Anglo Saxon grammar ideas

Anglo Saxon grammatical ideas and dative in semi poetic use:

The AS language retains the archaic Indo-European function of cases and gender as well as complicated poetic grammar that uses cases to imply words that are not actually written. In modern Germanic language only German and Icelandic retain cases and gender in any heavy use. Swedish and Danish have Common and Neuter in modern use. Danish and Old English share sometimes a visually close vocabulary but many are false friends and mean something different. AS uses cases not word order to indicate grammar and is more free in word order. This does not mean it is totally free or random in word order.

(The genders are meaningless in function in AS and only serve as a complicated archaic hold over from Proto Germanic and act as another layer of things to memorize. My interpretation from “Robert E Diamond” Old English grammar/ reader).

The following is my own writing of what I have learned.

The dative:

“Hail to the Sun”
The sun is receiving the call so it is singular dative.
I am the one hailing so I am in nominative.

Hælu Þære Sunnan (hail the sun) “to” is implied when using the dative and technically so is “the” so you could write it “Hælu Sunnan” and “ to the” ís implied and would be understood as such. The ending “an” on the Goddess name Sunne denotes a weak declension of the feminine noun. “Þære” ís the feminine dative form of “the” the nominative (f) form of the is “Seo”. Male Form(n) “Se” which is close to PG and PIE sources.

To add a personal emphasis I could add “Ic”
“Ic Hælu Þære Sunnan”
“I hail the sun”
As you can see Ic is cognate to German Ich.

When using articles (words like “the”) the article must match the gender of the word and the articles case must match the case being used. Dative with dative etc…

Example: masculine:

Se (nom) Hund (nom)
“The Dog” the dog is the subject so it is nominative as is “the”

Se Hundas (Nom/Plural)
“The dogs” plural

Þæs Hundes bān (Genitive)
“The dog’s bone”

(Accusative uses the same word endings as nominative) but uses several different articles depending on gender such as “þone”. The ACC case is used to denote the object being given such as above “bān”. In the modern sentence “I gave the dog a treat” the “treat” is accusative the dog is singular dative. The accusative is also used to indicate movement of something in a sentence such as running, riding, charging etc..

The dative case has the most uses and is the most complicated.

Dative:

“To the Hall” as in a toast

Sæle (neut) (tó the hall) poetic

“To the halls” “ (of our forebears) plural toast
Sælum (neut) dative plural “ to the” ís implied.

Sæl is the origin of the Word Saloon and Salon. Modern Danish “Sal” as in Mjødsal (Mead hall) Old English “Medusæl”

All cases and genders have a version of the word “the” and some are shared. Cases have some of the following endings: ( not complete or exhaustive)

E
A
es
as
U
an

Some case endings on certain words have no end vowel or sometimes use a double from another such as sometimes genitive ending E or Nominative ending in A.

This level of complexity leaves the student with need of complex tables showing all gender forms, articles by case and gender as well as all singular and plural forms of words. Wiktionary and and a good word hoard book goes a long way.

Notes:

Anglo Saxon is a Norð Sea Germamic or Ingveonic language that originated in Jutland and Southern Scandinavia. Old English, English, Old Saxon, Low German, Old Frisian and Frisian are all within the Ingveonic family. Some speculate the Teutons were also Ingveonic due to their southern Scandinavian origin. These languages sit somewhere between Scandinavian and West Germanic languages.

I use Peter S. Baker, Robert E Diamond and Stephen Pollington, K Herbert resources as well Thijs Porck videos and wiktionary declension tables.

Skål 🍻 some of this might not correct but it’s as far as I have gotten.

Hroð-

November 13, 2021 | Categories: Ancient Germany, Ancient Northern Europe, Ancient Scandinavia, Anglo Saxon Frisian, Anglo-Norda, ænglisc, denmark, Eald Englisc, European Culture, Norð Sea, Norse Culture, North Sea Coast, North Sea Germanic Jutland, Old English, old norse, Proto Germanic Language, vendel era, West Germanic Language | Tags: Angles, Anglo Frisian, anglo saxon, Anglo Saxon Frisian, Anglo Saxon Word Of The Day, anglo saxon words, Angul, culture, denmark, england, English, English Language, Germanic, Germany, history, Indo-Europeans, jutland, midgard, nordic, norse, North Sea Germanic, northern europe, Northern Germany, Old English, Old English words, old norse, scandinavia, Scandinavian, seax, sweden, vendel era | Leave a comment