Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: remnants of the instrumental case in 13th and 14th century Old Frisian morphology

A.P. Versloot

Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: remnants of the instrumental case in 13th and 14th century Old Frisian morphology

Fryske Akademy (FA)

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodical › Article › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

The case system in Old Frisian is commonly described as including four cases: nom., gen., dat., acc. Only a few lexical or onomastic relics are said to attest to the former existence of an instrumental and a locative case. Closer scrutiny, however, shows that a morphologically distinct instrumental and locative case were fairly consistently applied in some declensional classes, at least in some dialects of Old Frisian (c. 1250-1400). Traces are in particular found in texts from the Ems Frisian region, but are also attested in Codex Unia, reflecting Old West Frisian. The instrumental ending was PFri *-u < PIE *-oh1 throughout (nearly) all declensional classes, a uniformity typical for a case with a low frequency. The origin of the PFri locative ending *-i, restricted to the masculine a-stems, remains unclear. The reconstructed distribution of case endings found for the earliest stages of Old Frisian largely parallels the situation in ninth century Old Saxon.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	201-230
Journal	Filologia germanica = Germanic philology
Volume	9
Publication status	Published - 2017

Cite this

@article{7d4efb53240746dc9dc6585f426cd56b,

title = "Mith frethe to wasane {\textquoteleft}to be in peace{\textquoteright}: remnants of the instrumental case in 13th and 14th century Old Frisian morphology",

abstract = "The case system in Old Frisian is commonly described as including four cases: nom., gen., dat., acc. Only a few lexical or onomastic relics are said to attest to the former existence of an instrumental and a locative case. Closer scrutiny, however, shows that a morphologically distinct instrumental and locative case were fairly consistently applied in some declensional classes, at least in some dialects of Old Frisian (c. 1250-1400). Traces are in particular found in texts from the Ems Frisian region, but are also attested in Codex Unia, reflecting Old West Frisian. The instrumental ending was PFri *-u < PIE *-oh1 throughout (nearly) all declensional classes, a uniformity typical for a case with a low frequency. The origin of the PFri locative ending *-i, restricted to the masculine a-stems, remains unclear. The reconstructed distribution of case endings found for the earliest stages of Old Frisian largely parallels the situation in ninth century Old Saxon.",

author = "A.P. Versloot",

year = "2017",

language = "English",

volume = "9",

pages = "201--230",

journal = "Filologia germanica = Germanic philology",

issn = "2036-8992",

publisher = "Prometheus",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: remnants of the instrumental case in 13th and 14th century Old Frisian morphology

AU - Versloot, A.P.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - The case system in Old Frisian is commonly described as including four cases: nom., gen., dat., acc. Only a few lexical or onomastic relics are said to attest to the former existence of an instrumental and a locative case. Closer scrutiny, however, shows that a morphologically distinct instrumental and locative case were fairly consistently applied in some declensional classes, at least in some dialects of Old Frisian (c. 1250-1400). Traces are in particular found in texts from the Ems Frisian region, but are also attested in Codex Unia, reflecting Old West Frisian. The instrumental ending was PFri *-u < PIE *-oh1 throughout (nearly) all declensional classes, a uniformity typical for a case with a low frequency. The origin of the PFri locative ending *-i, restricted to the masculine a-stems, remains unclear. The reconstructed distribution of case endings found for the earliest stages of Old Frisian largely parallels the situation in ninth century Old Saxon.

AB - The case system in Old Frisian is commonly described as including four cases: nom., gen., dat., acc. Only a few lexical or onomastic relics are said to attest to the former existence of an instrumental and a locative case. Closer scrutiny, however, shows that a morphologically distinct instrumental and locative case were fairly consistently applied in some declensional classes, at least in some dialects of Old Frisian (c. 1250-1400). Traces are in particular found in texts from the Ems Frisian region, but are also attested in Codex Unia, reflecting Old West Frisian. The instrumental ending was PFri *-u < PIE *-oh1 throughout (nearly) all declensional classes, a uniformity typical for a case with a low frequency. The origin of the PFri locative ending *-i, restricted to the masculine a-stems, remains unclear. The reconstructed distribution of case endings found for the earliest stages of Old Frisian largely parallels the situation in ninth century Old Saxon.

M3 - Article

VL - 9

SP - 201

EP - 230

JO - Filologia germanica = Germanic philology

JF - Filologia germanica = Germanic philology

SN - 2036-8992

ER -