Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

PL EN


2019 | 28/2 | 25-45

Article title

Possible Solutions for Long-Standing Problems Involving Old English Verbs

Authors

Selected contents from this journal

Title variants

Languages of publication

EN

Abstracts

EN
Solutions based on “equivalence interference” are proposed for various problems involving OE verbs. WG verbs with 1SG /-ͻͻmi/ were modeled on Celtic verbs with /-aami/. Pre-OE eode is from /eiͻͻde/, analogical to 1SG /eiͻͻmi/ from /eimi/. OE dyd- is from reinterpretation of peasant /dïd-/, from low-stressed /ded-/ used as a non-emphatic periphrastic, as noble /düd-/. WG /bii-/ ‘be’ was modeled on Celtic /bii-/ ‘(habitual-future) be’. Habitual-future /bi-/ (lost on the continent) re-developed in OE on the model of habitual-future /bi-/ in Brittonic. The English rule that non-indicative forms of BE are /b/-forms is from Brittonic. 3PL bi(o)đon was modeled on Brittonic /biđont/. Pre-OE /ist/ and /im/ were influenced by Brittonic /is/ and /æm/. Loss of distinct endings before 1PL and 2PL subject pronouns and loss of distinct preterit subjunctive endings were both modeled on their analogues in Brittonic.

Contributors

  • Independent scholar, Ph.D., UT Austin

References

  • Ahlqvist, Anders. 2010. “Early English and Celtic.” Australian Celtic Journal 9: 34–73.
  • Bammesberger, Alfred. 1986. Die Aufbau des germanischen Verbalsystems. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
  • Benskin, Michael. 2011. “Present Indicative Concord in Brittonic and Early English.” Transactions of the Philological Society 109: 103–122.
  • Bremmer, Rolf. 2009. An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Company.
  • Campbell, Alistair. 1959. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Chadwick, Nora. 1970. The Celts. London: Penguin Books.
  • Cowan, Hendrik Karel Jan. 1961. “Esquisse d’une grammaire fonctionnelle du vieux-néerlandais (vieux bas francique): d’après le psautier carolingien de Wachtendonck.” Leuvense Bijdragen 50: 2–54.
  • Hill, Eugen. 2004. “Das germanischen Verb für “tun” und die Ausgänge des germanischen schwachen Präteritums.” Sprachwissenschaft 29: 257–303.
  • Hogg, Richard M., and R. D. Fulk. 2011. A Grammar of Old English. Vol. 2: Morphology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Jackson, Kenneth. 1953. Language and History in Early Britain. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
  • Laker, Stephen. 2009. “An Explanation for the Early Phonemicisation of Voice Contrast in Fricatives.” English Language and Linguistics 13: 213–226.
  • Lambert, Pierre. 1994. La langue gauloise. Paris: Editions Errance.
  • Lewis, Henry, and Holger Pedersen. [1961] 1989. A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar. 3rd edition, with a supplement by Henry Lewis. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
  • Mallory, James Patrick. 1991. In Search of the Indo-Europeans. New York: Thames and Hudson.
  • McWhorter, John. 2009. “What Else Happened to English? A Brief for the Celtic Hypothesis.” English Language and Linguistics 13.2: 163–191.
  • Mossé, Fernand. 1952. A Handbook of Middle English. Translated by James Walker. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
  • Prokosch, Eduard. 1939. A Comparative Germanic Grammar. Philadelphia: Linguistic Society of America.
  • Ringe, Don. 2006. From Proto-Indo-European to Germanic: A Linguistic History of English. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Ringe, Don, and Ann Taylor. 2014. The Development of Old English: A Linguistic History of English. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Robinson, Orrin. 1992. Old English and Its Closest Relatives. Stanford: Stanford UP. Sandfeld, Kristian. 1930. Linguistique balkanique: problèmes et résultats. Paris: Libraire C. Klinksieck.
  • Schrijver, Peter. 1995. Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 5). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
  • Schrijver, Peter. 2014. Language Contact and the Origins of the Germanic Languages. London: Routledge.
  • Schumacher, Stefan. 2009. “Lexical and Structural Language-Contact Phenomena along the Germano-Celtic Transition Zone.” Kelten am Rhein II: Philologie, Sprachen und Literaturen. Ed. Stefan Zimmer. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern. 247–266.
  • Sihler, Andrew. 1995. New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Stenton, Frank. [1971] 1989. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. 1963. “English and Welsh.” Angles and Britons, O’Donnell Lectures. Ed. Henry Lewis. Cardiff : University of Wales Press. 1–41.
  • William, Urien. 1960. A Short Welsh Grammar. Llandybie: Christopher Davies, Ltd.
  • White, David L. 2004. “Why We Should not Believe in Short Diphthongs.” Studies in the History of the English Language II: Unfolding Conversations. Ed. Anne Curzan, and Kimberly Emmons. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 57–84.
  • White, David L. 2015. “Old English without Short Diphthongs: The Outlines of a New Interpretation.” Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies 24.2: 5–26.
  • White, David L. 2018. “Reasons to Think That Anglo-Frisian Developed in Britain.” Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies 27.2: 5–32.
  • Wright, Joseph. 1914. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Wright, Joseph, and Elizabeth Mary Wright. 1928. An Elementary Middle English Grammar. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Document Type

Publication order reference

Identifiers

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.desklight-0589c2b8-bc0c-46fd-b77c-d0845f93f9a0
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.