{"id":1787,"date":"2019-08-01T15:38:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T15:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2024-04-21T12:49:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T12:49:34","slug":"fun-facts-16-old-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2019\/08\/01\/fun-facts-16-old-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Facts About English #16 – Top 25 Most Frequently Used Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Fun<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English language spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. Brought to Great Britain in the mid-5th century by Germanic tribes speaking Anglo-Frisian dialects, it replaced Common Brittonic (a Celtic language) and Latin brought by the Roman invasion. The language of the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes developed into four main dialects: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, and West Saxon. Like other Old Germanic languages, Old English is very different from Modern English and difficult to understand without study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most common 100 words spoken by Modern English speakers come from this heritage of Old English. Here is a list of the top 25:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"25
:<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To get a flavor of the sound of the language, check out this reading of the Christmas Story<\/em> (the Gospel According to St. Luke<\/em>) in Old English from a tenth-century translation of the West Saxon Gospels<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n