Study Guide for Old and Middle English

Recommendations:

• Make sure that you know all the important terminology for phonology (the ways that sounds are produced) and morphology (grammatical cases and their functions). You should be able to give a definition for each terminology in five seconds or so. If you have to think about it longer than that, you probably haven’t got it memorised. Also, know the IPA symbols for each of the sounds of English. These are skills we will be using throughout the course, and I will assume that you’ll know them from here on. Note that you will not be tested on this directly with questions like "What is a labial consonant?". Rather, you will be expected to understand and use this terminology in answering questions about the history of English.
  
• Recall that language should be looked at using observational, descriptive, and explanatory criteria. First, find what it striking about the language, then describe it, and then explain how it came to be. To find what is striking about a sample of the language, scan it for things like graphology (letter shapes), orthography (spellings), phonological features (as indicated by the written forms), inflectional forms, word order, and vocabulary. For any given text you may not find something significant in all categories, but you should practice looking.
  
• For the first test you will concentrate mainly on graphology, orthography, phonology, and inflections. You should know:

1. The distinctive Old English letter forms.
2. The pronunciation of Old English words.
3. The major morphological features of Old English (the difference between strong and weak nouns, the difference between strong and weak verbs, the functions of each case, the forms of the personal pronoun).
4. The major phonological changes that occurred between Old English and Middle English. The orthographic differences between Old English and Middle English.
5. The phonological, morphological, and vocabulary features that can be used to identify the date and dialect of a Middle English text. Practice identifying these features in the sample texts in the handout. See also the discussion of grammar below.

Context:

• You should also know the major historical contexts for the early period:

1. The Indo-European background of English and its relationship with the other Indo-European languages.
2. The differences between the Germanic languages and the other Indo-European languages (the Germanic Accent Shift, Grimm’s Law, etc.)
3. How English came to Britain.
4. Important dates and time frames. You must be able to name the approximate dates of the Middle Ages, Anglo-Saxon England, the Norman Conquest, etc.
5. The historical and cultural influences on the language (grammar, vocabulary, and social usage) and attitudes towards the language during the Anglo-Saxon period and after the Norman Conquest.