The Grammar of Names in Anglo-Saxon England

The Grammar of Names in Anglo-Saxon England PDF Author: Fran Colman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191005185
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This book examines personal names, including given and acquired (or nick-) names, and how they were used in Anglo-Saxon England. It discusses their etymologies, semantics, and grammatical behaviour, and considers their evolving place in Anglo-Saxon history and culture. From that culture survive thousands of names on coins, in manuscripts, on stone and other inscriptions. Names are important and their absence a stigma (Grendel's parents have no names); they may have particular functions in ritual and magic; they mark individuals, generally people but also beings with close human contact such as dogs, cats, birds, and horses; and they may provide indications of rank and gender. Dr Colman explores the place of names within the structure of Old English, their derivation, formation, and other linguistic behaviour, and compares them with the products of other Germanic (e.g., Present-day German) and non-Germanic (e.g., Ancient and Present-day Greek) naming systems. Old English personal names typically followed the Germanic system of elements based on common words like leof (adjective 'beloved') and wulf (noun 'wolf'), which give Leofa and Wulf, and often combined as in Wulfraed, (ræd noun, 'advice, counsel') or as in Leofing (with the diminutive suffix -ing). The author looks at the combinatorial and sequencing possibilities of these elements in name formation, and assesses the extent to which, in origin, names may be selected to express qualities manifested by, or expected in, an individual. She examines their different modes of inflection and the variable behaviour of names classified as masculine or feminine. The results of her wide-ranging investigation are provocative and stimulating.

The Grammar of Names in Anglo-Saxon England

The Grammar of Names in Anglo-Saxon England PDF Author: Fran Colman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191005185
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This book examines personal names, including given and acquired (or nick-) names, and how they were used in Anglo-Saxon England. It discusses their etymologies, semantics, and grammatical behaviour, and considers their evolving place in Anglo-Saxon history and culture. From that culture survive thousands of names on coins, in manuscripts, on stone and other inscriptions. Names are important and their absence a stigma (Grendel's parents have no names); they may have particular functions in ritual and magic; they mark individuals, generally people but also beings with close human contact such as dogs, cats, birds, and horses; and they may provide indications of rank and gender. Dr Colman explores the place of names within the structure of Old English, their derivation, formation, and other linguistic behaviour, and compares them with the products of other Germanic (e.g., Present-day German) and non-Germanic (e.g., Ancient and Present-day Greek) naming systems. Old English personal names typically followed the Germanic system of elements based on common words like leof (adjective 'beloved') and wulf (noun 'wolf'), which give Leofa and Wulf, and often combined as in Wulfraed, (ræd noun, 'advice, counsel') or as in Leofing (with the diminutive suffix -ing). The author looks at the combinatorial and sequencing possibilities of these elements in name formation, and assesses the extent to which, in origin, names may be selected to express qualities manifested by, or expected in, an individual. She examines their different modes of inflection and the variable behaviour of names classified as masculine or feminine. The results of her wide-ranging investigation are provocative and stimulating.

Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts

Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts PDF Author: Ursula Lenker
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110630966
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
In this volume, scholars from different disciplines – Old English and Anglo-Latin literature and linguistics, palaeography, history, runology, numismatics and archaeology – explore what are here called ‘micro-texts’, i.e. very short pieces of writing constituting independent, self-contained texts. For the first time, these micro-texts are here studied in their forms and communicative functions, their pragmatics and performativity.

Medical Texts in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture

Medical Texts in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture PDF Author: Emily Kesling
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Winner of the Best First Monograph from the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England (ISSEME) 2021. An examination of the Old English medical collections, arguing that these texts are products of a learned intellectual culture.

Historical Code-Mixing in English Place-Names

Historical Code-Mixing in English Place-Names PDF Author: Tamás Fekete
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527586278
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This book provides new insights into the nature of hybrid place-names in England. It uncovers the different patterns of hybrid place-name formation, investigating the Celtic, the Anglo-Saxon, the Scandinavian and the Norman French layers and elements of English toponymy. The book analyses research conducted on a corpus of toponyms drawn from a place-name dictionary, and is embedded within the framework of sociolinguistics. It will appeal historians, historical linguists, and sociolinguists, as well as place-name scholars and local history enthusiasts.

Childhood & Adolescence in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture

Childhood & Adolescence in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture PDF Author: Susan Irvine
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487502028
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Childhood & Adolescence in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture counters the generally received wisdom that early medieval childhood and adolescence were an unremittingly bleak experience. The contributors analyse representations of children and their education in Old English, Old Norse and Anglo-Latin writings, including hagiography, heroic poetry, riddles, legal documents, philosophical prose and elegies. Within and across these linguistic and generic boundaries some key themes emerge: the habits and expectations of name-giving, expressions of childhood nostalgia, the role of uneducated parents, and the religious zeal and rebelliousness of youth. After decades of study dominated by adult gender studies, Childhood & Adolescence in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture rebalances our understanding of family life in the Anglo-Saxon era by reconstructing the lives of medieval children and adolescents through their literary representation.

The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse

The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse PDF Author: Roberta Frank
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268202516
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
In The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse, Roberta Frank peers into the northern poet’s workshop, eavesdropping as Old English and Old Norse verse reveal their craft secrets. This book places two vernacular poetries of the long Viking Age into conversation, revealing their membership in a single community of taste, a traditional stylistic ecology that did serious political and historical work. Each chapter seeks the codes of a now-extinct verse technique. The first explores the underlying architecture of the two poetries, their irregularities of pace, startling formal conventions, and tight verbal detail work. The passage of time has worn away most of the circumstantial details that literary scholars in later periods take for granted, but the public relations savvy and aural and syntactic signals of early northern verse remain to some extent retrievable and relatable, an etiquette prized and presumably understood by its audiences. The second and longest chapter investigates the techniques used by early northern poets to retrieve and organize the symmetries of language. It illustrates how supererogatory alliteration and rhyme functioned as aural punctuation, marking off structural units and highlighting key moments in the texts. The third and final chapter describes the extent to which both corpora reveled in negations, litotes, indirection, and down-toners, modes that forced audiences to read between half-lines, to hear what was not said. By decluttering and stripping away excess, by drawing words through a tight mesh of meter, alliteration, and rhyme, the early northern poet filtered out dross and stitched together a poetics of stark contrasts and forebodings. Poets and lovers of poetry of all periods and places will find much to enjoy here. So will students in Old English and Old Norse courses.

Orderic Vitalis

Orderic Vitalis PDF Author: Charles C. Rozier
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1783271256
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
First full-length collection on one of the most significant and influential historians of the medieval period.

The Languages of Early Medieval Charters

The Languages of Early Medieval Charters PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004432337
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
This is the first major study of the interplay between Latin and Germanic vernaculars in early medieval records. Building on previous work on the uses of the written word in the early Middle Ages, which has dispelled the myth that this was an age of ‘orality’, the contributions in this volume bring to the fore the crucial question of language choice in the documentary cultures of early medieval societies. Specifically, they examine the interactions between Latin and Germanic vernaculars in the Anglo-Saxon and eastern Frankish worlds and in neighbouring areas. The chapters are underpinned by an important comparative dimension on account of the two regions’ shared linguistic heritage and numerous cross-Channel links. Contributors are: Stefan Esders, Albert Fenton, Robert Gallagher, Wolfgang Haubrichs, Charles Insley, Kathryn A. Lowe, Rosamond McKitterick, Rory Naismith, Janet L. Nelson, Edward Roberts, Annina Seiler, Marco Stoffella, Francesca Tinti, Kate Wiles, Bernhard Zeller. See inside the book.

Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English

Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English PDF Author: Olga Timofeeva
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027257663
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
This is the first extensive study of Old English to utilise the insights and methodologies of sociolinguistics. Building on previous philological and historical work, it takes into account the sociology and social dialectology of Old English and offers a description of its speech communities informed by the theory of social networks and communities of practice. Specifically, this book uses data from historical narratives and legal documents and examines the interplay of linguistic innovation, variation, and change with such sociolinguistic parameters as region, scribal office, gender, and social status. Special attention is given to the processes of supralocalisation and their correlation with periods of political centralisation in the history of Anglo-Saxon England.

Early Medieval English Life Courses

Early Medieval English Life Courses PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900450186X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
How did the life course, with all its biological, social and cultural aspects, influence the lives, writings, and art of the inhabitants of early medieval England? This volume explores how phases of human life such as childhood, puberty, and old age were identified, characterized, and related in contemporary sources, as well as how nonhuman life courses were constructed. The multi-disciplinary contributions range from analyses of age vocabulary to studies of medicine, name-giving practices, theology, Old English poetry, and material culture. Combined, these cultural-historical perspectives reveal how the concept and experience of the life course shaped attitudes in early medieval England. Contributors are Jo Appleby, Debby Banham, Darren Barber, Caroline R. Batten, James Chetwood, Katherine Cross, Amy Faulkner, Jacqueline Fay, Elaine Flowers, Daria Izdebska, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Thijs Porck, and Harriet Soper.