Prosody in Medieval English and Norse

Abstract

This book reconstructs aspects of linguistic prosody from the medieval records of two closely related Germanic languages, English and Norse. Evidence is drawn from a series of case studaqqqqqzies on vowel reductions and the metrics of alliterative verse in early Old English, early Middle English, and Old Norse. Taken together, these diverse sources of data indicate a notable continuity in the internal rhythmic structure of words in these languages. Specifically, an enduring role is played by the bimoraic trochee, a prosodic unit which serves as the basis for the poetic phenomenon of resolution in English and Norse verse. This continuity explains a wide range of phenomena – high-vowel deletion in Old English, Kaluza's law in Beowulf, reductions of certain unstressed vowels in the ‘AB’ dialect of early Middle English, poetic resolution in Laȝamon’s Brut, the ‘syncope periods’ in Norse runic inscriptions, Craigie's law in skaldic poetry, Sievers' law in Proto-Germanic, and more – as all having been shaped by this pertinacious prosodic building block. These developments are contextualised both within broader linguistic typological perspectives and against the philological details of medieval metrics and sources. Attention is also given to the role of language contact not only as a potential driver of prosodic change, but as a source of prosodic continuity.