Talk:Old English

Beowulf

Beowulf survives in its entirety, except for some very small lacunae. The text of this article should be revised to reflect that. Michel van der Hoek 20:10, 28 April 2008 (CDT)

Changed - how about this? John Stephenson 21:28, 28 April 2008 (CDT)

Old English v. Anglo-Saxon

What's the rationale for having this article live at 'Old English' rather than 'Anglo-saxon'? My very subjective, imprecise sense is that unlike Middle English, academics usually refer to the language as Anglo-saxon (this despite the fact that the standard linguistic abbreviation for Anglo-saxon is "OE"). Is this impression incorrect? Brian P. Long 07:59, 29 April 2008 (CDT)

Hunh. I just checked in Hock's 'Principles of Historical Linguistics', and Hock seems to use Old English for the language, and only uses Anglo-saxon a couple of times. Interesting... Brian P. Long 08:01, 29 April 2008 (CDT)

Among philologists, "Old English" is really the only term used for this stage of the English language. "Anglo-Saxon" is a term usually reserved for studies on the culture of the people who spoke the language. I guess every once in a while you see "Anglo-Saxon" used for the language, but it's very rare. You can start another article "Anglo-Saxon" reflecting this difference in usage. Michel van der Hoek 23:54, 6 May 2008 (CDT)

I have to agree even if it may be a bit imprecise. I rarely ever see it referred to as Anglo-Saxon. Thomas Simmons 00:17, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

My friend who studied it as a compulsory part of his English course at Oxford in the 60s always called it Anglo-Saxon: a British/American distinction perhaps? Ro Thorpe 01:25, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

It's probably not so much a British/American distinction as a 1960s versus 2000s distinction. The term Anglo-Saxon used to be much more common for the language. It goes back to the early 19th century, when ethnic interests and linguistic research went hand in hand (think of the Romantic interest in ethnicity). In German, the term angelsächsisch (abbreviated ags) remains common. In English-language research, however, Anglo-Saxon has come to be more and more restricted to cultural, anthropological, and archaeological aspects of the period, while in linguistics, philology, and literature (everything to do with the language), the terms have been standardized with reference to the modern equivalent (Old, Middle, Modern English). This is not to say that "Anglo-Saxon" as a term to refer to the language is wrong or even particularly unusual. I do believe, however, that the modern practice makes sense--it's more precise. Is there a disambiguation page for "Anglo-Saxon"? That might help people like Ro's friend who may still use the older term. Michel van der Hoek 14:46, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

'Old English' is indeed a better term, in line with 'Old High German' etc. But what is your reason for recapitalising 'origin'? Ro Thorpe 15:49, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

It's a noun. They usually get capitalized in titles. I just thought I had overlooked it.Michel van der Hoek 19:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Phonetic aids to pronunciation

It would be helpful to produce a phonetic guide here or at least on a supplemental page if anyone has the time. Numerous letters are unfamiliar to the average reader and vowel combinations are going to be unfamiliar to some. A phonetic guide would make it user friendly. Thomas Simmons 00:17, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Western Michigan has a nice page that is pretty straightforward and easy to follow with modern day equivalents at [1] Thomas Simmons 00:43, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

More good sources at University of Calgary [2] and this page has sound scripts.

University of Virginia with recorded reading accompanying a modern English text using (possible) pronunciation of OE [3] Thomas Simmons 00:53, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Here is an extensive collection of sources put together by a librarian. Lots of interesting work available on the internet [4] Thomas Simmons 01:27, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

I believe they're called thorn (þ), edh (ð) and ash (æ). See International Phonetic Alphabet for the latter two; thorn is like theta (θ). Ro Thorpe 01:39, 18 August 2009 (UTC)