Barrack Charles M. A Diachronic Phonology from Proto-Germanic to Old English Stressing West-Saxon Conditions

Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018. — 136 p. — (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica 144).This work represents primarily an attempt to construct a chronological analogue to the phonological changes which occurred between the period of the First Sound Shift and the period of the Old English texts, especially those showing West-Saxon conditions up to the beginning of the eleventh century. By chronological analogue is meant a symbolic construct which mirrors the relative position in time of the various sound changes to the extent this ordering can be recaptured through the comparative method, the progressive changes in textual representation and especially internal ordering through the logical dependency of one rule upon another. The secondary purpose of the present analysis is to provide insights into the nature of the propagation of sound change and its progressive transformation into simpler complexes. This secondary purpose is directly related to the first in that such insights are often relevant to diachronic ordering.