The Scandinavian Source of Middle English Inflections

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F20%3A73610371" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/20:73610371 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://lingbuzz.com/j/rgg/2020/2020.01/" target="_blank" >https://lingbuzz.com/j/rgg/2020/2020.01/</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
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Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The Scandinavian Source of Middle English Inflections
Original language description
Very early in Middle English, texts tend to use a suffix spelled –(e)s for noun plurals, though Southern texts the suffix –(e)n of the Old English weak declension at first spreads, but then by 1250 also yields to –(e)s. This sibilant plural has remained productive in English ever since. This essay shows on phonological grounds that the vocabulary item for this nominal plural must be –lexically specified as +Voice. The source of this underlying voiced sibilant –z, completely absent in Old English, comes from the genealogical ancestor of Middle English, Common Scandinavian, whose non-neuter plural in structural case is precisely this segment –z Haugen 1982. This essay argues that this form was an integral part of the Norse brought to England by Scandinavian settlers in the ninth century.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year
2020
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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