How Dead Languages Work

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coulter H. George
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Old Irish ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Rig Veda ◽  
Lost In Translation ◽  
Oral Composition

What could a Greek poet or Roman historian say in their language that’s lost in translation? After all, different languages have different personalities, and this is especially clear with languages of the ancient and medieval world. This book celebrates six such languages—Ancient Greek, Latin, Old English, Sanskrit, Old Irish, and Biblical Hebrew—by first introducing readers to their most distinctive features, then showing how these linguistic traits play out in short excerpts from actual ancient texts. It explores, for instance, how Homer’s Greek shows signs of oral composition, how Horace can achieve striking poetic effects through interlaced word order in his Latin, and how the poet of Beowulf achieves a remarkable intensity of expression through the resources of Old English. But these are languages that have shared connections as well. Readers will see how the Sanskrit of the Rig Veda uses words that come from roots found also in English, how turns of phrase characteristic of the Hebrew Bible found their way into English, and that even as unusual a language as Old Irish still builds on common Indo-European linguistic patterns. Since most people don’t have the opportunity to learn these languages, the book throughout aims to give such readers an aesthetic appreciation of just how rich and varied they are.

Celtic influence on Old English: phonological and phonetic evidence

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SCHRIJVER
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The West ◽  
Old Irish ◽  
Sound System ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
Plausible Model ◽  
Phonological System ◽  
The Way

It has generally been assumed that Celtic linguistic influence on Old English is limited to a few marginal loanwords. If a language shift had taken place from Celtic to Old English, however, one would expect to find traces of that in Old English phonology and (morpho)syntax. In this article I argue that (1) the way in which the West Germanic sound system was reshaped in Old English strongly suggests the operation of a hitherto unrecognized substratum; (2) that phonetic substratum is strongly reminiscent of Irish rather than British Celtic; (3) the Old Irish phonetic−phonological system provides a more plausible model for reconstructing the phonetics of pre-Roman Celtic in Britain than the British Celtic system. The conclusion is that there is phonetic continuity between pre-Roman British Celtic and Old English, which suggests the presence of a pre-Anglo-Saxon population shifting to Old English.

Lost in translation: omission of episodes in some Old English prose saints' legends

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 187-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Gordon Whatley
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
English Prose ◽  
English Verse ◽  
Cultural Interest ◽  
Lost In Translation

The following article explores one way of using Latin sources to increase our understanding and appreciation of the surviving corpus of vernacular prose hagiography in Anglo-Saxon England. Although the saints' legends in prose make up a significant portion of the Old English literary remains, they have been relatively neglected in comparison with the saints' legends in Old English verse, such asAndreas, Guthlac AandGuthlac B, and Cynewulf'sElene. As the standard bibliographies reveal well enough, the prose texts have been studied mainly from the perspectives of language, stylistics, codicology and basicQuellenforschung, and much less than the verse texts for their literary, historical or broadly cultural interest. This is particularly true of the twenty-nine anonymous legends, some of which are not readily accessible in printed versions, and most of which need re-editing. But even the hagiographic writings of Ælfric, which are better known, have been read only occasionally for their narrative contentperse. Primary emphasis has fallen instead on Ælfric's considerable stylistic and prosodic achievements. Moreover, the two most recent monographs on Ælfric's intellectual and doctrinal concerns hardly touch on his saints' legends.

scholarly journals On the Verbal Complements of Aspectual Verbs

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-333
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Lavidas ◽  
Gaberell Drachman
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Aspectual Verbs

This article presents independent morpho-syntactic evidence from Ancient Greek and Old English supporting the existence of two alternative Aspect functional heads (following Fukuda 2007 on Modern Japanese and Modern English). The focus of the study is on the similarities between Ancient Greek and Old (and Modern) English aspectual verbs and on the consequences of these similarities for the analysis of aspectuals. Ancient Greek and Old English aspectual verbs fall into two groups: (a) aspectual verbs that could select both infinitive/to-infinitive and participial/ bare infinitive complements (aspectual in H-Asp), and (b) aspectual verbs that selected only a participial/bare infinitive complement (aspectual in L-Asp). No aspectual verb takes only infinitive/to-infinitive. Furthermore, “long middles/passives” is an option only with aspectual verbs in L-Asp, while the regular embedded middle/passive is the only option with an aspectual verb in H-Asp. The similar properties of the Greek and English aspectual verbs, however, historically manifest di󰀇ferent developments: English not only retained Old English possibilities (to- vs. bare infinitives), but later extended them from Middle English into the 18th century, while in Greek the development of the infinitive and the participle a󰀇fected the options of verbal complements of aspectual verbs.

scholarly journals Gothic iup, welsh uch, old irish uabar

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 9-11
Author(s):  
Eric P. Hamp
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Old Irish ◽  
Modern Language

I wrote about Gothic iup ἄvω in relation to uf, ufar, German auf, Old English up, upp, etc., Latin sub, super, Umbrian sub, Oscan sup, Greek ὺπό and clearly related forms attested throughout Indo-European, in Modern Language Notes, January 1954, 39-41, without being able to reach a positive conclusion. All I could then establish was that the consonant was not the desired kind (apparently the nearly non-occurring IE *b), or else there was a strange unmotivated laryngeal suffix; that the initial required a laryngeal different from that which Albanian hyp ,mount, climb' leads us to assign to this base; and that iup could not be connected with uf.

Greek

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-56
Author(s):  
Coulter H. George
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Abstract Language ◽  
Oral Composition ◽  
Technical Terms ◽  
The Way

To lay the foundations for the linguistic discussion found in the remainder of the book, this chapter begins with a systematic introduction to some of the main features of Ancient Greek, explaining the necessary technical terms along the way. First comes a discussion of the sounds of Greek, focusing on those that are particularly characteristic of Greek, as well as the development of Greek from the Proto-Indo-European parent language. The chapter then introduces some of the ways Greek words, especially nouns and verbs, change their forms to suit the grammatical context, since such morphological richness will come up repeatedly in the book. Excerpts from three texts are then discussed: first, the Iliad, to show how formulaic language marks its origins as an oral composition; second, Thucydides, to highlight the abstract language that characterizes his history; third, the New Testament, to show how much translators sometimes need to rearrange the structure of a sentence in order for the syntax to make sense in English.

Celtic influence on Old English vowels: a review of the phonological and phonetic evidence

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-620
Author(s):  
STEPHEN LAKER
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Old Irish ◽  
Detailed Review ◽  
Research Results ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Germanic Languages

Debate continues over what was spoken in Britain before, during and after it was settled by the Anglo-Saxons in the middle of the first millenniumad. Schrijver (2009) argues that phonological and phonetic developments in Old English provide vital clues. Accordingly, Old English changed in different ways from other Germanic languages due to contact with an early British Celtic variety that resembled Old Irish. Aspects of this proposal have been greeted with a degree of interest and approval by linguists but have escaped detailed review. This article argues instead that the Old English developments are closely aligned to those found in other Germanic languages. It also includes novel research results which explain the variation in late Northumbrian Old English <eo> and <ea> spellings on (morpho)phonological grounds, showing that this alternation too provides no evidence for Celtic influence.

scholarly journals Gothic iup, welsh uch, old irish uabar

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 9-11
Author(s):  
Eric P. Hamp
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Old Irish ◽  
Modern Language

I wrote about Gothic iup ἄvω in relation to uf, ufar, German auf, Old English up, upp, etc., Latin sub, super, Umbrian sub, Oscan sup, Greek ὺπό and clearly related forms attested throughout Indo-European, in Modern Language Notes, January 1954, 39-41, without being able to reach a positive conclusion. All I could then establish was that the consonant was not the desired kind (apparently the nearly non-occurring IE *b), or else there was a strange unmotivated laryngeal suffix; that the initial required a laryngeal different from that which Albanian hyp ,mount, climb' leads us to assign to this base; and that iup could not be connected with uf.

scholarly journals Irish Influence in the Consonantal Spellings of Old English

2017 ◽  
pp. 4-23
Author(s):  
David L. White
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Old Irish

The consonantal spellings of Old English (OE) were significantly influenced by the consonantal spellings of Old Irish (OI). 1) <th/þ> vs. (post-vocalic) <d/ð>: though OE did not have a distinction between /θ/ and /ð/, OI did, spelling this asvs. (post- vocalic). 2) vs.: though OE did not have a distinction between /h/ and /x/, OI did, spelling the latter as. 3) and: both spellings appear to be from Irish. 4) : spellings of the “mixed voice” type, including “cg”, occur in OI, where they can spell either single or geminate voiced plosives. 5) (and ): almost certainly in final position <bb, cg> in OE represent singles, not geminates, as they can in OI. 6) Spelling rules referring to post-vocalic position: all cases show OE spelling having had, like OI spelling, rules referring to post-vocalic position, which appear to be additionally evidenced by “illogical doubling” in Northumbrian. 7) The meaning of before front Vs: in OE spelling as in OI spelling, but not as in Roman Latin spelling, before front Vs spells a palatal approximant rather than a palatal affricate. The overall conclusion is that the OE spelling system was developed by Irish missionary linguists.

scholarly journals The Old English Life of Saint Mary of Egypt and London, British Library, Cotton Julius E.vii: A Textual Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
pp. 374-399
Author(s):  
Hugh Magennis
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
British Library ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Textual Study ◽  
Manuscript Context ◽  
Mary Of Egypt ◽  
Sheer Number

Abstract This article highlights the textual distinctiveness of the Old English Life of Saint Mary of Egypt in its manuscript context in British Library, Cotton Julius E.vii. The Cotton Julius version of the Life is distinctive in the sheer number of scribal errors it contains but also in the purposeful changes to the original translation evident in it. Consideration of scribal performance across the manuscript and comparison with texts of Saint Mary of Egypt extant elsewhere lead to the conclusion that the purposeful changes in the Cotton Julius witness have probably been inherited from an exemplar, while the number of errors is likely due to the pressure under which the scribe was working in adding this text at a late stage of the manuscript’s composition. Despite its distinctive features, there is no evidence to contradict the recently argued contention that this version of Saint Mary of Egypt, along with the second half of the immediately preceding item in the manuscript, the Legend of the Seven Sleepers, was copied by the main scribe of Cotton Julius rather than being delegated to a colleague: although Seven Sleepers also seems to have been copied under pressure, Saint Mary of Egypt stands apart from it in broadly the same ways as it does from the rest of the manuscript.

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