Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English language spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. Brought to Great Britain in the mid-5th century by Germanic tribes speaking Anglo-Frisian dialects, it replaced Common Brittonic (a Celtic language) and Latin brought by the Roman invasion. The language of the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes developed into four main dialects: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon. Like other Old Germanic languages, Old English is very different from Modern English and difficult to understand without study.
The most common 100 words spoken by Modern English speakers come from this heritage of Old English. Here is a list of the top 25:
To get a flavor of the sound of the language, check out this reading of the Christmas Story (the Gospel According to St. Luke) in Old English from a tenth-century translation of the West Saxon Gospels.
Did you know the bulk of the English language is made up of just 1,000 words? You might also be interested in learning more about the beauty of the Scots language, or discover the oldest word in the English language that’s still in use!
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