{"title":"West Germanic monosyllabic lengthening and Gothic breaking as partially Proto-Germanic developments: The evidence of pronominal place adverbs ‘here’, ‘where’ and ‘there’","authors":"E. Hill","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.70.2.02HIL","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.70.2.02HIL","url":null,"abstract":"The paper deals with two Germanic sound changes which are traditionally believed to postdate the disintegration of the Proto-Germanic parent language. The lengthening in several monosyllables, attested in West Germanic languages, is usually believed to be an innovation of this branch. The so-called Gothic breaking is similarly thought of as belonging exclusively to East Germanic. The paper shows that there is evidence suggesting a Proto-Germanic age for parts of both sound changes, in particular for a lengthening in monosyllabic words ending in PGmc *-r and for a lowering of PGmc *i if followed by *r. Proto-Germanic possessed at least three pronoun-based place adverbs formed with PGmc *-r, cf. Goth ƕar ‘where’ from ƕa- ‘what’, þar ‘there’ from þa- ‘that’ and hēr ‘here’ from hi- ‘this here’. The vocalism of these adverbs did not match that of the corresponding pronouns on two points. First, the vowels of the adverbs were probably long. Second, the close PGmc *ẹ (Goth ē, OHG ia) of ‘here’ did not match PGmc *i in the corresponding pronoun. The paper assumes that the long vowels of the place adverbs emerged by a lengthening of etymologically short vowels in monosyllablic words ending in PGmc *-r. The timbre difference between PGmc *ẹ in ‘here’ and PGmc *i in the corresponding pronoun for ‘this here’ is accounted for by a lowering of PGmc *i before *r. Both postulated developments must have been operating already in Proto-Germanic times but the lowering must have chronologically preceded the lengthening. The paper introduces the data supporting the assumptions made and discusses the apparent counterevidence.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"10 1","pages":"135-170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85211748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Scandinavian umlaut and contrastive feature hierarchies","authors":"Johan Schalin","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.70.2.03SCH","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.70.2.03SCH","url":null,"abstract":"With the application of the Contrastive Hierarchy Theory, the contrastive features of preliterary Scandinavian vowels are here inferred from the interaction between targets and triggers for metaphonic fronting, rounding and breaking. One Proto-Scandinavian feature hierarchy is reconstructed for prominent syllables and another for non-prominent ones. The former hierarchy sustained contrasts that differed from the latter, including contrast for rounding and a preserved distinction between Pre-Germanic */i/ and */e/. A prominence system is reconstructed that predicts both the outcome of syncope and the distribution of the two vowel systems between syllables. The analysis neatly accounts for many notorious cruxes of umlaut and breaking that correlate with the prosodic position of the trigger, including the frequent absence of i-umlaut in light syllables.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"29 6 1","pages":"171-254"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82956655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hegedűs & Fodor, eds. (2010). English Historical Linguistics 2010","authors":"B. Wårvik","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.70.1.06WAR","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.70.1.06WAR","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"1 1","pages":"89-96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89239802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The thirteenth-century runic revival in Denmark and Iceland","authors":"Tarrin Wills","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.01WIL","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.01WIL","url":null,"abstract":"While in the High Middle Ages runic literacy appears to have been very much alive in urban centres such as Bergen, interest in runes appears to have been of a different nature in learned circles and in other parts of the Scandinavian world which had adopted widespread textual production of the Latin alphabet. This paper examines a number of runic phenomenon from the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries in Denmark and Iceland to argue that they belong to a cultural revival movement rather than forming part of a continuous runic tradition stretching back into the early Middle Ages. Some of these runic texts show some connection with the Danish royal court, and should rather be seen as forming part of the changes in literary culture emanating from continental Europe from the late twelfth century and onwards: they all show a combined interest in Latin learning and vernacular literary forms.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"26 1","pages":"114-129"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73027761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"No need for mead: Bjarni Kolbeinsson’s Jómsvíkingadrápa and the Skaldic tradition","authors":"Jonas Wellendorf","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.02WEL","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.02WEL","url":null,"abstract":"This paper will see Bjarni Kolbeinsson as a representative of the new kind of skaldic poetry that had developed around the turn of the thirteenth century. By then, formal skaldic poetry had become an art form cultivated by men who had received schooling and clerical ordination. Skalds such as Bjarni had turned their attention from the praise of kings of the present or the near past towards subjects of the more distant past and religious themes. In Jomsvikingadrapa , Bjarni brushed aside the Odinic mead hailed by former skalds and preferred to apply techniques of poetic composition that he had learned through the formal study of Latin poetry. A tongue-in-cheek rejection of the traditional exordial topoi and a sensibility for love poetry allowed him to compose a poem that not only rejected the past but also pointed towards the future.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"1 1","pages":"130-154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91254063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Metrical systems of Celtic traditions","authors":"D. Stifter","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.1.02STI","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.1.02STI","url":null,"abstract":"On the basis of fragmentary evidence from the ancient Celtic languages (e.g., Gaulish), but especially from the rich poetic heritage of the medieval Insular Celtic languages (e.g., Old Irish, Middle Welsh), the poetic terminology reconstructable for Common Celtic is presented. The possible metrical remains from ancient Celtic are reviewed and an attempt is made to identify their principles of versification. The characteristics of the medieval Irish and medieval British systems of versification are described. Finally, the question of the genetic relationship of ancient and medieval Celtic versification is discussed, and the possible relationship of Celtic with neighbouring Germanic, especially medieval Scandinavian, traditions is briefly reviewed.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"55 1","pages":"38-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78812252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Óláfr Þórðarson and the ‘Norse alphabet’: A thirteenth-century Icelandic grammarian’s account of runic writing","authors":"F. Raschella","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.03RAS","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.03RAS","url":null,"abstract":"The present study deals with those sections of the so-called Third Grammatical Treatise , written by the Icelandic scholar and poet Olafr Þorðarson around the middle of the 13th century, in which the author describes a variety of the Scandinavian runic alphabet and compares it with the Latin alphabet. The investigation is part of a long-standing and comprehensive study on Old Icelandic grammatical literature, to which I have devoted the greater part of my scholarly work. The paper aims to define the type of runic alphabet used by Olafr in the context of medieval Scandinavian runic writing. A proposal for interpretation of an obscure runic pangram, included by Olafr in his discussion of runes, is also provided.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"21 1","pages":"155-190"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73381689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vernacular and classical strands in Icelandic poetics and grammar in the Middle Ages","authors":"K. Árnason","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.04ARN","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.2.04ARN","url":null,"abstract":"Medieval Icelandic grammar and poetics based their analysis, to a great extent, on traditional Nordic scholarship. In poetics, Snorra Edda was central, but insights from Classical learning were used to supplement it in the Third and the Fourth Grammatical Treatises . A comparison between Snorri’s description of metrical form in Hattatal and Latin metrics reveals fundamental differences. In the Nordic system, the emphasis is on alliteration and rhyme, but in the Latin one rhythm is central. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the kind of phonological terminology and analysis presented in the grammatical treatises respectively, the First providing the sharpest insights, but the Second perhaps being the most original, seeking inspiration from music. The Third Treatise shows input from runic learning as well as Latin doctrine in its grammatical part, and a healthy mixture of native and Classical learning in its poetics.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"1 1","pages":"191-235"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83134235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The personal names on the Loveden Hill urn and the Watchfield case fitting: Possibilities and restrictions resulting from the sound system","authors":"Robert Nedoma","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.1.01NED","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.1.01NED","url":null,"abstract":"This paper deals with graphophonematic and onomastic problems arising from two early English runic inscriptions. Since Pre-OE /ā/ and /ɔ/ were apparently graphemicized as ᚪ a2 and ᚩ a3 at (about) the same time during the late fifth century, it is possible to identify rune no. 6 on the Loveden Hill urn as a variant of the āc-rune ᚪ, (~ ). Thus, the initial runic sequence there, siþa1ba2d, renders a correctly shaped male name Pre-OE Sīþaebad (= WFranc./Hispano-Goth. Sendebadus). The Watchfield case fitting is at least 50 years younger, and the first part of its inscription, ha1riboki, may have undergone sub-phonemic umlaut (/haeribōki/ phonetically [ˈhaerɪˌboːcɪ] or [ˈherɪˌboːcɪ]?). The second sequence, wusa1, represents a female nickname Pre-OE Wusae ‘that one who bustles about’, a name which has an exact male counterpart in Langob. Vuso.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"20 1","pages":"3-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87857925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) and the “Interim Period” in the history of English etymology","authors":"A. Liberman","doi":"10.1075/NOWELE.69.1.03LIB","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/NOWELE.69.1.03LIB","url":null,"abstract":"Henry Fox Talbot, the father of photography, was a polymath, and among his many publications we find works on mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, archeology, ancient history, mythology, and Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions. He was also at home in botany. In 1847 he brought out a thick book titled English Etymologies. His archive at Cambridge allows one to trace the preparatory stages for this work. Talbot’s book is instructive as an example of how some talented, brilliantly educated, and industrious Englishmen in the forties of the nineteenth century went about discovering the origin of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English words. Talbot was aware of sound correspondences but did not feel bound by them. A list of his sources gives a good idea of the state of the art in England. Talbot’s etymologies are interesting only from this point of view. They should be studied as we study the efforts of much earlier researchers, that is, as part of the history of science.","PeriodicalId":41411,"journal":{"name":"NOWELE-North-Western European Language Evolution","volume":"1 1","pages":"95-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88454671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}