How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction
For this assignment, please work with several exercises in Curzan. Start with 13.1 in Curzan. It provides two different versions of the Lord's Prayer, one in Modern English and one in Old English. Please read them. Disregard the questions that follow in the text (we haven't covered grammar yet), but rather, try to answer these questions. What words do you recognize in the Old English version? Why do you think those words have stayed roughly the same while some others have changed so much? You might also want to look at some of the words that have changed, and guess what the modern equivalent of the Old English word is. For instance, near the beginning of the text “your kingdom come” looks like it used to be “Cume þīn rīce.” Is there any modern word that means “kingdom” that could have had its roots in “rīce”? What about “hlaf” for “bread”?
Please also complete Curzan, 13.2, number 3 (this asks you to guess about the meanings of Old English kennings) and Curzan, 13.3, number 3 (this asks you to discuss the words "children," "oxen," and "brethren.”
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction
Author: Curzan
Edition: 3rd English Works: A Linguistic Introduction