Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian

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...

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Main Author: Arjen Versloot
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Ledizioni 2024-09-01
Series:Filologia Germanica
Online Access:https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/filologiagermanica/article/view/2578
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author Arjen Versloot
author_facet Arjen Versloot
author_sort Arjen Versloot
collection DOAJ
description 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 nineteenth century Old Saxon.
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spelling doaj-art-bbb07c0eb41545fe8c9583754347fcdb2025-08-20T03:12:57ZdeuLedizioniFilologia Germanica2036-89922024-09-01910.14672/fg.v9i.2578Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old FrisianArjen Versloot0Research Fellow Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands 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 nineteenth century Old Saxon. https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/filologiagermanica/article/view/2578
spellingShingle Arjen Versloot
Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian
Filologia Germanica
title Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian
title_full Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian
title_fullStr Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian
title_full_unstemmed Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian
title_short Mith frethe to wasane ‘to be in peace’: Remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century Old Frisian
title_sort mith frethe to wasane to be in peace remnants of the instrumental case in thirteenth and fourteenth century old frisian
url https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/filologiagermanica/article/view/2578
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