LINGUIST List 13.169

Tue Jan 22 2002

Books: Historical Ling

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Joyce Reid, Historical Ling: Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English

Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English

Donka Minkova, University of California, Los Angeles, CA


This study uses evidence from early English poetry to determine when
certain sound changes took place in the transition from Old to Middle
English. It builds on the premise that alliteration in early English
verse reflects faithfully the identity and similarity of stressed
syllable onsets; it is based on the acoustic signal and not on the
visual identity of letters. Examination of the behaviour of onset
clusters leads to new conclusions regarding the causes for the special
treatment of sp-, st-, sk-, and the chronology and motivation of
cluster reduction.

Contents:

1. Authorship, audience, transmission, reception; 
2. Linguistic structures in verse; 
3. Segmental histories: velar palatalization; 
4. Syllable structure; 
5. ONSET structure and cluster alliteration in Old English; 
6. ONSET structure and cluster alliteration in Middle English; 
7. Verse evidence for cluster simplification in Middle English.

Cambridge Studies in Linguistics

2002/c. 300 pp./75 tables
0-521-57317-3/Hb/List: $64.95*

Cambridge University Press
http://www.cup.org