In the words of the tongues now lost...

[light_of_the_world]

Language

The Language of Hild, by Nicola Griffith

*Old English of West Germanic origin (Anglisc)

What we think of as Old English, it turns out, is a West Saxon dialect. Hild would have spoken what scholars now label the Northumbrian dialect. The two look startlingly different on the page; I prefer Northumbrian, but perhaps I’m biased.

There’s very little Northumbrian left; most of it was destroyed by Vikings. All that remains is Cædmon’s Hymn (the very first piece of English literature), Bede’s Death Song, one riddle, the glosses on the Lindisfarne Gospels, and scraps of Dream of the Rood written in runes on the Ruthwell Cross

*West Saxon

It’s round and rich — drumming like apples poured from a tub onto an elm table — and stirring: heroic, alliterative, elegiac.

*variety of Brythonic Celtic dialects (British)

*Ecclesiastical Latin (Latin)

*Old Irish (Irish)