고대영어의 〈a〉 ~ 〈o〉 음 변이 - 공시 및 통시적 접근

〈a〉~〈o〉 Variation in Old English: A Synchronic and Diachronic Approach

  West Germanic sound change from *a to *o before nasals is prevalent in all dialects of Old English from its early period. The sound change is interesting because in some literature it shows the complete change to 〈o〉 in all applicable environments, and then returned to 〈a〉 by the beginning of Middle English period. The study of sound change in Old English has limitations because the research is based on graphemes, not on sounds as it is in other dead languages. With the current availability of electronic resources, I will apply quantitative analysis to examine this sound change from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. My aim in this paper is to determine the dialectal differences in sequential time periods and the phonemic environments which led to this sound change.