含羞草传媒

The English of a Millennium Ago: U of T compiles "Dictionary of Old English"

Now at 鈥淗,鈥 the Centre for Medieval Studies' dictionary is close to defining every word from the language鈥檚 earliest days

Just when you think you know your own language, along comes a hellwyrgen.

Rob Getz ran across the creature in a 12th-century manuscript, where it was pushing some thieves suffering torments in hell into a pit of boiling tar.

As an interim co-editor of the Dictionary of Old English, a U of T project that aims to map all of the roughly 35,000 words from the earliest form of the language, Getz is no stranger to challenging words. But this one was a stretch.

Not so much the first part which is obvious 鈥 hell. But the second part looked like it might be derived directly from the verb wyrgan or wyrigan meaning 鈥渢o curse, revile, condemn.鈥 It鈥檚 actually identical to the second part of a noun used to describe the mother of the monster Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.

So in the end, a hellwyrgen turns out to be something like a monstrous female creature from hell, or hell-hag.

Old English, which arose from the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxon settlers who came to Britain from northern Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries, is the direct ancestor of our modern tongue.

It has bequeathed us dozens of common words 鈥 from 鈥渉ound鈥 (hund) to 鈥渉ouse鈥 (丑奴蝉). But the language has changed so much over the centuries that anyone reading an Old English text such as Beowulf would not recognize most of the words. Even the alphabet was different with fewer letters, a different letter for 鈥渨,鈥 the wonderful 鈥渆th鈥 (冒) and the runic 鈥渢horn鈥 (镁) standing in for 鈥渢h.鈥

Scholars at the Faculty of Arts & Science's Centre for Medieval Studies have been working on a comprehensive dictionary of the tongue since the 1970s, and with the release of 鈥渉鈥 this year, they have now published definitions for more than half the words.

Computers have made things somewhat quicker, and a digitized corpus, consisting of at least one copy of every known text in Old English (from poems to royal records), means that they can now search more easily for words and citations. But scholars still have to organize the words and define their meaning.

Here, there is no algorithm to aid them 鈥 just countless dictionaries, Latin sources and the lexicographer鈥檚 best intuition.

Some words appear only once in the corpus, while others, such as the Old English for 鈥渉and,鈥 鈥渉ead鈥 and 鈥渉eart鈥 are both common and complicated. The 39-page entry for heorte (鈥渉eart鈥) contains more than a dozen major meanings, including the seat of love, of courage and even of the intellectual faculties.

The section on the letter 鈥渉鈥 was particularly difficult, and not just because it begins with more words than any other except 鈥渟鈥 and 鈥渇.鈥 It contains key verbs and pronouns, as well as the interrogatives 鈥 who, what, when, where and why 鈥 all of which began with hw in Old English. The interrogatives 鈥渁re fairly uncomplicated in terms of their meaning,鈥 says Stephen Pelle, an interim co-editor of the dictionary 鈥 but they 鈥渃an be very complicated grammatically.鈥

Old English portrays another world, a world where rain might be described as 鈥渉eaven鈥檚 showers鈥 (heofonscur), but the language is also a window into the philosophical, moral, legal and linguistic roots of our own.

If we鈥檙e to understand those roots, we need to know the language the people spoke, says Getz. To that end, the lexicographers are trying to be as comprehensive as possible, picking up words earlier dictionary makers missed.

鈥淚f we鈥檙e doing our job right,鈥 says Pelle, 鈥渨e should be able to catch just about every word that survives in an old English text.鈥


Illustration: Charles&Thorn

Ten Interesting Words from Old English

Hring 鈥 ring. A lot of words that today start with consonants like "r," "l" and "n" began in Old English with h. Thus hleahtor (鈥渓补耻驳丑迟别谤鈥), hnutu (鈥渘ut鈥) and hnappian (鈥渢o nap鈥). (The h was pronounced, at least in the early Old English period so hleahtor would sound similar to the modern word laughter with a huff of breath at the beginning.)

H膿, h膿o, hit 鈥 the ancestors of our 鈥渉e,鈥 鈥渟he鈥 and 鈥渋t.鈥 They occur about 200,000 times in the old English corpus.

贬奴蝉 鈥 鈥渉ouse,鈥 鈥渂uilding鈥 and, in some contexts, 鈥渂rothel.鈥 The Anglo-Saxons loved compound words and 丑奴蝉 figures in more than 100 of them, including ealu-丑奴蝉 (鈥渁le house鈥), gyst-丑奴蝉 (鈥済uest house鈥) and pleg-丑奴蝉 (鈥渢heatre鈥 or 鈥減layhouse鈥).

贬别辞濒辞镁-丑别濒尘 鈥 a helmet that makes the wearer invisible. A demon wearing one of these figures in a medieval retelling of Genesis. He sneaks into Paradise and tries to trick Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit.

贬耻苍颈驳-蝉尘忙肠 鈥 It sounds like a breakfast cereal, and it certainly has a sweet side. It comes from the Old English for 鈥渉oney鈥 and 鈥渟mack,鈥 or 鈥渢aste鈥 so it means 鈥渢aste or flavour of honey.鈥

贬忙谤蹿别蝉迟-丑补苍诲蹿耻濒濒 鈥 鈥渉arvest handful鈥 or the grain given a labourer as his due during harvest.

贬牵尘别诲 鈥 marriage but also cohabitation, adultery and even 鈥渢he intercourse of animals.鈥

贬飞忙迟 鈥 The most famous hard-to-define word in old English, 丑飞忙迟 opens the great Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. As a pronoun, it鈥檚 well understood. As a particle or interjection, as in Beowulf, not so much. Seamus Heaney, the great Irish poet who translated the poem to acclaim in 2000, rendered it simply as 鈥渟o.鈥 Others have gone for 鈥渓o,鈥 鈥渉ark鈥 and 鈥渂ehold.鈥 The Dictionary of Old English鈥檚 answer is: It depends. It might mean: 鈥渘ow,鈥 鈥渟o,鈥 鈥渓isten,鈥 鈥渨hy,鈥 鈥渘ow look,鈥 鈥渋ndeed,鈥 etc..., but it depends on the context. The complete definition covers 26 pages.

This story is republished from U of T Magazine

 

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