Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Figures......Page 11
Tables......Page 12
Sources......Page 13
Languages and linguistic terms......Page 14
Preface......Page 17
1.1 The Anglo-Saxon poetic scene......Page 23
1.2 The post-Conquest poetic scene......Page 31
2.1 The prosody–meter interface......Page 44
2.2 Old English stress......Page 46
2.3 Old English versification......Page 56
(1) A line consists of two verses. The verses are linked by alliteration......Page 59
(2) Each verse contains two feet which jointly add up to at least four positions......Page 61
(4) Nearly all verses are complete syntactic units......Page 62
2.4.1 Stress on major class words......Page 64
2.4.2 The metrical treatment of inflected verbs......Page 65
2.4.3 Compound stress......Page 68
2.4.4 Phrasal stress......Page 70
2.4.5 Affixes and stress......Page 74
2.5 Middle English alliterative versification......Page 83
2.6 Some methodological remarks......Page 90
3.1 The Old English consonant system......Page 93
3.2 The alliterative conundrum......Page 94
3.3 Sound over letter......Page 100
3.4 Alliteration and editorial practice......Page 109
3.5 The morphophonemic nature of voiceless velar alliteration......Page 112
3.5.1 Was there a phonemic split of /k/ in Old English?......Page 114
3.5.2 The role of DORSAL in maintaining identity......Page 121
3.5.3 The minimal pair test for the palatalized velars......Page 123
3.5.4 PARADIGM UNIFORMITY as a factor inhibiting palatalization......Page 124
3.5.5 The /k-/ split post-obit: coronalization and affrication as contrast enhancements......Page 130
3.6 Alliterating voiced velars in early Old English......Page 135
3.7 The violability of place for the Old English velars......Page 142
3.8 Alliteration as phonetic gradience in Optimality Theory......Page 143
3.9 Was there a…in Old English?......Page 152
3.10 The Old English consonant system revised......Page 155
4.1 The vowel alliteration riddle......Page 157
4.2 Non-alliterative evidence for the glottal stop in Old English......Page 166
4.2.1 Elision in Old English verse......Page 167
4.2.2 Hiatus at morpheme boundaries......Page 172
4.2.3 The inorganic ......Page 182
4.3 The upset of ONSET......Page 187
4.3.1 Middle English vowel alliteration......Page 188
4.3.2 ME elision alliteration: "Stab der Liaison"......Page 189
4.3.3 Non-verse evidence for ONSET in Middle English......Page 193
4.3.4 Nunnation in Middle English......Page 195
4.4 ONSET in Modern English......Page 196
4.4.1 The correlation between ONSET and stress in Modern English......Page 197
4.4.2 Morphology–prosody alignment: a historical perspective......Page 201
4.4.3 ONSET versus faithfulness (Dep) in the history of English......Page 204
4.5 Es ist Gesetz: summary and conclusions......Page 210
5.1 Introducing cluster alliteration: sp-, st-, sk-......Page 214
5.2 The biphonemic treatment of in alliteration......Page 215
5.3 The special status of sp-, st-, sk- in Old English......Page 224
5.4 Cluster constraints and the cohesiveness of sp-, st-, sk-......Page 237
5.4.1 The importance of LOW SONORITY......Page 240
5.4.2 Other well-formedness constraints......Page 244
5.4.3 Obstruents in contact: the perceptual filter......Page 247
5.5 Three-consonantal clusters: the [sl-] <–> [skl-] change......Page 252
5.6 /sp-, st-, sk-/ and the French vocabulary......Page 255
5.7 Summary and conclusions......Page 257
6 ONSET and cluster alliteration in Middle English......Page 260
6.1 New patterns of alliteration in Middle English......Page 261
6.2 Cluster alliteration in Old and Middle English: a comparison......Page 262
6.3 Cluster alliteration in early Middle English: Lagamon’s Brut......Page 267
6.3.1 /s-/+stop clusters in Lagamon’s Brut......Page 268
6.3.2 Cluster alliteration in Lagamon’s Brut......Page 273
6.3.3 Why is Lagamon’s Brut good linguistic evidence?......Page 281
6.4 Cluster alliteration in the fourteenth century......Page 283
6.4.1 Wynnere and Wastoure......Page 284
6.4.2 The Wars of Alexander......Page 291
6.4.3 Piers Plowman......Page 302
6.5 Why is fourteenth-century verse good evidence for cluster cohesion?......Page 314
6.6 Non-verse evidence for cluster cohesion......Page 316
6.7 Alliterative patterns in verse and the lexicon......Page 318
6.8 The linguistic foundation of cluster alliteration......Page 321
6.8.1 Alliterative identity and CONTIGUITY......Page 322
6.8.2 The inadequacy of SONORITY SEQUENCING......Page 324
6.8.3 A hierarchy of onset cluster cohesiveness......Page 325
6.9 Cluster alliteration after Middle English......Page 329
6.10 Concluding remarks......Page 330
7 Verse evidence for cluster simplification in Middle English......Page 333
7.1.1 /gn-/ and /kn-/ in early Middle English......Page 334
7.1.2 /h-/ clusters in Lagamon’s Brut......Page 335
7.2 Wynnere and Wastoure......Page 340
7.3 The Wars of Alexander......Page 342
7.4 Piers Plowman......Page 346
7.5 Notes on the history of velar cluster reduction......Page 352
7.5.1 Summary of the alliterative evidence on velar-initial clusters......Page 353
7.5.2 Voicing neutralization in velar-initial clusters......Page 354
7.5.3 The non-cohesiveness of /kn-/......Page 358
7.5.4 Chronology and causation of /gn-, kn-/ reduction......Page 359
7.6.1 Alliterative treatment of /x-/ clusters in early Old English......Page 361
7.6.2 Reduction of /h-/ clusters in the "transitional" period......Page 364
7.6.2.1 survivals in Middle English......Page 367
7.6.2.2 survivals in Middle English......Page 368
7.6.2.3 survivals in Middle English......Page 370
7.6.3 On /xw/ –> /w/......Page 371
7.6.3.1 Alliterative and scribal evidence for /xw-/ reduction......Page 372
7.6.3.2 The chronology and causes of /xw-/ reduction......Page 375
7.7 The history of clusters......Page 387
7.8 Summary and conclusions......Page 391
References......Page 393
Index of names......Page 411
Subject index......Page 415