The West Germanic language spoken in early medieval England — the language of *Beowulf*, unrecognisable to modern English speakers without study.
Where it was spoken
Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) was the language of the Germanic peoples who settled in Britain from the 5th century onward. Four major dialects emerged — West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish — with West Saxon becoming the literary standard under King Alfred.
What it sounded like
A heavily inflected language with three grammatical genders, five cases, and a verb system organised by strong (vowel-changing) and weak (suffix-adding) classes. Free word order. The grammatical complexity collapsed dramatically after the Norman Conquest of 1066, paving the way for Middle English.
How it’s written
Initially in Anglo-Saxon runes (Futhorc), then increasingly in the Latin alphabet supplemented with extra letters: thorn (þ), eth (ð), ash (æ), and wynn (ƿ). All four were eventually dropped from modern English.
Find more languages by letter
Old English starts with O and ends with H. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Old English":