A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English

Abstract

final and medial P13XM he-sulf P11OiX [m]e-sulfum P12GX †ines-sulfes (iii) Use of diacritics. Many Germanic scripts are rich in devices of this kind, e.g. letters marked with accents or diereses, and various superscript and subscript symbols. Some languages also use doubling of vowel or consonant letters for diacritic purposes. In early Middle English, there are three main types of sporadic, and for the most part unsystematic, diacritic usage: (a) doubling of consonants to indicate that the preceding vowel is short; (b) doubling of vowels to indicate length; (c) the use of accents on vowels to indicate their quantity. (a) The doubling of a consonant to indicate a preceding short vowel is widespread though not usually at all regular. A frequent use is to disambiguate words that would otherwise be homographs, e.g. GOD and GOOD (godd vs. god(e)). It is not a consistently applied practice, however. In most scribal systems short vowels before non-geminates are usually followed by single consonant graphs, especially where the spelling gives rise to no ambiguity. Some writing systems have double letters or digraphs like even after apparently long vowels, e.g. bock for BOOK in both Laoamon A, hand A and Laoamon B. Orm is apparently the only author to have developed an explicit system of diacritic consonant doubling. 15 The variable shift from abstract to concrete spelling strategies had already begun in some Old English varieties. A frequently cited example is hliuade ‘it towered’ at Beowulf 1799 vs hlifade 81 (infinitive hlifian). 16 These examples are taken from Worcester Cathedral, Chapter Library F. 174 (AElfric’s grammar and glossary). Two facts are of particular interest here: (a) the issue of abstract vs concrete spelling, though it surfaces in the actual written behaviour, was not considered of systematic importance in spite of the fact that the forms cited are in the context of a discussion of paradigm lists; (b) the text was copied from an Old English original, so the concrete spellings are innovations. For the meaning of the tags see chapter 4. All that counts for this display is that ‘X’ = reflexive. 17 It is arguable also that some vowel digraphs, e.g. , which in earlier times were assumed to be diphthongs may at this date have diacritic functions within certain text languages. Such usage must, however, be interpreted in the context of individual scribal systems because there is no consensus as to whether particular combinations imply continued diphthongs, monophthings or diacritic modifications of the left hand vowel. See also §2.2.2 and n. 19. 18 This follows a long tradition in West Germanic languages in which is usually a marker of a preceding short vowel, due to the fact that most geminates occurred after short vowels.

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