The development of early Middle English ō
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Gjertrud F. Stenbrenden
Abstract
This paper seeks to determine the developments of Old English/early Middle English ō in Middle English dialects, by making use of irregular spellings extracted from three corpora of Middle English dialect material, as well as from other sources of localised Middle English texts. I argue (a) that Northern Fronting of ō started before 1300 in the northernmost counties of England and spread southwards during the next 100–150 years, (b) that the Great Vowel Shift raising of ō started in the mid-to-late thirteenth century in the West Midlands and East Midlands and a little later in the South, and (c) that there is thus temporal overlap between Northern Fronting and the Great Vowel Shift. These long-vowel changes should therefore not be treated separately: if there was any ‘Great Vowel Shift’, it must include Northern Fronting, as well as other presumed earlier changes.
Abstract
This paper seeks to determine the developments of Old English/early Middle English ō in Middle English dialects, by making use of irregular spellings extracted from three corpora of Middle English dialect material, as well as from other sources of localised Middle English texts. I argue (a) that Northern Fronting of ō started before 1300 in the northernmost counties of England and spread southwards during the next 100–150 years, (b) that the Great Vowel Shift raising of ō started in the mid-to-late thirteenth century in the West Midlands and East Midlands and a little later in the South, and (c) that there is thus temporal overlap between Northern Fronting and the Great Vowel Shift. These long-vowel changes should therefore not be treated separately: if there was any ‘Great Vowel Shift’, it must include Northern Fronting, as well as other presumed earlier changes.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
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Phonology
- A Phonological motivation behind the diatonic stress shift in Modern English 3
- Vowel reduction in verbs in King Alfred’s Pastoral Care 19
- The development of early Middle English ō 41
- The diachronic development of stød and tonal accent in North Germanic 53
- The evolution of the (alveolo)palatal lateral consonant in Spanish and Portuguese 69
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Diachronic typology
- Evaluating prehistoric and early historic linguistic contacts 89
- Patterns in the diffusion of nomenclature systems 109
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Morphology
- Morphological evidence for the paradigmatic status of infinitives in French and Occitan 135
- Constructional change at the interface of cognition, culture, and language use 155
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Morphosyntax
- Stages in deflexion and the Norwegian dative 179
- Differential Object Marking in Old Japanese 195
- The grammaticalization of progressive constructions with a focus on the English progressive 213
- Hate and anger, love and desire 233
- The argument indexing of early Austronesian verbs 257
- The syntax of mood constructions in Old Japanese 281
- Medieval Sardinian 303
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Phonology
- A Phonological motivation behind the diatonic stress shift in Modern English 3
- Vowel reduction in verbs in King Alfred’s Pastoral Care 19
- The development of early Middle English ō 41
- The diachronic development of stød and tonal accent in North Germanic 53
- The evolution of the (alveolo)palatal lateral consonant in Spanish and Portuguese 69
-
Diachronic typology
- Evaluating prehistoric and early historic linguistic contacts 89
- Patterns in the diffusion of nomenclature systems 109
-
Morphology
- Morphological evidence for the paradigmatic status of infinitives in French and Occitan 135
- Constructional change at the interface of cognition, culture, and language use 155
-
Morphosyntax
- Stages in deflexion and the Norwegian dative 179
- Differential Object Marking in Old Japanese 195
- The grammaticalization of progressive constructions with a focus on the English progressive 213
- Hate and anger, love and desire 233
- The argument indexing of early Austronesian verbs 257
- The syntax of mood constructions in Old Japanese 281
- Medieval Sardinian 303
- Index 325
