Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages

The original texts in each language were somewhat difficult, specially Old Norse (2 pages took me five hours) and even Old English, the rest were a bit easier for me. If you have not the patience to look up word by word in the included "dictionary", this book is probably not for you. In Old English the difficulty relied in the fact that all grammar rules were the other way around so in the texts I did not understand if the king killed them (his enemies) or if they killed the king until I went to the translated text.

The phonology and grammar sections of this book are also difficult and dry. I did not like grammar at school and I did not like it in this book either. Specially when you include all the cases and declinations found in germanic languages you can get a headache.

I bought the book mainly for phonological relationships, I have always been intrigued by the following words: Deich (German) - dijk (Dutch) - dike (English) / Reich (G) - rijk (D) - reign (E). I got my explanation for part of these similarities & differences. I also bought the book because it mentioned that it had a brief history of the people speaking those languages. I wanted to know which was first the egg or the hen in the evolution of these words: did the Saxons take these words from what is now Germany through The Netherlands and then to the UK or did Norse invasions bring them to the UK and The Netherlands and from The Netherlands to Germany?

The brief chapters on history including maps were really interesting. I supposed there was a straightforward answer to my questions and apparently it is not so easy. Dating of phonological differences is difficult since they are not always documented, the writing or spelling can differ from the pronounciation, so a change in pronounciation might already have occured while the spelling remained the same or the other way around; the same pronounciation can be spelled differently even by people of the same linguistic group (spelling was not regulated, copying mistakes, translation mistakes, etc.). Additionally, the cultures can inffluence each other back and forth by trade relationships, etc. However, it seems that there existed a Proto-Germanic language from which all three (German, Dutch and English) derived and departed.

At the end of the book there is a chapter summarizing the language changing processes that affected each language and thereby establishes similarities and differences in the languages. I would have put this chapter at the beginning of the book to better illustrate what the author was aiming to demonstrate in the individual chapters (instead of summary it would have been a better introduction).

This book was my first introduction to Germanic linguistics. The book begins with a chapter entitled "The Germanic Language Family." Although the discussion is, for obvious reasons, framed in terms of the Germanic languages, this is incidentally the best and clearest exposition of the principles and techniques of historical linguistics that I have ever read.

The next chapter, "Germanic: A Grammatical Sketch", lists those features of phonology and grammar which characterize the Germanic languages, richly illustrated with examples, mostly from Gothic. That's because Gothic is considered to have preserved more archaic features than the other languages surveyed, and to best represent what proto-Germanic must have been like.

There follow chapters on each of the following languages: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German. Each chapter begins with a short history of the tribe(s) which spoke that particular language, usually 4-5 pages worth.

Following this is a short listing of texts from which we derive our knowledge of the language. This obviously varies from language to language. In the case of Gothic and Old Saxon, the texts are few and are listed in their entirety. In the case of Old Norse, Old English, and Old High German, the number of texts which survived is too numerous to list them all, so the corpus is merely described by genre, with a few outstanding representative texts listed.

Next are two short readings in the language. These are limited by the scope of the texts that survive in the language in question. The first is usually the Parable of the Sower and the Seed from the New Testament, to allow for easy comparison between languages. The second is usually from a text unique to the language: for example, the second text in Old Norse is the story of Thor and Skrymir from the Edda; in Old High German, it's from the Muspilli; in Old Frisian, it's from a Frisian legal code.

Following the readings, there is a glossary of all words contained in the readings.

Next there is a short grammar of the language, which covers spelling and pronunciaton pretty thoroughly, and offers a less thorough treatment of grammar. The author clearly states that he did not intend to present a comprehensive grammar for each language. The intention is to give the reader the noteworthy characteristics of the language being considered, and especially to illuminate how it is similar to, and how it differs from, the other early Germanic languages.

The next section for each language covers some topic in Germanic linguistics; the author chooses a general topic which has special significance for that chapter's language. For example, for Old Saxon, he discusses Germanic alliterative poetry. This is particularly relevant to Old Saxon since our main representative text in that language is the Heliand, an alliterative epic retelling of the events in the life of Jesus.

Finally, there is a bibliography for each language, usually containing about 10-12 items, which directs those interested to further reading. The lists are relatively short, but I have found some real jewels there; McDonald-Stearns treatment of Crimean Gothic, for example.

The author concludes the work with a discussion of the grouping of the Germanic languages based on grammatical and phonological features, together with a chart listing some of these features and the early Germanic languages which exhibit them, for ease of comparison.

This is one of my most treasured books. I purchased it 10 years ago, and still keep it by my bedside. I've read it innumerable times from cover-to-cover, and also enjoy opening it at random.

I had the privilege to study the history of the Germanic languages from a photocopied version of the manuscript for this book back in the day. Though the title makes it seem targeted at students of Old English, it actually gives equal weight to all of the Germanic languages, notably Old High German, Gothic, and Old Norse (Icelandic).

Each chapter begins with the parable, "The Sower and the Seed," in the language of the chapter. This text was chosen because it's actually found in the existing manuscripts - - the Bible tended to be translated into the vernacular early on, and disseminated widely - - and because this story has a goodly amount of grammatical action. "A sower went out to sow seeds" gives you three variations on the basic stem of , and you can see how that idea is reflected in each language.

Using the same text also makes for great pedagogy. After a few chapters, the student *sees* the differences immediately, and automatically starts thinking about the language at hand.

It would be easy to make a book like this a collection of reference grammars with a boring list of similarities and differences from one language to the next. Robinson avoids this, and writes in a lively and interesting style. I highly recommend this book if you're interested in the history of the Germanic languages.

This is a wonderful book, and I doubt if any serious reviewer will give it less than five stars. It is exceptionally well-written by an author who wears his immense learning lightly. Devoting a chapter to each of the known early Germanic languages -- e.g., Old Germanic, Gothic, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, etc. -- Robinson shows how the languages developed, how they shared common characteristics and developed new ones, and how they to some extent must have cross-fertilized one another. In the process, he shares some fascinating information, such as the development of "Futhark," the runic alphabet in which Old Norse was originally written, and makes a cautionary remark which explains that we may know a good deal less about early Germanic writings skills than we think we do: "It is easier to write a letter on a stick than on a stone." He also tackles some deep linguistic issues, such as the reasons why the idea of a language-tree may be misleading, and why the analogy of biological taxonomy to language typology can be problematical. When biological species diverge, they never re-converge. But tribes, armies, villagers, etc., my split up, rejoing, form new groups, etc., so their languages may diverge, reconverge, borrow, meld, and otherwise demonstrate a more complicated history than a "divergence from a common ancestor" model might suggest. For example, Robinson concludes there never was a "common language" which could be called "West Germanic."

Robinson also points out the limits of our knowledge -- so much of our reconstruction of these ancient languages depends upon translations of the Bible and other religious texts that we know very little about the idiomatic usage which surely characterized the "everyday" use of these tongues. We have to be grateful to Robinson for a book which is unlikely to be equaled, much less surpassed, anytime soon.

Orrin Robinson has done what many suggested could never be done -- or done well at any rate: he has constructed a useful, solid introduction to the whole of early Germanic linguistics, hitting all the high points, with concision, without merely paying lip service to each language. It's a terrific starting point for comparative Germanic linguistics -- from which you can move on to more exhaustive works on the individual languages.

Robinson covers seven key Germanic languages here, each in its own chapter: Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and Old High German. In each chapter, he situates the language in its proper historical context, discusses its development from Primitive Germanic, explains its phonology (useful crib notes to refer back to when you need to remember how to pronounce Old Saxon or Gothic! :), talks about the key literary texts in the language, offers two or three reading samples in each language -- with glosses and cognates in the margin and a short glossary following, provides an overview of the grammar, and more. Each chapter also concludes with a Further Reading section, telling those interested in learning more where to turn next.

This is quite a lot to have accomplished in such a relatively short book (c.300 pp.). Robinson's writing is a model of clarity, and the book never plods or becomes too overwhelming or too dry. I've read this book more than once and I refer to it often, which is a compliment of another sort. Very highly recommended indeed!