| Summary: | <p>This study examined the ways in which the three Old English front vowels /æ(ː)/, /øː/ and /y(ː)/ were orthographically represented in the 7th and 8th centuries. Data was collected from manuscripts, epigraphy and coin-legends; it was analysed first by Anglo-Saxon region before turning to consider wider, pan-Anglo-Saxon trends.</p>
<p>/æ(ː)/ was represented almost universally by ‹ae› in manuscripts. Allographic variation in the representation of this vowel was found to be systematic; it was suggested that the variation was symptomatic of the ecclesiastical background of scribes, with the ligature «æ» being disfavoured by scribes who had been trained in regions which had been reached first by Continental (rather than Irish) Christian missionaries. Despite the variety in allographs, an explanation for orthographic consistency was sought in the phonology of contemporary Latin, which contained a vowel acoustically very similar to Old English /æ(ː)/. In contrast, numismatic evidence returned significant variation between ‹AE› and ‹E›, some of which was understood to reflect limitations relating to the medium of writing.</p>
<p>The vowel exhibiting the most conspicuous orthographic variation was /øː/, for which ‹oe› and ‹oi› were both found to be common representations. While ‹oe› was used across Anglo-Saxon England, ‹oi› was limited to Northumbria, and was therefore considered to be a uniquely Northumbrian representation. The variation between ‹oi› and ‹oe› in Northumbria was associated, on the one hand, with competing traditions (Continental and Irish) in the teaching of Latin literacy, and the lack of a model in Latin orthography for the representation of /øː/ on the other.</p>
<p>The orthographic representation /y(ː)/ was discovered to be strikingly uniform both diatopically and diachronically. With very few exceptions, this vowel was represented by ‹y› in manuscripts and ‹Y› or ‹ᚣ› in epigraphy and coin-epigraphy. This uniformity in the use of ‹y›/‹Y› was attributed to the availability of Greek language education in the 7th century at Archbishop Theodore’s school in Canterbury.</p>
<p>Through the analysis of early Old English orthography, this study was also able to differentiate between related but separate Old English protothemes with important implications for our understanding of the Old English onomasticon.</p>
|
|---|