Questions tagged [old-english]
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47 questions
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What are some Old English suffixes that were/could be used to form region names?
I know that -ġē was used to form region names, such as in Surrey, and I've read somewhere that -iġ could also be used under certain circumstances. What are some other suffixes that could be used to ...
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A specific term for the Old Saxon svarabhakti
Does exist a specific term for the Old Saxon svarabhakti (PGmc *berg bereg, *harm haram) like for Russian "polnoglasie" (PSl *berg bereg, *sorm sorom)?
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The Form of the Old English Strong Past Participle
My primary focus as a historical linguist (to the extent that I am) is Japonic, but I do also enjoy digging into Indo-European from time to time, particularly Germanic as I speak English natively. My ...
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When did Germanic lose its nasal vowels?
My question concerns the nasal vowels in Germanic and their evolution in Old English: when did these vowels lose their nasalisation?
Nasal vowels appear throughout the history of Germanic. For example:...
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(PIE) *éḱwos > (Old English) eoh
I'm trying to follow the evolution of (PIE) *éḱwos into (Old English) eoh. Here's my unsuccessfull attempt.
Please note that I left aside the problem of the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European ...
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What did they do in Old English when using the instead of an?
I know that in Old English the would place n infront of words that start with a vowel after saying the word a but did they still do it when they said the? For example would a napron stay as the napron ...
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How did English end up with a voiced "z" at the end of words?
How did English end up with a voiced "z" at the end of words, for example in "is", "was", "those"? Does this phenomenon exist in any Indio-European language ...
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Why does old english niman from PGmc *nemaną, have "i"?
Why does old english niman from PGmc *nemaną, have "i" ?
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Letter “o” with Ogonek in Early Middle English Orthography?
Edit: looking at this again, I wonder if the editors of the Wikipedia article mentioned below (from which the transcription comes) just transcribed the manuscript incorrectly, and the “ogonek” I am ...
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Is OE "g" iegland from Pgmc "w" or "j" awjōlandą?
Is OE "g" iegland from Pgmc "w" or "j" awjōlandą?
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Why did the Rebracketing from "Napron" to "Apron" Figuratively Stick?
I read that the cloth that painters and chefs wear, the one now called "apron", used to be called "napron". But then because of rebracketing, "a napron" became "an ...
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History of perfect tenses
I am thinking about the history of the verb "have". Why is the verb "have" used as an auxiliary verb in the perfect tenses? When did it start to be used that way?
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What does "An. Ox." mean?
In lexicography, what does "An. Ox. 3778." mean?
I found "An." but I don't think that 3778 is a page.
This question is not asking about translations of specific texts. It is ...
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Why did Old Norse influence English more than Saxon and Jutish?
I read a lot of etymologies but I don't remember reading about words that came from Saxon language or Jutish language, nearly all Germanic words who have non English origins came from Old Norse or ...
