Osweald Bera is a master class in graded readers because it doesn't feel like a graded reader. I'm on chapter 3 now, giving each chapter three read-throughs before proceeding. The story, so far, is reminiscent of Watership Down and Wind in the Willows. There is such a feeling of accomplishment after completing a chapter and understanding it.
Please, please, just make a brief youtube reading the first page of Osweald aloud now! I know you have the full bells and whistles audio offering coming next year, but this would be so helpful for those of us just starting out with the book with no prior knowledge. Thanks!
Coming in video form sometime early next year but I've written it up on Substack already if you're curious: www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/a-complete-curriculum-for-learning
I found, at least for me, Hasenfratz's (and Jambeck's) "Reading Old English" revised edition easier to grasp than Peter Baker's (I bought both from Amazon). The only downside is there's no answer key for Hasenfratz's text, but I still prefer it. I think he has an informal one for instructors, but it's not publicly available. The disadvantage of self-learning is that one doesn't have to take tests, which would force one to memorize the paradigms. You do eventually start to remember them, but I still use (for instance) Peter Baker's cheat sheet even after finishing the text. I'll probably force myself to take time to memorize them. I think Mr Gorrie is correct about vocabulary and his suggested way of reading the text would certainly be optimal. I did order this text (pre-order) a few weeks back. Waiting for it to arrive and then the bear and I will be off on a journey of discovery.
I have my copy in my hand, much quicker to Australia than I expected BTW. Delighted. Have read the first chapter a few times. Now onto the Beon. This is a brilliant idea. Congratulations.
Can’t wait to read this! Crazy idea: have you considered reaching out to Jackson Crawford to see if he’d be interesting in creating something similar for Old Norse?
Oh, Jackson and I are acquainted :) th-cam.com/video/5pdfHFdo7_I/w-d-xo.htmlsi=uG3cAMM4ZhuL5cbE I know he's working on an Old Norse text but I'm not sure if it's planned to be a graded reader like this one. If I recall correctly, we talked a bit about that in the above video but it was a while ago now so things may have changed
I'm up to Chapter 12 after having received the book about 3 weeks ago, and while I'm going slow to consolidate my vocab, this is finally sticking for me. I first tried Old English about 20 years ago, but I think I've been quietly waiting for a book like this to come along before trying again.... Thank you so much Colin, this is wonderful. I'm just wondering whether there's any forum/place online to ask questions of the text. Eg. There's a half-paragraph in chapter 11 that kind of stumps me, and more generally I'd love to see other people's experiences/challenges/questions!
i really like the pronunciation page on Old English Online (seems i can't post the link, but if you look up 'old english online pronunciation' you should find it). very useful reference. also, thank you so much for the book Colin, it's filling a hole in Old English language learning that desperately needed to be filled. i'm going through it and it's really excellent, and will probably be what i recommend to everyone going forward.
I am glad to see the book is out ! Now, I am wondering if there will be e-book? The thing is the postal fees are quite high I guess. The book looks amazing
Depends on the text! The 1000 most common words will be enough to read easy-ish Late West Saxon prose, like some of Ælfric, or the Wessex Gospels. Poetry is another story altogether, however. I just scripted a video on this very question, so I'll have more to say soon!
Since the full cast audio is a little while in coming, could you provide a reading of the first chapter to help get the sounds of the language? Luke Ranieri's videos were helpful for Latin. (Confession: I haven't watched much of the other channel you mentioned, so there may be a few amount of OE phonetics there).
@@ColinGorrie Sweet! My copy just arrived today... Going to OE another try after 20 years. It was my first inflected language and I didn't fully know what I was doing.
How to pronounce OE: Pretend you grew up in Minnesooota... seriously, good point about vocabulary. I haven't studied OE, but I have muddled through some of it, and I can stagger along until I run into too many words at a time that I can't puzzle out. Yes on the grammar charts. (I have studied Latin, tho a very long time ago.)
How many Old English words do we actually have in our possession today? Is it enough to use the language as an every day language? Or (ignoring words like "computer") will we simply not have enough words to operate in our daily lives?
I'm fairly certain Old English is the most well attested dead language after Latin. In addition to that, languages don't necessarily have to have a lot of words to be sufficient for everyday common speech. That said, it really depends on what we mean by "everyday" language. You mention ignoring words like computer, but words like that are indeed part of our well used vocabulary, so how can we ignore them? It wouldn't be too difficult to create words in Old English to represent these modern day words, but obviously that wouldn't be "authentic" Old English. So... yeah, I think what I'm trying to say is it depends on what you mean.
@@Traviskula ChatGPT said that there are about 30,000 words known from Old English. Compared to Latin 50-90,000. So it definitely seems possible. And as @KungFucianist says, creating new words for new concepts is totally possible with compounds and affixes!
My order of Osweald Bera is currently processing. I can't wait to start reading!
And now I’m wondering who the cast members of the recorded _Ōsweald_ will be …
Greetings and thanks from Germany. Osweald has already made his way over here and is excited to go on his journey 😀
I fall asleep listening to Simon Roper most nights. His videos are so restful.
he does have a calming voice
Mine arrived today. I am impressed with the weight of it. Very well made. Thank you!
Just got it today! Already read chapter 1 once, stumbling over pronunciation a wee bit.
Osweald Bera is a master class in graded readers because it doesn't feel like a graded reader. I'm on chapter 3 now, giving each chapter three read-throughs before proceeding. The story, so far, is reminiscent of Watership Down and Wind in the Willows. There is such a feeling of accomplishment after completing a chapter and understanding it.
Please, please, just make a brief youtube reading the first page of Osweald aloud now! I know you have the full bells and whistles audio offering coming next year, but this would be so helpful for those of us just starting out with the book with no prior knowledge. Thanks!
Latin teacher excited to read through OB!
Looking forward to hearing about the sequence after Osweald!
Coming in video form sometime early next year but I've written it up on Substack already if you're curious: www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/a-complete-curriculum-for-learning
I renew my petition to Make Thorn English Again.
Are you planning on releasing Oswald bera as a ebook as I travel a lot and having it as an ebook just makes travel a lot easier?
I found, at least for me, Hasenfratz's (and Jambeck's) "Reading Old English" revised edition easier to grasp than Peter Baker's (I bought both from Amazon). The only downside is there's no answer key for Hasenfratz's text, but I still prefer it. I think he has an informal one for instructors, but it's not publicly available. The disadvantage of self-learning is that one doesn't have to take tests, which would force one to memorize the paradigms. You do eventually start to remember them, but I still use (for instance) Peter Baker's cheat sheet even after finishing the text. I'll probably force myself to take time to memorize them. I think Mr Gorrie is correct about vocabulary and his suggested way of reading the text would certainly be optimal. I did order this text (pre-order) a few weeks back. Waiting for it to arrive and then the bear and I will be off on a journey of discovery.
I have my copy in my hand, much quicker to Australia than I expected BTW. Delighted. Have read the first chapter a few times. Now onto the Beon. This is a brilliant idea. Congratulations.
Can’t wait to read this! Crazy idea: have you considered reaching out to Jackson Crawford to see if he’d be interesting in creating something similar for Old Norse?
Jackson's text book should be coming out sooner rather than later. He mentioned it a few months ago, so it has to be coming out any time now.
Oh, Jackson and I are acquainted :)
th-cam.com/video/5pdfHFdo7_I/w-d-xo.htmlsi=uG3cAMM4ZhuL5cbE
I know he's working on an Old Norse text but I'm not sure if it's planned to be a graded reader like this one. If I recall correctly, we talked a bit about that in the above video but it was a while ago now so things may have changed
I think Ōsweald Bera is my spirit animal 😁🐻... Also, I like the bloopers at the end 😂
I'm up to Chapter 12 after having received the book about 3 weeks ago, and while I'm going slow to consolidate my vocab, this is finally sticking for me. I first tried Old English about 20 years ago, but I think I've been quietly waiting for a book like this to come along before trying again.... Thank you so much Colin, this is wonderful. I'm just wondering whether there's any forum/place online to ask questions of the text. Eg. There's a half-paragraph in chapter 11 that kind of stumps me, and more generally I'd love to see other people's experiences/challenges/questions!
i really like the pronunciation page on Old English Online (seems i can't post the link, but if you look up 'old english online pronunciation' you should find it). very useful reference.
also, thank you so much for the book Colin, it's filling a hole in Old English language learning that desperately needed to be filled. i'm going through it and it's really excellent, and will probably be what i recommend to everyone going forward.
I am glad to see the book is out ! Now, I am wondering if there will be e-book? The thing is the postal fees are quite high I guess. The book looks amazing
Can’t wait for my copy to arrive!! And for the audiobook to be done 😍
I’m on chapter 3 right now. But I do reread each chapter until it flows.
Witondlīċe, þīn bōc is swīðe gōd!
Awaiting my copy now. Looking forward to it!
Impressive. Good advice on how to use the book
Thank you Dr Gorrie! How many words do you think one should learn to become proficient at reading Old English texts?
Depends on the text! The 1000 most common words will be enough to read easy-ish Late West Saxon prose, like some of Ælfric, or the Wessex Gospels. Poetry is another story altogether, however. I just scripted a video on this very question, so I'll have more to say soon!
cute outtake!
Since the full cast audio is a little while in coming, could you provide a reading of the first chapter to help get the sounds of the language? Luke Ranieri's videos were helpful for Latin. (Confession: I haven't watched much of the other channel you mentioned, so there may be a few amount of OE phonetics there).
I'll run it by the publisher! I'll also have another, more in-depth pronunciation video coming out in the next couple weeks.
@@ColinGorrie Sweet! My copy just arrived today... Going to OE another try after 20 years. It was my first inflected language and I didn't fully know what I was doing.
Awesome! Great overview. Will it be in ebook format as well?
Thanks! Vergil Press isn't planning an ebook right now but they may change their minds if there's a lot of demand
@@ColinGorrie Put me down for interest in an ebook!
How to pronounce OE: Pretend you grew up in Minnesooota... seriously, good point about vocabulary. I haven't studied OE, but I have muddled through some of it, and I can stagger along until I run into too many words at a time that I can't puzzle out.
Yes on the grammar charts. (I have studied Latin, tho a very long time ago.)
of course I have Osweald Bera in my hands!
the 'y' vowel is also in the surfer *dude* dialect
How many Old English words do we actually have in our possession today? Is it enough to use the language as an every day language? Or (ignoring words like "computer") will we simply not have enough words to operate in our daily lives?
I'm also curious about this very question. Hopefully Colin can answer.
I'm fairly certain Old English is the most well attested dead language after Latin. In addition to that, languages don't necessarily have to have a lot of words to be sufficient for everyday common speech.
That said, it really depends on what we mean by "everyday" language. You mention ignoring words like computer, but words like that are indeed part of our well used vocabulary, so how can we ignore them? It wouldn't be too difficult to create words in Old English to represent these modern day words, but obviously that wouldn't be "authentic" Old English. So... yeah, I think what I'm trying to say is it depends on what you mean.
@@Traviskula ChatGPT said that there are about 30,000 words known from Old English. Compared to Latin 50-90,000. So it definitely seems possible. And as @KungFucianist says, creating new words for new concepts is totally possible with compounds and affixes!
Ōsweald is gōd bera (and gōd bōc)!
I got my copy just today…25.Nov….lucky me I have something to distract me from Thanksgiving family drama..!!!
🐻📗❤
IMMEDIATE BUY
handsome guy
I just got to the part in Chapter 21 where Mǣrheard talks about his family. Hilarious!