Those of you who know me well will not be at all surprised to find out that my latest project is to teach myself Old English, which is also called Anglo-Saxon. I'm not learning it because it has anything to do with Bound by an Oath, but just because I want to, and because I'm a nerd. I actually belong to a Facebook group called the "Dull Men's Club", and I find the posts incredibly entertaining.
Back in the seventies when I was studying at university I chose a strange mixture of subjects for my BA degree. I studied a blend of sciences and humanities. I wanted to graduate with a double major in Psychology and English, but there was no room in my degree for all the English major prerequisites. I took Biology Labs and Psychology Labs instead of Old English, Middle English, and a foreign language.
Fast forward to last summer when I went to Italy with a choir to sing Mozart’s Requiem. Several of the choristers, including my roommate who was learning Italian, were taking courses to teach themselves a foreign language. I had always regretted not taking Old English so imagine my joy when I discovered that there are several “teach yourself” course available. I bought one and it has been so much fun! What a joy it is to have the time to spend the time reading and listening and writing Old English, with no tests!
And it has been very gratifying. After just four chapters I found it was no longer necessary to translate every word of the original text. I knew what the words meant without translating them.
I discovered that once you have mastered the few unique letters that are used in Anglo- Saxon, but not in English, (thorn, eth, ash for example) and the few letters that are pronounced differently, you can look at a seemingly incomprehensible word and figure out what it means! It’s like an ongoing word puzzle, and many of you know how much I love word puzzles!
For example, “gehalgod” is pronounced ye-hal-yode and if you say it smoothly you might be able to hear the modern-day word “hallowed,” meaning sacred. (See! It’s a puzzle!)
I have learned so much about the structure and spelling of English words since I have been learning Old English. The only trouble is that because I am a bit of a smarty pants, whenever I hear someone criticize English spelling from now on, I’m going to be tempted to say, “Well, actually that word comes from Old English, and it used to be pronounced…” And nobody likes a smarty pants!
Just in case there is any confusion among my readers, Old English dates from the Anglo-Saxon period of about 500 to 1,100 AD. Therefore, it was not the language of Aethelreda’s people. The Cantii spoke a Celtic language which, it is assumed, was comprehensible to all the Celts throughout Britain, though regional differences existed. Modern Celtic is the language of today's Scots, Irish, Welsh, Manx, and Cornish people.
Perhaps the next language I should learn is Welsh. I love to hear it spoken, but have you seen it written down?
“Cael diwrnod braf, pawb.” That’s “have a nice day, everyone”! But maybe Welsh is similar to Old English in that once you have mastered a few special letters and sounds, it is easier than it looks? Maybe.
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