The Earliest English: An Introduction to Old English Language (review)

This book is intended as a student-friendly guide to Old English (OE). As such, it covers not only the linguistic aspects, but also literature and historical background. It is structured in eight units that explore different topics. Each unit contains exercises plus comments for the reader to work through in a self-paced design. Translation skills from Old English to present-day English are also developed through various reading passages.

Ch. 1, ‘Thinking about the earliest English’, presents an introductory framework in which to think about Old English and the societal as well as linguistic changes of the period. Important terminology is introduced, the most important of which concerns the uniformitarian principle. Ch. 2, ‘History, culture, language origins’, looks at the interaction between literature and linguistics. On the basis of a translation exercise of Ælfric’s Colloquy, the sound system of Old English is elaborately dealt with, accompanied by a general discussion of phonetics and phonology. Ch. 3, ‘Nouns’, presents an introduction to noun phrase morphology, both in its general sense, but more particularly with regard to Old English. The difference between analytic and synthetic languages is explained and explicit attention is given to the link between inflection and word order.

Ch. 4, ‘Verbs’, investigates the various aspects of Old English verb morphology and compares it to present-day English. Concepts such as SVO and V2 languages are introduced. Between Chs. 4 and 5, an interlude is included that presents guidelines on how to work with three dictionaries that are essential in the study of historical English linguistics: The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), The Middle English Dictionary (MED), and The Dictionary of Old English (DOE). Ch. 5, ‘OE metrics’, moves from the linguistic behavior of nouns and verbs to OE metrics. The main reason for including this chapter is ‘to engage with features of the OE sound system such as long vs. short vowel shapes and with the form of syllables’ (143). In order to achieve this, the chapter goes into constructs such as stress, onset, nucleus, coda, and rhyme. Ch. 6, ‘Standards and crosses’, opens with background on the Viking raids and Alfred the Great’s cultural reform program. With this background, the reader is then introduced to West Saxon. Preconditions for a written standard such as West Saxon are discussed.

The most important function of Ch. 7, ‘Twilight’, is to introduce inflectional erosion and loss. Three main questions are asked: what was lost?, why was it lost?, and when was it lost? (241). Ch. 8, ‘Rebuilding English’, continues the discussion on inflectional erosion, but more from a language contact perspective. The influence of both Old Norse and Old French on Old English is assessed and the different nature of borrowing from both languages is explained.

This volume is an accessible, well-structured text for students of English. The construal of the units is such that students are guided through the chapters, which also renders this book very suitable for self-study. This is helped by the clear summaries, links to websites students may find useful, and the references and suggestions for further reading that follow each chapter. In The earliest English students are presented with an integrated approach to the study of Old English language, literature, and historical background in a manner that facilitates a deeper understanding of the field. The authors’ assumption that their audience will have had little linguistic training may alienate more advanced students. Overall, however, this volume is an excellent introduction to the earliest English and because of its witty style and accessible organization, it has the potential to motivate students, who unfortunately often still view historical linguistics as a mandatory, stuffy subject, to study Old English.