The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English
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Jerzy Welna
Abstract
The numeral denoting ‘two’ – like other ‘small’ cardinal numbers (‘one’, ‘three’ and ‘four’) – has had a complicated history. In Old English it exhibited different forms depending on gender; cf. tweȝen masc. (modelled on OE beȝen ‘both’, cf. Brunner 1965: 252), twā fem. (also neut.) and tū neut., the last form confined to Old English. The Middle English period witnessed the split of the continuation of the masculine forms into those with 〈ei/ey〉 (South/Midland) and 〈ai/ay〉 (North; so Brunner 1963: 55). The subsequent evolution led to the elimination of the former masculine and neuter forms, except in some specific uses (cf. twain used by sailors on the Mississippi) and the survival of the earlier feminine form reflecting twā. But a competition between the historical masculine with its reduced form twei/twai and the ‘regular’ two, was in full force before 1500, although these two types ceased to demonstrate gender distinction. As the standard English historical grammars devote little attention to the evolution of the numeral system, the present paper aims at determining a more exact distribution of the forms of the numeral denoting ‘two’ in Middle English. The evidence collected from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose fails to fully confirm the traditional view of the distribution of the forms of ‘two’ in dialects.
Abstract
The numeral denoting ‘two’ – like other ‘small’ cardinal numbers (‘one’, ‘three’ and ‘four’) – has had a complicated history. In Old English it exhibited different forms depending on gender; cf. tweȝen masc. (modelled on OE beȝen ‘both’, cf. Brunner 1965: 252), twā fem. (also neut.) and tū neut., the last form confined to Old English. The Middle English period witnessed the split of the continuation of the masculine forms into those with 〈ei/ey〉 (South/Midland) and 〈ai/ay〉 (North; so Brunner 1963: 55). The subsequent evolution led to the elimination of the former masculine and neuter forms, except in some specific uses (cf. twain used by sailors on the Mississippi) and the survival of the earlier feminine form reflecting twā. But a competition between the historical masculine with its reduced form twei/twai and the ‘regular’ two, was in full force before 1500, although these two types ceased to demonstrate gender distinction. As the standard English historical grammars devote little attention to the evolution of the numeral system, the present paper aims at determining a more exact distribution of the forms of the numeral denoting ‘two’ in Middle English. The evidence collected from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose fails to fully confirm the traditional view of the distribution of the forms of ‘two’ in dialects.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Norse influence on English in the light of general contact linguistics 15
- The Germanic roots of the Old English sound system 43
- Monetary policy and Old English dialects 73
- The order and schedule of nominal plural formation transfer in three Southern dialects of Early Middle English 95
- The temporal and regional contexts of the numeral ‘two’ in Middle English 115
- Grammaticalisation, contact and corpora 131
- Discourse organization and the rise of final then in the history of English 153
- The origins of how come and what…for 177
- “Providing/provided that” 197
- Prefer 215
- The 400 million word Corpus of Historical American English (1810–2009) 231
- Gender change from Old to Middle English 263
- “Please tilt me-ward by return of post” 289
- Multilingualism in the vocabulary of dress and textiles in late medieval Britain 313
- “No man entreth in or out” 327
- Beyond questions and answers 349
- The demise of gog and cock and their phraseologies in dramatic discourse 369
- Index 383
