Chapter 6. From eadig to happy
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Rafal Molencki
Abstract
This chapter discusses the demise of Old English adjectives of fortune which came to be replaced with some new items of Germanic origin, in particular Norse-derived happy and Low German or Flemish lucky. Interestingly, in this semantic field referring to abstract ideas, English did not take Romance borrowings, except for fortunate. The adjective happy was not a direct Scandinavian loanword, but an independent regular late-14th century native derivation from the originally Norse noun hap borrowed into English at least two centuries before. In Middle and Early Modern English some Old English items fell into disuse (e.g., ēadig) while others underwent major semantic shifts ((ge)sǣlig and blīðe). Using the data from several historical dictionaries of English and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, I trace the mechanisms of replacement in the context of lexical layering, subjectification and contact-induced linguistic changes.
Abstract
This chapter discusses the demise of Old English adjectives of fortune which came to be replaced with some new items of Germanic origin, in particular Norse-derived happy and Low German or Flemish lucky. Interestingly, in this semantic field referring to abstract ideas, English did not take Romance borrowings, except for fortunate. The adjective happy was not a direct Scandinavian loanword, but an independent regular late-14th century native derivation from the originally Norse noun hap borrowed into English at least two centuries before. In Middle and Early Modern English some Old English items fell into disuse (e.g., ēadig) while others underwent major semantic shifts ((ge)sǣlig and blīðe). Using the data from several historical dictionaries of English and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, I trace the mechanisms of replacement in the context of lexical layering, subjectification and contact-induced linguistic changes.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
- Chapter 2. Adapting the Dynamic Model to historical linguistics 5
- Chapter 3. An account of the use of fronting and clefting in Cornish English 35
- Chapter 4. How does causal connection originate? 57
- Chapter 5. Old Northumbrian in the Scottish Borders 75
- Chapter 6. From eadig to happy 97
- Chapter 7. Distributional changes in synonym sets 119
- Chapter 8. The taking off and catching on of etymological spellings in Early Modern English 143
- Chapter 9. Speech acts in the history of English 165
- Index 181
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
- Chapter 2. Adapting the Dynamic Model to historical linguistics 5
- Chapter 3. An account of the use of fronting and clefting in Cornish English 35
- Chapter 4. How does causal connection originate? 57
- Chapter 5. Old Northumbrian in the Scottish Borders 75
- Chapter 6. From eadig to happy 97
- Chapter 7. Distributional changes in synonym sets 119
- Chapter 8. The taking off and catching on of etymological spellings in Early Modern English 143
- Chapter 9. Speech acts in the history of English 165
- Index 181
