Blog 1: Option B, Old English

Instructions: Inscribe a one-page poem using the Old English (OE) language features below. The poem will have at least 6-8 unrhymed lines. Place the Present-Day English (PDE) forms below the OE morphemes (see BEL pp. 137-138). Provide a separate plain English translation. Post the poem and translaton on the blog spot no later than October 7.

1 point for Thematic Features: Write an autobiographical poem, or write an elegy about one of your ancestors, in Old English. The tone is reverent.

1 point for Onomastic Features: As a title, create an OE given name for you or your relative. The name will be a compound of one Old English proto-theme and one Old English deutero-theme. Create a surname for you or your relative. The name will consist of an English County place name.

2 points for Lexical Features: Use at least 8 different Old English etymologies from the Oxford English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary appendix of IE roots, or another OE word-hoard of your choice. Use at least one OE loanword from Latin and one OE loanword from Old Norse. (BEL 115-127)

2 points for Grammatical Features: Use inflectional affixes on nouns and adjectives for cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genetive); grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter); and numbers (singular and plural). Use inflectional affixes on verbs for tenses (present and preterite); persons (1st, 2nd, and 3rd); and moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive). (BEL 97-101, 103-104)

1 point for Syntactic Features: Each line has two half-lines (2 hemi-stitches) that correspond to phrase or clause boundaries. (BEL 107-111)

1 point for Prosodic Features: Each line has primary stress on the root syllable of at least 4 key words, with at least 2 stressed syllables in each half-line. The lines can be as long as you like in terms of words and syllables. (BEL 88)

1 point for Phonological Features: Two key words of the first half-line begin with the same consonant as the first key word of the second half-line. The last stressed word in the second half-line does not alliterate; it begins with a different sound. (BEL 82-89)

1 point for Format Features: Illuminate your manuscript or find a good font for OE. (BEL 89-93)

Total: 10 items worth one point each for a total of 10 percentage points.