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)

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)