Old English

[ThomRed]

I'm studing some Old English this year it seems to have more in common with Greman then modern English. But I don't know any Greman, so any of you that know Greman look familiar?

. . Old English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Modern English
Hwæt we Gar-Dena in geear-dagum -- So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
peod-cyninga prym gefrunon, -------- and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
hu da æpelingas ellen fremedon.------ We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

[Balton]

huh? I don't understand a single word.

[ThomRed]

Thanks Balton
Make as much sence to you as to me. I guess if it was closer to German the english it would be call Old-German and not Old English. I think its the point were english first split from the Germanic langue.

[AMmayhem]

Sounds like it would be more like Gaelic than German.

[GoldenMouse]

Originally Posted by ThomRed

Thanks Balton
Make as much sence to you as to me. I guess if it was closer to German the english it would be call Old-German and not Old English. I think its the point were english first split from the Germanic langue.

Yessir. Also, what we know of as Middle English came as the result of the Norman invasion of what is now England back in 1066. English changed quite a bit at that point. I'm not certain what the demarcation between Middle and Modern English are, though.

[Rabid Wolf]

yes, beowulf is a little hard to get to.
the main problem is, that - being metric verse - all people who translated it over the years, either kept the verse and "interpreted" the contents, or kept the basic contents but did away with the verse, which resulted in almost prose-like versions of poetry... =/

the translation you gave is very liberal, and features a lot of linguistic "eye-candy". if your interest in it is solely reading beowulf, heaney's version is wonderful.

but for an insight into old english, look elsewhere.
a more down to earth translation would be:

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!

above being The Harvard Classics version of beowulf.

as of the german aspect:
the bitch is it's late old to early middle german it's familiar with, not current day german.

if you've got a vague grip of old german, quite a few words are recognisable. however, the sentence structure, the sequence of the grammatic parts is way of, also the stark absence of auxilliary verbs is confusing.

my on-the-fly madly-tripping german translation would be:

Also, wir von alter Tage (<-being basically a saxon genitive, which is defunct in nowadays german) Speer-Dänen (<- likewise) {ihren} Volkskönigen, deren Edlen (<- ditto) Heldentaten gehört.

cyninga = Könige is the most striking "german" word.
old english and german in those days were virtually identical.

but beowulf is as old as it gets. a little later already, still pre-Norman invasion, it becomes way more acessible to someone who speaks german.

here for instance the west-saxon version of Matthew 7:24-5 of the late tenth century (nigh on a thousand years ago...)

Ælc þara þe þas min word gehierþ and þa wyrcp, biþ gelic þæm wisan were, se his hus ofer stan getimbrode.
Ða com þær regen and micel flod, and þær bleowon windas, and ahruron on þæt hus, and hit na ne feoll;
soþlice hit wæs ofer stan getimbrod.

if you've read the st. james' version of the bible, it should be very graspable. and for a german-speaking person it sounds almost german.

[Balton]

Originally Posted by Rabid Wolf

yes, beowulf is a little hard to get to.
the main problem is, that - being metric verse - all people who translated it over the years, either kept the verse and "interpreted" the contents, or kept the basic contents but did away with the verse, which resulted in almost prose-like versions of poetry... =/

the translation you gave is very liberal, and features a lot of linguistic "eye-candy". if your interest in it is solely reading beowulf, heaney's version is wonderful.

but for an insight into old english, look elsewhere.
a more down to earth translation would be:

above being The Harvard Classics version of beowulf.

as of the german aspect:
the bitch is it's late old to early middle german it's familiar with, not current day german.

if you've got a vague grip of old german, quite a few words are recognisable. however, the sentence structure, the sequence of the grammatic parts is way of, also the stark absence of auxilliary verbs is confusing.

my on-the-fly madly-tripping german translation would be:

Also, wir von alter Tage (<-being basically a saxon genitive, which is defunct in nowadays german) Speer-Dänen (<- likewise) {ihren} Volkskönigen, deren Edlen (<- ditto) Heldentaten gehört.

cyninga = Könige is the most striking "german" word.
old english and german in those days were virtually identical.

but beowulf is as old as it gets. a little later already, still pre-Norman invasion, it becomes way more acessible to someone who speaks german.

here for instance the west-saxon version of Matthew 7:24-5 of the late tenth century (nigh on a thousand years ago...)

Ælc þara þe þas min word gehierþ and þa wyrcp, biþ gelic þæm wisan were, se his hus ofer stan getimbrode.
Ða com þær regen and micel flod, and þær bleowon windas, and ahruron on þæt hus, and hit na ne feoll;
soþlice hit wæs ofer stan getimbrod.

if you've read the st. james' version of the bible, it should be very graspable. and for a german-speaking person it sounds almost german.

heh, this is funny. I had to read a medieval german book(written somewhere around 1000-/-1100) and I've tried reading this gibberish "kinda" like it. if I give the tone a VERY WIDE playground I almost get the impression of understanding something. there are parts that still sound familiar but not much. if I knew how to pronounce þ or some other funny looking signs I might make more sense out of it.

[oosyxxx]

O.E. 800
Yo, that's my brand
Drink it in a bottle
Forty
Quart
Or Can
Drink it like a madman
Yes I do
**** the police and a five oh two

[AMmayhem]

So I was right then wasn't I?

[lifes_a_bitch]

I am also studing Old Enlgish, but I do not know any greman