Alliteration and sound change in early English / Donka Minkova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minkova, Donka, 1944- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in linguistics ; 101.

Cambridge studies in linguistics ; 101

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Middle English, 1100-1500--Phonology.

English language.

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.

Physical Description:

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

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Alliteration & Sound Change in Early English

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

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

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

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

OCLC:

56218174