The Lord's Prayer through the Centuries: A Case Study

Table 1: Words and phrases from The Lord’s Prayer from Old English through Modern English

Meaning	Old English		Middle English	Early Modern		Modern English
“our father”	Fæder ūre		Oure fadir	oure father		Our Father
“art”	eart		art	arte		art
“heaven”	heofonum		heuenes	heven		heaven
“hallowed”	gehālgod		halwid	halowed		Hallowed
“thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”	pin willa on eorþan swā swā on heofonum		thi wille don as in heuen and in erthe	they wyll be fulfilled as well in erth as hit ys in heven		Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven
“today”	tōdæg		this day	this daye		this day
“And forgive (us)”	And forgyf		And forʒeue	And forgeve		And forgive
“our debts”	ure gyltas		oure dettis	oure treaspases		our debts
“lead”	gelæd		leede	Leede		lead
“evil”	yfele		yuel	yvell		evil
“forgive (men)”	forgyfab		forʒeuve	forgeve		forgive
“forgive (us)”	forgyfþ		forʒeue	forgeve		forgive
“men”	mannum		men	men		men
“neither”	ne ēower		neither	no more		neither
“your trespasses”	ēowre synna		ʒoure synnes	youre trespases		your trespasses
Spelling		Morphology			Syntax
“æ” in Old English becomes “a” in Middle English, except in “lead.” Ex: father, today		Morphologically, the word “forgive” in Old and Middle English appear to be the most changed through different tenses. In Old English, the phrase “And forgive (us)” is “And fogyf,” while “forgive (us)” is “forgyfþ” and “forgive (men)” is “forgyfab.” Though the differences are interesting, there is not enough evidence in the data to hypothesize about what the morphological change is. In Middle English, “forgive” is the same in “And forgive (us)” and “forgive (us)” (forʒeue) and is only different for “forgive (men)” (forʒeuve), which would imply that the insertion of “v” between the “u” and second “e” signifies that “men” are the object to be forgiven.			The phrase “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” through the different translations appears to show that the overall syntax of English has stayed relatively the same. Ex: “pin willa on eorþan swā swā on heofonum”=> “thi wille don as in heuen and in erthe”=> “they wyll be fulfilled as well in erth as hit ys in heven”=> “Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven”
“f” in Old English is used in place of where “v” will eventually be. Ex: heaven, forgive, evil, forgive (men), forgive (us)
“th” in “father” is a “d” in Old and Middle English, but is a “w” in “neither” in Old English (ie. “ne ēower”)
Some words are the same in Middle and Modern English, but different in Old and Early Modern English. Ex: art, today, neither However, others are the same in Middle and Early Modern (ie. Lead) while “men” remains the same from Middle to Modern English, and is different only in Old English (“mannum”).
					However, the phrase, “our father” in Old English implies differently, as it is “Fæder ūre,” placing the possessor after the noun. In other circumstances, though (ie. “your trespasses”=> “ēowre synna") normal English syntax is followed.
“And” is spelled the same consistently from Old English to Modern English.
“Oure” and “this” are the same in Middle and Early Modern English.
		In all translations, the suffix “s” marks a plural noun, with one exception in Old English. Ex: “debts”- “gyltas”=> “dettis”=> “treaspases”=> “debts” Ex: “trespasses”- Exception is in Old English- “synna”=> “synnes”=> “trespases”=> “trespasses”
“u” sometimes takes the place in Middle English that “v” would take in Early Modern and Modern English. Ex: “heuenes”=> “heven,” “And forʒeue”=> “And forgeve,” “yuel”=> “yvell,” “forʒeue”=> “forgeve.” However, for “forgive (men)” both a “u” and a “v” are present, perhaps a morphological ending indicating “men.”
		Prefixes/ words that begin with “n” appear to signify a negative, or “not.” Ex: “neither”- “ne ēower”=> “neither”=> “no more”=> “neither”
“Will” changes spelling through every translation. Ex: “willa”=> “wille”=> “wyll”=> “will” “Debts” also changes through each translation. Ex: “gyltas”=> “dettis”=> “treaspases”=> “debts”
“Forgive” in each form changes through each translation. It not only changes throughout each translation, but also changes through the forms “And forgive (us),” “forgive (men),” and “forgive us” in Old English and in Middle English it is only different in “forgive (men).”
“Heaven,” “hallowed,” “evil,” and “your trespasses” all change through each translation. Ex: “heofonum”=> “heuenes” => “heven”=> “heaven” / “gehālgod”=> “halwid”=> “halowed”=> “Hallowed” / “yfele”=> “yuel”=> “yvell”=> “evil” / “ēowre synna”=> “ʒoure synnes”=> “youre trespases” => “your trespasses”
“Thy” changes through each translation: “pin”=> “thi”=> “they”=> “Thy”
“Y” often takes the place of “i” and “e”: Old English- “forgyf,” “gyltas,” “yfele,” “forgyfab,” “forgyfþ,” “synna”/Middle- “yuel,” “synnes”/Early Modern- “wyll,” “ys,” “yvell"

Devastasha Beaver
EN333-Case Study
Report

The Lord’s Prayer through the Centuries

This case study explores the morphological, syntactical, lexical, and spelling changes in words and phrases in The Lord’s Prayer, through translations in Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. The Old English translation is from circa year 1000, the Middle English translation is from 1389, the Early Modern translation is from 1526, and the Modern English translation is from1952. There are two tables preceding this report; the first displays the words and phrases throughout the different translations, while the second is a compilation of the data in the categories of morphology, spelling, and syntax. This case study will present the differences and similarities throughout the translations in morphology, syntax, and spelling/lexicon, and propose what may have brought about such changes.

Spelling

The most significant changes through the translations are the different spellings employed. Some of the changes in spelling are the result of phonology, or the pronunciations of words; others are the result of changes in lexicon because of historic changes. There are three specific spelling changes because of phonology in the selected data. First, the letter “f” in Old English is in the place the letter “v” occupies in Modern English. This is so in the Old English words for “heaven,” which is “heofonum,” “forgive,” which is “forgyf,” “evil,” which is “yfele,” “forgive (men),” which is “forgyfab,” and “forgive (us),” which is “forgyfþ” in Old English. This shows that, at that time, the letter “f” was pronounced in a similar way to how “v” is pronounced in

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Modern English. This is perhaps because the phonological features of /f/ and /v/ are all the same, except that /v/ is voiced and /f/ is not (Fromkin 285). During the time that Old English was spoken, /f/ may have been pronounced in a voiced manner as /v/ is today.

Secondly, the “th” in the middle of words in Modern English is different in Old and Middle English. The Old and Middle English words for “father” both contain a “d” rather than a “th” (“Fæder” and “fadir,” respectively). However, the “th” in Modern English “neither” is a “w” in Old English. The “th” in “father” and “neither” is pronounced /ð/ in Modern English (Fromkin 256). The /ð/ has many common phonological features with /d/ and /w/. They are all syllabic, nasal, voiced, palatal, and sibilant, which can explain the different spellings in Old English. Additionally, /d/ is much closer phonetically to /ð/ than /w/ is, as they are both consonantal, sonorant, labial, anterior, velar, and coronal. The only features that /w/ has in common with /ð/ that /d/ does not are that they are both continuant and alveolar. These commonalities account for the phonologic spellings in Old English.

Finally, in Old, Middle, and Early Modern English, “y” often takes the place that “i” or “e” would occupy in Modern English. For example: in Old English, “forgyf,” “yfele,” “forgyfab,” “forgyfþ,” and “synna;” in Middle English, “yuel,” and “synnes;” and in Early Modern English, “wyll,” “ys,” and “yvell." This suggests that “y” was pronounced as the phoneme /i/ is in Modern English, which implies that “i,” “e,” and “y” were all pronounced the same in some words all the way up until Modern English.

In the data set, there is one specific example of words changing as a result of lexical changes through the translations. The word that is “debts” in Modern English changes significantly

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through each translation. In Old English it is “gyltas,” which means “crime, sin, fault, or fine,” according to www.etymonline.com. It then becomes “dettis” in Middle English, which appears to be from the Old French word “dete,” that comes from the Latin for “thing owed,” according to www.etymonline.com. This is most likely a result of the Norman Invasion of England in 1066. It then changes to “treaspases” in Early Modern English, which is also from Old French, but first used in Scottish laws meaning “to enter unlawfully” in 1455, according to www.etymonline.com. The final translation is “debts” in Modern English, which is again from the Old French; however, according to www.etymonline.com, the “b” was restored in the English spelling around 1560-1660. The translations changed as the lexicon in England changed through the Norman invasion, which introduced French words and other influences.

Morphology

Morphologically, the word “forgive” in Old and Middle English appear to be the most changed through different tenses. In Old English, the phrase “And forgive (us)” is “And fogyf,” while “forgive (us)” is “forgyfþ” and “forgive (men)” is “forgyfab.” Though the differences are interesting, there is not enough evidence in the data to hypothesize about what the morphological change is. In Middle English, “forgive” is the same in “And forgive (us)” and “forgive (us)” (forʒeue) and is only different for “forgive (men)” (forʒeuve), which would imply that the insertion of “v” between the “u” and second “e” signifies that “men” are the object to be forgiven.

In regards to morphemes, in all translations, the suffix “s” marks a plural noun, with one exception in Old English. For example, the word for “debts” in each translation ends with the

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suffix “s,” i.e.: “gyltas,” dettis,” “treaspases,” and finally, “debts.” The exception of the pluralizing suffix “s” in Old English comes in the word for “trespasses.” In Old English, it is “synna,” while in every subsequent translation it is pluralized by the suffix “s,” (“synnes,” “trespases,” and “trespasses”). This may suggest that in the Old English translation, “trespass” or “sin” may have been singular in the prayer, or perhaps “synna” is an irregular plural noun.

Syntax

The phrase “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” through the different translations appears to show that the overall syntax of English has stayed relatively the same. The translations from Old English to Modern English, respectively, are as follows: “pin willa on eorþan swā swā on heofonum,” “thi wille don as in heuen and in erthe,” “they wyll be fulfilled as well in erth as hit ys in heven,” and finally, “Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.” Though the words for “earth” and “heaven” are sometimes switched, as in Middle English, the meaning remains the same, as they are syntactically the same. However, the phrase, “our father” in Old English implies differently, as it is “Fæder ūre,” placing the possessor after the noun. In other circumstances, though (i.e. “your trespasses” being “ēowre synna" in Old English) normal English syntax is followed. This may suggest that in certain circumstances, perhaps only when speaking about God directly, the syntax of sentences is different in order to show reverence to the divine.

Conclusion

Though there are many changes from Old English to Modern English, upon close examination, not much has changed. The largest amount of change is in spelling, however,

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accepted spellings of words change frequently and are often different between regions that speak the same language. For example, British English recognizes “colour” as correct, while American English only recognizes “color” as the correct spelling, although they are both words in Modern English. Overall, English syntax has remained largely the same throughout all translations, and many words follow the modern morphological rule that, in English, the suffix “s” makes regular nouns plural. The main difference between translations is the dependence of Old English on phonologically spelling words, as opposed to the more complicated spellings and pronunciations in Modern English. Through the introduction of French, Latin, Scottish, and other influences, the English language has evolved from being highly Germanic, to a language with roots in several places.

Works Cited/Consulted

Fromkin, Victoria, et al., eds. An Introduction to Language. 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011.
Print.

www.etymonline.com. Web. 7 May 2010.

(Translations are from “Projects for ‘Historical Linguistics and Language Change’” handout.)