Literature is the aesthetic manifestation of language. It is ‘as old as human language and as new as tomorrow’s sunrise.’ This paper explores the interrelationships between language and literature from 600 AD to the present day.  The grammar of present-day English is closely related to that of Old English with the same tense formation and word orders. The verse unit is a single line and its org...

This volume is the second in Ringe’s Linguistic history of English, picking up where the previous book, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (Ringe 2006), left off. It covers the time period from the break-up of Proto-Germanic until c. 900 ce, thus ending roughly in the middle of the Old English (OE) period as traditionally conceived. The scope of this monumental project will be apparent ...