I love the Ancient Language Institute. I was a former high school Latin teacher, and I have taken three Latin courses there. The faculty is just excellent and so warm and friendly. I heartily recommend it.
Thank you SO much for this. I read English at University fifty years ago, and never had enough time to study OE, having to spend time on all the other, more modern (and less interesting!) works of literature. Now I'm retired, and I have tried to resume my studies without much success. Having this wonderful list of resources will be really useful, and I look forward to being able to purchase Oswald the Bear some time in the future. Hopefully soon.
We need Osweald Bera t-shirts and Osweald needs a catch phrase. I also hope that a payment plan will be introduced for those of us who might do this if we could break up payments a bit. Sucks to be poor.
Fantastic introduction.Thankyou. I am just starting on my quest to learn Old English.....I am going the cheap route, at least to begin with . I will see how it goes. You may find me as a student at some point.
Thanks for this, I've used Sweet's first reader, but wasn't aware of the other books. And agreed, you're definitely not going to see as many well-compiled, modern resources for Old English as you will for Latin. It can make it a bit of an uphill battle when you're just starting out with OE. And hah, looks like a sneaky partitive genitive mistake at 30:37, should be "an þinra gefera/geferena". No X of Y genitives in OE!
I have just finished reading Beowulf (the Liuzza parallel text translation) and it inspired me to want to learn OE more. I also wanted to compare the pronunciations: I found it tricky sometimes to remember to palatalise the g when it’s before a consonant but after a front vowel. I notice you sometimes pronounced þ as if it’s an ð (?)
do you know what I think it would make it easier for the general public to study archaic languages? experts in the field use these terms, nominative accusative, dative. but English teachers in American high schools have other terms for those same concepts. they say subject, direct object, possessive, indirect object. Admittedly, a lot of people may not remember those terms after high school, but I think that many of us would have an easier time remembering the case system if we used the terms that we are always familiar with. I may not remember what the dative is, but I do understand what an indirect object is.
while that's true. that's mostly because English doesnt have cases anymore, so it doesnt work exactly the same way. I do agree that mentioning what you said in the first lesson is better.
The problem is the cases can have those functions, but the two aren’t equivalent. For instance, the dative can function as an indirect object, but it can also be instrumental in some languages. The accusative can be a direct object, but it can also be the subject of an infinitive in Greek, for instance. It does help to use these terms when discussing the functions of the cases.
Odd question but would the language spoken in the 12th century be considered old or Middle English? (i’ve seen a variety of dates on when “old” becomes “middle” ranging from Norman conquest to 1150.) I know language is in flux but -in my scenario would you be trying to learn Old or Middle English?
A document in English by Henry III about 1220 is nearer Englisc than Middle English - I was surprised as I read my Bible in Wycliff's translation from 1370-80s which is not far from early Modern English such as the King James translation and the main difference is the spelling convention.
Well learning a language is not the most easy thing in the world! Many people struggle with learning a foreign language! There is no need to feel dumb! Especially since this is an extinct language! (As in no one uses it anymore other than a small few)
Listening to some of the teenagers today, maybe they should devote their time to a refresher course in modern English. 😂😂😂 Seriously though, do you feel there would be any benefit in learning Middle English first as a stepping stone to old English as it seems to be a connecting link to old English and that which we speak today?
Yes, it was called the Canterbury bible I believe. But the Catholic Church declared it heretical and banned it because it was accessible to the common folk without learning to read Latin.
Language is more important as people know. The french words are dangerous in knowing what is realy been said. We should reduce these words, especialy in law.
I love the Ancient Language Institute. I was a former high school Latin teacher, and I have taken three Latin courses there. The faculty is just excellent and so warm and friendly. I heartily recommend it.
You’re a great teacher Colin. Wish I could afford to do your course,
Same here: too expensive for this poor Kiwi.
Episode 1 of Old English in Action is finally live! ua-cam.com/video/YaLDBtNdWM0/v-deo.html
Thank you SO much for this. I read English at University fifty years ago, and never had enough time to study OE, having to spend time on all the other, more modern (and less interesting!) works of literature. Now I'm retired, and I have tried to resume my studies without much success. Having this wonderful list of resources will be really useful, and I look forward to being able to purchase Oswald the Bear some time in the future. Hopefully soon.
We need Osweald Bera t-shirts and Osweald needs a catch phrase. I also hope that a payment plan will be introduced for those of us who might do this if we could break up payments a bit. Sucks to be poor.
Absolutely agree,
Fantastic introduction.Thankyou.
I am just starting on my quest to learn Old English.....I am going the cheap route, at least to begin with . I will see how it goes.
You may find me as a student at some point.
Thanks for this, I've used Sweet's first reader, but wasn't aware of the other books. And agreed, you're definitely not going to see as many well-compiled, modern resources for Old English as you will for Latin. It can make it a bit of an uphill battle when you're just starting out with OE.
And hah, looks like a sneaky partitive genitive mistake at 30:37, should be "an þinra gefera/geferena". No X of Y genitives in OE!
Good work, Colin Gorrie
Will Osweald Bera be available for purchase for the public?
You are an extraordinary person.
Very inspiring!
Oh do you have the Old English "lingua latina" book separately available for sale by any chance?
As y'all suspected.....Hwæt means what......
We should make a discord where we can practice using old English!!!
I have just finished reading Beowulf (the Liuzza parallel text translation) and it inspired me to want to learn OE more. I also wanted to compare the pronunciations: I found it tricky sometimes to remember to palatalise the g when it’s before a consonant but after a front vowel. I notice you sometimes pronounced þ as if it’s an ð (?)
do you know what I think it would make it easier for the general public to study archaic languages? experts in the field use these terms, nominative accusative, dative. but English teachers in American high schools have other terms for those same concepts. they say subject, direct object, possessive, indirect object. Admittedly, a lot of people may not remember those terms after high school, but I think that many of us would have an easier time remembering the case system if we used the terms that we are always familiar with. I may not remember what the dative is, but I do understand what an indirect object is.
while that's true. that's mostly because English doesnt have cases anymore, so it doesnt work exactly the same way. I do agree that mentioning what you said in the first lesson is better.
The problem is the cases can have those functions, but the two aren’t equivalent. For instance, the dative can function as an indirect object, but it can also be instrumental in some languages. The accusative can be a direct object, but it can also be the subject of an infinitive in Greek, for instance.
It does help to use these terms when discussing the functions of the cases.
Do you teach the rune letters?
Odd question but would the language spoken in the 12th century be considered old or Middle English? (i’ve seen a variety of dates on when “old” becomes “middle” ranging from Norman conquest to 1150.) I know language is in flux but -in my scenario would you be trying to learn Old or Middle English?
A document in English by Henry III about 1220 is nearer Englisc than Middle English - I was surprised as I read my Bible in Wycliff's translation from 1370-80s which is not far from early Modern English such as the King James translation and the main difference is the spelling convention.
How?
Okay, can someone tell me if an extremely dumb person. (me) cause I'm very slow. could I learn this? it seems very hard! and complext
Well learning a language is not the most easy thing in the world! Many people struggle with learning a foreign language! There is no need to feel dumb! Especially since this is an extinct language! (As in no one uses it anymore other than a small few)
@@user-Danny770 Oh, okay! thank you!!!
yeah, I wish to use this. it's such a great sounding language to be fair.
Worthing is never easy
Listening to some of the teenagers today, maybe they should devote their time to a refresher course in modern English. 😂😂😂
Seriously though, do you feel there would be any benefit in learning Middle English first as a stepping stone to old English as it seems to be a connecting link to old English and that which we speak today?
I hate to agree with you, its quite hard to understand what some of what my friends say sometimes
Yes,
Going backwards from Middle English is discussed at 28:45
28:13 you pronounce “Ea” almost as “æ:” rather than “éa” (?)
The "ea" is typically reconstructed as [æɑ] or similar :)
The orthography is usually assumed to be misleading
Is the bible translated into original English?
Yes, it was called the Canterbury bible I believe. But the Catholic Church declared it heretical and banned it because it was accessible to the common folk without learning to read Latin.
27:40 a bit like cynghanedd? Presumably influenced by each other
*47:40
Language is more important as people know.
The french words are dangerous in knowing what is realy been said.
We should reduce these words, especialy in law.