Old English

• Course information
  
  • About Old English
  • Instructor contact information
  • Course objectives
  • Course outline
  • Course schedule
  • System requirements
• Lessons
  • Lesson 1
    • spelling and pronunciation
  • Lesson 2
    • spelling and pronunciation, part 2
    • Old English as an inflected language
    • exercise on forms of subjects and objects for masculine demonstratives and personal pronouns
  • Lesson 3
    • case system as it applies to Old English strong masculine and neuter nouns
    • exercise on cases in "Abraham and Isaac"
  • Lesson 4
    • case system as it applies to Old English weak nouns
    • the verb beon (to be), together with the personal pronouns
    • flashcards for memorizing case endings
  • Lesson 5
    • brief introduction to the "Voyage of Ohthere"
    • case system as it applies to Old English strong feminine nouns
    • the verb beon (to be), together with the personal pronouns
    • flashcards to firm up your command of the present and past of the verb beon.
    • conjugation of the Old English weak verbs
    • flashcards for practicing weak noun case endings
  • Lesson 6
    • short introduction to Ælfric's "Colloquy"
    • feminine weak nouns
    • a bit about a strong verb: singan
    • flashcard review of the feminine strong nouns
    • flashcard review of the weak verb lufian (to love)
    • noun case exercises based on the text of the "Voyage of Ohthere"
  • Lesson 7
    • androgynous weak-to-middling complex nouns
    • Old English personal pronouns
    • case exercises (nouns and pronouns) based on the text of the "Voyage of Ohthere"
    • jumbled deck of masculine and neuter noun flashcards
    • flashcard review of the strong verb: singan
  • Lesson 8
    • brief introduction to the story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard
    • flashcard review of the third person personal pronouns
    • exercise on cases
  • Lesson 9
    • flashcard review of first and second person personal pronouns
    • flashcard review of strong and weak feminine nouns
    • exercise relating nouns and pronouns
    • Old English syntax
  • Lesson 10
    • brief introduction to Bede's Historia ecclesiastica
    • "Heo lufaþ þe (gea, gea, gea)", a musical exercise
  • Lesson 11
    • infinitives, participles, and the subjunctive
    • flashcards to learn the demonstrative pronoun þes
    • exercise drilling on the two demonstrative pronouns
  • Lesson 12
    • the verb habban
    • flashcards on the cases of feminine, masculine, and neuter nouns and demonstratives
  • Lesson 13
    • exercise on Old English noun and demonstrative forms
    • flashcards on the weak adjective declension
  • Lesson 14
    • flashcards on strong adjective declension
  • Lesson 15
    • exercise on the weak declension of adjectives
• Texts
  • The Story of Abraham and Isaac
  • The Voyage of Ohthere
  • Ælfric's Colloquy
  • Cynewulf and Cyneheard
  • Ælfred's Preface to Gregory
  • Bede's Account of the Conversion of King Edwin
  • Bede's Account of the Poet Cædmon
  • The Electronic Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (edited by Melissa Bernstein, by whose kind permission the text appears in this course)
• Grammar
  • Noun Inflexions
    • Strong Masculine and Neuter Nouns
    • Strong Feminine Nouns
    • Weak Nouns
  • Pronoun Inflexions
    • Demonstrative Pronouns: se, seo, etc. and þes, þeos, etc.
    • Personal Pronouns
      • First Person Singular (ic) and Plural (we)
      • Second Person Singular (þu) and Plural (ge)
      • Third Person Singular (he, heo, hit) and Plural (hie)
  • Adjective Inflexions
    • Weak Adjectives
    • Strong Adjectives
  • Verb Inflexions
    • Conjugation of the Strong Verbs (singan)
    • Sound Changes in the Strong Verbs
    • Weak Verbs
    • The Dreaded Subjunctive
      
      

  The Old English Case System

  Noun Genders in Old English