The Malt stone as a witness of a morphological archaism: Reconstructing the Proto-Nordic and Proto-Germanic systems of kinship terms

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

The form fauþr ‘father’ on the Malt stone is normally understood as a carving error for faþur, but could very well be read at face value as a one-syllable form fǫðr, an archaic accusative singular. In a wider Proto-Germanic context, I suggest that this form is part of an early levelling process of the kinship terms to one-syllable stem forms, an alternative paradigm co-existing with the classical hystero-dynamic paradigm documented in the Gothic singular. This levelling takes place not only in the plural, but also in the oblique cases of the singular. In a Scandinavian context, this reading sheds light on a handful of seemingly aberrant forms.
Bidragets oversatte titelOm rekonstruktionen af urnordiske og urgermanske slægtskabsbetegnelser : Maltstenen som belæg for en morfologisk arkaisme
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftN O W E L E
Vol/bind73
Udgave nummer1
Sider (fra-til)4-21
Antal sider17
ISSN0108-8416
DOI
StatusUdgivet - apr. 2020

    Forskningsområder

  • Det Humanistiske Fakultet - Maltstenen, slægtskabstermer, urnordisk, urgermansk, gotisk, analogi, paradigmekonstruktion, paradigmer

ID: 195350821