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A Glottometric Subgrouping of the Early Germanic Languages

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A Glottometric Subgrouping of the Early Germanic Languages San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Summer 2018 A Glottometric Subgrouping of the Early Germanic Languages Joshua Agee San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Agee, Joshua, "A Glottometric Subgrouping of the Early Germanic Languages" (2018). Master's Theses. 4926. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.69cp-8xz2 https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/4926 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A GLOTTOMETRIC SUBGROUPING OF THE EARLY GERMANIC LANGUAGES A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Linguistics and Language Development San José State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Joshua R. Agee August 2018 © 2018 Joshua R. Agee ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled A GLOTTOMETRIC SUBGROUPING OF THE EARLY GERMANIC LANGUAGES By Joshua R. Agee APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY August 2018 Soteria Svorou, Ph.D. Department of Linguistics and Language Development Kenneth VanBik, Ph.D. Department of Linguistics and Language Development Julia Swan, Ph.D. Department of Linguistics and Language Development ABSTRACT A GLOTTOMETRIC SUBGROUPING OF THE EARLY GERMANIC LANGUAGES By Joshua R. Agee Historical Glottometry, introduced by Alexandre François (2014), is a wave-based quantitative approach to language subgrouping that is used to calculate the overall strength of a linguistic subgroup using metrics that capture the contributions of linguistic innovations of various scopes to language diversification, in consideration of the reality of their distributions. It primarily achieves this by acknowledging the contribution of areal diffusion to language diversification, which has traditionally been overlooked in cladistic (tree-based) models. In this thesis, the development of the Germanic language family, from the breakup of Proto-Germanic to the latest period of the early attested daughter languages (namely Gothic, Old English, Old Norse and Old High German), is accounted for using Historical Glottometry. It is shown that this approach succeeds in accounting for several smaller, nontraditional subgroups of Germanic by accommodating the linguistic evidence unproblematically where a cladistic approach would fail. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank first and foremost Dr. Kenneth VanBik of San José State University for serving as the driving force in my desire to pursue an education and career in linguistics. His encouragement was always incessant and steadfast, and his approach to teaching will always be my golden standard. An equal serving of gratitude goes to my other committee members, Drs. Soteria Svorou and Julia Swan, for their valuable contributions to this thesis. I would also like to thank my good friend, California State Parks Docent Bill Rhoades, whose constant, refreshing support for my academic endeavors has been much appreciated. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, Susan Agee, whose continued unconditional support for my studies has not been without appreciation. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................ ix LIST OF FIGURES...…………………………………………………………… x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………….……………….…….……… xi 1 INTRODUCTION….……………………………………….………………. 1 1.1 Language Change and Subgrouping…………………….………………. 1 1.2 The Stammbaum………………………………………………………… 4 1.3 Ramifications for Germanic Subgrouping………………………………. 7 1.4 Wave Theory…………………………………………………………….. 9 1.5 Historical Glottometry…………………………………………………... 11 1.5.1 Exclusively Shared Innovations (ε)……………………………... 12 1.5.2 Cohesiveness (k)…………………………………………...……. 13 1.5.3 Subgroupiness (ς)………………………………………………... 14 1.5.4 Application to Germanic………..……………………………….. 15 2 METHODOLOGY…………………………………………….…………….. 19 2.1 Building a Database…...………..……...………………………………... 19 2.2 Organization…………………………...………………………...……..... 21 2.3 Innovations………………………….………………………………….... 22 2.4 Notation………………………………………………………………….. 24 3 RESULTS…………………………………………………………………… 26 3.1 Database of Shared Innovations…………………………………………. 26 3.2 Proposed Subgroups……………………………………………………... 36 3.2.1 Northwest Germanic………………………………………………. 37 3.2.2 Northeast Germanic (ON-GO)…………………………………….. 39 3.2.3 Continental Northwest Germanic………………………………….. 40 3.2.4 Northern Northwest Germanic…………………………………….. 41 3.2.5 West Germanic…………………………………………………….. 42 3.2.6 Northern West Germanic (Ingvaeonic)……………………………. 43 3.2.7 Anglo-Frisian……………………………………………………… 44 3.2.8 Teuto-Saxon (OHG-OS)…………………………………………... 44 3.2.9 Old Norse-Old Saxon-Old High German………………………….. 45 3.2.10 Old Norse-Gothic-Old High German…………………………….. 46 3.2.11 Teuto-Gothic (GO-OHG)……………………………………….... 47 3.2.12 Central Germanic (OFr-OS-OHG)……………………………….. 47 3.2.13 The Daughter Languages………………………………………… 48 vi 3.3 Final Results…………………………………………………………….. 49 4 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….. 54 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………... 57 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………… 63 APPENDIX A: NORTHWEST GERMANIC DEVELOPMENTS…………….. 63 A.1 Northwest Germanic Phonological Innovations………………………... 63 A.2 Northwest Germanic Morphological Innovations………………………. 72 A.3 Northwest Germanic Lexical Innovations………………………………. 76 A.4 Northwest Germanic Syntactic Innovations…………………………….. 78 APPENDIX B: GOTHIC DEVELOPMENTS………………………………….. 80 B.1 Gothic Phonological Innovations……………………………………….. 80 B.2 Gothic Morphological Innovations…………………………………….... 89 B.3 Gothic Lexical Innovations……………………………………………... 98 APPENDIX C: WEST GERMANIC DEVELOPMENTS……………………… 105 C.1 West Germanic Phonological Innovations……………………………… 105 C.2 West Germanic Morphological Innovations……………………………. 115 C.3 West Germanic Lexical Innovations……………………………………. 129 APPENDIX D: NORTHERN WEST GERMANIC DEVELOPMENTS………. 135 D.1 Ingvaeonic Developments………………………………………………. 135 D.1.1 Ingvaeonic Phonological Innovations…………………………….. 135 D.1.2 Ingvaeonic Morphological Innovations…………………………... 139 D.1.3 Ingvaeonic Lexical Innovations…………………………………... 144 D.1.4 Ingvaeonic Syntactic Innovations………………………………… 147 D.2 Anglo-Frisian Developments…………………………………………… 149 D.2.1 Anglo-Frisian Phonological Innovations…………………………. 149 D.2.2 Anglo-Frisian Morphological Innovations……………………….. 149 D.2.3 Anglo-Frisian Lexical Innovations……………………………….. 151 APPENDIX E: OLD NORSE DEVELOPMENTS……………………………... 153 E.1 Old Norse Phonological Innovations……………………………………. 153 E.2 Old Norse Morphological Innovations………………………………….. 169 E.3 Old Norse Lexical Innovations………………………………………….. 173 E.4 Old Norse Syntactic Innovations………………………………………... 177 APPENDIX F: OLD HIGH GERMAN DEVELOPMENTS…………………… 179 F.1 Old High German Phonological Innovations……………………………. 179 F.2 Old High German Morphological Innovations………………………….. 191 vii F.3 Old High German Lexical Innovations…………………………………. 201 F.4 Old High German Syntactic Innovations……………………………….. 208 APPENDIX G: OLD ENGLISH DEVELOPMENTS…………………………... 210 G.1 Old English Phonological Innovations………………………………….. 210 G.2 Old English Morphological Innovations………………………………... 222 G.3 Old English Lexical Innovations………………………………………... 231 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Database of Shared Innovations……………………..……..………….. 27 Table 2. Exclusive Developments of the Daughter Languages…………............. 48 Table 3. Glottometric Values for Supported Germanic Subgroups…................... 49 Table 4. The 15 Strongest Torres-Banks Subgroups (François and Kalyan forthcoming)………………………………………………..…………... 51 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Model language family ABC…………………………………….….... 4 Figure 2. A typical tree representation of the early Germanic languages……..... 8 Figure 3. Bloomfield’s depiction of a wave network in IE………..……………. 10 Figure 4. A wave portrayal of the ABC language family………..……………... 11 Figure 5. A hybrid tree/wave model of Northwest Germanic….……………….. 16 Figure 6. A glottometric diagram of Germanic……………..………………....... 53 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Languages and Subgroups: AF Anglo-Frisian Angl. Anglian Old English CNWGmc Continental Northwest Germanic EGmc East Germanic EN Modern English Finn. Finnish GE Modern German Gmc Germanic GO Gothic IC Icelandic IE Indo-European Ingv Ingvaeonic Lat. Latin ME Middle English Merc. Mercian Old English MHG Middle High German MLG Middle Low German NEGmc Northeast Germanic NGmc North Germanic North. Northumbrian Old English NNWGmc Northern Northwest Germanic NWGmc Northwest Germanic OE Old English OFr Old Frisian OHG Old High German ON Old Norse OS Old Saxon PGmc Proto-Germanic PIE Proto-Indo-European PNGmc Proto-North Germanic PNWGmc Proto-Northwest Germanic PWGmc Proto-West Germanic WGmc West Germanic WS West Saxon Old English Misc. Abbreviations: acc. Accusative adj. Adjective xi adv. Adverb appx. Appendix cf. Confer (compare to cognates) cl. Class cons. Consonant dat. Dative def. Definite deriv. Derivational du. Dual e.g. For Example fem. Feminine fric. Fricative HG Historical Glottometry i.e. That is; as in the case of imp. Imperative indic. Indicative inf. Infinitive inst. Instrumental lab. Labial masc. Masculine n. Noun nom. Nominative neut. Neuter obl. Oblique obst. Obstruent opt. Optative p.c. Personal Communication
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