Editing Old English (section)

== History ==
{{further|History of English}}
[[File:2022 04 16 - MAP West Germanic – cc. 580 CE - END.png|thumb|West Germanic languages {{circa|580&nbsp;CE}}]]
[[File:Old norse, ca 900.PNG|thumb|The approximate extent of Germanic languages in the early 10th century:
{{legend|#ff0000|[[w:Old West Norse|Old West Norse]]}}
{{legend|#ff9933|[[w:Old East Norse|Old East Norse]]}}
{{legend|#ff00ff|[[w:Old Gutnish|Old Gutnish]]}}
{{legend|#ffff00|[[w:Old English|Old English]]}}
{{legend|#00ff00|Continental West Germanic languages ([[Old Frisian]], [[Old Saxon]], [[Old Dutch]], [[Old High German]]).}}
{{legend|#0000ff|[[w:Crimean Gothic|Crimean Gothic]] ([[w:East Germanic|East Germanic]])}}]]

Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain]] in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the [[Norman Conquest]]. While indicating that the establishment of dates is an arbitrary process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections, a [[synthetic language]].<ref name="Baugh1951" /> Perhaps around 85% of Old English words are no longer in use, but those that survived are the basic elements of [[Modern English]] vocabulary.<ref name="Baugh1951" />

Old English is a [[West Germanic language]], and developed out of [[North Sea Germanic]] dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the [[heptarchy|Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]] which became the [[Kingdom of England]]. This included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern [[Scotland]], which for several centuries belonged to the [[kingdom of Northumbria]]. Other parts of the island continued to use [[Celtic languages]] ([[Goidelic languages|Gaelic]]{{snd}}and perhaps some [[Pictish]]{{snd}}in most of Scotland, [[Cornish language#Middle Cornish|Medieval Cornish]] all over [[Cornwall]] and in adjacent parts of [[Devon]], [[Cumbric]] perhaps to the 12th century in parts of [[Cumbria]], and [[Welsh language|Welsh]] in [[Wales]] and possibly also on the English side of the [[Anglo-Welsh border]]); except in the areas of Scandinavian settlements, where [[Old Norse]] was spoken and [[Danelaw|Danish law]] applied.

Old English literacy developed after the [[Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England]] in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving work of [[Old English literature]] is ''[[Cædmon's Hymn]]'', which was composed between 658 and 680 but not written down until the early 8th century.<ref name="Baugh1951" /> There is a limited corpus of [[Anglo-Saxon runes|runic inscriptions]] from the 5th to 7th centuries, but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably the inscriptions on the [[Franks Casket]]) date to the early 8th century. The [[Old English Latin alphabet]] was introduced around the 8th century.

[[File:Statue d'Alfred le Grand à Winchester.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|[[Alfred the Great]] statue in [[Winchester]], Hampshire. The 9th-century English King proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin.]]
With the unification of several of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (outside the [[Danelaw]]) by [[Alfred the Great]] in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the [[West Saxon dialect]] (Early West Saxon). Alfred [[Alfred the Great#Advocacy of education in English|advocated education in English]] alongside Latin, and had many works translated into the English language; some of them, such as [[Pope Gregory I]]'s treatise ''[[Pastoral Care]]'', appear to have been translated by Alfred himself. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, but Alfred chiefly inspired the growth of prose.<ref name="Baugh1951" />

A later literary standard, dating from the late 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop [[Æthelwold of Winchester]], and was followed by such writers as the prolific [[Ælfric of Eynsham]] ("the Grammarian"). This form of the language is known as the "[[Winchester]] standard", or more commonly as Late West Saxon. It is considered to represent the "classical" form of Old English.<ref>Hogg (1992), p.&nbsp;83.</ref> It retained its position of prestige until the time of the Norman Conquest, after which English ceased for a time to be of importance as a literary language.

The history of Old English can be subdivided into:
* Prehistoric Old English ({{Circa|450–650}}); for this period, Old English is mostly a [[reconstructed language]] as no literary witnesses survive (with the exception of limited [[Anglo-Saxon runes|epigraphic evidence]]). This language, or closely related group of dialects, spoken by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and pre-dating documented Old English or Anglo-Saxon, has also been called Primitive Old English.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stumpf |first=John |title=An Outline of English Literature; Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Literature |year=1970 |publisher=Forum House Publishing Company |place=London |page=7 |quote=We do not know what languages the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons spoke, nor even whether they were sufficiently similar to make them mutually intelligible, but it is reasonable to assume that by the end of the sixth century there must have been a language that could be understood by all and this we call Primitive Old English.}}</ref>
* Early Old English ({{circa|650–900|lk=no}}), the period of the oldest manuscript traditions, with authors such as [[Cædmon]], [[Bede]], [[Cynewulf]] and [[Aldhelm]].
* Late Old English ({{circa|900–1150|lk=no}}), the final stage of the language leading up to the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent transition to [[Early Middle English]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fuster-Márquez |first1=Miguel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQLBqKjxuvAC |title=A Practical Introduction to the History of English |last2=Calvo García de Leonardo |first2=Juan José |publisher=Universitat de València |year=2011 |isbn=9788437083216 |page=21 |access-date=19 December 2017}}</ref>

The Old English period is followed by [[Middle English]] (1150–1500), [[Early Modern English]] (1500–1650) and finally [[Modern English]] (after 1650), and in Scotland [[Early Scots]] (before 1450), [[Middle Scots]] ({{circa|1450–1700|lk=no}}) and [[Modern Scots]] (after 1700).