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VII.—The Phonology of the Stressed Vowels of ‘Béowulf'

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Charles Davidson
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Extract

The value of such an investigation as this depends upon the reliability of the methods employed; these I wish to sketch briefly.

Harrison and Sharp's ‘Béowulf,’ after careful collation with Zupitza's ‘Autotypes,’ with additional correction for quantity, has furnished the text of the poem. Every word of this text, every variation of stem, has been, by independent investigation, reduced to the West-Germanic form. The data for this step were furnished by the vocabularies and lexicons cited below, and the processes involved were pursued under the guidance of the grammars also cited in the subjoined list. The lists of words thus obtained were classified, and checked against the lists of Cook, Cosijn, Fischer, and Leioing, and all important disagreements noted. Where further investigation seemed to justify former conclusions, a reference to the author in question has been entered in the work.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 6 , Issue 3-4 , 1891 , pp. 106 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1891

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References

1 Words printed in small caps appear also with Q.

2 Words printed in small caps appear also with a.

3 Gársecg <gásric by metathesis of r=gás to chafe, rage+ric—rager. Englische Studien, ii, p. 314.

4 Setl, seld, Sæld: setl=set the root of sittan with the suffix l, Cosijn § 126. seld=setl with metathesis of l, Gram. § 183. Under the above sæld is not accounted for. Sal is the WG. for hall. Selioa, habitatio, and selda, mansio, are OS., cf. Schmrller. Selida and selda are respectively OHG. and MHG., cf. Kluge's ‘Etymologisches Wörterbuch.’ This ending ida obtains throughout WG., cf. Kluge's ‘Nominale Stam. bildungslehre,’ §99, b. There would then be an OE. ∗salida>sælda> seld, in accordance with the secondary OS. and MHG. forms. The syncopation is unusual, cf. Gram., § 144, ff., nevertheless, in view of the cognates it does not seem improbable, and will explain sœld.

5 In stems in wa I cannot determine which forms are u-umlaut and which result from breaking in oblique cases. It seems evident that the same cause must account for all forms in a given word, cf. § 105, also cf. P. and B. Beitr. vi. 56, 75.