What Survived
The Story of Old English
Course 1 · Chapter 10 · What Survived
The last chapter asks what is left. Old English did not vanish in 1066: it changed, it was nearly forgotten, and it was then rediscovered by people with their own reasons. This chapter covers what the sources say about the legacy in Modern English, who saved the manuscripts, and where the question of Modern English's ancestry stands. It ends with a recap of the whole story.
What is left in Modern English
| Question | What the English language article says |
|---|---|
| Share of vocabulary | Old English is not the main source of the lexicon: French dialects about 28%, Latin "an additional 28 per cent" |
| Everyday words | Most basic everyday vocabulary remains Germanic, which is the part of the lexicon most tied to Old English |
| Grammar and sound | "Grammar and phonology remain Germanic" despite heavy borrowing |
| Inflection | Old English had far more inflections; Modern English keeps case only in pronouns (he/him, she/her), and verb forms are reduced to a few, like speak, speaks, speaking, spoke, spoken |
| Irregular forms | Still being regularised, as in dreamed replacing dreamt |
I read only the first 100,000 of about 254,000 characters of that article, which did not reach its Vocabulary section or the full Grammar section, so I do not give a list of the most common English words that come from Old English. The article did not discuss plurals or irregular verbs as a specific legacy. The courses Old English Grammar 1 and Old English Reading 1 let you see for yourself how much a Modern English speaker can recognise.
The question left open: Modern English's ancestry
Chapter 3 recorded the claim in Wikipedia's Old English article that Standard English descends from Mercian rather than West Saxon, and Scots from Northumbrian, and noted that the article tags both "citation needed". I went looking for something firmer for this chapter. The later part of the Old English article (characters 100,000 to 200,000) made no statement on the descent of Standard English. The Middle English article read for Chapter 9 says London English developed from East Midland-influenced speech and that early Scots developed from Northumbrian Old English in lowland Scotland. That supports the Scots half of the claim at the level of one Wikipedia article. For Standard English, I can only say what the sources say: London English, East Midland influence, and the Chancery Standard of about 1430. Whether that makes Mercian the ancestor is a link I could not confirm from them.
How the manuscripts were saved and found again
Wikipedia's Matthew Parker article gives his dates as 1504 to 1575, and says he was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559. His collection was "largely collected from former monastic libraries" and left to his Cambridge college, Corpus Christi, where the Parker Library holds most of it. It includes Version A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the oldest manuscript in Chapter 6. In 1567 he published a homily on the Sacrament by Ælfric (Chapter 8), and he also published A Testimonie of Antiquitie, an Old English homily. The article says his manuscript work was meant to show that the English Church was historically independent of Rome, and that the homilies were meant to show that transubstantiation was not the doctrine of the ancient English Church. His work with Laurence Nowell is said to have laid the foundation for Anglo-Saxon studies. The article does not tie his collecting to the Dissolution of the Monasteries or date it, so I do not.
- Nowell: the codex that holds Beowulf is named after him (Chapter 8).
- Thorkelin, 1786: the first transcriptions of Beowulf, then the first complete edition, in Latin (Chapter 8).
- Dictionaries: the Old English article mentions Somner's Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum and Bosworth's dictionary of 1838, and names the Dictionary of Old English and Bosworth–Toller among modern dictionaries.
- Tolkien: the article names J. R. R. Tolkien and Alistair Campbell among later writers on Old English. I did not read about their work.
A caution from that article: it says purist and neo-Old English online communities were found, in one study, to contain basic grammatical errors. That is a reminder of why this course names its sources.
The whole story in ten steps
| Chapter | The point to remember |
|---|---|
| 1 Before English | Brittonic and Latin were spoken in Britain before English arrived |
| 2 The Settlers | Germanic settlers came; 449 is only a traditional date |
| 3 Four Dialects | Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon; most of the record is West Saxon |
| 4 Writing It Down | Runes first, then the Latin alphabet with the added letters |
| 5 The Early Texts | Bede wrote in Latin; Cædmon's Hymn, if Bede is right, dates from 658 to 680 |
| 6 Alfred and Written English | Alfred's programme of translation and the Chronicle (common core about 893) |
| 7 The Vikings | The Danelaw (to 1066 as a legal region) and the Norse words, including they |
| 8 The Late Age | The Benedictine reform, Ælfric, Wulfstan, and the late copies of the poetry |
| 9 1066 and After | Conquest, French and Latin; Middle English; the Peterborough Chronicle to 1154 |
| 10 What Survived | Germanic grammar and basic words stayed; the manuscripts were saved by collectors |
Where to go next
This course stops at about 1150. A planned course, The History of the English Language, would carry the story on to the present; it has no outline yet. The Timeline and Map pages in the appendix put the dates of this course in one place and the dialect areas on a sketch map.
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Lexicon | The words of a language |
| Antiquarian | A person who studies the past through old objects and texts |
| Transcription | A written copy of a text |
| Legacy | What is left behind or passed on |
| Neo-Old English | The article's label for modern attempts to write in an imitation of Old English |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check. Items 6 to 8 look back over the whole course.
1. What shares of Modern English words does the article give to French and to Latin?
Show answer
About 28% from French dialects and another 28% from Latin.
2. What stays Germanic in Modern English despite the borrowing?
Show answer
The grammar and phonology, and most basic everyday vocabulary.
3. In Modern English, where does case survive?
Show answer
Only in pronouns, such as he/him and she/her.
4. Why did Matthew Parker publish Old English homilies?
Show answer
The article says to show the English Church was historically independent of Rome, and that transubstantiation was not the doctrine of the ancient English Church.
5. Which Chronicle manuscript is held in the Parker Library?
Show answer
Version A (the oldest, from Chapter 6).
6. Put in order: the Great Heathen Army lands; the Battle of Hastings; the Christian mission arrives (597); Alfred wins at Edington.
Show answer
The mission (597), the Great Heathen Army (865), Edington (878), Hastings (1066).
7. Which Norse-derived pronouns replaced the older English ones?
Show answer
They, them and their (Chapter 7); the article says they are "thought to" derive from Old Norse.
8. Why is "Modern English comes from West Saxon" too simple?
Show answer
The sources describe a chain: Late West Saxon as the written standard, then regional Middle English, then a London-based standard (Chancery) in the fifteenth century. Whether Mercian is the ancestor is not confirmed in what I read.