Drout's Quick and Easy Old English

by Michael D.C. Drout

Michael DC Drout has now transformed his classic “King Alfred's Grammar” into a comprehensive guide for learning Old English. Appropriate for students and enthusiasts alike, Drout's Quick and Easy Old English presents the basics of the language in an accessible form. Even the most novice student can learn to read the classics of medieval literature in their original language with this system. Drout's Quick and Easy Old English covers:

The history of Old English
Orthography, covering the unfamiliar characters of Old English writing
Pronouncing Old English
Grammar, from nouns and verbs to pronouns and adjectives
Tricks for translation

With the help of Bruce Gilchrist and Rachel Kapelle, Drout provides exercises to reinforce the lessons. After years of testing in classrooms and online, these exercises have been thoroughly vetted for accuracy by scholars around the world, and have guided countless students through their first lessons in Old English.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Language

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jassmine]

I love how ambitious and unhinged I was four years ago - learning Old English just for fun? Seems completely reasonable...

You might also notice that I am leaving this on my tbr 😂 I guess obscure and non-practical languages are still a passion of mine 😂

[Dave Maddock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drout has done a great job distilling Old English grammar down to the bare necessities. However, the number of typos and formatting issues in the ebook preclude a higher rating. In such a work it is critical that I can trust it as a reference but I can't do so because I have found several errors in key inflection tables. So, with regret, I can only recommend this as a supplement to a more reliable text (perhaps one that Drout recommends in his appendix).

[Daniel_tanure · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons from the 6th to the 12th centuries AD is most often called "Old English", but that title can be very misleading as, though it is no doubt its predecessor, the similarities with what we call "English" today are scant to say the least. Being an inflected language, as opposed to its analytical modern version, Old English is perhaps grammatically closer to German or Dutch. And what with it being a dead tongue and with the paucity of extant texts left to us by history to boot, learning it is quite the challenge and requires a lot of grueling memorization and practice. This book, however, is probably the closest you'll ever get to an "Old English for Dummies" and bends over backwards to make the process a friendlier experience. The lessons and explanations eschew the plodding academic digressions that can throw off a beginner (such as myself) that often occur in these kinds of books to present the basics in the clearest and most focused way possible, so that you may hone in your attention on the important elements and get a quick grasp of the core aspects of the language before delving into the more advanced stuff.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in learning this beautiful language.