Old English, a variant of West Germanic, was spoken by certain Germanic
peoples (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) of the regions comprising present-day
southern Denmark and nor thern Germany who invaded Britain in the 5th
century AD; the Jutes were the first to arrive, in 449, according to
tradition. Settling in Britain, the invaders drove the indigenous
Celtic-speaking peoples, notably the Britons, to the north and west. As time
went on, Old English evolved further from the original Continental form, and
regional dialects developed. The four major dialects recognized in Old
English are Kentish, originally the dialect spoken by the Jutes; West Saxon,
a branch of the dialect spoken by the Saxons; and Northumbrian and Mercian,
subdivisions of the dialects spoken by the Angles. By the 9th century,
partly through the influence of Alfred, king of the West Saxons and the
first ruler of all England, West Saxon became prevalent in prose literature.
A Mercian mixed dialect, however, was primarily used for the greatest poetry,
such as the anonymous 8th-century epic poem Beowulfand the contemporary
elegaic poems. Old English was an inflected language characterized by strong
and weak verbs; a dual number for pronouns (for example, a form for "we two"
as well as "we"), two different declensions of adjectives, four declensions
of nouns, and grammatical distinctions of gender. Although rich in
word-building possibilities, Old English was sparse in vocabulary.

  --del Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia in INFOPEDIA.