 1100 AD. It was spoken by the Anglo-Saxons who came to England from what is now Germany and Denmark. Different kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England spoke different dialects but a western dialect became the main literary version.

Old English is very different from Modern English; it has many more Germanic words. In early centuries it was rarely written down, and when written it was in runes. After the 9th century, the Latin alphabet was used more. Old English grammar is difficult, with complex inflections, and close to Old German. Latin was used by churchmen like the venerable Bede. Old English gradually turned into Middle English after the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Beowulf is written in Old English in an alphabetic script.

Old English comparison

language	wordlist
English	apple	path	eat	tide	make	child	give	day
Old English	æppel	pæþ	etan	tid	macian	cild	giefan	dæg
German	Apfel	Pfad	essen	Zeit	machen	Kind	geben	Tag

Other websites

• Old English -Citizendium