Kentish Old English facts for kids
Kentish was a special way of speaking Old English in the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent. Think of Old English as the ancestor of the English we speak today. Kentish was one of four main dialects of Old English. The other three were Mercian, Northumbrian, and West Saxon.
Where Kentish Was Spoken
People spoke the Kentish dialect in areas that are now the counties of Kent, Surrey, southern Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight. These areas were settled by Germanic groups, especially the Jutes. An old writer named Bede said the Jutes settled these specific areas.
Old Laws and How We Know About Kentish
Most of what we know about Kentish comes from old law books. The most important one is called Textus Roffensis. These books contain laws from the early Kentish kings. Even though these copies were made much later (around the 1100s), they still give us clues about how Kentish was spoken.
For example, we can compare laws from different kingdoms. The West Saxon king Ine made laws between 688 and 694. The Kentish king Wihtræd adopted some of these laws almost exactly. By comparing them, we can see small differences in words or how sentences were put together.
Here's an example from their laws:
| West Saxon: Ine, Law 20 | Kentish: Wihtræd, Law 23 |
|---|---|
| If a man who is come from afar or a stranger should go outside the track towards the woods and neither calls out or blows his horn, he is to be regarded as a thief, either to be killed or to be redeemed. | If a man [who is] come from afar or a stranger should go off the track and he then neither calls out nor does he blow his horn, he is to be regarded as a thief, either to be killed or to be redeemed. |
As you can see, many words were the same. But some words, like fremde (West Saxon) and fræmde (Kentish), show slight differences in spelling or pronunciation. Even with these small differences, people speaking Kentish and West Saxon could mostly understand each other.
Other Important Clues
Another key source for learning about Kentish is the Old Kentish Glosses. These are notes written in the margins of Latin texts. They help us see how Latin words were translated into Kentish.
A famous scholar named Henry Sweet also studied Kentish. He included examples of Kentish writing in his book, Anglo-Saxon Reader. These included two old documents called charters and a psalm from the Vespasian Psalter. These documents, like a charter from Oswulf (around 805-810) and another from Abba (around 835), help us understand the language better.
