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Old English Characteristics

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CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH:
Old English was spoken by the people of the Angles, Saxon and Jutes. The period of this language was from 400 AD to 1100 AD. It is completely not understandable by the English people of modern era. The main basic characteristics of Old English are as follows:
PRONUNCIATION:
The main characteristic of Old English language is its pronunciation which is completely different from the pronunciation of modern English. This difference is only because of modification of long vowels.
Example:
The word Stan is the same word as Modern English stone, but the vowel is different which has changed their pronunciation.
VOCABULARY:
The vocabulary of Old English is completely different from the vocabulary of Modern English. Its all vocabulary was completely Germanic. It had some word of Celtic origin too. The research on this language has proved that 85 percent of that vocabulary has been extinct now. Very few of words are surviving now a day.
Example:
Mann (man), Wif (woman), Hus (house), mete (meat), waell (wall) etc. These words actually give a true evidence of Old English surviving in Modern world.
GRAMMAR:
Old English is inflected language. Its grammar resembles with the grammar of German Language. The nouns and adjectives are inflected for four cases in the singular and four in the plural, although the forms are not always distinctive. The adjective have separate forms for each of three genders. The inflection of verb is less elaborated but there are
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