Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:12:47.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Root nouns in Elfdalian: Categorisation and etymology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2020

Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen Open the ORCID record for Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen [Opens in a new window]
Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen*
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Emil Holms Kanal 2, DK-2300 København S, Denmark
*
Email for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Elsewhere I have proposed a set of rules according to which we may categorise Germanic root nouns into three chronological layers. In this article, I present a synchronic classification of all of the Elfdalian actual and potential root-noun continuants as well as their etymologies and derivational histories in light of this proposal and in order to reveal (i) some interesting aspects of the general processes involved in shifts of inflectional class, and (ii) whether or not some of these processes in Elfdalian when compared to other Nordic varieties may shed light on the cladistical status of Elfdalian within North Germanic. The analysis shows that, while those Elfdalian root-noun continuants whose ancestral forms belong to layers I, IIa and IIb generally remain stable and keep their appurtenance to the root-noun inflectional class, some of the (non-)root-noun continuants actually and potentially belonging to layer III deserve additional attention with regard to this twofold aim.

Keywords

cladisticsElfdalianGermanicIndo-Europeanlanguage historyprocesses of inflectional-class shiftroot nounsstratification
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , May 2021 , pp. 25 - 37
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Nordic Association of Linguistics

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamczyk, Elżbieta. 2018. Reshaping of the Nominal Inflection in Early Northern West Germanic (NOWELE Supplement Series 31). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Åkerberg, Bengt. 2012. Älvdalsk grammatik. Under medverkan av Gunnar Nyström [Elfdalian grammar]. Mora: Centrumtryck AB/Ulum Dalska.Google Scholar
Brøndum-Nielsen, Johannes. 1935. Gammeldansk Grammatik 3 [Middle-Danish grammar 3]. København: J. H. Schultz.Google Scholar
de Vries, Jan. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd improved edn. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Griepentrog, Wolfgang. 1995. Die Wurzelnomina des Germanischen und ihre Vorgeschichte (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 82). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck.Google Scholar
Hansen, Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard. 2014. Archaisms and Innovations: Four Interconnected Studies on Germanic Historical Phonology and Morphology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Copenhagen. [https://static-curis.ku.dk/portal/files/228776194/Thesis_korrektur_.pdf, accessed 16 March 2020]Google Scholar
Hansen, Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard. 2016. Layers of root nouns in Germanic: Chronology, structure and origin. In Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen, Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead, Thomas Olander & Birgit Anette Olsen (eds.), Etymology and the European Lexicon: Proceedings of the 14th Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 17–22 September 2012, Copenhagen, 169–182. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert.Google Scholar
Hellquist, Elof. 1922. Svensk etymologisk ordbok [Swedish etymological dictionary]. Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup.Google Scholar
Krahe, Hans. 1967. Germanische Sprachwissenschaft, vol. 2: Formenlehre (Sammlung Göschen 780), 6th edn. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kroonen, Guus. 2012. Non-Indo-European root nouns in Germanic: Evidence in support of the Agricultural Substrate Hypothesis. In Riho, Grünthal & Petri, Kallio (eds.), A Linguistic Map of Prehistoric Northern Europe (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia/Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 266), 239–260. Helsinki: Société Finno-Ougrienne.Google Scholar
Kroonen, Guus. 2013. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Kümmel, Martin J. 2004. Ungeklärtes *u neben Liquida in germanischen Nomina. In Adam, Hyllested, Anders Richardt, Jørgensen, Jenny Helena, Larsson & Thomas, Olander (eds.), Per Aspera ad Asteriscos. Studia Indogermanica in Honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen Sexagenarii Idibus Martiis Anno MMIV (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 82), 291–303. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck.Google Scholar
Levander, Lars. 1909. Älvdalsmålet i Dalarna. Ordböjning ock syntax [The Elfdalian language in Dalecarlia: Inflection and syntax] (Nyare bidrag till kännedom om de svenska landsmålen och svenskt folkliv 4(3)). Akademisk avhandling. Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet F. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
Levander, Lars. 1925. Dalmålet: Beskrivning och historia 1 [Dalecarlian: Description and history 1]. Uppsala: Appelbergs boktryckeri aktiebolag.Google Scholar
Levander, Lars. 1928. Dalmålet: Beskrivning och historia 2 [Dalecarlian: Description and history 2]. Uppsala: Appelbergs boktryckeri aktiebolag.Google Scholar
Nielsen Whitehead, Benedicte. 2020. Le type à degré o: An appraisal of Jochem Schindler’s theory about o/e-acrostatic root nouns. Ms., University of Copenhagen. [To appear in Historische Sprachforschung.]Google Scholar
Steensland, Lars. 2010. Material till en älvdalsk ordbok. Svenska–älvdalska. Älvdalska–svenska [Material for an Elfdalian dictionary: Swedish–Elfdalian; Elfdalian–Swedish]. Älvdalen: Ulum Dalska.Google Scholar
Thöny, Luzius. 2013. Flexionsklassenübertritte. Zum morphologischen Wandel in der altgermanischen Substantivflexion (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 146). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck.Google Scholar
Trask, Larry & Millar, Robert McColl. 2015. Trask’s Historical Linguistics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wessén, Elias. 1941. Svensk språkhistoria. Ljudlära och formlära [History of the Swedish language: Phonology and morphology]. Stockholm: Filologiska föreningen vid Stockholms högskola.Google Scholar
Wessén, Elias. 1958. Isländsk grammatik [Icelandic grammar], 2nd edn. Stockholm: Svenska Bokförlaget/Norstedts.Google Scholar
Wurzel, Wolfgang Ullrich. 1987. System-dependent morphological naturalness in inflection. In Dressler, Wolfgang U., Wili, Mayerthaler, Oswald, Panagl & Wolfgang Ullrich, Wurzel (eds.), Leitmotifs in Natural Morphology (Studies in Language Companion Series 10), 59–96. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar