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Root nouns in Elfdalian: Categorisation and etymology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2020

Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen Open the ORCID record for Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen [Opens in a new window]
Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen*
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Emil Holms Kanal 2, DK-2300 København S, Denmark
*
Email for correspondence: bssh@hum.ku.dk
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Abstract

Elsewhere I have proposed a set of rules according to which we may categorise Germanic root nouns into three chronological layers. In this article, I present a synchronic classification of all of the Elfdalian actual and potential root-noun continuants as well as their etymologies and derivational histories in light of this proposal and in order to reveal (i) some interesting aspects of the general processes involved in shifts of inflectional class, and (ii) whether or not some of these processes in Elfdalian when compared to other Nordic varieties may shed light on the cladistical status of Elfdalian within North Germanic. The analysis shows that, while those Elfdalian root-noun continuants whose ancestral forms belong to layers I, IIa and IIb generally remain stable and keep their appurtenance to the root-noun inflectional class, some of the (non-)root-noun continuants actually and potentially belonging to layer III deserve additional attention with regard to this twofold aim.

Keywords

cladisticsElfdalianGermanicIndo-Europeanlanguage historyprocesses of inflectional-class shiftroot nounsstratification
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , May 2021 , pp. 25 - 37
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Nordic Association of Linguistics

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