Nabble - Old English Translator

SUCH IS LIFE - Swelc sy droht?

2009-11-05T15:08:32Z

Hello,

I am currently a studying to be a school teacher at an Australian University.

I am curious as to the term "such is life" in Old English.

Is the term written in Old English, "Swelc sy droht" OR "Swelc sy drohtaþ" or am I completely wrong altogether? And therefore whould this image written be correct?

I thank you for your help in this matter and it is greatly appreciated.

Many many thanks.

Getting a Tattoo in memory of my brother...need some help.

2009-10-16T16:30:22Z

After many attempts at doing this myself, it is clear I need some help. The phrase is: "Always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name." Any help at all would be appreciated.

Re: Typing Old English

2009-10-04T08:25:55Z

Personally I prefer to use a programme called Autohotkeys (http://www.autohotkey.com/) with this script (OEscript.txt), which re-maps the useless number-pad to handy OE letters.

1=ō/Ō
2=Ū/ū
3=ǽ/Ǽ
4=Ā/ā
5=ē/Ē
6=Ī/ī
7=ð/Ð
8=Þ/þ
9=æ/Æ
/=Ġ
*=ġ
-=ċ
+=Ċ

and numlock becomes a capslock. I've had no problems whatsoever with this method so far.

Help Translating this:

2009-09-28T16:50:51Z

Does anyone know what this means:

íc hwæðere ācweþan eald Englisc

Please help me translate - is this right so far?

2009-08-27T06:24:29Z

Hi everyone,
I really need some help in translating something into old english. I've tried to do it myself but I'm getting very confused.

This is the sentence that I want to translate:
My heart is no longer mine, it belongs to my children

This is what I've come up with so far:
min bréostcofan sy náteþæshwón mine (which I think reads: my hearts affections is not at all by no means mine)

Am I on the right track? Do I have the grammar correct? I'm not fussed on the translated sentence being exactly the same as the original, but I want it to have the same meaning.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Larissa

Re: The Mysterious Wihtgar

2009-08-21T00:10:04Z

Ah, your explanation you've given now, sounds far better. When making my post, I was more concentrating on the way the information was presented, and only dismissing those possibilities because nothing else was there to back them up. This presentation certainly lends more credibility now.

See if you can add in more history, including some outside points of view from that time period, if any are known, in addition to the translation possibilities presented. Keep up the good work.

(And as a PS: might as well throw in some shameless advertising while I'm at it... feel free to join my new Eald Englisc Google Group. Its only purpose is to use OE in everyday speech, topics are open to anything on your mind.)

Re: The Mysterious Wihtgar

2009-08-20T23:58:47Z

Thanks Wodenhelm,

Excuse my whimsical extract. No, the point is a serious one (and various names were used through the ages).

Interpretations of what things mean seem to get stuck - particularly where the AS Chronicles are concerned, even if they don't make sense. And sometimes the only way to draw attention to them is to propose another solution.

The names of the Isle of Wight (Wihte ealond) and the alleged warrior 'Wihtgar' who took its (then) capital 'Wihtgaraburg' for the Saxons are intertwined.
If he was real, he arrived at a place already named after him.

The question is - on linguistic grounds - was he likely to have been real or a description of a place turned into a person by chroniclers that didn't understand the context? Perhaps it's impossible to say.

(We had already had the oddity of a man called Port capturing Portsmouth - A.D. 501. This year Port came to Britain with his two sons, Bieda and Maegla, and two ships, to the place called Portsmouth (portesmutha), and killed a young British man, a very noble man. - Maegla could be the Briton Maglos)

This all could shed some light on the thorny problem of whether the war in Hampshire and Isle of Wight was a British civil war (Cerdic, the leader had a British name) absorbed into the history of the Saxons or the great Saxon invasion that drove the British leaders West and into Brittany and heralded the beginnings of Wessex and England - as the AS Chroniclers would have us believe.

Part of the solution hinges on the meanings of 'Wihtgar' and of 'Wihtgarabyrg'.

wiht [] 1. f (-e/-a), n (-es/-u) wight, person, creature, being; whit, thing, something,
wihtga see wítega
wítega [] m (-n/-n) wise man; lawyer; prophet, soothsayer; prophecy; [witan]

gár [] 1. m (-a/-a) spear, dart, javelin, shaft, arrow, weapon, arms; 2. tempest?, piercing cold?, sharp pain?; 3. see gára
gára [] m (-n/-n) spear-man
gára [] m (-n/-n) corner, point of land, cape, promontory; strip of cloth, saddle cloth [gár]

burg [] f (byrg/byrg) a dwelling or dwellings within a fortified enclosure, fort, castle; borough, walled town; [gen sing ~byrg, ~byrig, ~burge; dat sing ~byrg, ~byrig; nom/acc pl ~byrg, byrig; gen pl ~burga; dat pl ~burgum]

So was Wihtgar eg?
- the man with the spear
- the creature with the spear
- a wise man (with no spear)
- a person's promontory

And Wihtgarabyrg eg?
- the spearman's fort
- the creature with the spear's fort
- the wise man's town
- the person's promontory fort or town (as suggested previously)

Interpretation also helps us decide whether Carisbook in the centre of the island or Brading, the Roman port, was the capital of the island.

Re: The Mysterious Wihtgar

2009-08-20T15:41:15Z

steveandkate,

oops - Didn't spot your response - thanks for the analysis.

The dates and events in the AS Chronicle are regularly used as fact in histories of the Isle of Wight.
Yet, there are problems.

Archaeology suggests there were Britons in the east and Jutes in the west of the island before Cerdic, the alleged Saxon (with a British name) founder of Wessex (and thereby England) arrived to capture it for ever for the Germanic races. It is an important, if little known and confused, moment in British history.

According to the AS Chronicles:

In 514, Stuf and Wihtgar fought the Britons
In 530, Cerdic and Cynric seized 'Wihte ealond' and killed a few men at 'Wihtgarabyrg'
In 534, Cerdic passed away and the kinsmen 'Stuf' and 'Wihtgar' were given 'Wihte ealond'
In 544, Wihtgar died and he was buried at 'Wihtgarabyrg' (always assumed to be the later central island capital Carisbrook)

So, 'Wihtgarabyrg' appears to be named after someone called 'Wihtgar', although it already had his name by the time he arrived.

The most important ancient harbour in the British east of the island was Brading (derived from the Celtic for dwellers on a hill). So, yes, it could be that the chroniclers made a mistake and 'Wihtgar' and 'Stuf' were not people at all. Which rather leaves the British attacking themselves...

yep, I'm confused too. hehe

Re: The Mysterious Wihtgar

2009-08-19T21:52:47Z

Eh, sounds a bit on the side of "personal ideas" (as in, "hey maybe this it how it is?") as opposed to historic research.

New Old English email group on Google Groups, and a new OE wiki site

2009-08-19T21:36:42Z

Greetings all. I've recently made a new email group dedicated to using Eald Englisc in everyday speech. Topics dont necessarily have to be about OE or the Anglo-Saxon period; any subject at all is welcomed. The purpose of the group, simply put, is to use OE in conversation. After all, the best way to learn is to actually use it, just as you did with Modern English.

Absolutely everyone here is welcomed to join in, and I encourage you to do so! Using OE daily will help you to better learn it, and ingrain it into your memory.

http://groups.google.com/group/eald-englisc

There's also a new wiki site, again in all OE, so that there can be Old English language web page content, in a relatively centralized location. Topics so far include sports, music, and an unnamed project on "Séo Ealda Talubóc," where an intentionally-unfinished fiction story is being written, that others may join in and add to as well. See you all there!

http://englisc.wiki-site.com/

Re: Who are you?

2009-06-13T08:13:44Z

I'm a Cambridge English student (19), studying Old English. But I'm also captivated by it and want to teach myself to speak as well as translate it. I'm trying to translate my webpage into the language but the going's slow--faster thanks to this site, though I'm still having to invent compound words for anything more technologically advanced than a longboat. I'm also trying to get Facebook to offer an Anglo Saxon language setting so I can pass procrastination off as educational...

My interest was really sparked by an interest in the historical Kingdom of Lindsey (my home) as much as by Beowulf.

mæctlan - a word occurring only in poetry to speak

2009-05-29T03:27:05Z

Old English - mæctlan
Modern English - a word occurring only in poetry to speak

So this is what this site gave me to work with on this word. I googled it, and there's absolutely nothing. If anybody knows anything more about this word, or could give me some insight into this word, I would appreciate it very much.

This one as well, if you have any information!

Old English - mirgen
Modern English - that which causes delight poetry

Thank you!

~Shannon

A little help from my new friends

2009-05-29T01:25:37Z

Hi,

I am new to this but I could do with a little help. I am trying to translate the Latin phrase 'Fortis et Liber' which translates as 'Stong and Free'. I think that Dyhtig is the word for stong but the rest is anyones guess.

Thank you in advance for the help

Mike

Old English word for "ermine"

2009-05-27T17:52:36Z

I'm not sure if this is where I should post this, but while looking up animal names, I found an entry for "made of ermine" (hearmascinnen), but not one for "ermine" itself, which (as several dictionaries have certified) is "hearma". I'm afraid I'm virtually in the dark in regard to any further grammatical specifics, but I can certainly give a good etymological listing of cognates and such if desired.

Re: Who are you?

2009-05-27T17:44:43Z

I'm a long-time linguistics fan, especially historical linguistics. Love ancient languages (e.g. Proto-Indo-European, Tocharian B, Hittite, and of course, Old English).

That and music, especially stuff composed around 1900, as well as various kinds of folk/"world" music. One can find all kinds of wonderful melodies in the most unexpected cultures!

Re: Who are you?

2009-05-26T04:43:36Z

We were researching names to give our house - fields, cows, meadows, and came across this site.
What a fascinating site. What a shame that the ae spelling is being banished! Our language should reflect its rich and wild history.

As teachers, we enjoy exploring words and their origins but are equally interested on a purely explorative plane. I teach English Language A level where the students have to study a development module. D has taught linguistics at Coimbra University in Portugal and has a keen interest in language.

Academically and personally, it's just captivating. How fascinating to come across a realm of people exploring OE.

Re: Who are you?

2009-05-25T04:45:45Z

Hi everyone. Forgive my nick - it's awful, I know, but purely descriptive. What a wonderful site - I'm still a bit stunned! Brilliant!
If anyone's still interested here's my spec: 48 year old, British, former language nerd (read dictionaries/etymologies as a teenager till the early hours), fomer linguist (linguistics and Scandinavian studies at Univ of East Anglia) och TEFL teacher who became a CBT psychologist in Sweden...Well, I feel quite normal anyway. I've been away from languages for nearly twenty years now put am reexperiencing the pull. Found this site trying to obtain 'Bûter, brea en griene tsiis (cheese, pronounced the same!) is goed Engelsk en goed Frysk' (yep, it's good Frisian too) and Freeborn's book on the development of English. So, at the moment I'm most curious about the transitional aspects of Frisian and Middle English althought OE will always be the ultimate dream. I can (try to) answer questions about Swedish cognates of English words if anyone's interested....

Re: Short English phrases to Old English

2009-05-23T12:15:51Z

Basically you would write: mîn oþþe þîn. But depending on the case of the noun, of course, you might add endings to these two words.

Re: help translating

2009-05-23T12:08:26Z

I believe it might be: "in þy finde ic modglædnese" "mind-joy." Or if you prefer: "modfrið" for "peace of mind."

Re: Who are you?

2009-05-21T13:30:04Z

I'm a female teenage highschool student who enjoys writeing in their free time. I use this site for place and character names that sound more otherworldly. It's been really helpful!

tatoo translation. Help needed.

2009-05-19T15:47:08Z

Hi there! I´m asking for help ´cos my knowledge about old english is so poor...

I just want to traslate a pair of texts into Old English.
Could someone help me??

"YOUR FEET WILL BRING YOU TO WHERE YOUR HEART IS"

"DON´T KNOW WHERE I´M GOING IN A WORLD THAT WAITS FOR ME"

Thanxs in advance.
Edd

Re: Who are you?

2009-05-18T03:49:11Z

Hi! I'm the 2d year student from Ukraine (nearby Russia). Now I'm doing my hometask that is translation and linguistic analysis of texts in original Anglo-Saxon language.The translator helps me very much. Thank you a lot!

help translating

2009-05-17T13:45:26Z

I am trying to translate an inscription into old english for my girlfriends ring. "in thee I find content of mind" thank you for any help you can provide
Peter

Typing Old English

2009-05-10T07:18:49Z

Greetings

I am offering the following in help to any one else who would like to type in Old English.

The simplest method I have found comes from

http://www.murphymethod.com/red3.html

There is an email link to Red (the author) where you can request his font file that includes all the Old English special characters as well as the full Latin set. It also includes the vowel macrons and hard/soft sound g and c. This is a TrueType font and I have installed successfully on MSWord (Windows XP) and on OpenOffice.Write (Linux). For me, it was actually as simple as copying the font file to my system's font directory, opening the word processor and selecting the font.

The file is called Old English Bookhand. If you would first like to check out if it is for you, I recommend

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/oldenglish.htm

which also has some other useful links.

At this point, I have not tried to implement on html, so I have no recommendation for display on web sites.

There are other methods, of course, including Unicode, Junicode and Alphabetum, which involves picking through the code tables for the proper character, adding the hex code to a keyboard config file, etc.

Since I have not yet done any web sites in Old English and given my own bias toward a more authentic script (and given how time saving it was), using Old English Bookhand gave me the immediate gratification of seeing my own words in Old English on the screen.

Have fun!
kendall259

Re: Who are you?

2009-05-05T03:31:43Z

Well Im a 19 year old Englishman living in New Zealand who loves all languages!! I go to Victoria University where I study Spanish, Portuguese and German and hopefully taking an Anglo Saxon literature course next year!
My interest in Anglo-Saxon is the fact that it's a dead language that was once spoken by our ancestors and one which I really want to learn! The mythology is fascinating and the vocabulary is so vast it's amazing!

I would like to add that this website is ace and I'm very grateful it's here!!!

Re: Who are you?

2009-04-18T21:22:39Z

Engineer by education, musician by passion, long time student of German, fan of Finnegan's Wake.

Re: Who are you?

2009-03-19T09:08:36Z

Thank you a lot for this site, it's really damn useful!

I'm a student of philology in MSU, Russia, department of translation, 3d year. We have a 2-year course of Old English and a DREADFUL teacher who doesn't know it and doesn't care. I like the language a lot, but it's a real trial to learn it against the teacher's lack of interest or respect.
I also like this site so much because the dictionary is very extensive, much more volumnous than what we've got in paper here, where there aren't even all the words from chosen texts in main dialects.
It would be a great help, though, if along with gender there were noun-stems marked. Because we have to mark all the nouns in texts with their stem-endings, and they are so hard to define...

Short English phrases to Old English

2009-03-19T08:44:48Z

Hi,

Can anyone help me with following?

I am currently writing a Dutch novel, which is partly situated in England. I want to include some short Old English phrases in the book. I have some trouble using the only translator, mainly because my understanding of the English grammar terms is, well let's say, non existent.

Right now I am just looking yet for a translation of "yours or mine".

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Roy

Re: Who are you?

2009-03-02T23:15:49Z

I am an Australian, 50 years young, who has been a member of the SCA (learning about history by trying to do the things as they were done in the past) for going on 9 years. I've always loved history, but the SCA has made me aware of documentation, of PROVING, even if only to myself, that what I BELIEVE happened has a basis in fact.

One of my main interests is Saxon England. I've done a Medieval cooking course on line which featured two texts on Anglo Saxon cooking, so my next endeavour is to learn the language so I can read the texts (leechcrafts/ AS Chronicle etc) in the original language. I've yet to make AS clothing, but that's on the agenda.

Add to that the current financial crisis has forced me out of work, so I am now a Uni student and my Minor is History (twentieth century, but I really really prefer the Saxon period), and this is a nice easy to use site.

I was directed here from one of the SCAs many interest-focussed lists.

Tracey (ska Lowry)

Re: Who are you?

2009-02-09T13:01:46Z

I'm 47 and live in the U.S. I have no facility for language, sometimes not even my native American English, which is the only one I speak or read. But I do like being able on occasion to be able to read Gaelic, or at least pick out several words related to the 20 or so words of Gaelic I know or that have been absorbed by modern English. And there are a lot of those.

My primary interest in languages is that I play role playing games and I often want to lend some authenticity to my games. Specifically now, I am running a game for some friends and my 19 year old nephew set against the backdrop of Rowling's Harry Potter universe. Last night I was asking for help going from Old English to "old" Scottish.

I can't quite find my way around this site yet. I wanted to add some of the answers I personally found late last night to my question but don't know where my question is yet. But it'll turn up or be found.

Thanks for the site.

Kinley Johnson (Avalon27703)

Where can I get a translation done from modern english INTO old english?

2008-12-30T16:28:22Z

I'm looking for a person, or site I can email a poem to and get it translated into Old English.
In an ideal world it would be someone who could send me the script in the post written out in the insular script (so I can see and copy letter formations) as it would have been - but I know this is a long shot.

If not that then simply having an ACCURATE translation of a modern poem/few lines into Old English would be fantastic.

Does anyone know any reliable person/translation site that would do this? I would pay of course as translating that much text might take a while!

(I did find a site by accident that offered this service before, but I can't find it anymore! Arrggh! )

Many thanks!

Help in translating

2008-12-29T11:34:16Z

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help...I am trying to find the exact Old English translation of 'my eternal love'....I want it to be grammatically correct also! Thank you for your help in advance. :)

Re: translation and origin of a quote

2008-12-28T18:12:49Z

Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, Lines 12-14

"Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in distant lands."

http://www.librarius.com/canttran/genpro/genpro001-042.htm

translation and origin of a quote

2008-12-21T10:21:03Z

Can someone tell me where this is from and what it means? Many thanks!

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne hawles, kowthe in sondry londes;

Three questions...

2008-12-13T15:53:52Z

I have a few seemingly trivial questions I was hoping someone could answer:

1. What is the opposite of the word earg? I know there are words with opposite meanings, such as beald, ellenheard, caf, etc. But is there a word that was consistently employed as its opposite? For example, if I asked an English speaker what the opposite of "happy" is, I would expect him to respond with the word "sad," and not "melancholy," "depressed," or "gloomy," even though the latter all mean "sad." If I could ask and Old English speaker what the opposite of earg is, what would he say? Are there examples in Old English texts of a word that is consistently used in opposition to earg?

2. Same question, except this time the word is idel.

3. The word ellen is a noun. Is there a corresponding adjectival form of ellen? I know of compound adjectives like ellenheard and ellenrof. The simplest adjective form I can find is ellenlic, but is there anything simpler, that is, something based directly off the noun without any suffixes added? I was thinking of something like "elne" or the word ellen itself being used as an adjective. Are there examples in Old English of the word being used this way, or is ellen used almost exclusively as a noun?

Thanks in advance for your answers.