A History of English Language

A history of the english language 56
In the later chapters of this book we shall have occasion to trace the process by which
English lost a great part of this inflectional system and became an analytic language, so
that the paradigms which we have given here will also prove useful as a point of
departure for that discussion. The use of these inflections as well as the other
characteristics of the language so far pointed out may be seen in the following specimens.
The first is the Lord’s Prayer, the clauses of which can easily be followed through the
modern form, which is familiar to us from the King James version of the Bible.
Fæder ūre,
þū þe eart on heofonum,
sī þīn nama gehālgod.
Tōbecume þīn rīce.
Gewurþe ðīn willa on eorðan swā swā on heofonum.
Ūrne gedæghwāmlīcan hlāf syle ūs tō dæg.
And forgyf ūs ūre gyltas, swā swā wē forgyfað ūrum gyltendum.
And ne þū ūs on costnunge,
ac, ūs of yfele. Sōþlīce.
The second specimen is from the Old English translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
and tells the story of the coming of the missionaries to England under St. Augustine in
597: