A Morphological Analyzer for Old English Verbs

After the fall of Roman in uence in the British Isles at the beginning of the 5 Century A.D., two West Germanic tribes began pouring into Britain in increasing numbers. Originally recruited as mercenaries against the Picts in modernday Scotland, the Angles and Saxons stayed and eventually overwhelmed the Celts and other inhabitants of modern-day England and Wales who had invited them (Wikipedia, 2007a). With them came their language, an o shoot of the Germanic language family. Old English continued to be spoken in Britain until just after the Norman Invasion in 1066 A.D., when it began to transition quickly into Middle English due to the Norman French in uence. There were four main dialects of Old English: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon. In later centuries, Viking invasions increased the in uence of the kingdom of Wessex, the seat of Alfred the Great, who united the Anglo-Saxons against the invaders. As a result, a large amount of written text in the West Saxon dialect survived (Wikipedia, 2007b). Therefore, this dialect is the one predominantly taught rst to modern learners of Old English, who consist primarily of historians, English literature students, and hobbyists.