Learn English – Did Old English (Anglo-Saxon) use contractions

contractionsold-english

German uses contractions a lot, including im (in+dem) and zum (zu+dem) to name a few. As an Old English learner, I wanted to know if there were any attested similarities. My research hereto has yielded no results.

Best Answer

Yes, Old English had contractions:

Old English contractions include nis from ne is (“is not”), naes from ne waes (“was not”), nolde from ne wolde (“would not”), naefde from ne haefde (“did not have”), and nat from ne wat (“does not know”).
Is “who’s” short for “who is” or “who has”?

For example, take a look at Ælfric's translation of Genesis 2:5:

Mann næs, ðe ða eorðan worhte.

(For comparison, here are some modern translations of that verse.)

A source that covers this more in depth is Negative Contraction: An Old and Middle English Dialect Criterion.

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