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INITIAL H IN OLD ENGLISH

Published/Copyright: November 27, 2009
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INITIAL H IN OLD ENGLISH*It is generally accepted that the symbol h in the initialPosition before a vowel has been unstable throughout thehistory of written English. Murray in the entry on H in theO. E.D. stated: "During the Middle-English period, and downto the 17th c., we find numerous instances of the non-etymo-logical absence or (more often) presence of initial h in nativewords". Murray cited two reasons for this, one Orthographie,the other phonological: firstly, h was being gradually reinstatedin the spelling of French loanwords during this period inimitation of their spelling in Classical Latin and the resultingconfusion over the correct use of A- spread to native words;secondly, there was the influence of dialectal speech habits,since "in many English dialects... the aspirate has disappearedäs an ordinary etymological element, and is now employedonly with other functions, viz. to avoid hiatus... and espe-cially in the emphatic or energetic utterance of a syllable withan initial vowel". Murray's cominents on the h problem werepublished in 1901; in the same year Skeat published his studyof Anglo-French influence on English2, in which he ignoredthe influence of native pronunciation of A-words and statedfirmly that uncertainty over the use of A in carly ME tcxts wasone clear sign of Norman influence. Skeat's evidence was toovague, and in 1914 Willy Schlemilch published a more detailedstudy based on a thorough survey of the texts of the eleventhand twelfth Century transition period3. On A, Schlemilch1 I am very grateful for the help I have received in the preparation ofthis paper from Mr N.F. Blake, Dr I.L. Gordon, and Mr J.R.D.Milroy.2 Cf. Walter W. Skeat, "The Influence of Anglo-French Pronunciationupon Modern English", Transactions ofthe Philological Society, 1901.8 Willy Schlemilch, Beiträge zur Sprache und Orthographie spätaltengl.Anglia LXXXVIII, 2 11
Online erschienen: 2009-11-27
Erschienen im Druck: 1970

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