 Welcome to the Endless Knot. Today we're going to ask, what's the earliest English word? Then I'll be asking you for your opinion at the end, so stick around for the poll. Language change is a bit like boiling the proverbial frog. You don't notice how much a language has altered until you look back. It's hard to pick the point when English became English. Broadly speaking, English is the language that grew out of the collection of dialects spoken by Germanic mercenaries, invaders and settlers such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who came to Britain in the 5th century. It has changed a lot since that earliest form, now known as Old English, spoken by the people known as the Anglo-Saxons, but it is still all considered one language, English. Of course we can't know what the first spoken word in this language was, so what we're looking for is the earliest surviving written English word. So what's the earliest English writing we have? It's often said that the oldest Old English text to be written down was the law code of King Athelbert of Kent, composed in the early 7th century sometime before Athelbert died in 616, but after Augustine came to England to become Archbishop of Canterbury in 597, converting Athelbert to Christianity, making him the first Anglo-Saxon Christian king. The first sentence of the document reads, This Sindon Thadomas, the Athelbert Kinning, Asceta on Agostina Staya. These are the laws which King Athelbert established in Augustine's day. So then, is the earliest word this? Well, the problem is that the earliest surviving copy of this law code is a very late Old English manuscript from the early 12th century, and who knows how much it's changed in the recopying over the years, and if that sentence was even in the original. For the earliest Old English text that survives in its original form, not a later copy, we have to go to an inscription on an artifact. One such artifact is the Frank's Casket, a whale bone chest believed to date from the early 8th century. It's richly decorated with both pictures and inscriptions, written mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes. There isn't really a beginning to the various texts inscribed on the Frank's Casket, but the front panel which contains pictures of the Germanic legend of Weyland the Smith, and the biblical story of the adoration of the Magi, has inscribed on it a riddle about the makeup of the casket itself. Or the flood cast up the fish on the mountain cliff. The terror king became sad when he swam on the sand. The answer to the riddle is given as Hranespan, whale's bone, and it's a whale to which the first word of the text, fish, is referring. By the way, the Frank's Casket also contains a picture of the brothers Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf, connected with the legendary foundations of Rome, and an obscure picture including a horse which some have identified as a reference to the legendary foundations of Anglo-Saxon England with the two brothers Hengist, meaning stallion, and Horsa, meaning horse, the first two of those mercenaries invited to Britain. And it's to that foundation period of Anglo-Saxon England that we turn next. Because while the Frank's Casket contains perhaps the earliest extended text of Old English literature, there are artifacts from the earlier migration period with shorter inscriptions, such as the Undley Bractiate, found in Undley Common near Lake and Heath Suffolk, which dates to some time in the later 5th century, perhaps between 450 and 480. A Bractiate is a coin-like medallion which was apparently worn as jewelry. The Undley Bractiate contains a runic inscription which is the earliest example of the Anglo-Saxon variety of runes as opposed to the slightly different common Germanic elder Futhark. So this therefore would be a strong candidate for the earliest English writing. The inscription is a little hard to interpret, however. It reads, The last two words are clear enough, meaning reward for relatives, presumably referring to the Bractiate itself, similar to the Frank's Casket whalebone riddle. Neither word really makes it to modern English, except perhaps the fairly archaic mead, not the honey wine that the Anglo-Saxons drank, but M-E-E-D, meaning reward. The first series of characters, however, has sparked much debate. One possibility is that it represents a war cry. There is another artifact, called the Kragohol 1 lance shaft, which was found on Funen, Denmark, which also has a runic inscription that includes the similar string of runic characters, Gagaga. A war cry would certainly make sense on a spear shaft. Another suggestion for the Gagoga of the Undley Bractiate is that it means howling she-wolf in reference to the picture on the Bractiate of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, just like that picture we saw before in the Frank's Casket. So the entire phrase would then mean, this she-wolf to a kinsman is a reward. A third possibility is that Gagoga represents some kind of magical incantation or formula. Another similar Bractiate, called the Seelen 2C Bractiate, which was found on Seelen, Denmark, has an inscription which means, How do you how I am called the dangerous knowledgeable one? I give chance. And that last phrase, I give chance or luck, is often used to argue that Bractiates are some kind of magical amulets. So perhaps the Undley Bractiate, too, is some kind of lucky charm, and Gagoga is our earliest English word. We just don't know what it means. Our next candidate is more understandable. At Caster Saint Edmund in Norfolk, an urn was found containing over 30 astrogalus bones, otherwise known as talus or ankle bones, presumably gaming pieces. All but one of the bones in the urn are from sheep. That one exception is from a roe deer, and has inscribed on it the word raihan, meaning roe. And in fact, we get the modern English word roe from this. So again, like the Frank's Casket naming its material, this gaming piece names itself as the one roe bone in the bunch. The find was dated to circa 425 to 475, so possibly earlier than the Undley Bractiate, making this, potentially, the earliest inscription found in Anglo-Saxon England. The catch with this word raihan, though, is that it's inscribed in the runes of the Elder Futhark variety, from the mainland, rather than Anglo-Saxon runes. It's believed these game pieces may have been brought over by one of the invading Germanic warriors coming to Britain. So does it count as English? Oh, and what game exactly were they used to play? Well, one popular game at the time is now known as knuckle bones, though as we've seen, actually played with ankle bones. Much like modern jacks. You put one bone on the back of your hand, throw it up in the air, and pick another from the ground, then you catch the one you threw up, continuing on like this adding one bone each time. So, do you want to place your bet on this word? Both these inscriptions come from the Anglo-Saxon migration period when it was said Hengaston Horsa arrived in England bringing their troop of warriors with them around the middle of the 5th century. For our next candidate for the earliest English word, we turn to an account of that invasion itself, not from the Anglo-Saxons, but from the indigenous Britons. The Celtic writer Gildus wrote about the fall of Britain to those Germanic invaders, and in doing so, he seems to have preserved a word of these Anglo-Saxons. Gildus was writing in Latin, but he uses a non-Latin word in his text. Which means, then a pack of cubs burst forth from the lair of the barbarian lioness in three Culeus, as they call longships in their language. Gildus presumably got this word Culeus, meaning longships, from some Germanic source, and indeed the word reappears in Old English as Cule, in later Old English texts, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was compiled starting in the late 9th century, recounting the arrival of Hengaston and Horsa. Meaning, in their days, Vortigern invited the Anglo-Race here, and they then came in three ships here to Britain. So, although the word first occurs in a Latin context, it could be said to be the earliest recovered word of written Old English. But speaking of the Angles, what about them and their language? Well, again, we can turn to Latin contexts, specifically the ethnographic writings of the Roman author Tacitus, who way back around the year 98 wrote a book called Germania, in which he describes the various Germanic tribes that had come into contact with the Romans. One tribe he mentions he calls the Anglie, which seems quite plausibly to be the Angles, who three and a half centuries later would invade Britain and give us the modern term English. And what does Angle mean? Well, it seems to refer to their homeland, now known as Angeln, in the part of Germany known as Schleswig-Holstein, which kind of has a hook-like shape, and that's what the name seems to mean, fish hook. Remember that fishy whale on the Franks casket? That name Angle is therefore related to the modern word angler, another word for fishermen. It in fact goes back to an Indo-European root which means to bend and gives us the other word Angle, as in corner, through Latin, as well as the word ankle, which by the way means that that previous possible earliest English word roe is written on an ankle or English bone. As a name, in fact, it's always been ripe for wordplay. Pope Gregory the Great, who sent Augustine to Canterbury to become Archbishop and convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, was inspired to do so when he saw a couple of fair-haired, pale-skinned Anglo-Saxon boys for sale in the slave market in Rome. And upon hearing they were Angles, pund that they were non-angly said Angeli, not Angles but Angels. And when he heard that they were from the Northumbrian Kingdom of Deira, he said that they should be saved Deira from Wrath. And finally, on learning that the king of that land was named Alla, he simply replied, Alleluia. Turns out, Holy Father jokes are even worse than Dad jokes. So perhaps in a sense, English itself is the earliest English word, at least in the form Anglie found in a Latin text, though one whose earliest surviving manuscript dates from the 15th century, well after the Anglo-Saxon period. But if we accept it anyway, the irony is that it predates the English language itself. So what do you think should count as the earliest English word? The laws of Athelbert and its opening word this? The Frank's Casket with its first word fish? The Ungly Bracteat with its possibly magical Gagoga? The Caster by Norwich Gaming Piece with Rehan on it? The Culus that the Anglo-Saxons used to come to Britain? Vote now in the poll and comment to let me know the reason for your choice. Or if you think none of these is right, and it's actually the word Anglie, English itself, you can say so in the comments, since the poll only allows five choices. Thanks for watching. If you've enjoyed these etymological explorations and cultural connections, please subscribe to this channel and share it. And check out our Patreon where you can make a contribution to help me make more videos. I'm at alliterative on Twitter, and you can read more of my thoughts on my blog at alliterative.net. Speaking of the Anglo-Saxon migration and Hengis, Torsa and Vortigern, if you head over to Jabsy's channel, you can see a video about the Anglo-Saxon invasions that we made together for his 3-minute history series, with lots more details about the 5th century.