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What’s with this “Wren” thing?
The oldest extant version of the fable
we
are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology
of Low
Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche
Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”)
collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read
more ...
Englisc
Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
The
first page of the Old English heroic
epic
poem Beowulf (ca.
700–1000
A.D.)
Language information: Language
information: English is currently the most important language in the world, its origin,
however, is highly complex. It began as a mixture of Anglish, Old Saxon, Old
Jutish, Old Frisian and possibly other Old Germanic varieties imported from
the Continental Lowlands, as well as numerous Medieval Latin loans. The resulting
Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) language came to supplant most Celtic language
varieties of Britain. Viking and Norman invasions resulted in layers of Scandinavian
and Norman French influences. English morphology underwent radical simplification,
and this caused the syntax to lose much of its earlier flexibility.
Dialectical
diversity is considerable, the most densely occurring diversity being in
the British Isles and Ireland, followed closely by the North American
East
Coast, especially New England and Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Having changed
little since the fourteenth century, today’s English orthography is one of the
most historical systems and takes much time and effort to master. Old English (also known as “Anglo-Saxon”) is the ancestor of both English and
Scots. It is of Germanic origin, probably derived from the language varieties
of Jutish, Anglish, Saxon and Frisian colonists, with both Scandinavian and Latin
admixtures. Old English began developing in about 450 C.E. and lasted until just
after the Norman Invasion in 1066. Norman French and greatly influenced English
and ushered in the Middle English period.
Genealogy: Indo-European > Germanic > Western > Anglo-Scots > English
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