Old English 上古英文

[fenlan]

Old English is sometimes called Anglo-Saxon. This language had much less French influence than is the case with later varieties of English. This passage is about the arrival of the English in Britain, and was written in the 700s by the Venerable Bede as part of his Ecclesiastical History of the British Nation. Old English had some letters we no longer use, and so you need a Unicode browser to read it. þ and ð = th, æ = a as in "man" (a = a as in "father")

I give my translation below and attach an audio. Please note the ancient Britons were the ancestors of the Welsh, and then the English came in the 5th century. Can I just add that whereas some bits of middle English can be guessed at by English people today, Old English is much further removed, and studying it is like studying German!

Đa wæs ymb feower hund wintra and nigon and feowertig fram ures drihtnes menniscnysse þæt Martianus casere rice onfeng and vii (seofon) gear hæfde. Se wæs siexta eac feowertigum fram Agusto þam casere. Đa Angleþeod and Seaxna wæs gelaðod fram þam foresprecenan cyninge, and on Brytene com on þrim miclum scipum, and on eastdaele þisses ealondes eardungstowe onfeng þurh ðæs ilcan cyninges bebod, þe hie hider gelaðode, þæt hie sceoldon for heora eðle compian and feohtan. And hie sona compodon wið heora gewinnan, þe hie oft ær norðan onhergodon; and Seaxan þa sige geslogon, þa sendon hie ham ærendracan and heton secgan þisses landes wæstmbærnysse and Brytta yrgþo.

Literal translation (my own):

Then it was after four hundred winters and nine and forty from our Lord’s incarnation [ie in AD 449] that the Emperor Martianus took power and seven years had it. He was the sixth and fortieth (46th) from Augustus Caesar. Then the English nation and the Saxons were invited by the aforementioned king [a British king, Vortigern], and came into Britain in three big ships, and in the eastern part of this island received a dwelling-place through the command of the same king, who had invited them here, that they should for their homeland wage war and fight. And they immediately waged war against their enemies, who had often before attacked them from the north, and when the Saxons won the victory, they sent home messengers and told them to tell of the fruitfulness of this land and of the worthlessness of the Britons.

[fenlan]

I posted these as I am not sure if Chinese learners of English are interested. I suspect they are not learning English out of interest, though, but for career reasons. But I hope some Chinese people have a genuine intellectual and cultural interest in the Anglosphere.

[chenpv]

þ and ð = th, æ = a as in "man" (a = a as in "father")

Fenlan, it looks like phonetic symbol.

but how about this : Đ, its not in the alphabet either.

[fenlan]

Đ is the capitalised form of ð