Old English Phonology

A detailed study of Old English, taking as its point of departure the 'standard theory' of generative phonology as developed by Chomsky and Halle.

Roger Lass (Author), John M. Anderson (Author)

9780521136273, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 February 2010

344 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.51 kg

A detailed study of Old English, taking as its point of departure the 'standard theory' of generative phonology as developed by Chomsky and Halle. Dr Lass and Dr Anderson set out all the main phonological processes of Old English and against their larger historical background (including subsequent developments in the history of English). They propose many fresh solutions to long-standing problems in the history and structure of Old English. The result is an extensive and sophisticated treatment of this subject. An important theory is examined against a well-studied body of linguistic knowledge, and is partly validated and partly revised. The book will be important for all linguistics and historians of English and Indo-European.

List of abbreviations
Preface
Preliminaries: The Feature Framework
1. 'Ablaut' in the Old English strong verb
2. The Anglo-Frisian brightening
3. Two processes of vowel epenthesis: breaking and back umlaut
4. Palatalisation and I-umlaut
5. Strengthening and weakening of obstruents: fricative voicing assignment, continuancy adjustment, and some related processes
6. Epilogue: historical implications: the phonological inventories: some afterthoughts on theory
Appendices
References
Subject and author index
Word index.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]