1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910829167403321

Autore

Minkova Donka <1944->

Titolo

Alliteration and sound change in early English / / Donka Minkova [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2003

ISBN

1-107-11355-5

1-280-41859-1

0-511-17723-2

0-511-03975-1

0-511-15819-X

0-511-33000-6

0-511-48696-0

0-511-05378-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xix, 400 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge studies in linguistics ; ; 101

Disciplina

427/.02

Soggetti

English language - Middle English, 1100-1500 - Phonology

English language - Middle English, 1100-1500 - Versification

English language - Old English, ca. 450-1100 - Versification

English language - Old English, ca. 450-1100 - Phonology

English language - Phonology, Historical

Alliteration

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-388) and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Social and linguistic setting of alliterative verse in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval England -- 2. Linguistic structures in English alliterative verse -- 3. Segmental histories: velar palatalization -- 4. Syllable structure -- 5. Onset and cluster alliteration in Old English: the case of sp-, st-, sk- -- 6. Onset and cluster alliteration in Middle English -- 7. Verse evidence for cluster simplification in Middle English.

Sommario/riassunto

This 2003 study uses evidence from early English verse to reconstruct the course of some central phonological changes in the history of the language. It builds on the premise that alliteration reflects faithfully the acoustic identity and similarity of stressed syllable onsets. Individual



chapters cover the history of the velars, the structure and history of vowel-initial syllable onsets, the behaviour of onset clusters, and the chronology and motivation of cluster reduction (gn-, kn-, hr-, hl-, hn-, hw-, wr-, wl-). Examination of the patterns of group alliteration in Old and Middle English reveals a hierarchy of cluster-internal cohesiveness which leads to new conclusions regarding the causes for the special treatment of sp-, st-, sk- in alliteration. The analysis draws on phonetically based Optimality-Theoretic models. The book presents valuable information about the medieval poetic canon and elucidates the relationship between orality and literacy in the evolution of English verse.