Language Change in Late Old Northumbrian: The Strong Verbal System

Abstract

The gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels – dating from the 10th century – is considered “the most extensive example of the Northumbrian dialect known to us.” (Morell 1965: 163). From a linguistic point of view this gloss is exceptional, as it reflects language change in a stage that is already closer to Middle English than any other Old English dialect of the time. Multiple features of the language used in the gloss have been discussed in previous literature, such as the Northern Subject Rule (Cole, 2014), and the use of zero genitives, an element commonly linked to later periods in northern dialects (Rodríguez Ledesma, 2016).

The aim of this dissertation is twofold. First, to analyse late Old Northumbrian strong verbs using the gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels as a source for linguistic data. Second, to compare this gloss with other glosses of the time: Rushworth and Durham, the latter glossed by the same scribe as Lindisfarne probably at a later date, as well as the first English translation of the Gospels in the West Saxon dialect. This dissertation aims to assess whether this innovative nature of late Old Northumbrian can be seen in strong verbs. I will be concentrating on two analogical processes affecting these verbs, namely, regularisation (from strong to weak) and vowel transference, as well as anomalous forms of strong verbs seen throughout Lindisfarne.

The regularisation of strong verbs is a feature typically associated with the Middle English period, but that can already be seen throughout the Lindisfarne gloss. In 1937, Alan S. C. Ross noted that “a number of analogical weak forms to strong verbs, similar to those found in later English, occur in the preterit and past participle” (153) in the gloss. This process of analogy has also been mentioned in other publications, such as Campbell (1983) and Hogg & Fulk (2011). Despite this feature having been reported in previous linguistic research, there have not been – to the extent of my knowledge – any comprehensive and scientific analysis of the data. The aim of this study is to not only discuss which strong verbs are rendered as weak verbs in the gloss, but also to provide insights as to why it happens in those verbs in particular by looking at other factors such as frequency, verb class, meaning, and word origin. Moreover, my thesis adds to questions of scholarly research such as the authorship of the Lindisfarne and Durham glosses and the alleged copying of Lindisfarne for the composition of the Old Northumbrian Rushworth gloss (Ru2).

My results conclude that the regularisation of strong verbs is a very prominent feature of Old Northumbrian, which sets this analogical process in a much earlier timeline than it had traditionally been considered to start. Moreover, it seems to be a key part of Aldred’s idiolect, as both the Lindisfarne and Durham glosses present similar rates of regularisation, in contrast with the results drawn from the other texts in my analysis. Other processes of simplification such as levelling by means of vowel transference between the plural and singular forms of the preterite also reveal the innovative nature of the Old Northumbrian dialect, although this process in not very prominent in either of the texts studied.