Language and History in Early Britain: A Chronological Survey of the Brittonic Languages, First to Twelfth Century A.D.

Front Cover
University Press, 1953 - Foreign Language Study - 752 pages
The history of British language and its descendants, Welsh, Cornish and Breton, before the Norman Conquest is very imperfectly known. An attempt is made here to trace, from all available evidence, their development from the first to the twelfth century, and especially to analyse the chronology of their sound changes. Part I deals with the sources, such as Romano-British and post-Roman inscriptions; names in Classical authors; early Welsh, Cornish and Breton documents; the Latin loanwords in British and Irish; and many British place-names in English, which can only be adequately understood when fitted into such a chronological scheme. Part II sets out in detail the probable dates of the linguistic developments concerned.

Contents

CHAP
3
WRITTEN SOURCES
31
PAGE
43
THE BRITISH LATIN LOANWORDS IN IRISH
122
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTIONS
149
BRITONS AND SAXONS IN THE FIFTH TO EIGHTH CEN
194
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
196
THE ACCENT
265
IE ks qs qs with gs and ps
535
History and dating of IE ks qs qs gs ps and Latin x
536
IE sl ls
540
IE sr rs
541
IE sn ns
542
1314 543 135 British p lenited to b
553
British t lenited to d
554
British c lenited to g
556

IE
274
THE LONG VOWELS
287
IE au ou eu
305
IE oi
311
The history of WCB i from Brit uIE ū and ō in final
317
Latin eu
323
IE ei
330
Latin oe
336
THE SEMIVOWELS
344
When the preceding vowel was unstressed and
358
Intervocal when the stressed vowel immediately
383
THE CONSONANTS
389
Latin
396
IE palatal and velar
402
IE kl kr
412
IE and Latin d
424
IE and Latin d after sonants
432
Final 3 after front vowels in OWCB
455
IE su
525
IE sk and sq
534
British b lenited to b
558
British m lenited to μ
560
PROVECTION
561
SPIRANTS ARISING FROM THE TENUES 1457 pp tt ccf th ch
565
1489 lp lc rp rt rclf lch rf rth rch
570
pp tt cc in OW OC OB
572
1 FINAL AAFFECTION
573
1512 573 153 aaffection in Cornish and Breton
576
15563 579 164 Double affection
591
THE LOSS OF FINAL SYLLABLES
618
THE SPIRANT MUTATION AND PREFIXING
634
190
644
A EARLY
656
B REDUCTIONS FOUND IN WELSH ONLY
664
IE
695
The Name Bernicia
701
ADDENDA
707
INDEX OF WORDS AND NAMES
719
INDEX OF INSCRIPTIONS
751

Other editions - View all