Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages - Softcover

Robinson, Orrin W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415081696 ISBN 13: 9780415081696

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

This accessible introductory reference source surveys the linguistic and cultural background of the earliest known Germanic languages and examines their similarities and differences.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

At first glance, there may seem little reason to think of English and German as variant forms of a single language. There are enormous differences between the two in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, and a monolingual speaker of one cannot understand the other at all. Yet modern English and German have many points in common, and if we go back to the earliest texts available in the two languages, the similarities are even more notable.
How do we account for these similarities? The generally accepted explanation is that English and German are divergent continuations of a common ancestor, a Germanic language now lost. This book surveys the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the earliest kown Germanic languages, members of what has traditionally been known as the English family tree: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German.
For each language, the author provides a brief history of the people who spoke it, an overview of the important texts in the language, sample passages with full glossary and word-by-word translations, a section on orthography and grammar, and discussion of linguistic or philological topics relevant to all the early Germanic languaes but best exemplified by the particular language under consideration. These topics inclued the pronunciation of older languages; the runic inscriptions; Germanic alliterative pietry; historical syntax, borrowing, analogy, and drift; textual transmission; and dialect variation.

From the Back Cover

“The task of writing a book like Robinson’s is very difficult. His contains much to be admired and is a worthy handbook. . . . Good students can learn much from the wealth of information in the present work, and it is to be recommended to them.”—Journal of English and Germanic Philology
“This generally engaging work is well-thought out and well-organized. . . . Robinson has written [a book] that deserves attention.”—Colloquia Germanica

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0415081696
• ISBN 13: 9780415081696
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304