Synopses & Reviews
An accessible linguistic companion to Old English and its Indo-European and Germanic background.
Review
"...a remarkably useful and informative book for those who are reaching beyond the introductory OE grammers but are somewhat daunted by the meticulous detail and stilted presentation of the standard handbooks. The information in this book is presented clearly and concisely, and contains numerous tables and figures to better illustrate important points of phonological and morphological change in OE and other Germanic languages..." WORD
Synopsis
Old English is a companion to Old English studies and to historical studies of early English in general. It is also an introduction to Indo-European studies in the particular sense in which they underpin the history of English. Professor Roger Lass makes accessible in a linguistically up-to-date and readable form the Indo-European and Germanic background to Old English, as well as what can be reconstructed about the resulting state of Old English itself. His book is a bridge between the more elementary Old English grammars and the major philological grammars and recent interpretations of the Old English data.Old English assumes a basic knowledge of phonetics and phonology, the elements of syntactic and morphological theory, and an introduction to historical linguistics. An extensive glossary gives definitions of the major technical terms used.
Synopsis
Old English is a companion to Old English studies and to historical studies of early English in general. Professor Roger Lass makes accessible in a linguistically up-to-date and readable form the Indo-European and Germanic background to Old English, as well as what can be reconstructed about the resulting state of Old English itself. He bridges the gap between elementary Old English grammars and the major philological grammars and recent interpretations of Old English data.
Synopsis
An accessible linguistic companion to Old English and its Indo-European and Germanic background.
Synopsis
Bridging the gap between elementary Old English grammars and the major philological grammars and recent interpretations of Old English data, this work renders accessible the Indo-European and Germanic background to Old English in a linguistically up-to-date and readable form.
Table of Contents
Part I. Historical Prelude: 1. Background and origins; 2. Indo-European to proto-Germanic to West Germanic; Part II. Old English Phonology: 3. Evolution of old English phonology: the major early sound changes; 4. Suprasegmentals; Part III. Morphophonemic Intermezzo: 5. Ablaut, laryngeals, and the IE root; Part IV. Morphology, Lexis and Syntax: 6. Inflectional morphology, I: Nouns, pronouns and adjectives; 7. Inflectional Morphology, II: The Verb; 8. Vocabulary and word-formation; 9. Topics in old English historical syntax: word-order and case; Part V. Historical Postlude: 10. The dissolution of old English; Glossary; References; Index.