Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English
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Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK
1969
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294716 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-bgsu15544640852947162021-08-03T07:09:58Z Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English Pak, Tae-yong Literature Considered 'inconsistent' by leading runologists of this century, the new Old English runes in the palatovelar series' namely' gar, calc, and gar-modified (various modifications of the old gifu and) have not been subjected to rigorous linguistic analysis, and their relevance to Old English phonology and the study of Old English poetry has remained unexplored. The present study seeks to determine the phonemic status of the new runes and elucidate their implications to alliteration.To this end the following methods were used: 1) The 60-odd extant Old English runic texts were examined. Only four monuments (Bewcastle, Ruthwell, Thornhill, and Urswick) were found to use the new runes definitely. 2) In the four texts the words containing the new and old palatovelar runes were isolated and tabulated according to their environments. The pattern of distribution was significant: gifu occurred thirteen times in front environments and twice in back environments; cen, eight times front and once back; gar, nine times back; calc, five times back and once front; andgar-modified, twofront. Although cen and gifu occurred predominantly in front environments, and calc and gar in back environments, their occurrences were not complementary. 3) To interpret the data minimal or near minimal pairs with the palatovelar consonants occurring in front or back environments were exrunined. They disclosed the existence in Old English of two sets of stop phonemes, voiced and voiceless, each set comprising front and back phonemes.The results showed that each of the five palatovelar runes had a phonemic role. Especially, the parallel presence in the Ruthwell Cross of gar-modified and 'representing the allophones of the back phoneme and seemingly contradicting the phoneme principle (i.e. awareness or nonawareness of distinctiveness), could be explained by considering the binary contrast of each allophone with regard only to the front phoneme (represented by cen), without a ternary comparison of the back allophones themselves. This indicated a radically different phonetic quality in the front phoneme and, upon exploration of the phonetic possibilities, the front phoneme was distinctive chiefly in its position of articulation, the most probable position being laminoalveolar. Since the aspirate or affricate ielease was preient in the stop phoneme in all positions, a stop sound articulated at the alveolar ridge was found to resemble the New English affricate closely, if not exactly. This conclusion did not conflict with the evidence of alliteration, for it could be shown that the affricate and the stop alliterated, without the poet's or listener's resorting to poetic tradition or 'eye-rimes'. To sum up, the invention of the new palatovelar runes arose from a phonemic necessity and the laminoalveolar affricate (or near-affricate) has existed in English since at least the eighth century. 1969 English text Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294716 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294716 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Literature |
| spellingShingle |
Literature Pak, Tae-yong Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English |
| author |
Pak, Tae-yong |
| author_facet |
Pak, Tae-yong |
| author_sort |
Pak, Tae-yong |
| title |
Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English |
| title_short |
Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English |
| title_full |
Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English |
| title_fullStr |
Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Runic Evidence of Laminoalveolar Affrication in Old English |
| title_sort |
runic evidence of laminoalveolar affrication in old english |
| publisher |
Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
1969 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294716 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT paktaeyong runicevidenceoflaminoalveolaraffricationinoldenglish |
| _version_ |
1719455142020907008 |