Sievers' Law and the History of Semivowel Syllabicity in Indo-European and Ancient Greek

Sievers' Law and the History of Semivowel Syllabicity in Indo-European and Ancient Greek

Author: Peter Barber

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-11-28

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 0191501867

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This book investigates how semivowels were realized in Indo-European and in early Greek. More specifically, it examines the extent to which Indo-European *i and *y were independent phonemes, in what respects their alternation was predictable, and how this situation changed as Indo-European developed into Greek. The comprehensive and chronologically sensitive nature of this study, together with its careful assessment of what is inherited and what is innovative, enables substantive conclusions to be drawn regarding the behaviour of semivowels at various stages in the history of Greek and in Indo-European itself.


The Laws of Indo-European

The Laws of Indo-European

Author: N. E. Collinge

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1985-01-01

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 9027221022

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This book collects all the named laws of Indo-European, presents each in its original form and rationale and then provides an evaluation of all major attacks, revisions and exploitations, along with a full bibliography and index. Complete thorough exhaustive.


Laws and Rules in Indo-European

Laws and Rules in Indo-European

Author: Philomen Probert

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-05-10

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0191008001

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This book examines the operation of laws, rules, and principles in Indo-European, the language family which includes the Celtic, Germanic, Italic/Romance, and Baltic/Slavic subfamilies as well as the predominant languages of Greece, Iran, parts of Southern Asia, and ancient Anatolia. Laws and rules are crucial to Indo-European studies: they constrain the reconstructions and etymologies on which knowledge of the history and prehistory of Indo-European in particular and ancient languages more generally is based, and which allow processes of morphological change, semantic shift, and borrowing to be identified. But these laws and rules require constant reassessment in the light of new evidence, theory, and method. Through a series of case studies re-examining specific laws and rules in the Indo-European language family, this book explores the implications of new insights into language change andof increasing opportunities for attention to chronology and detail in the treatment of primary material. The languages and language families under consideration include Celtic, Germanic, Italic and Romance, Armenian, Greek, and Indo-Iranian languages as well as Proto-Indo-European. Laws and Rules in Indo-European brings together leading scholars from all over the world. It makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the history of ancient languages and the reconstruction of their ancestors, as well as to research methods.


Germanic Dialects

Germanic Dialects

Author: Bela Brogyanyi

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1986-01-01

Total Pages: 703

ISBN-13: 9027279462

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This volume seeks to present ‘Germanic philology’ with its main linguistic, literary and cultural subdivisions as a whole, and to call into question the customary pedagogical division of the discipline.


Reconciling Indo-European Syllabification

Reconciling Indo-European Syllabification

Author: Adam Cooper

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-10-09

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 9004281959

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In Reconciling Indo-European Syllabification, Adam Cooper brings together two seemingly disparate phenomena associated with Indo-European syllable structure: the heterosyllabic treatment of medial consonant clusters, which tolerates CVC syllables, and the right-hand vocalization of sonorants, which ostensibly avoids them. Operating from a perspective that is simultaneously empirical, theoretical, and historical in nature, he establishes their compatibility by crafting a formal analysis that integrates them into a single picture of the reconstructed system. More generally, drawing on evidence from Vedic, Greek, and Proto-Indo-European itself, Cooper demonstrates the continued relevance of the ancient Indo-European languages to contemporary linguistic theory, and, moreover, reaffirms the value of the syllable as a unit of phonology, necessary for these languages’ formal representation.


The Indo-European Syllable

The Indo-European Syllable

Author: Andrew Byrd

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-06-02

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 9004293027

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In The Indo-European Syllable Andrew Miles Byrd investigates the process of syllabification within Proto-Indo-European (PIE), revealing connections to a number of seemingly unrelated phonological processes in the proto-language. Drawing from insights in linguistic typology and synchronic theory, he makes two significant advances in our understanding of PIE phonology. First, by analyzing securely reconstructable consonant clusters at word’s edge, he devises a methodology which allows us to predict which types of consonant clusters could occur word-medially in PIE. Thus, a number of previously disconnected phonological rules can now be understood as being part of a conspiracy motivated by violations in syllable structure. Second, he uncovers evidence of morphological influence within the syllable, created by processes such as quantitative ablaut. These advances allow us to view PIE as a synchronic grammar, one which can be described by -- and contribute to -- modern linguistic theory.


A History of Old English Meter

A History of Old English Meter

Author: R. D. Fulk

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2015-08-12

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1512802220

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In A History of Old English Meter, R. D. Fulk offers a wide-ranging reference on Anglo-Saxon meter. Fulk examines the evidence for chronological and regional variation in the meter of Old English verse, studying such linguistic variables as the treatment of West Germanic parasite vowels, contracted vowels, and short syllables under secondary and tertiary stress, as well as a variety of supposed dialect features. Fulk's study of such variables points the way to a revised understanding of the role of syllable length in the construction of early Germanic meters and furnishes criteria for distinguishing dialectal from poetic features in the language of the major Old English poetic codices. On this basis, it is possible to draw conclusions about the probable dialect origins of much verse, to delineate the characteristics of at least four discrete periods in the development of Old English meter, and with some probability to assign to them many of the longer poems, such as Genesis A, Beowulf, and the works of Cynewulf. A History of Old English Meter will be of interest to scholars of Anglo-Saxon, historians of the English language, Germanic philologists, and historical linguists.