The language of the E-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides fascinating testimony to the ways the English language developed in its period of transition from Old to Middle English. It offers a wide spectrum of linguistic forms, ranging from the mainly standard late West Saxon of those annals up to 1121 which are copied from earlier versions of the Chronicle to the early Middle English, distinctively East Midland in dialect, which characterizes the annals making up the First and Final Continuations of the manuscript.

This examination of the language of the E-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is divided into sections on orthography, phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. Within these sections, I have separated Hand 1 from Hand 2 for the purposes of linguistic analysis and, where appropriate, I have also separated within Hand 1 the entries up to 1121 (excluding the Peterborough Interpolations), the Peterborough Interpolations, and the First Continuation. It is clear that there are further distinctions to be made between entries and even within individual entries in terms of the ways the language may reflect different sources which have been drawn on in the course of transmission, but it is not within the scope of this study to attempt to distinguish where such changes in source may have affected the language except in relation to the categories given above.

The relationship between graphemes and phonemes in Old English is a controversial one, as recent accounts of Old English phonology have acknowledged. The traditional practice in discussions of Old English linguistic development is to outline sounds and sound changes in spelling terms. In accordance with the other volumes of the collaborative series, I have followed this practice (using italics to denote spelling terms), although I have used phonetic symbols (in square brackets) where helpful for clarity.

In exemplifying linguistic forms, I have (except where otherwise indicated) listed the instances and given the number of times each occurs (for example, 2x). Where there is only one instance, or where the distribution of instances among entries seems significant (which applies most often to the Peterborough Interpolations), the date of the annal or annals has been given. Where multiple instances are recorded but I have given only one date, this indicates that the instances all appear in the annal for that date. The grammatical function of a form is given where ambiguity might otherwise arise.