At the end of the course, the student
• understands the development from Old to Modern English from a historical perspective.
• is able to analyse and apply the principles of language change in the various stages of English.
• is familiar with a range of genres, topics and ways of creating meaning prevalent in early medieval English writing, and able to analyse these sources in the light of the cultural and social identity of the Anglo-Saxons.
• masters Old English on a basic level.
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This course will chart the changes the English language has undergone from Old English to Early Modern English. The first part of the course introduces the phenomenon of language change and offers participants the tools needed to understand the major changes that affected the English language and that distinguish English from its sister languages Dutch and German. This part consolidates the participants' skills in phonetics and grammar. Participants will now understand the principles of language change, e.g., the phonemic change from plosive to fricative, or the emergence of "do-support" in questions. Participants will become aware of the linguistic effects of consecutive invasions of England (the Vikings and the Normans) and of technological and cultural changes (e.g., the printing press, the Renaissance): English is replete with Old Norse, Old French and Latin loan words and even adopted some grammatical features from other languages. The second part of the course introduces the language, culture, history and literature of Anglo-Saxon England through the writings of the Anglo-Saxons. These texts range from the start of the written record in Britain to the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, composed in various mediums (prose, verse) and modes (historiography, hagiography, sermon, epic). The sources have in common that they were written in early medieval England by a group of Germanic tribes that saw itself as the rightful possessor of part of the British Isles. These pagan Anglo-Saxon conquerors, who invaded Britain in 449 as legend has it, and who persecuted the Christian Celtic population living in Britain at the time, later were persecuted themselves by recurring waves of pagan Viking invasions. In 1066, Duke William of Normandy, the domain of former Vikings who had adopted a Romance language, invaded and captured England. Themes in the literature of the Anglo-Saxons that will be focused on are, therefore, social identity, conquest, loss, exile and invasion, and the religious experience. Participants study texts in translation and gain a basic command of the Old English language through translation exercises.
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