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.
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...
The 19 papers in this volume are a selection from a UCLA conference intended to take stock of the state of the field at the beginning of the new millenium and to stimulate research in English Historical Linguistics. The authors are predominantly U.S. scholars. The fields represented include morphosyntax and semantics, grammaticalization, discourse analysis, dialectology, lexicography, the diachronic study of code-switching, phonology and metrics.
The 19 papers in this volume are a selection from a UCLA conference intended to take stock of the state of the field at the beginning of the new mi...
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.
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...
A uniquely focused collection addressing the identification, functional properties, and broader consequences of phonological weakness over a broad chronological range, from Old to Present-Day English and its varieties, enriching the phonological literature with fresh empirical findings from a variety of sources.
A uniquely focused collection addressing the identification, functional properties, and broader consequences of phonological weakness over a broad chr...
Empirical and Analytical Advances in the Study of English Language Change continues the project of initiating and energizing the conversations among historians of the English language fostered by the series of conferences on studying the history of the English language (SHEL), begun in 2000 at UCLA. It follows in the footsteps of three high-profile SHEL-based collections of peer-reviewed research papers and point-counterpoint commentaries. In the current volume, the editors invited contributors to reflect upon their approaches and practices in undertaking historical studies, focusing...
Empirical and Analytical Advances in the Study of English Language Change continues the project of initiating and energizing the conversation...
Phonological evolution is a major component of the overall history of the language; the subject matter is both significant on its own terms and relevant in curricular terms. This book describes the segmental and prosodic changes in the history of English, provides analyses of these changes both as phonological events and in relation to the evolution of interlocking aspects of earlier English and highlights the relevance of the topics and possibly generate further interest by projecting historical phonological change onto Present-Day English and its varieties. The development of the English...
Phonological evolution is a major component of the overall history of the language; the subject matter is both significant on its own terms and releva...