Early Germanic Names and Vowel Shifts
1966; University Library System, University of Pittsburgh; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1179/nam.1966.14.2.65
ISSN1756-2279
Autores Tópico(s)Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies
ResumoGERMANIC NAMES as quoted by Latin and Greek authors since the beginning of the Christian era have been an important source for the phonology of the Germanic languages, in that they provide material that is even earlier than the Runic inscriptions in the North. It has been established that names reflect phonemic changes like any other linguistic material although their orthography is often somewhat more conservative. Names like Caesar's Tencteri, like Segimerus, have figured in the discussion concerning the prehistory of Germanic e and i; names like Marcomanni, Caesar's Bacenis in the discussion concerning Germanic a (or 0) and {j. The definite linkage of some names to biographical or historical data, periods of settlement, definable local areas and to datable or dated documentation has tempted some scholars to overly optimistic association of spellings to time and place of sound-changes and their phases. At the same time the problems inherent in the rendering of the foreign sound-values of names, or of any other borrowed material, for that matter, have not always been recognized. Even if a native oral, not merely a written or a third language source, can be assumed, the foreign sounds can be replaced according to phonetic or morphophonemic or morphemic or associative (analogical) patterns of the borrowing language. In this paper I shall specifically deal with the shift from Germanic e to ii as reflected by names, which have often been cited as conclusive evidence. We find Germanic names containing Indo-European e invariably with e spellings in the first century A.D., e.g., Tacitus' Segimerus, Oatumerus, Inguiomerus, Strabo's Segimeros. Later there are Gothic names with e, even i: Thiudimer, Thiudimir. But Langobardic and Burgundian names have a and so do Marcomannian and Alemannic names since the fourth century, e.g., Marcomarus, Vadomarius, Ohnodomar.ius, Suomarius, Fraomarius. But Franconian names show
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