> So, Dr. Hamilton, is this your question: "Why does the author of Beowulf
> treat, for alliterative purposes, two distinct sounds ['y' as in 'yet',
> and
> 'g' as in 'get'] as if they were the same?
Yup.
> And, further, you wonder: "Were voiced and voiceless velar fricatives
> distinct in Proto-Germanic?"
I think that is what is puzzling me.
(a) In Old English of the Eighth Century AD, as reflected in the text of
Beowulf as we have it, voiced [<g>] and voiceless [<y>] velar fricatives
[both represented by the yogh character in script] were distinct sounds.
(b) Was there a period in Proto-Germanic (the ur-language which later
divided up into English, German, Norse, etc.) when there was a single sound
which later split into voiced and voiceless velar fricatives?
(c) Hypothetically, does the composition, as opposed to the earliest
written text, of Beowulf, represent a period before this split?
R.
|