Volume 133, Issue 3-4

A common sound change involves the Debuccalization of a fricative such as [x] to a laryngeal like [h]. A controversial question is whether or not the reverse development is attested as well, i. e. the Buccalization of [h] to a sound with a supralaryngeal articulation like [x]. Vennemann (Language 48: 863–892, 1972) proposes an approach according to which [x] can debuccalize into [h], but the latter sound cannot buccalize into [x]. By contrast, Howell (Old English Breaking and its Germanic Analogues, Tübingen, 1991) advocates a model which allows for both Debuccalizations and Buccalizations. The present article critically examines the status of Buccalizations which have been argued to have transpired in the history of Germanic with the intention of clarifying which approach is correct. It will be argued that the change from [h] to a sound like [x] is only attested under the following two conditions: (a) the change is analogical, or (b) the change involves the shift from one allophone of a phoneme to another allophone of the same phoneme. All examples in Howell (Old English Breaking and its Germanic Analogues, Tübingen, 1991) which cannot be attributed to (a) or (b) will be shown to have an independent explanation not requiring the sound change from [h] into [x].

The protection of under-age children in the LS is very strict: In case of death of the young or unborn child the fine (›Wergeld‹) is three times as high as normal. There are two cases to be considered: The young boy under 10 years (later under 12 years) gets obviously a special hairstyle; so the text is formulated according to hairstyle and therefore regulations for cutting the hair of young children are included. The other parts deal with pregnant women, and their protection is extended to all women of childbearing potential.

The article focuses on the relation between Latin and vernacular ›benedictions‹ and asks for their situational and functional use within the particular context of transmission. The analysis of certain examples from the 9 th to the 16 th century offer various types of how the situational and functional use had been connected during literary history. Without claiming a teleological transition, the article states, that those types track a conceptual development starting with the original Latin functional use over to its de-contextualization right up to vernacular re-contextualization in the sense of an emancipation of vernacular language.

On folio 126 of Klosterneuburg's Codex 1128 a short medieval German text can be identified as the first two versicles of Frauenlob's ›Marienleich‹. The article provides a description of the whole manuscript under codicological aspects, followed by a synoptic print of the two versicles from Klosterneuburg and from the ›Göttinger Frauenlob-Ausgabe‹ that outlines the specific characteristics of this discovery – not only regarding formal aspects, but also showing a new formulation that is unique in the transmission of the ›Marienleich‹. The last part of the article focuses on the identification of the text's writing and language.

The vera icon , i. e. the image of the Holy Face which has its origin in Christ pressing his face into a cloth, claims to show Christ in his real historical appearance and thus to allow the believers a quasi-immediate contact with god himself. It has therefore been posited an object holding the capacity to cross the line between presence and representation. The legend of Veronica and her cloth is taken up by nearly all late medieval Passion Plays, which on their part stand between liturgy and theatre. The precarious mediality of both holy image and religious drama is increased as well as reflected on within the framework of the Veronica scenes: One medium mirrors the other, and the Passion Play structurally turns out to be some kind of vera icon itself.

The paper sketches the impact of Averroes' adaptation of Aristotle's ›Poetics‹ as an argumentative discipline. Starting from the 10 th century with Al-Farabi and Al-Gazali, the ›Poetics‹ is assigned to the logical disciplines of the ›Organon‹. While the theory of a ›poetic syllogism‹ never made its way to the Latin West, from 12 th century onwards the logical, argumentative status of poetics became a well-known fact to western philosophers as well. With varying reasons Dominicus Gundissalinus, Vincent of Beauvais, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas adopted the classification of poetics as an argumentative discipline. The paper ends with a prospect on Coluccio Salutati's ›Labours of Hercules‹ and the humanist reception of this tradition.