Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman conquest of 1066, English was replaced, for a time, as the language of the upper classes by Anglo-Norman, a relative of French. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into a phase known now as Middle English.

Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain: Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, and Latin, brought to Britain by Roman invasion. Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the literary standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle and Modern English would develop mainly from Mercian. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century.

Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is very different from Modern English and impossible for Modern English speakers to understand without study. Within Old English grammar nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms, and word order is much freer. The oldest Old English inscriptions were written using a runic system, but from about the 8th century this was replaced by a version of the Latin alphabet.
Q1860
English language
Concept
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England
LOC
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Scotland
LOC
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Middle Ages
TIME
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Great Britain
LOC
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Anglo-Saxon settlers
UNK
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Old English literary works
Concept
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Norman conquest
EVE
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Anglo-Norman
Concept
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relative of French
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Middle English
Concept
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Anglo-Frisian
MEDIA
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Ingvaeonic
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Germanic
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Angles
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Saxons
Concept
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Jutes
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Anglo-Saxons
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replaced
UNK
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Roman Britain
LOC
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Common Brittonic
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Celtic language
Concept
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Latin
Concept
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Roman invasion
Concept
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Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
Concept
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Mercian
Concept
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Northumbrian
Concept
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Kentish
Concept
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West Saxon
Concept
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Modern English
Concept
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Old Norse
Concept
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Scandinavian rule
LOC
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West Germanic languages
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Old Frisian
Concept
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Old Saxon
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Old English grammar
UNK
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inflection
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word order
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runic system
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version of the Latin alphabet
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Old English
Concept
Q42365
Old English
Concept
Q42365
Old English
Concept
Q42365
Old English
Concept
Q42365
Old English
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Q42365
Old English
Concept
Q42365
Old English
Concept
1066-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1066
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NUMBER
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NUMBER
culture
culture
replaces
writing system
indigenous to
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official language
point in time
subclass of
subclass of
subclass of
subclass of
subclass of
language of work or name