![]() ![]() ![]() Like other West Germanic languages of the period, Old English was fully inflected with five grammatical cases, which had dual plural forms for referring to groups of two objects (but only in the personal pronouns) in addition to the usual singular and plural forms. Some of these features were specific to the West Germanic language family to which Old English belongs, while some other features were inherited from the Proto-Germanic language from which all Germanic languages are believed to have been derived. ![]() The most important force in shaping Old English was its Germanic heritage in its vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar which it shared with its sister languages in continental Europe. During this early period it assimilated some aspects of the languages with which it came in contact, such as the Celtic languages and the two dialects of Old Norse from the invading Vikings, who were occupying and controlling large tracts of land in northern and eastern England, which came to be known as the Danelaw. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 700 years – from the Anglo-Saxon migrations that created England in the fifth century to some time after the Norman invasion of 1066, when the language underwent a major and dramatic transition. It also experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages. It is a West Germanic language and therefore is closely related to Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. See IPA chart for English for an English- based pronunciation key. Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Parts of what is now England and southern Scotlandĭeveloped into Middle English by the 12th century Related subjects: Languages Old English/Anglo-Saxon ![]()
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