A Grammar of Old English, Volume 1: Phonology

Preface viii

List of abbreviations xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Orthography and phonology 10

3 The vowels in Germanic 52

I Primitive Germanic (§§1–4) 52

II Vowel harmony (§§5–12) 53

III Loss of nasals and compensatory lengthening (§§13–15) 55

IV Diphthongization (§§16–19) 56

V Influence of */z/ (§§20–1) 59

VI Long vowels (§§22–6) 59

VII Unstressed vowels (§§27–33) 62

VIII Raising of back vowels (§34) 64

4 The consonants in Germanic 66

I Primitive Germanic (§§1–3) 66

II Verner’s Law (§§4–5) 67

III Germanic approximants (§§6–9) 68

IV Consonant loss (§10) 70

V West Germanic gemination (§§11–14) 71

VI Miscellanea (§§15–19) 72

5 Old English vowels 74

I First fronting and associated changes (§§3–15) 75

II Breaking (§§16–34) 82

III Restoration of A (§§35–40) 93

IV Lowering of second elements of diphthongs (§§41–6) 99

V Palatal diphthongization (§§47–73) 104

VI I-umlaut (§§74–86) 118

VII Second fronting (§§87–92) 135

VIII Anglian smoothing (§§93–102) 139

IX Back umlaut (§§103–12) 149

X Palatal umlaut (§§113–18) 163

XI Palatal monophthongization (§§119–23) 166

XII Compensatory lengthening (§§124–30) 169

XIII Hiatus (§§131–54) 172

XIV Merger of /io/ and /eo/ (§§155–62) 185

XV West Saxon developments of high front vowels and diphthongs (§§163–75) 190

XVI The influence of /w/ (§§176–87) 198

XVII The development of Kentish front vowels (§§188–96) 203

XVIII Changes in quantity (§§197–205) 206

XIX Monophthongization of diphthongs (§§206–14) 210

XX Merger of /æ/ and /w/ (§§215–16) 213

6 Unstressed vowels 214

I First fronting and associated changes (§§2–6) 214

II Breaking, palatal diphthongization, i-umlaut, and back umlaut (§§7–12) 217

III Syncope and apocope (§§13–25) 220

IV Shortening (§§26–33) 227

V Epenthesis and syllabification (§§34–45) 230

VI Mergers of unstressed vowels (§§46–62) 235

VII Unstressed medial vowels (§§63–71) 242

7 Old English consonants 246

I Dissimilation (§§4–14) 247

II Palatalization and assibilation (§§15–43) 252

III Development of fricatives (i): lenition (§§44–53) 270

IV Development of fricatives (ii): voicing and devoicing (§§54–68) 276

V Post-vocalic approximants (§§69–76) 283

VI Consonant clusters (§§77–97) 287

VII Loss of final nasals (§§98–100) 298

VIII Late Old English changes (§§101–3) 299

References 301

Word index 315