The Old English Period

Chronological Divisions in the History of English

Short Survey of Periods

The historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process without sudden breaks or rapid transformations. Therefore any periodisation of language history by linguists with precise dates might appear artificial. Yet in all language histories divisions into periods and cross-sections of a certain length are used for teaching and research purposes.

In tracing the history of English it is convenient to distinguish different periods in the development of the language

The Old English Period

(449 – Settlement of Britain by the Germanic tribes

1066 – Norman conquest) or Anglo-Saxon period. It extends from the earlier times, i.e. from the arrival of the English in Britain in the second half of the 5th century down to the 7th century. Although the migration of the English people from the continent of Europe took place mainly in the 5th and 6th centuries we have very few records of anything written in English before about the year 700. It is about 3 centuries after the beginning of the language. The Old English period is usually subdivided into two sub-periods:

a) the so-called pre-historic, pre-written, pre-literary period which is termed Early Old English which lasts from West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing.(5 – 7 c.c.) the evolution of the language in this period is hypothetical. It has been reconstructed by comparative philology from the written evidences of other Old Germanic languages, especially Gothic, and from later Old English written records. It was the period of transition from Proto - Germanic to a written Old English. Early Old English linguistic changes marked Old English off from Proto-Germanic and from other Old Germanic languages.

b) Historical or literary period recorded in literary documents of English (in West-Saxon dialects – end of the 9c.: 871 – 901, king Alfred’s translation of Latin books Pastoral Care – cura Pastoralis, 7 books of history against the Heathen; Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, a Roman philosopher)