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Article published In:
NOWELE
Vol. 72:1 (2019) ► pp.60–77

Absolute chronology of early sound changes reflected in Pre-Old English runic inscriptions

| Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (RuneS)
This article presents an absolute chronology of the early major sound changes reflected in the Pre-Old English (Pre-OE) runic inscriptions. These inscriptions were written in the Pre-fuþorc, which was still close to the Common Germanic fuþark (= Older fuþark) of 24 characters but was extended and modified during the Pre-OE period (ca. AD 425–610/650). The Caistor-by-Norwich Brooch (ca. AD 610–650) marks the beginning of Old English (OE) because the new and modified runes – ᚩ o , ᚪ a, ᛟ œ, ᚨ æ – with their new phonemic sound-values appear together for the first time. All the relevant sound-changes were completed by then. The Pre-OE and also the Pre-Old Frisian (Pre-OFris.) data reveal four phases of development. In my proposed chronology phases one and four are straightforward, while phases two and three are more complex, with two scenarios being possible.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Relevant corpora
    • 2.1The Pre-OERC: Ca. AD 425–650
    • 2.2The Pre-OFrisRC: Ca. AD 5th Century to AD 650
  • 3.Methodological preliminaries
    • 3.1The ‘Anglo-Frisian unity’
    • 3.2Find-Spot vs. provenance
    • 3.3The periodization of Old Frisian compared to Old English
  • 4.The sound-changes and their reflections in Pre-OE
    • 4.1The various steps to an absolute chronology of the Pre-OE sound changes
      • 4.1.1The new rune o
      • 4.1.2The monophthongization of Gmc > Pre-OE
        • 4.1.2.1The monophthongization of Gmc > Pre-OE in scenario 1
      • 4.1.3The development of Gmc
  • 5.The absolute chronology of the early sound changes: Two scenarios
  • 6.Summary and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00020.wax
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