Grammatical Treatises in Early English

Abstract

This chapter focuses on grammatical writing from the seventh century to the publication of the first grammar of English in the sixteenth. Except for the last one, these texts focus primarily on Latin grammar, though the vernacular languages spoken in England played an important role since the engagement with Latin grammar resulted in grammatical descriptions of the vernaculars themselves. The chapter opens with an introduction to the teaching of Latin grammar and continues with a discussion of the English content of Ælfric’s Grammar. Show more